Equity research covering public REITs...career path and exit opps???

Hi 00boom00,

I covered public REITs before jumping to the buyside. Answers are below:

1) Is ER competitive / desired experience in the RE industry? --- It was very competitive to get in. The experience you get is great. Modeling REITs focus have a lot more acquisition/disposition forecasts than other industries because in general that's how they grow. You also get exposure to a lot of macro-level data because broader industries highly impact REITs. For example, one of the sub-industries I covered was shopping centers. So I had to follow the retail industry closely to see what retailers were strong and what retailers were weak (like H&M), and we can use that data to understand the quality of the shopping centers inside the REIT portfolios.

2) Is transitioning to REIB, REPE, or corp equity research possible from RE research? --- I jumped to an Asset Management firm. I still follow REITs closely, but I don't use much REIT knowledge in this role. The experience helped me get my foot in the door.

3) Does covering publicly traded REITS change the answer to the questions above? --- Nope.

4) What are the best and most logical transitions / exit opps from covering REITS? --- There are a lot of exit opps from covering REITs if you want to stay in a similar industry. I know a few that ended up joining the investor relations teams at REITs they covered. Others joined the M&A teams. Some jumped to buyside funds and maintained their REIT niche.

Hope this helps!