If you could go back...... What would you do differently?
Just like the title states.... If you could go back to your first day in real estate knowing what you know today, what would you do differently? I am curious to hear how and why you would do things differently.
I would have gone to the Cornell hotel school or USC. I wish I had been exposed to RE in my undergrad classes.
I’d take more risks while in early 20’s
Commission based brokerage - producer at a shop that hires associates straight out of college (mmi, colliers...etc)
I am an associate in one of those producers you mentioned, but I hate this job. Could you possibly explain why you would want to work as a commission based brokerage in your early 20s? Maybe that will help me think differently about my job.
What do you hate about it?
Basically here’s the career path I would’ve pursued:
Year 1-4: junior producer working with a high volume team. Learn as much as I could while getting a crappy split.
Year 4-10: switch shops and come in as a stand alone agent. Use the network and relationships I’ve developed earlier in my career to actually make some money and get my name out there.
Year 10+: switch shops to get a much better split, equity in the firm...etc (or better yet, start my own). By this point I’d have enough $, dealflow, relationships and track record to have sustainablity while growing the practice. Grow personal RE portfolio exponentially.
Year: 20-25+: sell out and semi retire
As I mentioned in another thread, I would have stayed at Freddie Mac instead of jumping ship (during their collapse). I'd be making $200,000/year today in a 40-hour/week job.
Had I still made the above mistake, I also wouldn't have turned down the most amazing job offer ever--as the personal analyst to one of the nation's top multifamily broker teams--in order to chase a girl out of state. It had a negative multiplier effect, too: I sold one of my personal real estate investments for less than market and sold--at cost--a project to my friend that he ultimately made $~300,000 on. I chased that girl out of state in 2011. Only this year has my career finally recovered back to a reasonable level (still below where I'd be). As late as 4 years ago, I had bosses that were literally right out of college and 6/7 years younger than me. I had to swallow really hard.
It's obvious, but for many young people this truth hasn't set in--there are consequences to your actions.
Yikes. What shop was the MF team at?
It was Cushman & Wakefield, but that entire team has since moved to Newmark.
This, kinda, but a spin... Still on the consequences topic.
The CRE world is smaller than you may think. Difficult idea to grasp as a younger player. Pretend to like people you hate, and stay closest to people you like, are smart, and take care of you. Whether in the same organization or not. You can be blunt with the guys you hate later in your career.
I would have started my career in real estate right after college. Sure, institutional equity sales was fun pre-2008, but the eventual misery of the industry probably took a few years off my life.
In 2001 right after 9/11 there was a slow down for about 90 days. I scooped up a fantastic house for $438,000. This was a lot of money in 2001 for a house in San Diego.
The appraisal came back at $725,000 before I even closed on it.
I had just started closing some commercial deals in multifamily deals. I met some Russians who owns some apartment buildings and I told them my story of this house. They, more than once told me to sell that damn house and by 10 to 12 apartment units. What of course I wanted the big fat house.
I wound up making four and $5,000 a month house payments for 9 years. Divorced in the recession left the house to the wife. I should have bought the apartment buildings LOL
Sorry for the grammar and typos guys. I'm on my cell phone and out of town
Wish I would have gotten a basic golf lesson so I could have had a rock solid foundation instead of trying to figure it out for 35 yrs. Would have been nice to learn how to shape shots before I was 50. Oh well, plenty of game left.
I would have asked for a higher starting base salary.
I would have gotten more deeply involved with ULI.
This is sort of irrelevant because this is based on knowing how the market performed, but way back when I started in the biz I was in brokerage, and if I knew how the economy was going to go I would have stayed in brokerage. Probably would have been able to afford to buy a 2nd investment property by now all cash with the amount of money they made. I think I could have negotiated a small piece of the pie (in their eyes) for myself and it still would have been substantial $. But, I feel like I gained a more valuable skillset doing what I did going to the principal side, and it will probably be a wash at the end of the career when all is said and done.
Go back to the early 2000's and bet the house on MNST.
Do not lose time
Would not have gone to work in the capital markets brokerage space for the group I did out of college - worst experience ever. Partners cleared $5mm+ apiece and comped the three analysts $50K all-in after working 70-80 hours per week. Gained 40 lbs and contemplated following in the footsteps of Into the Wild.
Should have gone straight into development and done everything I could to ascend into a Development Associate role at a top institutional multifamily development shop.
Wow. Your principals are pennywise and pound foolish. They could double the salary of their 3 analysts and would barely feel it personally. Instead, they're going to be stuck trying to re-hire and re-train new people, only to lose them in a year.
My best friend is a top single-family loan originator--in the top 1% in America. His philosophy is SO right on. He pays his people extraordinarily well and rarely deals with turnover. He probably pays double the market for his people's salaries, but he's like, I already make 7 figures--what do I need more money for? I'd rather make my life easier than maybe eek out marginally more money. Plus, the efforts he'd put into hiring and training go into more originating, so he's probably better off financially as a result. He's penny foolish and pound wise.
It has been a revolving door there for a while. These guys are VERY high profile too – among the heaviest hitters in the entire industry. Probably shouldn’t say anything else, but it made me reevaluate a career in real estate finance. Another analyst left with me pretty much immediately after 1 year of employment. The final analyst was promoted but is no longer there either.
Tried a lot harder in high school so I could have gone to a better school. As much as I love my school as it is, I know I could have gone somewhere better.
If you had a chance to do something different (Originally Posted: 10/02/2006)
If you had a chance to do something different when you were applying for analyst position at Ibanks...what would you change?
I wish I went to a better university, not a nerdy geeked out place like Ivy League schools, but maybe somewhere like USC, UTexas, Notre Dame etc.
also have to keep the costs in mind...i.e. my sister goes to cornell, her 1 year tuition is close to 40K, my whole education so far cost that much
My whole education is free, but I go to an unheard of public university. But hey, I wont have any debt when I graduate and never will have any debt!
although I respect everyone that goes to an ivy league school and I myself wish I could attend one, I don't know how any of you could wake up every morning realizing that your spending 40k a year in tuition. especially because I know people who attended canadian uni. that spend $9kCDN in tuition and are able to get ibanking jobs at BB.
I regret having attended my school only because Ibanking became my career of choice. I attended a private non-ivy, non-target school in the US where the cost is about 40k / year (just checked usnews). I am VERY happy with my overall undergrad experience, particularly because I was an international student that wanted to focus on international studies. However, the ibanking world doesn't give a damn about my experiences. I was only able to land interviews because of the contacts that I made; the school name didn't do anything for me and that is very frustrating!
what school did you attend and maybe you were able to make the contacts you made because of the school you went to? I guess that shows the power of networking, if you know someone it doesn't even matter what experience you have.
sammy101, it might seem like the grass is greener on the other side. r u really sure that u know ppl from canadian unis getting into BB. Which unis? I would have guessed more like TD Securities, Scotia Capital etc.
I don't know about other universities, but someone I worked with in the summer says Ivey is sending probably around 10 kids to BB's for Class 2007 analysts. Ivey is a target school for two of the top-3 shops on the street (GS TMT and UBS LA).
Then again, he said that Ivey's tuition is significantly more than the average Canadian university tuition (20k vs. 5k).
My Uni's career center, alumni network, business school, and economics school are all retards! Only the engineering school doesn't suck... I am sick of this neverland, and I hate this f**king state I got stuck in.... So what would I change???
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