Why do you enjoy working in real estate private equity?

Hey guys,

Why do you enjoy working in real estate private equity and why did you choose this career? Do you also think that real estate debt is interesting, if yes or no why?

Looking forward to your comments

 
Most Helpful

I appreciate investing in real estate because the fundamental value and cash flows of the assets your acquiring are more realistically ascertainable and rooted in tangible value - as compared with trying to estimate the future cash flows or a terminal growth rate of an early-stage tech company or something. You can really put a fundamental value range to a real estate property with a straight face, whereas price targets for biotech companies or tech stocks are yielded from wildly unpredictable variables.

I also enjoy the bricks and mortar aspect, it's dope going to do property tours and seeing the shiny finished product after a re-development project. It never gets old driving down K Street and pointing out buildings our company owns to friends and family too.

Aside from that, great work-life balance, great potential to go out on your own and start your own investment series, and the culture is way less stiff than IB or Corp PE.

 

There is nothing more demoralizing than sourcing a deal that actually makes economical sense, negotiating the terms of the purchase, working with lawyers, architects, politicians etc. while bringing the project through the entire permitting process, negotiating a construction contract, managing the construction process, getting it finally built and leased all over a 2 or 3 year period with countless hours of work, not to mention stress and risk - and then having a broker come in and sell or refinance the building and on the settlement statement his fee is a multiple of your salary. For 2 months' work at best. Untouchable business model. End rant.

 

There are many aspects that REPE shares with any RE company that I really like (i.e. tangibility, big picture (i.e. macroeconomic factors affecting asset, locations) and finance compontent).

But why I love REPE more than acquisitions is the entrepreneurial mindset behind REPE.

Want to build your own platform of together with a developer buying old ships and converting them into logistics / houses / whatever, go ahead as long as you're striking the IRRs!

Want to invest in non-traditional asepcts of businesses (i.e. equity release / mezz ) go ahead (build your own platform).

 

I have almost exclusively worked on the REPE-side of the business. Here's what I like about it:

  1. You learn a lot about structure, risk, and financial engineering

  2. The compensation vs personal risk standpoint is as good as it gets in this industry.

  3. If you are successful over a long period of time, you have the network, skillset, and credibility to start your own firm

  4. Because you're "the money" in any deal, you have a lot of control and leverage with the various JV partners.

Where it lacks

  1. At the end of the day, it is the General Partner / Operator who is sourcing the deal, creating the value, and executing the business plan. In this industry, I would rather be where the value is created than being the one providing capital to that person.

Interested to hear other's viewpoints.

 

Seeing everything. I saw literally every single deal of size that come out and it was really fascinating to see how things shifted over time. Also, slightly schmaltzy alert but my real favorite part though was arguing about deals - you're working with other smart, opinionated person and some of my best times in REPE were sitting down late at night and chopping up a deal with my co-workers. A lot of my viewpoint as an investor was shaped by those conversations.

Lana? Lannaa???? LANA!!!!!!!!!?!?!?! See my WSO Blog | See my WSO interview
 

The inevitable shake-outs when the markets pull back. There seems to be one a decade. In 2009, there were hiring freezes across the board. I guess this is true with most financial roles. However, it seems to be worse in CRE. The CMBS guys got it the worst the last time around.

Please don't quote Patrick Bateman.
 

What is wrong with Abstracts? As long as lawyers are putting them together, they make my life a hell of a lot easier. Estoppels, on the other hand, when acquiring an asset w a ton of tenants, is a major pain.

 

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