College Student - multiple opportunties in CRE - what to do
I am a college student and have managed to create a bunch of opportunties for myself for this upcoming summer. I am currently a junior - so this summer is my last internship before I am graduated. To get to the point:I have a few different opportunities:Smaller Real estate development company that focuses on rehabing historical buildings.A REPE company - would work with acquisitions team.Marcus & Millichap - on a solid team working in industrial market. Friend worked with them last summer and is going back after college. Loved it.Franklin St - all around internship - Encompasses real estate propertymanagement, investment sales, insurance.Marsh Mclennan Agency. (Not really real estate but they have real estate insurance focused teams).I am a sales person - this is where my best skills are at. I wanted to hear what you all had to say about any of these companies/general fields.
Skip the insurance roles #4 and 5, they won’t be likely to help you down the line unless you want to do insurance. I would also skip M&M unless you’re keen on brokerage and it’s a very strong team - they have a generally bad rep in the industry.
How big/recognizable is the REPE company? If it’s a recognizable name brand I’d be inclined to go that route since it’s just an internship. That’s likely going to open the most doors. If it’s not much more we’ll known than the dev shop then you need to decide if you are more interested in development or acquisitions work.
This is all assuming you’re the typical acquisitions/development or bust type of person that is usually on WSO, but it ultimately comes down to your long term goals. Regardless, it’s just an internship so consider where you think you’d want to work right after school, it’s unlikely to matter long term.
Agreed, skip 4&5. In all likelihood, an offer like 3 will be there post-grad. Between 1 & 2 - do you think you'll enjoy development vs acquisitions more? Where in the project cycle are the deals you'd be working on for 1? Any chance of a return offer for 1 or 2?
I know I want commission, and the ability to control what I make. There lies those sales jobs listed. Not sure if the development or REPE will be as “sales focused.”
There's plenty of salesy roles. Brokerage (investment sales, debt or leasing), Originations - Debt (banks, life co's, debt funds, credit unions) & equity (new deals or capital raising). Another factor for brokerage that you have to consider is many young professionals at a place like M&M (and really most brokerages) are either on a draw (understand what you're getting into), small salary, or tied to a % of deals. Do you have undergrad debt? Can you be floated by your parents? If you need to make $ right away, I'd steer away from brokerage with the option to switch to brokerage at a later point.
No shame but I have no debt and pretty much floated by parents.
Sounds like you want to do brokerage or banking of some kind (i.e. sales roles), so given that, I'd actually go with 1 or 2, and get some buyside exposure. This will be useful to understand what is going on from the client perspective. For an internship, I'd give the edge to acq team of an equity fund over a rehab focused developer just because its much faster paced (in theory) so you can see more in a single summer. Clearly, when you give some firm names but not others, its not that easy to make big judgements (note, not suggesting you name drop in the main forum).
The old building restoration place. Internship + prestige to relate when talked about and build connections is the best
REPE company - Acquisitions team..depending on the size of the team/fund allocation etc..but it looks like the best option..
Brokerage firm could be cool for contact..but this is a tough world..I found the money/life balance to be better on the investment/buy side
Skip insurance or any property management ..it is important on the market..but sadly this pays less in the long run
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