Structured Finance Analyst Looking to do RE IB/PE

Fellow Monkeys,

I posted last month in the Private Equity forum on my aspirations to break into RE; however, after learning a lot about the industry over the past month I wanted to see if anyone on this forum could give me any further advice on how to go about tackling my current aspirations to break into a RE team from a structured products group at a BB (private side). 

Just need a little bit of color on a few points relating to the RE IB and PE space as seen below. If anyone can clarify, I would greatly appreciate it.  

1a. Who are the best headhunters to reach out to for lateraling for RE IB & PE? This seems to be asked frequently within the RE forum with no concrete answers.

1b. Is the RE PE timeline the same as the MF oncycle timeline? Have scoured forums to understand that it is later; however, no real timeline was / agreed upon. 

2. Information on what a RE PE modeling test might look like (ie. construction loan modeling, pro forma building, waterfall modeling) is more available. On the other hand for RE Coverage IB information - REIT specific modeling test information seem to be more limited. Pertaining to these technicals, should I be learning normal IB technical and REIT specific technicals? Or should I solely focus on the RE technicals?

3. Crystal Ball question: Assuming the economy stays bad for lateraling over the next year or two, will roles naturally open in IB for RE roles (among all roles) because of people jumping to PE in August - Oct?

Thanks everyone.