1.5 Years as a Development Analyst- am I gaining solid enough experience?
I've been working as Development Analyst for a large, local family office that develops multifamily high rises for 1.5 years now straight out of UG. I do not have any colleagues who have a similar role to me, so I'm finding it tough to gage if I'm learning all the key aspects/technical skills needed to succeed in the industry. I'm more finance/business focused and am not involved in project management at all. FYI- I'm trying to leave my firm in the next 6 months-1 year to go be on an acquisitions team for a midsize developer in the multifamily/senior hosing space that develops/acquires regionally or nationally.
Here's a summary of my role so far:
I'm in charge of underwriting deals in our early stage models. I get the first pass at seeing if a deal will pencil. Conduct a market analysis- study comps pretty deeply (rents, unit mixes, square footages, taxes, parking etc.). Compare each new deal to our current projects.
For some of these early deals, will create sketches in bluebeam to determine building shape/unit yield. Involves looking into site zoning constraints.
Sensitivity analysis galore- rents, ROC, construction costs, NOI etc.
Keep track of monthly draws- I input these into our model and analyze costs. Sit with project team members to help with reallocation process.
Monitor expenses and rents in our existing portfolio- compare across properties and use as insight for early stage models.
I'm involved in one of our lease ups- help determine weekly pricing and projected stabilized income and refinance proceeds.
Various one-off excel monkey type analysis. Some of it takes some thought, sometimes it's mindless bitch work.
How does this experience seem? Do you think I'm missing any big skillsets a second year development analyst should be trying to acquire? I know soft skills are probably the most important but just trying to see if I'm missing anything from a technical aspect.
Your experience so far from what you've described is very solid. If you are really only interested in acquisitions/financing then you're experience is very good since your primary responsibilities are on the acquisitions/finance side. If you are interested in becoming a development manager eventually, then you def want to get more project management experience such as being apart of OAC meetings, working with the architect on design, working with zoning attorneys on entitlement, etc...
This is great experience at entry level - you're getting exposure to both the financial side of things as well as planning/massing (understanding the zoning laws to figure out what sort of density you can get on a site). A lot of analyst roles are either purely finance or purely planning, so getting a blend is great.
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