Anyone know of people who successfully lateraled to IB/PE from REPE?

Realized I don’t really like real estate and looking to lateral. Wondering how people may have navigated this, as the work experience in REPE is not really relevant to corporate/entity transactions.

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I don't personally know anyone that has done this lateral. I've thought about it to make more money and because I find traditional PE interesting. If you are coming from a real estate group at a large and well-known PE firm (Blackstone, etc), I would imagine the brand name would help a bit. Especially when interviewing at smaller PE and IB firms.

The interviews would likely be the hardest part, especially the technicals and modeling. I used to be able to nail that stuff back in college but have since lost much of that knowledge after being in REPE for several years. Not sure if they would be more kind / forgiving given that you would be lateraling from a totally different industry.... I doubt it though.

MBA would definitely help in this situation.

 
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What exactly are you looking for? From my experience (now AS2), I honestly wouldn’t say corporate pe is any more enjoyable or intellectually stimulating than real estate pe. I’ve done both. Terminology is a bit different but the modeling complexity is similar, especially when you’re looking at portfolio deals. Investing is investing and some of the sharpest, most entrepreneurial kids I know opted to pursue real estate over traditional IB or other buyside roles. So, I would question what about your current role you dislike exactly before considering an MBA or lateraling.

However, I would also second the poster above who mentioned recruiting for a MF’s real estate group. A BX / KKR would open the same doors as any other IB or vanilla PE shop, especially if you are still an analyst.

 

You could definitely get in at a REIB firm. Especially if you’re an analyst - gets a little bit harder as you move up. Also be realistic about which IB firms you target. If you are at a relatively unknown REPE firm and you work in Denver, Goldman Sachs IB in NYC is probably not going to happen. You’d be looking at Janney, Truist, Piper Sandler, JMP, Baird, Raymond James, BMO, etc. True REIB shops but not shops that aren’t doing public to public M&A. From there you could lateral to a top investment bank.

If you’re at an elite REPE firm, going to a top REIB firm is possible. Or traditional coverage group at a MM firm.


But as someone that did traditional RE lending -> REIB -> REPE, I’m not sure if you’ll be happier in IB. Pretty brutal lifestyle and you waste a lot of time on boring work (follow on offerings, ATMs, marketing decks, etc). And no guarantee you get staffed on the sexy M&A deal your team currently has

 

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