Asset Management Boring Where I am. Is it like this elsewhere?

I'm at more of the Associate/AVP level so disregard the current title.

I work in AM at midsize value-add REPE handling much of the day to day AM operations and a lot of my work is related to working through tenant vs. LL lease rights (evictions, opex reimbursements, assignments, subletting, etc.) as well as reviewing AR.

But I'm also involved in cash flow management, budgeting, financials review, capital tracking and approval, recurring reporting and JV partner update calls, and, perhaps most exciting (or at least what people consider exciting), leasing. For leasing I'm talking to brokers as needed and on a regular cadence, getting updates from them on activity and working through LOIs negotiating economic terms and (with more sophisticated tenants) terms re: liabilities and permittances, ultimately reaching a signed lease that brings revenue in.

On the whole, the most fun on the job is working through unforeseen problems that have a potentially large impact on the business plan and returns for the property. For example a capex project that was missed during due diligence and now increases our basis by 10%, or a tenant that defaults on 50% of the building occupancy and now we can't meet make debt payments out of cash flow and have to evict them and backfill the space. This stuff is fun because it's an emergency, it's high impact, the big wigs get involved, and there's a problem that you as an AM need to find a solution to, and there's always a solution.

So yes, people's experiences in AM are different, and it's a function of your role (experience, responsibilities, exposure) and company (deal flow/activity, investment thesis).

Hey mate, I was in the same boat as you and I agree, the job is soul sucking.

AM experience will definitely get you an acq role if you know how to model since all the interviews involve either a timed take home test or a live one. You need to get to exit metrics from leasing & debt assumptions in an hour or so.

But yeah, the job itself doesn’t get better so hope you get what you want

Hold/sell analysis and portfolio management/forecasting are just small parts of AM. The main role is making sure the day-to-day operations are moving towards your long-term strategy for an asset. That means overseeing leasing/PM, making sure collections are going as expected (i.e. monitoring AR balances and identifying issues with specific tenants so you can act quickly), reviewing/approving leases and capex projects, helping with budgeting/cash flow planning and distributions/capital calls. Not to mention reporting/KPI tracking. At a lot of shops you're also handling financing.

It is not as "sexy" of a job as acquisitions but it's insanely critical and important to the success of the business. This is coming from a retail perspective though where tenant sales performance, merchandising mix, etc. are all huge day to day factors and working on leasing plans is a big part of the job which is interesting work. I can see it being a much more boring role in other asset classes.

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I think AM is boring, but helps you become a better investor and more knowledgeable about real estate as a whole. I worked at a large LP that was cradle to grave for ~3 years and didn’t love my AM duties, but it made me better at my job and when you’re interviewing for new places they definitely like when you have some AM experience