AvalonBay Communities - true thoughts on the platform?
I read a couple threads on WSO where people are giving pretty high praise to AvalonBay's platform and investment professionals. I've never met anyone on that side and don't know much about their platform aside from the fact that it's multifamily.
Well they have a "Manager, Asset Management" role open right now. I connected with their recruiting department and was thoroughly unimpressed with the professionalism of the recruiter I spoke to. It was like the woman was a salesperson for Herbalife or something. On top of that, I'm likely biased against multifamily-only shops, especially where their operations and investments teams work so closely together -- but I'm looking through the company bios of their leadership and nobody's background impresses me. Seems like a sleepy shop rather than high-caliber.
If you only read the opinions of WSO, you'd think it's a buttoned up shop that you could pivot to many of the UMM or even MF shops... but I'm skeptical of that after doing my short diligence here.
Can I please get an updated opinion on AvalonBay and what an investments role (acquisitions, dev, asset management) looks like over there as far as on the job experience and potential exits?
Well, I have a good friend who moved from AvalonBay asset management/investments to a large intuitional developer you probably consider a MF (Related/Hines/Tishman/etc), so it can happen.
Also, they're the third largest landlord in the country and in the S&P 500, that's going to have high-caliber people regardless of what you judge of their background. Large REITs and permanent capital funds like that are going to retain talent for a while, it's not a cut-throat REPE shop where you need to grind for a few points of carry, people don't churn and burn through it. And you can't judge the entire company's culture based on a conversation with HR lmao, that's like judging a restaurant's food based on how attractive the hostess is.
Fair take and accurate analogy. Thanks for the insight
In fairness, best restaurants always have smoke show hostesses. But your point stands.
Dont have much to say. They bought a deal from us a year or so ago and everyone I interacted with seemed pretty sharp.
Good data point, thanks!
Was there for a bit, it was fine, nothing really exciting but it's a multifamily reit so expected. Teams were pretty siloed imo and seems like future growth in mainly going to be suburban sunbelt. Probably good if you're looking for stability.
Gotcha. Seems like a sleepy shop. Maybe not "low caliber" per se, but definitely not complicated and high octane
I knew some people there a few years ago, and they were very sharp and very active in ground-up new projects. My vague sense is that they're not doing so many new projects today, at least in my region.
Anyone apply to the Development Manager position in their Boston office? Wonder if they’ve moved forward with someone.
The HR lady was a joe schmoe so I'll never be able to pivot to a MF, let alone an UMM.
Imagine saying these words to someone in real life and not typing them on a forum online.
Not sure where you got "never" from.
And more like "HR lady was a dolt so I'm unlikely to invest time into a hiring process that would put me on a similarly dolt-ish investments team". Shallow to judge an entire company on a 5 minute interaction with one person on the HR team? Absolutely. But that's precisely why I've asked the question
He called the third largest apartment owner in the US a "sleepy shop" based on looking at peoples linkedins... what a pleasure it must be to work with this guy.
The RE forum on WSO is pretty bifurcated.
If you went the Ivy -> IB route, then no AvalonBay won’t meet your expectations in terms of what you’d want work or pay wise. It’s going to be slower paced, less interesting work, and yeah your coworkers might not be as sharp as you’d like.
If you’re an average Joe though? It’s a great role at a well known company and you’ll still get compensated well relative to the average American, without having to grind as hard. You’ll have decent mobility to most shops outside of the top ones (the large institutional private equity firms that play in real estate).
Delete
All the people I’ve met there have been smart but not overly so. It does seem like a very bureaucratic organization
OP: it's a REIT. Lots of pro's and con's with joining a REIT but your post makes it seem like a bad fit for you and your preferences.
I interviewed a year or more ago for an AM role in Boston. Recruiter was totally unprofessional - it was a guy. He had seemingly no idea what the job entailed.
I met with a VP, seemed nice. AMs were clearly expected to be the quarterback for internal bureaucracy. The VP I spoke to said that AMs were not generally making unilateral decisions, that things take time to happen there, etc. In terms of RTO, they are 4 days per week. Unsure if that’s a policy on paper or in practice.
I bet it’s a cushy and somewhat bureaucratic gig. No clue why I didn’t get it, but not worried about it too much either.
This is OP. We had literally the same experience, 1 year apart and opposite coast.
- Recruiter had no idea what the job was. I had to double check that this was an internal recruiter rather than a recruiting company
- VP seemed nice enough but was told (1) things take time to happen and (2) you'll have to manage across teams because their internal construction and even property management teams don't report to AM. Imagine your vertically integrated property management team going rogue on you as an AM. I couldn't haha
- Haven't gotten a call back after the 2nd round interview and couldn't be more relieved
Cushy and probably hard to get fired/let go unless extremely incompetent or material change to business. But yeah not for me chief
At my last gig, internal ops did sometimes go rogue or simply fail to perform/refuse/pretend they didn’t hear directives from AM. It depended on the region, the AM, and the relationships in play.
Vertically integrated companies with AM = an odd dynamic. There need to be very clear lines drawn around who is responsible for what.
OP got the confirmation he was looking for, good work everyone. And for those offering different opinions or challenging the premise of his questions or providing food for thought, try harder next time.
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