BB CMBS Loan Origination Groups

I was curious if anyone has any insight into exit opps for top CMBS shops loan origination groups. Assuming your group works on various deals (mezz, bridge, senior debt, construction, land etc), how marketable are you to REPE firms? Even though you didn't work in the REIB group and gain exposure to portfolio type takeovers, you probably have a better understanding of asset level issues due to your experience cranking through deals.

Thoughts, opinions? Anyone feel free to chime in.

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Best Response
ToBeOrNotToBeI'd be curious to know what these underwriter & originators made back in the go-go years.
I honestly have no idea how high it got, but I do remember reading a post on this site in which someone mentioned that the head of CMBS at a BB took home a $12m bonus at one point in the boom years. The local/regional mortgage bankers will tell you that CMBS guys in New York do very well, but I don't know what that means. Obviously MBAREALESTATE above could answer this better than me.

This has been talked about before, but I definitely HAVE seen people go straight from CMBS to acquisitions. I'm not talking about acquisitions at super-elite places like Fortress, but definitely REITs, etc.

 

I work in a non-bank CMBS shop and I know the MDs are making between $2-3MM and the VPs are between $750K-1.5MM

I can't really give you a number for analyst or associate though

 

We need more structured finance guys around here. PM me if you want to talk specifics.

"There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter, or cheat."
 

The general consensus seems to be that REIB serves as a better feeder into REPE than CMBS. At the same time, while that may be the rule, I do believe that there are certainly exceptions. This may not be the case at Blackstone and the like, but I know of people from less "sexy" backgrounds (brokerage, workout) that have made it into REPE at reputable shops in big markets.

I work in CMBS origination currently and hope to parlay into a REPE job using the same logic already stated - I have experience in asset level analysis. I don't know of any CMBS people that have done this, but looking around, I don't know many junior level CMBS people period. Most were either fired or left the business.

With regard to pay its very market dependent. Business can literally stop on a dime. Last summer with the fallout resulting from the debt ceiling debacle and issues in Europe, the market completely shut down. At the associate level, bonuses were not affected very much, but MDs killed it in 05/06/07 and now all in comp is much lower. Considering the CMBS market did a couple hundred billion in 06/07 and now struggles to get above $50B, the return of big checks is uncertain.

 

We only do senior debt in my group.. the investment arm of the firm is raising a mezz fund and we are thinking about doing the same, but this is a conduit shop so it is hard for us to justify giving mezz on these if we can't scale and securitize (we just don't see large enough loans and $3MM of mezz at a time is a no go). When we scale and bring in more large loans we will enact our mezz fund.

 

It is definitely possible to go from CMBS to REPE, have seen it done several times (however localized to NYC). That being said, it is important to get asset and portfolio level underwriting/modeling experience. Underwriting real estate debt is not rocket science. Use your time in CMBS to learn modeling, how cash flows through the various capital structures, and the nuances of CRE as an asset class. The transition from RE debt to equity is not bad. However, if you don't know what a floorplate is or can't forecast out a simple 10-year excel cash flow of a retail property you are going to get shit on during the interview process.

Furthermore, the fact you are at a BB is good. Getting exposure to real institutional clients and large deals (e.g. $100mm+) on a consistent basis will help your case significantly. You will get instant creditability saying you worked on a $1bn origination for BX as opposed to a bunch of smaller $10mm loans with no name clients.

 
prospiei've heard you can move into some top hedge funds, or become a trader....sorry i know that isn't much help

Ah, good times ... Now that it's 2011, we can now confirm that everyone who started in CMBS in '07 eventually moved on to great hedge fund jobs and/or to make tons of money as MBS traders. It appears that my advice in early '07 has truly stood the test of time.

 

Thanks for the info prospie. I would think since you gain a lot of underwriting skills, you would work in real estate PE or investing?

Anyone else have commments?

 

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