In your opinion, what career paths in RE meet the following characteristics:
- Fun/Mentally stimulating
- Does not require looking at a screen all day everyday
- Comp of at least $200k
- Decent work hours (less than 50 hours a week)
- Not stressful enough to make you go bald
Here are a couple of mine to kick things off: CRE Broker, Portfolio Manager at a REIT or LifeCo (this may not be fun - correct me if I'm wrong), and Corporate Real Estate Manager at a tech, entertainment, luxury fashion, or hospitality company.
Having a wealthy, well-connected dad
Wealthy, well-connected sugar mommy is also a viable option
Dad or daddy?
In this case, either works!
Development / Acquisitions at a discretionary GP fund
Being a broker will be on the stressful end. You don’t get a paycheck unless you close a deal.
For sure credit roles, asset management, life co groups
Stay away from roles dependent on production: brokerage, acquisitions, development, etc
I really wouldn't group development in with brokerage on this one.
Development.
Pays well. Involves a lot of disciplines and moving parts, so is intellectually challenging. Generally speaking hours are pretty easy, though you'll have a couple weeks a year near closings where it's a crunch to get things done. You spend a lot of time on site (or you can if you want), so not chained to a desk.
It can be stressful though.
I would point out development at a smaller shop. The national groups will work you to the bone. That's been my experience, anyway.
Interesting the larger shops felt more of sweatshop compared to smaller ones? I previously worked at a smaller shop and felt constantly worked to death at times but i think the bigger issue was the not being well-capitalized. There were many capital partners out there and we could turn money around within 3 to 4 years but our projects were too small for them. They needed to put up a lot more capital and it had to be done so more efficiently which meant larger scale projects for them.
Add portfolio manager at the largest banks to that. Debt asset management for non-office bank loans is typically a walk in the park. However, the job is not rewarding in any sense aside from comp and you can say you work at a bank if that floats your boat. Working at a bank does give nice perks as well (food sometimes, go to box for game / concert, nice 401k match) but you will be reminded you are the little brother to the guys who originate the deals.
Will note that I’ve heard debt AM can be messy at smaller banks because the Sponsors are not as experienced and you don’t have all of the resources.
This is pretty spot on. I think a good benefit of being the "little brother" is a better work-life balance where you're not planning yourself around a deal being done. However, during recessions when sponsors are not performing on the debt, there can be more surveillance needed, meaning more work.
Yeah I agree, AM gets paid the same as UW but your career progression is slower. The biggest lil brother thing to me is not being invited to events or dinners which does get annoying ngl. Workouts and restructurings do get busy but it’ll be a 60 hour week once in a blue moon.
I’ve heard this too and it sounds good to me.
I’ve heard this too. My friend is a banker and he said that if you go to a big national bank - like a BoA or Citi - those jobs are easy and pay well.
Arguably not mentally stimulating, but lender at regional or national bank checks a lot of boxes.
You will deal with internal politics but if that doesn’t bother you it is a pretty good career. And who knows, maybe you hit the politics/merger lottery and slide into a $700k+ job running CRE for a region or even the whole bank.
This has LifeCo lending written all over it.
To add, I find LifeCo fun. The colleagues I work with are laidback, the company culture is flat and wholesome, and the sponsors we work with are nuanced and interesting to research into.
LifeCos tend to have heavy pockets for personal development. They can fund diplomas / MSRE’s on the side aimed at professionals if you’re in need of additional mental stimulation and future-proofing.
What is a LifeCo?
Life Insurance company. They often have large real estate investing arms to match asset durations with their liabilities.
I can't say for what you listed any of them could match exactly, there will definitely be tradeoffs. The closest is probably going to be portfolio manager at a REIT or LifeCo. The work in that role is probably not going to be the most interesting but the properties or projects taken on can be pretty interesting since there pockets can be quite deep so a lot of money that they need to deploy.
I'm interested to hear if anyone can make mention about corporate real estate. I'm interested in moving that direction personally. I'm feeling there should be less stress because there aren't investors stepping on your neck with how a project or property is performing. At the same time though, its's probably not going to offer complex work since you'll be more focused on leasing up of spaces rather than buy and hold.
Agreed. Also in the same boat with you about moving into the corporate real estate direction. Unfortunately I don't think many people that work in corporate RE are on this forum so we might not get a response.
Yeah I'm looking for something a little bit slower paced for right now until the market picks up. I really want to focus on having a work-life balance really and not have to be available in the evenings or weekends.
I came close to sitting in a role similar to corporate real estate with a FAANG company about 5 years back before covid. The work sounded quite easy, but I wouldn't be an employee of the company, CBRE was contracted as a consultant for them so I'd be an employee of CBRE instead. At the time I was less interested in it cause I was much younger and really had other goals in mind. Felt like that role was settling or potentially hard to move out of if i was targeting development or repe in the future.
what exactly do you want to know about corporate RE? If you can get a job working as a direct employee for a FAANG company, that's a very good gig. I suggest not working as a 3rd party for CBRE unless you need an in and can dedicate 2-3 years at least in that position. You will be limited in pay at a 3rd party as your pay is tied into the contract with that company.
Work live balance will be good but dependent on the organization/culture. Amazon is the exception.
How did you find your role and what's your work life balance like? Like what might a typical day or week look like? Bonuses? Do you see yourself staying in corporate RE?
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