Breaking Out From CRE Brokerage is Impossible?
I am currently on a graduate scheme at a top brokerage (think JLL, KF, CBRE) and am 1.5 years into my career. We rotate teams and I have been lucky to work almost exclusively in top investment brokerage teams (Multifamily, Industrial investments) with high deal-flow and assets.
I have realised that REPE, top developers and all other high-paying seem to be pretty uninterested in this background, regardless of the fact that I have not yet completed the grad scheme. I really am not enjoying the job and only carry on due to it being a potential stepping stone towards investment side roles.
Does anyone have any advice? I have networked my ass off and am competent (legit) at modelling and all other aspects of the job. No reasonable developer, fund, seems to be interested in taking a punt on me. The only offers I have received are at below average companies with <£45k salaries.
Desperate to make a move and cannot for the life of me find any reasonable roles. Would dropping out to job search full-time be worth it? I am not learning much at all at this point...
In my experience this is largely true. Brokers don't actually learn anything of value, and don't really provide anything of value in the first place in a generic sense. Being a broker means being in sales - which is a skill, and can be a high paying one, but it doesn't really apply to the day to day of what most people at the jobs you mentioned do. That being said, brokerage can be high paying!
Sounds like you are in the UK, so I have no freaking clue how the market works there, but my two cents as an American: the brokers who get hired are the ones who hustle in ways unrelated to brokerage. Being a broker means being good at cold calling - so try emphasizing your willingness to call lots of subcontractors to get better pricing, to call tenants to help with collections/complaints, etc. Learn about the construction process. Read every operating agreement you can get your hands on and try and understand why the terms are the way they are, who they benefit and how, etc etc. Yeah, you can't put that on a resume - but that knowledge will come across when you interview or talk to people within the industry while networking. Think like an owner!
Again, grain of salt, that could all be absolutely useless in the UK. The last firm I was at hired a former broker, and while they had some annoying qualities, they were willing to do anything we asked and were eager to learn everything they could, and it ended up that having that "hustler" mentality was super useful. It was something we were missing as a firm and didn't even know.
I am surprised this comment hasn't gotten you tons of monkey shit but its 100% true. Not sure why people gas up brokerage experience soo much here.
"WE ARRANGE THE CAPITAL STACK"
- JLLCBREEASTDIL Broker....probably
would you say d/e or IS is a worse track to a decent acquisitions position than doing Asset management for a 8aum repe?
Keep knocking on doors. It can be done. I started my career in IS then was hired on to the buyside by one of my clients. I sold this particular client a number of deals over the years and they were looking to deploy capital ( starting a new fund that had family office backing).
I became close with them over the years and they liked what I brought to the table as a broker. (Willing to dig in and find off market deals that they couldn’t identify themselves.) Despite what some may think, brokers do add value, at least the good ones do.
I would suggest a couple things:
Get good/better at modeling- get ARGUS certified. Understand the inner workings of a deal, even while working from the sell side. Know why a deal makes sense just as much or more than your buyside client. Not just a “hey here’s a deal, you interested?”
A lot of RE professionals think broker/sell side = big personality, salesmanship, no understanding of the profitability of a deal ..and buyside/acquisitions = more prestigious, but no sales ability or personality , only numbers oriented,etc.
Be a dual threat. Approach each deal as a broker as you would from an acquisitions standpoint. Your buyside clients will appreciate that and will look more seriously at you from a hiring viewpoint. It worked for me and I went to an SEC college with a finance and economics degree. No MBA, but I’m a ccim and series 65 license holder. (I just wanted to test myself).
If I can do it, most people in this field can.
On a similar note, I have a good friend and colleague who I used to work with a while back in investment sales ( he was an analyst for a top performing team in a middle market brokerage. ) He is now SVP of Acquisitions for a top net lease REIT.
I see this done all the time in the states. Tons of brokers get tapped by REPE shops and developers because brokers know owners and tenants. I understand why people don't like brokers, but there are good ones out here that add value and aren't absolute slime balls. There are bad apples in every industry. I digress... don't give up, and definitely don't quick your day job lol.
Btw...are you located in London?
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