Corporate CRE lending to Acquisitions

Hi All,

I work within a bank's CRE arm providing traditional corp banking services to large clients (most being publicly-traded REITs). Almost all deals focus on the entity, rather than the asset/portfolio they're acquiring/developing.

I am brand new to the industry and feel that my interests align more closely to underwriting actual properties and would like to make an eventual transition to the buy-side in an acquisitions role (either at a REIT or REPE firm).

Based on this, I was curious if anyone here had any recommendations on what to do if they were in my shoes? I plan on staying with the bank for at least a year or two, but figured it couldn't hurt to start thinking about these things early on.

Thanks!

5 Comments
 
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This sounds like a good position, learning about and participating in entity level transactions is considered very 'high level'. If you focus on valuations and portfolio composition analysis, you would be pretty well prepped for lots of principal side jobs including at high end PE type shops. I would def say to stick it out for 2-3 years before jumping. You could go early, but it would just be a lateral/reset (hopefully at 'better' firm with more pay...). Still, getting good at this business will have value. 

 

Definitely do well at your current position and learn as much as possible. Establishing track record and credibility would ultimately open up lots of opportunities down the road. Learning doesn't stop once you are done with the analyst program. People understand that, and typically appreciate this or that limitation in terms of exposure you face in your current position. Just stay humble, hungry and engaged.

At the same time, try to be proactive in gaining the type of exposure you need for a future pivot - what I mean is that if there's a transaction where deeper level of analysis on the underlying property is required, pitch yourself to be staffed on this trade, and dive in. What matters is not how many deals you've worked on, but the quality of these deals and your work in these deals.

 

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