Entry Level Technical Skills

As an interviewer it depends on the position. If I'm looking for someone right out of undergrad then sure, I don't really care about the modelling experience (though it's a plus). If it's for a position with 1-2 years of experience then modeling is going to matter a lot more.

I agree CRE modeling isn't rocket science, but there are two issues where modeling helps a lot:

1. The devil is in the details, not the complexity, I can't tell you how many times I've found mistakes in models I get from analysts that fundamentally change the profile of the deal. Someone who has experience modelling is going to pick this up a lot faster than someone who doesn't have modeling experience.
2. The modeling, aside from a technical skill, is a proxy for understanding how real estate deals work. If you've been through a lot of models it gives you an idea of what the most important drivers of a deal are. If you can talk to these effectively, then I usually am more lenient on the modeling test that we give candidates. 

As far as picking it up in a couple of weeks, sure, an analyst will be able to navigate through the model, probably know the assumptions they need to update, etc., but being able to deliver a relatively final, cleaned up model to the associate/reviewer is going to take a couple of months at least, especially if they don't have any prior modeling experience.

Edit: I don't see myself as qualified to say much about switching between product types, but would tend to agree that if you have experience modeling, but not in a specific property type it's a different situation than I was describing above.

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