Fast Paced Rolls in RE
Monkeys,
Currently at a large regional developer doing a little bit of everything, and the exposure is great, but as a former college athlete I can't help but feel like I miss the stress of "game-day". I'm the kind of person who would rather be busy for 12 hours a day than coast through 8. Has anyone experienced this and made a change? Is this more development-centric than CRE or am I going to struggle with this anywhere?
Any insight is appreciated. Much love.
Why don't you just occupy yourself with something meaningful outside of work for those extra 4 hours?
Poor wording in my initial post. That statement was a generalization and shouldn't be interpreted as me working 8 hours a day and wishing it was 12. More just the proclivity to constant productivity.
Development is generally slower by nature. Projects take time and thought and planning. If you want a faster pace, move to a private equity fund doing more deals and higher volume. Alternatively, the debt side is also faster paced, but you go much less in depth on each deal, but will see much more deal flow due to refi and new acquisition financing.
Interesting take on the debt side. My first thought was always acquisitions, by debt are you referring to cap markets at a brokerage or rather a lender (whether it be balance sheet, debt fund, etc.)
I mean at a Lender - bank, life co, debt fund. etc.
Haha test run for the month of April.
What are your current responsibilities in development, and where are your projects in the development cycle, that are allowing you to coast through 8 hours?
I'm not going to lie and say every day is a stressful grind (especially this past year) but I'm not sure I've ever heard someone bored with development.
Poor wording in my original post. That statement wasn't to say that I coast through at 8 hours but rather the idea that I just generally dislike downtime when it exists. The times when this job is the most fun is when we are chasing a deal or a construction loan or a refi, I'm chasing the dragon here lol
in development and feel the exact same way! considering a move towards acquisitions. Also considered trying to get with one of the more institutional focused investment sales teams.
Lol. Preach!
I mean, I think the brokerage world of deal making might have your name all over it! You may rethink it after sometime in that field, but if you like pressure and fast-pace business, go join an investment sales or DE brokerage team, with enough deal flow, you will get your fill of 12+ hour days.
FYI, I think many in those roles would be dying to swap places with you......
Haha no kidding, the DE team we use seems to always be sweating it out. Since I was unclear in my op, I don't want it to seem like I'm longing for 12+ hour days, just really enjoy when deals are humming and we're firing away. Perhaps what I'm looking for is a more active developer?
Development deals are not fast by nature most of the time. I think a lot of people in the industry are able to leave by 5pm quite often in all reality. Some times, like near closings or major submissions, you may work near 24/7 but that really shouldn't be more than a few times a year for a given team.
So, without knowing the details of your firm, hard to say a more "Active" developer is good or not. I mean, you can just go to a more understaffed/under-resourced developer then be forced to do more because nobody else there to do it!! Is that better? Eh.
I mean, if developing is running smoothly, then you should be coasting through 8hrs often. Just so much can crop up that causes issues, then it's a fire drill to stop an "oh shit" from becoming an "oh fuck" to a "we're fucked". So, I mean a well managed development firm should keep some slack resources to handle the emergencies. You may have just been lucky so far, and haven't had that issue just yet. You may get your turn, so be careful on what you ask for!
Or maybe your firm is just short on good deals/projects (in which case, leaving is not the worst idea), no way for me to tell!
Former D/E guy, great experience because you're always drinking from a fire hose on a known/active team.
REPE acquisitions was even more fast paced if you're in an active shop.
What really matters most is the strategy (preferably several) and that the strategy has a strong pipeline. So if you're a deal junky you would probably enjoy a REPE acquisitions team that has a fund with a finite timeline, and in a seat that evaluates multiple strategies. It applies pressure to put money out so you get more deal flow.
Development can definitely move slowly because there are like a dozen processes within one deal. Financing, design, entitlements, construction planning, actual construction, lease-up, stabilization, refinance, sale, etc. are each a project in of themselves. I'd consider the below options.
Brokerage: Much more rapid paced. Your experience won't be very deep though. You'll take a client model, maybe adjust it a little bit, bullshit a bunch of market research to make it look like whatever market the property is in the THE market to be in, cherry pick comps, go out to market, set up a bunch of calls, build a massive network, etc.
Debt/Mezz/Pref Shop: As far as investing goes these might be the quickest guys in the capital stack. They get to piggy-back off of senior lender DD so typically by the time they sign a term sheet half of the items on their DD checklist are already readily available. The modeling is far more in-depth than what a senior lender would do and the structures can get interesting so you'll do more scenario analysis.
REPE (JV/LP Equity Investor): Kind of like the above but your modeling is even more in-depth and you really have to buy into the business plan and underwrite it precisely. For Mezz deals the question is mostly "Okay, so what needs to happen for our position to not be paid back in full". I've seen mezz deals where we don't even underwrite value-add rental increases and basically say as long as the takeout coverage is still 1.00x without it, why bother analyzing much beyond that? JV investing you need to actually deep dive into the business plan and vet the viability to understand the full upside potential. It's a good balance between learning every facet of the deal lifestyle (financing, acquisition, operation, sale) actually work without having months where you do nothing but sit in meetings without bureaucrats, brokers, construction contractors, etc.
That's my exact dilemma, there's inherently downtime in the development cycle/process and I find myself going stir crazy when I hit those lulls. The REPE side definitely intrigues me. Mind if I PM you?
Yeah man, go ahead Always happy to share my experience - I've got a decent network too so as you're figuring it out hopefully I can be of use in giving some insight on how any firms you may be looking at do recruiting and maybe even put you in touch.
Interesting to hear. I am actively trying to make the move to a developer I think as I want to have a bit of a slower process. I find REPE firms are so stressed to get the money out the door that it just never stops. I personally perform better in a more relaxed environment or slower deal environment. So I would like to make a move to a developer who, yes is stressed to get money out the door for fees, but also does less deals. So I'll get a mix of acquisitions and managing the developments we buy.
These are pretty fast rolls https://www.jocooks.com/recipes/quick-yeast-dinner-rolls/ let me know if that helps
I'll try those after I finish Hooked on Phonics. Personally a fan of Pillsbury but worth a shot.
I actually fucking love the pillsbury
If I may say so, I prefer these more: https://storm-asia.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/rollers.jpg
If you are as much of a go-getter as you are painting yourself to be, can't you find something productive to do at work that is outside of your current responsibilities? Networking, market research, taking on more projects, etc.
I should've worded it differently. It's less about being occupied, and more about transaction volume.
So why don't you start trying to generate acquisitions / targets yourself and bring them to your manager/boss?
I don't think there are many better feelings in CRE than "Winning" a deal in brokerage over a competitor. Hours and hours of go into winning those $50M+ listings.
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