From Tech to Real Estate Investment?
Hello,
I am Sophomore studying CS at a top tier college in the US. As a result, much of experience I have is related to data science and programming. I have done 'big data' machine learning at BB and research at my school's business school. I have a very good GPA. I have been interested in Quant investing, but I am starting to wonder how profitable that industry will be.
Recently, I have been interested in real estate investing and I am wondering if there is any chance I can get and internship this summer or 8 weeks in the winter (even at a small place).
Where should I start looking? Should I look for real estate investment start ups? I applied to one big startup. Where can I find lists of investment places to apply to. I am interested in applying tech to RE, but I really just want to gain some investment knowledge. I can probably apply the data part myself in the future! --lol.
I also feel like it will be tough for me to get a job because every place that see me applying will be like did this kid apply here by mistake? Should I try messaging heads of companies on linkedin?
My apologizes for the bad post.
Might be beneficial to target companies already applying data science to real estate instead of taking an internship where you’ll get real estate capital markets exposure. The big companies would be Zillow and Redfin. There are several start ups working on this kind of problem as well
You are getting a degree in CS, so that field will always be open to you. How about interning/working with a real estate company and then developing a technology solution to help with investing? Boom! You just sold your company 5 years from now and made more money in that period of time than you would have as an engineer or an agent.
If your resume is as solid as you imply, I would look at obtaining an internship with Fifth Wall. They are the most prominent Real Estate VC Fund around. You could play up your CS skill set as an added benefit to the firm while analyzing VC opportunities.
How do I go about obtaining an internship there? I don't see any job posting on thier site.
Yes, that is the reason I want to try RE. I feel like there is a lot of areas in RE that could use tech. Also, everyone is so focused on Finance rn, I feel like RE is a better opportunity.
I'll go ahead and say it - real estate is not a good fit for your skill set, at all. Your talents would go to waste in this industry. The quantitative analysis used in real estate is not difficult at all and can be taught to any decently smart person in their first year or two as an analyst. Real estate as an industry is very slow to adapt to tech trends, so I think you'd find that frustrating as well.
Also, very importantly, you will not be paid nearly as much as you would in traditional finance or tech for your skillset.
If you ask me, the easy and obvious choice for someone like you is a career path at a quant fund (Citadel, DE Shaw, AQR, etc).
How do you break into RE Finance from Tech? (Originally Posted: 06/05/2018)
Hi WSO,
I've currently been working for a tech consulting firm for almost 2 years now. This was my only job out of college so it was either take it or leave. However, I've always been interested in pursuing real estate finance as a career (I even did a real estate finance internship prior to my full time job), but I haven't been job hunting for a while now.
What do you think is the best route I should take in getting a new job within the RE Finance space? All the job postings seem to require Argus and at least a few years of related industry experience, with a heavy emphasis on financial modelling skills.
At my current job, I initially started off doing project management work (of which a lot of it was grunt work). Now though, I am heavily involved with the technical side, where I am involved with coding.
Do you think I should train my skills in Argus (e.g. get certified) and take some online courses BEFORE I start networking with people? And if not, what are some more entry level positions in RE Finance?
Thanks a ton!
quant funds are so hard to get a job at...lol
I was thinking starting my own RE place that uses tech. Of course, this could only happen once I gain industry experience.
I want to intern at a RE asset management place to get a feel of the industry. Even for 8 weeks full time in the winter. Where should I look for this?
"Top tier" university, high GPA, and BB experience tell me that you might be cut out for it. You'll never know unless you try.
Why not make the big bucks as a software engineer/on Wall Street and start investing in RE on the side? That's a great way to learn the industry. You don't need to spend your life in RE and work your way up to buy property.... you just need the balance sheet. That could turn into a company if you wanted. Check out www.biggerpockets.com for more info on that.
Re: "Using tech" at your "RE Place" - we all use tech. The latest and greatest. It just isn't that sophisticated. No matter how perfect your model is or how well you interpret data. Bottom line: you are not going to have an edge in large real estate deals with superior tech. You're still going up against the Blackstones and Carlyles of the world with the deepest pockets and smartest employees.
Speaking of the giants, here's the list you asked for:
https://www.perenews.com/database/#/PERE-50
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