Go into brokerage, property management, or work for developer?
I have three first job opportunities. I can start my career in brokerage, work in property management, or work for a developer. Which options is the best? I do not want to go into property management. However I think brokerage is nice. But working for a developer is pretty good and offers a salary unlike brokerage. So I have three job opportunities. I am trying to focusing my career on multifamily. Which one should I pick?
If you wanted to focus on multifamily, property management sounds like the logical first step to me.
Do not take this advice
You're right in that you should avoid property management.
The brokerage role sounds like you're going to be commission based from day 1, which is not ideal. You'll go 6-12 months without making any money. This role will **ALWAYS** be available to you down the line if you ever choose to switch to brokerage. Ideally when you join a brokerage shop, you join as an analyst or an associate on a successful team and grow from there. That way, you have some salary and deals already underway from your VP that you're supporting.
Go with development, it'll be good experience.
So here is my experience from what I have seen. Property management pays well. And no I dont mean someone thats a leasing office manager, I'm talking about having a company that locally/regionally manages X number of apartments. This is great field thats often ignored on this forum. Everyone here wants to work for a developer or in acquisitions, but the PM side really shows you how to run the business side of it. I know two guys that started their own PM companies. Theyre both regionals dealing with sub 100 units MF in secondary markets. By my conservative estimate they pull in over $1.5M each. One of them is actually branching out into the GP acquisitions space because he's built quite the experience on the management side. He's building out an acquisitions platform. My point is that there is opportunity everywhere, its just a matter what you make of it.