GP's Think They Deserve Ex BB IB Acquisition Analysts

Dear random operator in some tier 2-3 city in anywhere USA, your firm is not as prestigious as you think it is. Noone cares that you had a super successful development/family money and now youre doing "big deals" (<$50mm garden style apartments at best).

Interview the state school kid from CBRE/JLL/CW/IPA. You may interview a few ex-bankers, but once you tell them the all in is $110k they're gonna fucking laugh at you (as they should).

Have fun paying a recruiter $100k to fail to recruit this caliber of talent for slightly more than you pay your fuckin HR recruiter.

Sincerely, an ex IB analyst who just laughed in your fucking face over the phone.

45 Comments
 
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I never understood why some GPs prefer candidates in fields like IB. It makes sense if your strategy is to roll up other operators at a firm level but an analyst or associate at a brokerage will have more applicable experience and expect less comp for operators who work at the asset level. If you’re gonna trust JLL, CBRE, etc to sell your asset I don’t understand why you wouldn’t trust their analysts to work for you. It could be a pedigree thing but paying out the ass for candidates who need to adjust to asset level underwriting sounds retarded.

 

This is my point. These guys get an attitude with me for ME wasting THEIR time.

If I tell you I expect XYZ salary range and you show up with less than my first year analyst salary (not adjusted for COL, but still) I am going to hang up. Don't be so sad about it Mr. Entrepreneur.

 
Funniest

Hah! They expect you, a distinguished first-year investment banking analyst at a bulge bracket investment bank, to even consider moving to a city that’s not NYC? For a measly $110k salary? Don’t they know the incredible amount of in-depth real estate knowledge you’ve already learned from your 6 months on the job and thus the value you’d bring to the firm? Pathetic, pathetic idiots they are

 

Not the point, and honestly every post I see from you is some smartass garbage. I don't get why they pay you to post here... your insight isn't translated very well to what you actually post.

 

It's entirely the point. Why should your previous job's have any relationship to this offer considering there is basically zero transferable skills? Wow, you know how to underwrite, congrats, so does everyone who spent 5 hours on a A.CRE class over a weekend. Do you know how anything works at a GP level? Do you know how to read construction drawings? Level contractor bids? Manage a design team? Negotiate contracts? You're not going to get any of those skills from working at an investment bank, why should your IB salary be relevant at all? 

 

dawg_1

Not the point, and honestly every post I see from you is some smartass garbage. I don't get why they pay you to post here... your insight isn't translated very well to what you actually post.

I have the most silver bananas on this site of all time and it isn't particularly close. I'm at peace with the value I provide. 

Not sure why I haven't been getting the checks though. I need to find out where all this money I'm supposedly getting paid is going. 

Commercial Real Estate Developer
 

Hah.

And yet that random operator is far more likely to make orders of magnitude more money than some random ex IB analyst ever will.  And what's even more amusing, is that you could make a fortune working at one of those places.  After all, you're a sophisticated big city finance guy, surely you'd eat everyone's lunch if you were working St Louis?

 

Ahh yes, I don't make the money now BUT IN THE FUTURE there's like an opportunity to make money.... Tempting.

 
dawg_1

Ahh yes, I don't make the money now BUT IN THE FUTURE there's like an opportunity to make money.... Tempting.

I mean, you can't be this stupid, can you?  Is it actually possible there is someone on WSO who doesn't understand the concept of taking upside?

Have fun being an analyst your whole life.  Who needs a bonus, or equity compensation, or anything like that, when you can get paid a W-2 salary biweekly and not have to wait for it!

 

So if you're an ex-IB analyst, and currently interviewing for $110K/year RE roles then that makes you....checks notes....unemployed with no interest from top tier REPE firms?

Maybe some humility in this situation?

 

Out of curiosity, how much did you think you would be offered? What kind of role were you expecting? Did you have upward growth potential?

If I were hiring an IB analyst, I would expect them to be able to learn quickly but it would take a long time to train them and that would cost me a bunch of money.

Word to the wise - real estate and non nyc (or east coast similar) jobs are much friendlier places to work.

New York has its perks but it is small compared to the rest of the country and world.

I have been the high performing analyst with an ego. I don’t care if you are an investment banker, consultant, or real estate guy, getting experience and going through market cycles will help give you the judgement to do well and even you out a bit. Approaching interactions with intent of growing instead of proving dominance will do wonders for your career and personal happiness.

Also, remember the world is smaller than you realize, so treating everyone with respect will help you a lot.

Best of luck to you in your career!

 

110k to live in a cheap city with no experience in CRE? seems solid as hell if the operator is skilled and the role is hands on.

 

Honestly I have always wondered about why GPs and operators want IB analysts. I get it from a “work ethic” standpoint but I do not from a skill set standpoint. IB teaches you little about the actual real estate process. Raising capital? Maybe a little bit but you have no idea about how to put in an offer, go through DD, etc. IB is simply a stamp that you can work hard, maybe harder than a young kid out of college. It makes more sense to take the young hungry kid out of undergrad to me.

 

All this thread proves is a disconnect between expectations and reality from both sides. I get why the IB guy wants more money. Time value of money is a real thing. Half of you try so hard only to risk your health and give that money right back later on in life.  At the same time operators really aren’t making $hit in this environment, so the pay is definitely going to be meh. I do feel like salaries will go back up eventually. But let’s be honest, real estate pay has flatlined for quite some time now. Fewer and fewer operators are doing profit sharing, and the discretionary bonuses have been trash the last few years. But hey, I’m just a guy on Wall Street oasis talking on anonymous forum…

 

I don’t see where the hate for OP is coming from. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have requirements for comp when recruiting for a new role and on the flip side GPs shouldn’t be recruiting ex IB analysts if they can’t stomach the comp that’s expected. Being in the low 100s isn’t bad for real estate but imagine if someone offered you to lateral with that comp and you currently make double to triple that. Really I think the issue is with GPs rather than talent themselves. CRE has a bad problem of not comping employees properly and expecting them to stick around by promising things in the future.

 

I see this comment a lot “CRE has a comp problem”. Maybe I’m just an ignoramus, but I don’t see where you expect the money to come from. GPs, by nature of the business model, are pretty cash-poor. The money is in the promote and the fees are there to cover overhead in the interim. GPs can get in trouble when they pay too much for overhead and deal flow dries up. You’re seeing that happen in real time. Profit-sharing is really the main carrot they have to offer. REPE firms have more capital, therefore more fees, and therefore they can pay higher salaries/cash comp. But the capital in real estate deals/funds isn’t close to amount of capital in traditional PE. So naturally, the salaries are lower. 

 

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