Graduated (Dec 2024) and now running a $2.7m Real Estate Investment Firm but want to do IB
Non-Target, 3.7GPA, multiple internships at asset managers and secondary investment managers. I have graduated and while in university I started my own investment firm to build and develop real estate projects and then scaled to commercial. I have raised a few hundred thousand in private funds to manage projects and paid them out as well. Recently I got a hold of a big investor and now responsible of $100m in dry powder to buy low/high-rise buildings.
But I did university for into high finance but real estate related, and even though this is great I want to pursue Real Estate IB, I have been sending multiple emails daily for networking and applying as well. But any thoughts on how to break in?
I desperately want this to be real. Please call your company Waves Equities
I mean idk why I would lie, its actually pretty funny tho how it all happened, but I just am having a hard time trying to connect with people becuase they think its too absurd. But I basically started by getting my commercial license and research properties such as multi-family and reach out to the buyers and sellers to see if they are open to oppertunties and what their critiera was, also I ran a few facebook pages and posted regularly and you wouldn't believe the amount of people that reach out. Obv they won't buy what you have but they will give you their critiera and you ask if they have they'd like to sell at the right price. And there you go. You have a buyer and their criteira, and also somehting they might want to sell.
Also reaching out to low-rise landlord that had leases up, I'd ask them if they have more properties such as that they'd be willing to sell for the right price and got a 120-unit buyer. Now working through I got a hold of a mixed-use in downtown of my city, and basically while doing a showing met the neighbour who owned the second building, got introduced to the guy that owned the high-rise (25 stories) beside my unit, and then to another development firm.
Why not pursue what you made for yourself and see how it goes. Are you at least making enough to keep the lights on?
The thing is that I believe that I still don't have the necessary experience at an institutional level to bring this to the next level and carry it on into my late 20s. I like real estate but also want to have the opportunity to work it in the highest level possible which for my belief is at that level.
Man the people who have made the most money from real estate hadn’t a clue either but they winged it and rode their luck
If you don’t think you have the right experience but want to get it - don’t go do investment banking. Go to a developer or do investment sales and/or leasing. Working in any of these roles will teach you the ropes and allow you to learn on the ground. The developer role will teach you how deals are reviewed, financed, and managed / sold. The other roles will let you keep focusing on your network which is the most important part and you seem to be good at.
Thats true man, honestly I think about what I have done in the past few years and I still can't believe how far I have come but I just want to break into institutional real estate so really would like to see if I can get some advice on how.
Jesús Christ bro you’ve got some geezer willing to give you 100m and you want to work 90hrs a week pulling PowerPoints and excels together instead
On the assumption this is real...
You've manage to build a creditable business while being a full time student, you've got a network of investors willing to give you hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you've got a track record of successful developments and have actually paid out from deals that were in the money.
And you want to throw that all away to work 100 hours weeks for a bank? My man, you have experience. You have far better experience than someone with 4 years of REIB and a grad school degree. You've got an actual real estate business, one which despite the way in which a lot of people like to show up to conferences and brag is actually far more impressive than what people a decade older than you are doing.
Just keep at it and it'll scale on it's own.
If you do this well, it could become the kind of business that real estate IB guys exit into. Even better is that you’d be closer to the economics. Why not double down on this and create something better than joining someone else’s firm?
Not to be a naysayer but one problem of “$100MM of dry powder” is even if fully deployed, assuming typical PERE fee load that’s like 500k-1MM a year of fee revenue, which may seem like a lot but will not be enough for anything but single digit head count - that’s including any BOH staff (fund accounting, IR, legal, etc). Realistic I think it’s you and maybe one or two people doing AM work on the investment professionals side, which can quickly get out of hand once you have a few deals running at the same time.
You will need to hit some home runs in the first few years, which at the ticket sizes you need at $100MM might not be as easy as it seems with a couple million bucks. Definitely doable / can see a path to growth but will not be as easy as going from nothing to securing the first check from a LP.
This isn't the case. I've seen fees that are 1% of deal size, or some greater percentage of equity deployed.
Yeah, it'll be lean, but tons of funds start at that size. In fact, it's on the bigger end for a first raise.
If you are giving guys 0 year out of college 1% GAV on fees would you consider cutting me a check?
Yea I totally agree and with everyones comment they are not wrong essentially. Right now with the capital in deployment it still highly due to what opportunities are being present across and there is no guarantee we'll find suitable assets in the near term. The reason I bring up this fact is to say that yes I can double down essentially and build this even more but in my experience even during the best times I've been capped at 8-12 projects a year and not all in multi 7-figures. So even with the the dry-power I don't think my ability to have the business on the side would be a major issue, or I can scale down to 20-40M.
But again my original reason for this thread is to ask is that I am trying to purchase for either IB, Investment management, and PE. But focused within real estate, I have had practical client facing experience, helped do the financing for projects from multi-storey high-rise, townhouse complexes, storage units, plazas etc.
So would really like to know the best approach I understand there may not be one, to apply or reach out, obviously most placements in Analyst roles are through summer internships so I should have focused more on that rather than my business but I still think it was worth it.
Where are you located? What market have you been doing your deals in?
Being you graduated Dec 2024 already, it’s going to be very tough to land an analyst role in REIB at a major bank. REIB roles are typically, like you said, filled by summer analyst roles from ppl in their junior year. There are also full time / lateral programs for new grads but I believe the ship has sailed for those positions as well (highly competitive).
I think your best bet is to start researching and finding smaller REIB/ REPE firms in your area and sending networking emails about your background and how you are very interested in pursuing a career in REIB. You can find these companies on LinkedIn by a simple search criteria, you can do “real estate” industry and filter by area and start scrolling. You will still have to filter through a lot manually but you will find some interesting smaller shops. I’m guessing you know already how to get the email for ppl on LinkedIn, there are countless platforms (like apollo.io on incognito).
You will find people that want to hop on a call with you after some cold emailing (should get at least 15% response rate), especially given your very impressive background. I think the smaller shops will also appreciate this experience more than big banks as it shows your entrepreneurial spirit and dedication and that’s real value that can bring their smaller firm to that next level. Plus it is not in your best interest to be working for a massive corporate like bank, where you won’t be contributing as much and collaborating with the big guys/directors as you would at a smaller firm.
Fuck it, hire me. Hate my current company and have 4 YOE in Acquisitions/Dispos
Where are you located?
Carolinas and VA. Feel free to PM.
This guy who thinks he can learn institutional RE by getting into investment banking is buying high-rise office buildings and running some joe shmoe's $100 millie into the ground!
And what about you? Your so free to spend your useless time here bashing for what? Get a few likes and go be miserable with ur 5 secs of fame. Get a life.
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