Help! Transition from PE from RE
Hi guys!
TLDR. I am looking to transition to RE from PE and want to understand more about culture, WLB, and day-to-day work and the different job roles in RE.
I am planning on finishing my analyst stunt at a UMM PE fund and make my way into RE. One of the main issues being WLB and location (ideally want to be near family [ie not NYC]) and personal opportunities. My dad is a big RE developer and I can leverage connections to find great opportunities and eventually join the family business.
Can someone help give me a lay of the land in terms of WLB, comp, day to day work of working in different aspects of Real Estate (REPE, Developer, Debt, Asset Management, etc) and level of technical skills required for each?
Thank you!
Ask your dad
MF REPE comp (Bx, starwood, apollo, TPG, etc) at analyst 1 in acquisitions is $200-220k all-in depending on fund performance and firm.
Acquisitions: highest bonus, worst WLB, most interesting work. Expect 80-100 hours / week; mostly in excel underwriting deals. Can be most technical of the options.
AM: Better WLB but still 80-90 hours. At MF REPE you are working on portfolios rather than asset level at a MM or LMM shop. Executing business plan, PnL reporting and looking at dispos. Will have to underwrite still and fairly intensive.
Development: some shops have acquisitions / AM roles and some merge the two together; more complex models typically but can be much more interesting work. Feels like you're doing something vs just looking for a return. Will pay less typically and bonuses are very reliant on fund performance. Think ~$3B aum firm will pay analysts $110k base + $20-40k bonus. Less technical from what I've seen but still have to be very thorough, a lot of it is research
Equity acquisitions is not categorically the most interesting work lol. Maybe some experience will help you understand that. Personally, think either a front end acquisitions role within development (get to see a variety of JV structures) or working on the debt side doing opportunistic lending, secondary loan acquisitions, and CMBS b piece acquisitions is far more interesting than vanilla equity acquisitions. Debt side , particularly at a high yield fund, can get very interesting when you start understanding different financing options for back leverage, securitizations, and more. Could even look into MBS.
Would argue the contrary.
Depends on fund/group, sure... multi core in jacksonville will bore you to death but opportunistic international acq is some of the most interesting work in re...in my opinion.
Analyst in acquisitions at MF btw
Coming from an acquisitions role rn, it’s definitely not as interesting as development.
Yeah dude idk, I feel like the hype around acquisitions comes from a bunch of juniors / college kids who only have internship experience or 6-7 months of full time experience. Would love to hear other perspectives, but I think that’s my take on it now having been In the industry for 2-3 years. Personally think there’s much more interesting areas of real estate where you get exposure to other industries / adjacencies as well. Dev you see more of JV’s, construction, architecture, zoning, etc. debt you get insight into bond market (if you work in securities) or get exposure to a ton diff back leverage financing that ties back to the larger financial banking system (warehouse lines, repo, a/b note, etc).
Happen to have any insight on WLB for Development?
I'm actively managing 3 developments that are in progress (1 under construction, 1 in design, 1 in permitting) and underwrite a few new deals a month. My typical day is 9-5, and I often login for 1-2 more hours after I put my kids to bed. So a typical week is 45-50 hours with enough flexibility for family time and getting to the gym. I would say that this ramps up to 50-60 hours during a week that I'm prepping for investment committee. There's also the occasional late night if I need to attend a public hearing for a project or if something goes totally sideways on the job site (flood, fire, etc.). I'm now working at my 2nd development shop, and I'd say the WLB has been pretty consistent at each.
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