Aside from Starwood, Blackstone, and other mega funds, curious what other shops pay at the absolute top end of the market for either real estate private equity or real estate private credit. Small, medium, or large shops. Open to all. Also, referring to shops that hire for lateral analyst positions or for associate roles.
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Sort of a loaded question.
The places that pay the highest cash may not be the highest total comp. Where you work should be a function of a lot of different things beyond straight dollars.
Makes sense. I'm coming up on 2 YOE as an analysts and am looking to move to a diff shop as an associate. So I'm asking from that perspective. Not sure if I'd benefit from other sources of compensation beyond cash at this stage in my career. But agreed, important to think about in the longer term. If I had to rephrase I'd title it something like "highest paying RE shops for associates" for further context, I’m at a well known shop that is also known to not pay well lol. Work more hours than many of my friends and make less. Trying to really level up with this A2A move. Willing to be patient as market isn’t strong but really want to maximize comp.
The best way is to network. The shops with the high pay and decent wlb most likely promote within so making a lateral move is pretty much only going to work if the team is expanding or you know someone.
PERE 100 and the debt equivalent are good places to start but not all of those firms pay well and there are some very high paying shops that aren’t on the lists (Baupost and Two Sigma for example pay top dollar but aren’t included in the PERE 100 list because they don’t fit the criteria).
Some traits to look for: strong AUM per capita (some firms have way too much headcount and it eats into the economics), strong target school/IB presence (firms have to pay more to compete against the other options for these top candidates) and well regarded (self explanatory).
An uncontroversial list: Angelo Gordon, Apollo, Ares, Bain, Baupost, BX, BlackRock, Brookfield, Carlyle, Centerbridge, Cerberus, Fortress, GSAM, HIG, JPMAM, KKR, MSREI, Northwood, Oaktree, PIMCO, Rockpoint, Sculptor, Square Mile, Starwood, TPG, Two Sigma, Walton Street. This list doesn’t include every firm that pays well but these are the firms I know pay decently relative to the rest of the real estate industry.
Thanks for sharing and I'd agree. I've been interested in places like Baupost and Two Sigma, but their teams seem to be incredibly lean and impossible to get traction with folks there. I’d also mention that a lot of these seem to have a large pipeline to get into from undergrad but for lateral analyst positions or associate positions, they seem few and far between. I guess I mention that because I’m trying to figure out how to burrow my way into one of these.
I’ve interviewed / landed jobs at many of the above shops - you don’t burrow your way in. You send your resume to whichever recruiting firm they use (HSP, Bellcast, whatever) and then they’ll call you if you’re a fit. It’s not like IB where you can cold email and network your way in
Can you share insight into what total comp is at places in PERE 100 top players like Blackstone, Brookfield, and Starwood? How does that compare to the hedge funds like Baupost and Two Sigma?
Most, if not all of these groups, are snob shops who pride themselves on hiring ex IB, Ivy League, 80+ hour work week, blah blah.
Is the punchline here that working in acquisitions for a "normal" firm going to inherently limit the amount of comp?
When I say normal firm, I'll give some examples of multifamily specific owner/operator/sponsors (West Coast-centric):
Tru America
Fowler Properties
MG Properties
Bascom Group
Kennedy Wilson
Would any of these groups pay up for mid or senior level acquisitions folks?
FWIW I got an offer from Kennedy Wilson which was approimately 1/3 of the total comp I got from one of the snob shops listed above
No firm in the world hires only Ivy League/ex-IB guys, you just need to work a little harder for it if you don’t have that type of background. On the snob point, yes it sucks if your coworkers are dry as paint but I personally like working with hard working and smart people.
Kennedy Wilson's pay is ass. Literally like 60k base.
PIMCO's REPE team pays quite well based on my friend who works there
Can you drop a number? Don't think it'd hurt your friend but would be beneficial for everyone here
I work at a big dev shop, and while our cash comp is low (arguably very low), our compensation model means that in good years even associates and VPs can earn crazy comp (some of our associates cleared were >500k this year, including differed comp). Cash comp for that level (post-mba equivalent) is only like 180-200 or so, but then a good year can result in a crazy promote payout since we staff super lean relative to our deal flow (I think our most profitable local office this year had a profit share pool of like 70M with a total staff of ~15, including admins and BO. Don't have hard figures from them this year, but I have heard their MD is generous with discretionary comp and so I say pretty confidently a few associates there got PAID this year.
Not sure there are many other dev shops with the same profit/headcount, but I have heard tishman and related can pay on that level in good years
Hines? Or TCC?
Probably TCC considering VP title
Sounds an awful lot like TCC.
Echo the above. The well-known development shops offer crazy economics through profit sharing, promote dollars, project bonuses. Albeit, salary is on the lower end.
I worked at one of those dev shops mentioned, they don’t pay too dollars. If you want the most money it’s not in development
Also at a very large national developer and not sure what others are talking about. From what I’ve seen for the most part, pay at the analyst, associate, and director level is dog shit in development when comparing the top developers to top REPE.
Top development shops usually have generous profit sharing programs at the senior level. Maybe the deals that your directors are bringing to the table are dogs? With the shift in real estate pricing over the past year, maybe the delivered pipeline is out of the promote, profit pools are slimmer, and seniors aren’t earning outsized compensation.
My guess is the firm referenced above knocked it out of the park on multiple blockbuster deals. Sprinkle in a few landlifts and deals exceeding your later hurdles by 10%+…not that hard to imagine earning the above money.
Agreed. Was at a top developer, out of an office of 40-50 people only 3 were earning big money (the guys who brought in several deals and could demonstrate their P&L). Rest were on an okay salary and 20-40% bonus, only a handful of the team had access to promote / coinvest and it wasn't significant for those below MD.
Not at the big brand names, no.
Developer with carry >>>>>> all others
*with carry in profitable deals. Pretty easy to have your carry zeroed out these days if a project was bought in the last 3-5 years.
Idk about that, have sold a couple at the start of 2023 that have outperformed proforma. There has been massive rent growth and cap rates in today's market are actually better than what we were underwriting back in 2019 when these deals first went under contract.
Single data point, but a recruiter quoted me $175K base for an Associate 1 salary in SF a few months back. Apparently they're at the top of the market for megafunds.
Base alone is a meaningless number. Is it $200k bonus or $100k bonus. One of those numbers would be top of market for mega funds and one would just be par for the course
Sounds like TPG
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