Hilarious Attempt to Justify Lowball Salary
I came across the below post in Linkedin today. Not that a $70K salary is low for a fresh graduate in any means, it's the way he justifies it and the fact that he feels the need to make a Linkedin post about it that are outrageously funny to me.
With almost 3 million views, yesterday's post about the $70k salary we offer first-year employees with no prior real estate experience got much more attention than I expected.
This morning, I am doubling down.
It's the right message.
It's in this spirit of this account: share opinions that will add value to anyone in the real estate industry, or anything thinking of joining the real estate industry.
I read the negative feedback closely - I need to be open to new perspectives.
But I noticed something - the negative feedback came from folks outside of real estate.
The feedback from longtime successful real estate industry veterans?
Overwhelmingly positive.
Real estate is a different game, and they know it.
It's difficult, and it's very slow.
If a new grad or someone with no previous experience doesn't want it enough to work for $70k in their first year, they are not going to make it in this business.
This business will humble you constantly.
You work on deals for two years, only to have them die at the last minute out of nowhere.
The lender will change their mind at the end. The city will decide they need another 6 months to review your plans. The power company will not show up, and leave you hanging with a building ready to open.
You are tested constantly. Overconfidence will wipe out 10 years of hard work in an instant.
If you need to make $110k base salary with no experience, there are plenty of other options.
-You can work on spreadsheets all day in an office
-You can generate thousands of similar financial reports all day every day for years
-You can work day and night, with seemingly no progress or exposure to senior managementIn real estate, a good operator will teach you the skills necessary to go off on your own within a few years and do your own deals. Make your own millions.
The humility it takes to accept that $70k that first year will filter out the folks who are unlikely to succeed.
Talk to a successful real estate entrepreneur, and ask them how they started.
They will tell you they worked like crazy in the beginning, for a marginal salary, or no salary (*see, the entire brokerage industry).
But they will also tell you they learned the skills that got them to the financial independence they enjoy today.
And that first-year $70k job?
It comes with the training and tools for the candidate to add enough value to get to $150k that first year.
But you can't put that in the job description.
You'll attract the wrong candidates.
X
Towncentre Capital
I am pretty sure it is well known this is Mark Masinter, who is now Chairman of Global Retail at Newmark after selling his firm, Open Realty, to them. Moderators can feel free to remove his name from this if this is not well known, but I have seen it in numerous places elsewhere so assumed it was. Or I could just be incorrect.
My first job out of school was in agency lending in 2017. Base salary of $45k, total comp of $55k. I left after a year for a job that paid $130k and I make $300k today and am on the edge of another promotion.
I personally don’t see anything wrong with this guys post. When you have no experience, you take the $70k job. That’s what I did and it worked out great for me
Haha I guess you are the type of person that's the right candidate for him.
But yeah it's really the condescending tone and how he distains other industries.
I’m pretty sure that guy’s social media efforts are a big part of his marketing process for fund raising. I wouldn’t get hung up on it.
Yes, but you worked in agency lending, not a no name syndicator who likely has not plan to actually train the staff they hire. Jobs like this are usually 90% figure it out yourself and we'll tolerate minor mistakes along the way.
Kudos. How long did that 55k > 300k progression take? And, what were the top skills and added abilities/experience that made such a progression possible?
$55k
$130k (half year)
$155k
$175k
$225k
$250k
$300k
Call it 6.5 years
I just rode the CRE bull market and timed my laterals when the job market was extremely hot. If you changed jobs in 2018 or 2021 it was possible to massively upgrade firms if you played your cards right
I don't know anything about this post/person, but I'm not sure this is a lowball salary. The entire post is just awful and cringeworthy, and the worst kind of mentality, but $70,000 is by no means a low salary on its face if you have no experience and no skills. If you don't like that number, then feel free to waltz into an investment bank and demand the position that pays a $90,000 base salary. I'm sure that'll go over well.
With all the inflation today, $70K is decent. Not great but not bad either. What I'm trying to understand is why he needs to make a cringe post about it. Maybe he himself thinks it's lowball so he feels the need, or maybe he is just posting stuff for content. Anyways, this post is cringe.
I think part of the context that is missing here is this is a position in a high cost of living area - either SF or NYC. I made more than this out of undergraduate and that was well over a decade ago. But I guess it depends on the role and opportunity to move up quickly / take on more responsibility.
IB pays significantly more than 90k now. The issue is not the 70k itself, it is that it is (1) in San Francisco, (2) for a company without a respected name and alumni network to get you exit ops, and (3) for being a glorified leasing agent and lying that it is "private equity." The whole listing is scummy, PM me if you want me to send you the official LinkedIn one.
Oh wow, this background is important. Yep, this does feel scummy now.
I mean, what jobs don't exaggerate the role they're offering? First year analysts in investment banking don't "analyze" anything - they make sure the colors on logos in a power point presentation are correct.
It sounds like a relatively low skilled job, and for that, 70k doesn't sound so crazy. Not every company is Goldman Sachs, not every job needs to "get you exit opps" and there is nothing wrong with being a leasing agent. You are within your rights to feel like this company is taking advantage by advertising itself as something it isn't, but unless they are straight up lying about the responsibilities the role entails, or the pay that comes with it, then I really don't see how this is much different than most job listings, except that the defense of it is pretty cringeworthy.
The part thats getting people fired up is he is saying that he cant find a candidate that will take that salary. I'm not opining on whether or not 70k is reasonable but it sure looks like the market has spoken
Yeah, and he'll adjust that number or he won't get any bites. And he's a self-important douche for being upset that no one wants the job at that salary. But that has no reflection on his firm's ability to transact, on his success, or on anything else other than his awful lack of self awareness of social media. This RElawyer idiot is somehow inferring that because he doesn't have good internet etiquette, that means his twenty years of success is invalidated and suddenly he's some sort of crook. Which, if anyone was reading his barely literate posts, is the worst kind of projection, since the guy was openly advocating that defrauding investors was the ideal manner in which to be successful
Below is the post that inspired OP's post.
i.e I have no training or growth trajectory plan, and can't guarantee your role or salary will actually grow with the company because we fly by the seat of our pants.
TLDR:
LinkedIn is cringe
Not really commenting on that specific job posting but I hate the notion that a fresh grad should take a salary that wouldn’t even be able to support a decent life. Not saying a fresh grad should expecting a luxurious life in their first year but it has to be something comfortable. Grads worked hard to get good grades, which often means making certain sacrifices/commitments in college. Most, if not all, reputable companies only recruit those with a certain GPA or extracurriculars. Also, certain companies mainly recruit from specific schools (tend to be expensive private schools that require students to take out loans). My company pays a pretty comfortable all-in comp package for 1st year analysts. Yes, they have to be trained and won’t be independent day one but they have the inherent soft skills and other intangibles (and some hard skills) that led them to getting the job in the first place. I always hear the phrase “junior talent don’t provide much value”, If they didn’t add any value, you shouldn’t have hired em in the first place.
70k a year for a person with no experience or skills is a fine salary. Maybe you can't live in Midtown Manhattan and have to get a place in the Bronx or eastern Brooklyn... but "I want to live in the center of the most expensive city in the Western Hemisphere" is a very different proposition than "my salary should support a decent life."
This is a finance-focused forum, so we all quietly imbibe some basic assumptions about what a "good" salary is, but at the end of the day a 22 year old making this kind of money is doing exceptionally well.
Absolute boomer take, I know, but LinkedIn's shift over the past 15 years from "It makes logical sense to have an online resume, a place to network, and a place to apply to jobs all on one site" to "recruiter spam and the cringiest shit imaginable" bums me out. Kind of like how facebook was a dope site for interacting with hot girls and posting pictures when you first got to college and now it's just religious memes from your aunt and political takes from the dumbest dude you went to highschool with.
Social media used to be useful. Now it's all garbage.
It’s all bullshitters bull shitting…. Every day there’s a new Tradedbumfucknowhere $2m closing with 12 brokers domes on it… now you’re starting to see all the brokers who would turn down calls pushing “off market deals” on LinkedIn to their entire community lol. Weird world we’re in today
If you worked for Don and his super cool 70k a year job, you'd get a lot of interviews after. They wouldn't lead to offers, but you'd have plenty of VPs/Principals asking how big of a jerkoff he is in person.
You cannot live in San Francisco on 70k without sharing a room or strictly eating ramen noodles. The poster did not specify that they want a new graduate, he is very much willing to interview and hire more experienced candidates. His firm is not a brand name that would build a resume. It is scummy to call it "private equity," he averages 1-2 acquisitions per year in exurban properties that have karate studios. Simply taking advantage of youth.
So his company has a business plan that isn't boiled down to "we're betting on the interest rate environment" and you think that's a negative? Such a shame people like you have as much confidence as you do, but on the flip side, you're the guy creating lots of opportunities for people with actual business plans to buy your shitty 3 caps and turn them into functioning real estate deals.
This obsession you have with "brand names" is really disappointing. Having a recognizable name on your CV is great, but it's no substitute for actual abilities or skills. And from someone who has openly admitted that they think the best way to make money is to literally defraud investors, I don't think you're in a position to call someone "scuzzy" for giving their business a glitzy name, one which you can't even come close to giving a definition for!
Some of the biggest profits are made betting on the interest rate environment.
I did not say "defraud" investors. I endorsed how VCs operate, which you call a scam and attack. Brand names are a substitute for abilities and skills to an extent. A lot of people get BB analyst gigs in RE and lodging, get recruited to the buy side, and sort of coast into VP roles by showing up. Life isn't fair. Most people would take that resume and invest with the mediocrity than the "hustler" at TownCentre who is mentored by a man on the other side of the country.
Working for a guy like this would be an absolute nightmare. It wouldn't matter how much you work, how well of a job you did, etc., it wouldn't convert to extra compensation. Just another pep talk about how you need to stay humble and hungry (while he rakes in the $$$).
"Up by your boostraps. Stick with me and we will all be rich!"
For fresh graduate that is enough salary!
Correct. State school alumni in back office entry-level San Francisco roles make more.
I have seen this exact conversation go both ways though, some people are serious and you triple your salary in a year or two.
Others just say the same bullshit over and over.
Stripper Guy won't do that
One lays out in value terms why you are getting paid what you are getting paid, lays out a concrete path to grow that, and runs an organized shop. The other makes vauge references to things like "this isn't banking, everyone starts low in real estate". While paying under market for a position.
Precisely. His explicit avoidance of specifying the typical range for "commissions" shows he's a bullshitter. He wants someone to cold call prospective tenants for 1-3 years or whenever he or she realizes they are being played. At least other firms will be uber impressed they have "REPE Associate" on their resume.
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