How Important are Underwriting Skills
So I recently graduated and got a role at JLL/CBRE/CW as an analyst on an investment sales team. Our deals are small and simple (STNL) so im getting virtually no underwriting or modeling reps.
Will become an associate in the next year or so and enjoy my team but I feel my potential is limited since I don’t have any underwriting skills. How important are modeling skills for exit opps or career progression? Should I supplement with online courses or simply focus on learning sales skills?
Any insight on my situation would be appreciated.
You will need to know how to underwrite for most CRE exit opps that most people want (Acquisitions, owner operator, development, any sort of REPE role, etc). Definitely do some modeling courses online. Wall Street Prep has some good ones, as does Adventures in CRE.
Tons of free resources on YouTube as well. You will be expected to understand and be able to create proformas in most exit opps on the buyside.
It’s important to know how to use excel when you’re younger. Once you hit VP +, you just need to know how to read a proforma and ask the right questions. Excel is a hard skill you need, but people put way too much emphasis on it. The soft skills - presentation etc. are much more important. A good deal can be literally underwritten on a napkin.
Agreed - however to understand how to read proformas and pull the correct levers it's very helpful to have underwriting experience. At the very least, you'd want deal exposure to more complex deals than STNL.
OP its not critical at higher levels, but very helpful. Have worked with a few guys at Director/VP level who have no underwriting/finance background and they fill a very different role than the guys at that level who do have one. Generally I've found they get relegated to more internal broker, pure sourcing roles and are pretty hands off when it comes to execution.
So what do you recommend as far as getting other experience outside of the STNL my team does? I just started an online modeling course but that’s not quite as valuable as getting lots of reps in daily on real deals
Incredibly important, although some learn to get by without modeling. My thought it is helpful to be able to look over a proforma and see where the shortcuts are taken, or breakdown the assumptions.
Once you hit 6-7-8 YOE you should hopefully be transitioning into more managerial or client facing roles. Personally I think being in a client facing role before 30 is crazy, because clearly the maturity is not there yet, but it can be done if you are good at sales.
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