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July 31, 2026
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Best place to start is Blackstone or Starwood.
Opportunistic acquisitions at Blackstone
If you can’t get that, honestly just find another industry.
That is top of the top. But far in between. The team is super small for acq at BX. Even other roles at BX, SW, Oaktree, KKR such as AM, Originations, and Capital Markets prepares you really well to become a good thematic investor and do well in your career. It goes back to IB / PE ppl doing better in RE cuz they understand the big picture.
But these roles are far and few - ES is the best opp after those by a mile. The recent exits ES has had! Sheesh man.
IB people do not “do better” in RE unless of course your definition of “do better” = landing an associate or senior associate role at some random PE fund. All the people I’ve met who are legitimately rich and influential in this business did not come from PE backgrounds. Take a look at some of the partners you work with in whatever market that may be in for just a small example. And before any of you prestige whores come for me, I work at a place many of you clowns glamorize on this site. The real way to make money is to build your own stuff, hit your promotes, or sell your stuff that you helped build to some institutional suckers
Agreed with poster above, this is complete WSO prospect nonsense. People from IB / REPE may be great at underwriting something and putting a compelling investment thesis around it. Their expertise rarely goes beyond this and their technical knowledge of property level issues is very limited. The people who do best in RE are the ones who have the technical knowledge to implement the business plan, and sufficient commercial knowledge to identify a good investment and put a story around it for capital partners.
Similar to the poster above, I started in IB and now work in REPE at a firm prospects spend hours arguing over is it Tier 1B or Tier 2 because of whatever outdated hearsay they’ve heard recently. If I went out and tried to deliver a deal on my own now, I wouldn’t have a fucking clue what to do once I got beyond my surface level technical knowledge.
The dangerous thing about backing people from IB / PE backgrounds when they’re doing their first few deals is that they’re smart enough that they think they know what they need to know, but too stupid and arrogant to realise they don’t know enough technically to not get walked over by those who do. Big picture won’t prevent shit there.
Yea... IB/PE people do not do better in RE unless they're sitting at exactly the shops you mention - megafunds. Why? Because megafunds aren't buying real estate, they're buying companies.
Those guys know little to nothing about the nuts and bolts. Not saying that's a bad thing, but you're not really working in real estate in my mind in that type of role, you're in more of a PE role.
I 100% disagree with “IB people doing better in RE because they understand the big picture”. That is probably one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard. People do well because they are smart. But two years of IB and if you move to a developer - you’ll know absolutely zero. Sure you can move numbers around on a page - but you understand nothing about construction risk and going from 0->1 on a business plan. If you move to an LP focused firm - you still know nothing about the bricks.
Whoa there bud. I think you are forgetting the best shop to be at...........JLL.
The best place to start is Principal at Daddy's firm cashing checks from your portfolio
Lol. Sounds like the worst place to start. You’ll have zero life and just be an excel monkey.
JLL is way better
Tons of fresh powder
What does these even mean?
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