Is this a waste of time internship?
Im trying to break into REIT industry, as a Junior I already have under my belt an RE developer internship and a RE management internship, however theres a company that acts as a broker but sort of advises clients RE: property acquisition and does Commercial Real Estate research. Is that good experience even though its essentially a brokerage house?
Thanks for the insight as always
What makes you think it would be a waste? REITs use brokers to buy and sell properties too. Relationships are a big deal in RE and there is no better way to learn how to make them and to build some in a low stakes internship environment.
In my view, the best RE people are well rounded, they know a little bit about everything - brokerage, acquisitions/origination, Asset Management, property management, appraisal, development, etc. RE is like a big puzzle, the more pieces you know, the easier it is to solve problems.
WOW awesome response thank you! I thought it was a waste of time because it was a brokerage company and I thought they didn't do much analysis.
The analysis piece is important, but honestly the industry is based on relationships. Most sort of take the analysis piece as a given. In other words, the hard part is meeting and getting to know the right people, not staring at spreadsheets, but you still need to be able to do the analysis. At a brokerage, relationships are really all they do. Like @mrcheese321 said, the best RE people are well rounded so it doesn't hurt to have that experience.
Thank you^ I see what you guys are talking about know and I agree. Appreciate the comments
If you were choosing between a REIT internship and a brokerage internship, I would probably have a slightly different answer. In that case, I would say if you want something specific and you have the opportunity to do it, then you should do it. Especially while you are young and (hopefully) have a little bit less responsibility/more flexibility in your life to test/try things out.
That is the main reason I didn't take offers in banking when I graduated from school and instead went RE appraisal. Being young with no responsibility beyond myself meant I could forego a steady banking paycheck for a fee based job in my chosen industry. I knew if I didn't do it then, I would probably be a banker forever, especially as my life got more complicated with family/stuff.
If this is an internship for during the school year (or you can turn it into one), then I would take it. However, if you were looking for next summer already, nobody would fault you for waiting a little longer to make a decision.
You chose appraisals over an actual REIB offer? Perfect answer to the "why real estate" question
Neither offer was in RE - one was in a Commercial Banking group and the other was for M&A. I would of made a lot more $ in either group for a least a few years (I graduated in fall 2006, so I'm not sure what would have happened to me during the crash), but I certainly don't regret the decision.
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