JD/MBA for Real Estate Development
What the title says. For someone who wants to go into RE dev does having the dual degree make sense or is it better to pursue one or the other?
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Definitely overkill. Having a JD in real estate development is one of those odd things where it unquestionably helps, similar to a background in architecture, but there's absolutely no reason to seek it out intentionally unless your path originally took you in that direction - i.e. you thought your entire life that you wanted to be a lawyer, you became a lawyer, and then you realized being a lawyer sucks.
I'd even go as far as to say a MBA is also overkill, but it's increasingly being desired by top shops due to an increase in corporatization of the industry. If you're deciding between the two, you want to go the MBA route.
Agree with CRE, neither is needed. JD could help but only if you work as a zoning attorney first and gain experience entitling land before doing it as a developer yourself, but you are talking about working as a zoning attorney for a couple of years. The real benefit of this path would be your knowledge on recognizing land that has entitlement potential. For example, if you find a property that has been overlooked as a "by right" development only, but because of your knowledge of the zoning code and entitlement process you actually think there is entitlement potential, then that is how you could gain an advantage, but this is probably very edge case. Ultimately, you can just hire a zoning attorney who has the right connections and have them on retainer if you want to ask them the entitlement potential on a potential acquisition.
As for an MBA, MBA's are useless in basically every industry from a knowledge standpoint since you don't actually learn anything. MBA's are for 1.) taking a break from work 2.) network 3.) Pivoting industries/careers 4.) Brand name/signaling. In the finance vertical, they are arguably the most useless in real estate, especially development since most real estate firms don't care much for brand name.
Knowing a lot about land use law is helpful in development, but getting a JD is an extremely expensive and inefficient way to go about acquiring that knowledge. Just reach out to land use attorneys and talk to them, read books, read actual zoning bylaws, read case law...even take couple of actual classes without actually enrolling in a degree program. You could do all of those things without forgoing income for three years and accumulating student loans.
Okay so is it better to go for MSRED as your way into the industry?
That is one path. MBA is also another path. But it's hard to say what is best for you without knowing anything about your background. You may need neither. If you're a student in college, I would advise trying for jobs/internships in development, IS/capital markets, AM, acquisitions and then lateraling into development if you don't go straight there. If you're already in one of those jobs I listed (not development obviously), then you should be able to lateral straight into development. If you're in a finance related role but not real estate, then yes an MBA or MSRE would definitely help as that is what I did. It also depends on what caliber development firm you're shooting for. If you are trying to get into a top firm like Hines, tishman, related, etc...then you might need a top MBA as those firms place higher value in brand name schools, but if you're trying to work for a local developer that is not known nationally but is known within the state or region, then a top MBA is not needed.
It's interesting that there are a lot more threads like this one, where the OPs are wondering whether they can justify getting extra degrees, than there are threads about how to access certain careers without going back to school.
My sense is that a lot of people want to rationalize spending more time in school, either because they want the prestige of the extra degrees or because they like being in school more than they like working.
It's because people are uncomfortable with uncertainty and yearn for a set path. The entire industry is moving this way as development companies shift toward an Analyst -> Associate -> VP -> Director -> Managing Director path like they're a bank and siloing people so that "developers" only work on site selection and entitlements but not construction or lease up. Getting one more certification, or one more degree, or learning one more excel shortcut, or moving from Associate II to Associate III keeps people comfortable and safe and stable in a career path that is inherently uncomfortable and risky and unknown.
Okay so if someone is trying to make in the industry should they still go the set path or start on their own, which is very risky, and eventually scale bigger and better projects?
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