Land brokerage

 I'm working as an infill land broker right now, and can see a very direct path to development when that time comes.

I spend 10+ hours a day talking with developers and property owners of all sizes (think Greystar all the way down to a small local townhome developer), learning acquisitions criteria, digging up development sites, gathering DD to get the deals through IC and entitlements, working with cities to determine site feasibility, and basically doing anything required to put development deals together. Working with these groups/people all day everyday putting together deals for infill developments of every type (multi, office, hotel, mixed-use, etc), and having a developer database of 500 development principals and MDs will make the transition very easy comparatively.

Real estate development is far more about networking than formal credentials and preftige. If you have the exclusive on a compelling site that makes financial sense, have the ability to work a project through entitlements, and have the connections to accomplish the financial, architectural, construction, legal issues then you can get a deal done. You may need to partner with a more experienced development manager at first to get financing comfortable, but you can get going that way. Lots of broker/developers get their start this way.

Alternatively, I do have the basic qualifications to land a role at a larger institutional shop (Finance degree, public redevelopment/planning experience, and ability to build the development models/pitch books), but lacked the connections and private development/live deal experience after moving to a new booming city from a blighted and dying area with no private development happening. Now I'm working with these groups on a daily basis helping them find sites and put deals together. No doubt that I would have a much easier time with that transition now than back when I didn't know anyone and didn't have deal experience.

I'm not even at a large institutional brokerage (local boutique that mostly does MM multi-fam IS and some land), but am in daily contact with the preftigious institutional developers that everyone fawns over. The key is to get in a position where you actually get to talk, pitch, and run deals quickly as opposed to spending 3-5 years in a back office putting together models that no one believes or OMs that nobody reads. Real estate is all about networking, and is the only way to get the deals and connections needed to be of real value to principals. The sooner you can do that the sooner you can make the jump. No need for an expensive MSRED or other superfluous credentials. Just hustle and wit