MF REPE technical questions

Preparing for an interview at BX/Carlyle. I come from a generalist M&A background and have had a few PE interviews in the past, however I have very little experience with REPE technicals and don't know much apart from the basics. In all honesty, I am lost and not sure where to begin.

In the initial interview rounds, what should I expect in terms of technical questions - is it more similar to classical PE technicals (company-level rather than property/asset) considering the way these firms invest in RE?

Any good guides that you would recommend? Many thanks in advance!

11 Comments
 

Helpful thank you, what about real estate pro-forma? How important is that?

 

No info is missing. If they give you a 10 cap, assume PP is 100, and NOI is 10.

From there, you have 50% LTV (I said they’d give an LTV and a rate on the loan, so let’s assume 50% LTV)

so you know on a $100 PP, the equity you invested is $50. 
 

Now let’s say the rate is 5% which means debt service is $2.5. So $10 (NOI) - $2.50 (debt service) = $7.5 which is cash flow after debt service.

cash on cash would be $7.5 / $50 and you’d have to do the long division on paper (or mentally if you’re that good) to give them the percentage. 

 

I interviewed with bx years ago (fuck I'm old), as mentioned by the other user they focus a lot on mental tests etc (at one point there's a math session with 10/15 gmat-style exercises).

Anyway, just to focus on the basics, make sure you have these things covered

  • NOI breakdown
  • Cash on cash calculation (see other comment)
  • Risk profiles of investments (difference between core/core plus/value add/opportunistic) and their target returns
  • The concept of yield. Let's say shopping centres trade at a 7% yield, what's the logical meaning of this 7%?
  • Quick RE case studies (e.g. you buy an asset with a 500m NOI at 5% yield, you hold it 4 years and you sell it at 4% yield, what's the equity multiple and irr)?
  • Basic understanding of major asset classes and relative trends (look for some reports by the leading brokers such as CBRE/JLL/Cushman/colliers)
 

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