Mid Sized REPE firm for first job in RE
Curious thoughts on this entry point. If you get a role at one of these firms maybe 1-10 bil AUM, is that a great spot to start because you get hands on deal experience/ high responsibility both with acquisitions and asset management? Or is a platform of this size a bit too small to get meaningful reps and challenging to transition to a larger platform later? Obviously MF would be quite the step up, but large owner/operator or PERE 100 firm after a few years is what I'm trying to see is realistic. I would be interested to hear about other potential exit ops or better roles/firms to start at.
Nope. Well known rule that your firm AUM has to be more than $10B for it to be REPE (or $50B+ to be PERE) and for your reps to count or to learn anything. You don’t even make money, you just get gruel, housing and an Argus license in exchange for your time. Exit opportunities are limited to the permanent underclass. Sorry.
$10 billion and below is residential real estate. Acquisitions and asset management deal experience won’t apply. Not worth applying- leave it for others.
definitely not worth it. Might as well be unemployed. Probably worse than unemployment because it’s a permanent mark on resume. signals to companies that you are utterly incapable of thinking at higher levels. It’s like showing up to an interview in a clown costume
Hopefully it’s closer to $10Bn than anything sub $3Bn. I’m not sure small shops have resources or reps to learn how to do things right. I started at large institutional and joined a $1-1.5Bn AUM GP and am glad I started at institutional level. My first job was a very sweaty but I was able to get a ton of reps across all asset classes and geographies so i learned what i liked. Will say smaller shop gets me a lot more in the deal but is also a ton of responsibilities because there aren’t really partner groups. For example, I didn’t really touch third party reports prior to smaller GP because we had a team that would do that.
If you have no other options, definitely take the job.
Got a ton of 'reps' but didn't even pick up the third parties? Lmao.
Reps + Models and Memo's. The bigger the shop, the more silo'd your responsibilities are.
What were you doing if you didn't touch third parties?
Allocating capital.
Talk to these mega-fund folks and they've 'done' tens of billion of deals, but never battled over a closing statement or a lease or loan docs. There was always a separate team or third party consultant or attorney or their co-GP to do what most people would call the actual work in real estate. But they are the gatekeeper to massive funds to make the deals work so I'm not discounting their roles at all; their roles are just different.
I’m currently working at a smaller shop in that $1B-$10B range as my first job out of undergrad. Had two summers of larger institutional experience (PERE 50) so I feel like maybe I’ll be able to speak a little more in this.
I turned down a return offer to the larger shop because I really wanted to be somewhere where the limiting factor in my learning was me (maybe a bit arrogant) and not a training program or a what people thought an analyst “should” be doing.
Don’t get me wrong, having friends in the industry at larger shops I really do get the appeal, and I honestly think most people should take that job at a name brand. Structured training, fellow analysts, deals flowing to you, established exit opps, all of it is a fantastic pitch to go that route.
Having chosen to take the unorthodox route (and honestly being pretty lucky that the guys I work with are brilliant), I don’t regret my choice at all. On any given day I could be underwriting virtually any type of deal across the U.S., both debt and equity. I’m sitting in on capital raises, meeting with investors, talking directly with bankers/brokers, and I’m given a ton of rope when it comes to speaking my mind and suggesting different things to implement.
Ultimately it’s what you make of it. I knew what I wanted to do when I got into college, if you’re still figuring things out larger institutional is better for you most likely. Also just work on being good at your job and the opportunities will come, stop worrying about exits before you even step foot in an office.
Curious to hear more, just PM'd you
Make sure the firm will give you reps and ideally growing. lots of zombie firms now
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