Money vs. Experience

Monkeys,

At the beginning of every year I always think of the classic debate, money vs. experience.

In Real Estate, many of us have gotten in with the dream of owning our own portfolio. However, sometimes the pay in Real Estate is significantly lower than other career paths (IB, PE etc.) and I often wonder what is the best path forward towards having your own portfolio.

Real Estate is something where experience matters significantly, however is also capital intensive to own, so in the ideal world if you could get both experience and money in your current role that would be best (although in reality sometimes you trade one for the other).

Which do you guys think is more important? Is it money to start doing your own deals or is it the experience?

My thought has recently been leaning towards money, as it is easier to tie up deals and you don't need to be as creative to start doing deals. In this day an age, I believe real estate has changed with the amount of information available - going back 30-50 years ago (in my opinion) you could be extremely creative due to the lack of available information. Real Estate players could seek out great opportunities with less capital if they were experienced, which I am not sure is the same case anymore.

Even with a lot of experience in this day and age, you still need some sliver equity as a GP / operator to have investors come alongside you, which can be a significant amount of money (i.e. 20% equity in a $5M deal with 60% LTV is still 300K).


Wanted to get some thoughts as I constantly struggle with this debate. Would love to hear from people's own experience or what they have seen other's do.

Cheers,

Nessy

3 Comments
 

From speaking with people in the industry about entrepreneurship I've always heard opinions that are polar opposites in nature. I either get feedback that says 1) get the knowledge and expertise. The money is out there and isn't the issue 2) money IS the issue. Never really hear a middle ground. What I said doesn't add much value to this discussion, but thought I'd chime in with what I've heard.

Also, question: Isn’t GP equity in a deal more like 5-10%?

 

Et qui eius quam aut. Repellendus et quam dolorum. Vero tempore omnis atque in. Excepturi et qui dolorem et placeat sunt nesciunt eaque. Ea fuga voluptates cupiditate nulla dolorem tempora. Rerum sed quo porro distinctio totam incidunt. Culpa sapiente minima nulla eligendi.

Et voluptates similique et ea saepe excepturi magnam. Ea tempora sapiente qui sunt odio assumenda. Optio ipsam vitae eum dolorum et recusandae quasi.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (65) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
7
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
8
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
9
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”