Name your job/firm type, income, and do you genuinely love what you do?
I’m still in school and am looking to break in when I graduate. I have an interest in real estate after conducting bunch of info interview and feel this is the path I’d like to take. Would love to hear y’all anecdotes.
Bump
Agency lending at a bank. $110,000. WLB is decent. It pays the bills.
I wouldn't say that I love my product but it is interesting. I do like that the job allows me to have time to do the things that I love to do outside of work.
Is that $110K all in or is there a bonus too?
I switched Careers in my mid 30s and got out of consulting/UW. Learning on a trial run in the investment side of a mid lender. Pay is 110k Plus a bonus of 15-20% and PS of 10%. Once people make it a certain amount of time their pay jumps up big time, aka once the board trusts you.
Family office focused on CRE, just switched from PERE a few months back. 50-60 hours a week with 2 days a week WFH. $80k base w/ 0-30% bonus (dependent mostly on individual success, but firm success matters some too). No job is perfect, but I'd give this an 8/10. Really happy here and plan to stay for a while.
Do you mind touching upon your PERE experience and why you decided to lateral to your current firm? Would you have been content staying at the former?
So a bit of a unique situation. Was in a small town in REPE (100k population) in a subset of office. I loved the work there. 40-50 hour weeks and a great culture. I only left because I didn't want to be stuck in that town my whole life (personal and professional reasons). Was there 1.5 years.
I switched to a new firm in the same subset of office in a tier 2 city. Left in just under a year. It was a super small firm and tbh I didn't like it much. Not a horrible experience, just super boring and the partners (just a 3-person REPE shop) were very old-fashioned. Pay increase from first firm was mostly COL adjustment.
Current firm is family office, but actually feels more like REPE than the second firm I was at. Much more deal volume, much better culture, and more challenging work. I'm technically still real estate, but have the freedom to look at whatever asset class I can convince managers is interesting. Small pay bump from previous firm, but more potential to increase pay in short to medium term.
Can't necessarily recommend moving this quickly this many times, but I'm happy where I'm at now and plan to stay for a while.
Development for a family office, about to jump ship to a national developer. I mostly do multifamily, but current firm (and next firm) will do opportunistic sites outside of strictly MF/mixed use. Current salary is about $175k all in, next firm will be about $210k (this is post-MBA, mind you).
I absolutely love what I do, I came from construction and realized I wanted to be more on the ownership side because I hated being the one to take orders (as a GC you pretty much do what the architect/developer tell you) and wanted to be the one making decisions. Overall though, I realized I love project management, I can work Excel and understand the ins and outs of a spreadsheet, but that isn't what gets me going. Going over design plans, schedules, budgets, making adjustments, solving real world problems (not coding a formula in Excel, though that can offer its own pleasure), working with architects on tweaking plans, etc. is what I find most interesting, and what I personally think my skills are best suited for.
Happy to discuss development more if you're interested.
Out of curiosity - how many years of dev experience & also prior experience do you have? Would imagine at least 3-4 given the great comp package.
~3 years construction pre-MBA, 1.5 years development post MBA. I'm making this move a little quicker than I anticipated, I ideally would have liked to stay a few more years in this role, but it's a great opportunity and, more importantly, gets me to the city I want to be long term to be closer to friends and family.
Where’d you get your MBA from? Was it difficult to go no finance role -> MBA -> dev?
T15 school, PM if you really want details. As far as difficulty, there were certainly challenges. The actual finance part wasn't very difficult from a educational perspective, but I had some other issues in the transition. One of the bigger ones was honestly insecurity, I was only 24 when I started school and was surrounded by people with far more experience and real estate knowledge which was very intimidating, and made me feel underqualified to even be in the same program with them. It took some time to get over my personal hang-ups but after that I had to convince everyone else I was able to handle the work, which wasn't as successful. I wasn't able to secure an internship in development, I got a lot of interviews but they all said I didn't have enough finance experience, and settled on real estate consulting. Like I said in a previous post here, I got very lucky my current company extended an offer, they were definitely taking a leap of faith. Now that I have actual experience in development I didn't find any difficulty getting the next role, as I've already proved myself, but that initial jump definitely wasn't easy, per-se.
Wish I used you guys as a GC. My GCs seem to do pretty much whatever the fuck they want.
Hahaha, yeah I get that. I worked for a pretty reputable GC and we were very client driven, about 90% of our work was negotiated with repeat customers, so there was a heavy emphasis on customer service. As far as making decisions, my boss would pretend he was color blind in case anyone asked him his opinion on something, he was steadfast in the belief that the GC is just there to execute the owners/architects desires, not to offer their own opinions.
OMG, this is perhaps the funniest and most accurate thing I've seen on WSO in awhile LOL
Hey, do you mind if I PM you with some questions? I’m a former architect (MArch not MBA) who has been working on the finance side as a project manager in the public sector. Will probably start looking to move to a private developer towards the end of this year and just want to know how to best prepare.
For sure, would love to discuss.
Mind if I PM you? I used to work for a GC and just started as a PM at an Owners Rep firm. Someday I would like to end up at a developer.
PMs always open.
Jon Gray. Blackstone. $323M ($157M from compensation & $166M from dividends). Yes I do.
Got a job as a Development analyst at a family office out of college. We do multifamily/mixed use strictly in one gateway market. Been here for 2 years full time after interning for a summer in college.
I am currently seeking another role. Love development. The projects they work on are super interesting (class A multifamily and large affordable housing portfolio). Work 45 hours a week, sometimes less. However, the culture sucks. Very traditional, many people are jerks, culture of fear, very unorganized management. Pay is also low for my experience, especially for gateway market- I just got a raise and I'm at $75k base plus nominal bonus.
Don't regret taking the role at all though. Learned a lot. My advice to UG's breaking into CRE is don't worry about trying to land the "best" role out of college. Take what you can get, work hard, and gain experience. If you like the company, stay there and continue to grow. If not, use your previous experience to get a better opportunity. Currently doing the latter and am interviewing at other national developers. All the roles I'm looking at are minimum $100k base salary plus 15-20% bonus, 40-50 hours/week, seemingly good culture etc. Just get your feet wet and figure it out as you go.
What roles are you looking for?
Senior Development Analyst type roles. Looking for similar hours as before, but better benefits, pay, and culture. Heavier focus earlier stages of the development process (acquisitions and entitlement) than later stages (asset management). Also looking for a company that develops nationally in addition to my current market. (NOTE- not saying that asset management and local only groups are less prestigious/desirable to work for, not true at all. This is just personal preference.)
One takeaway from the various comp threads on WSO- you shouldn't have to consistently work crazy hours to get paid decently well in CRE. Plenty of posters with anywhere from entry level to senior mention getting at or above market comp working 40-50 hours/week. So at market comp for roles I'm looking at ($95k-$110k base + 15-20% bonus), I'm only taking if there's good WLB. Now is a good time to get a job so candidates have some negotiating power as well.
REPE focused on opportunistic / special situations investments. c. $200K (Europe so not directly comparable to US income quoted here). Tired of constantly jumping from transaction to transaction assessing business plans created by others and having a high level / limited understanding of our portfolio investments. Want to go back to development, preferably cradle to grave.
Development Manager at a small (
$1B opportunistic fund in a tier 1 city (not SF/NYC). Target all-in comp is $200k. Average about 50-55 hours and have 2 days WFH per week. Absolutely love my seat and learn something new every day. I started off at a big name firm and made the switch to a smaller shop (albeit large fund) and have been given an immense more amount of runway and responsibility which I believe has translated to my development and growth. My advice would be to not get hung up on prestige - you can learn and make money in real estate in a number of ways.
Senior acq associate in west coast with target all-in comp of ~$200k. Average about 45-55 hours/week and pretty happy with current place. A little nervous given where markets are right now, but nothing to do but wait it out and hope for the best.
High level, I enjoy the deal work. I like learning about deal structures, watching my managers think through things, working on DD, and managing the relationships. I'm not particularly passionate about buildings; real estate just happened to be the field that I fell into, and it makes sense for me. Had I found a different industry, I would have tried to end up at a PE/VC.
I have a bit of an unorthodox path with some experience in real estate. Worked in a CRE brokerage in college (intern) then Greystar ($50k + bonus) fresh out of school.
Right now, I'm a tech sales guy earning about $180k ($90k base, $90k commission + higher if I exceed target) + own about $2m worth of real estate. We have a 2% AUM fee and take 20% of cash flow - I split with my partner 50/50.
Current FCF between all my props is about $60k, so my share is about $6k/year from just cash flow. Not super amazing right now, but it's 37 units and I've got a small ownership percentage of all the deals. Will go up with scale.
So you went from CRE to tech? And your current career in CRE is as an investor?
Yeah, tech is just way too lucrative not to and I understand CRE. CRE is more of my hobby and I use cost seg/bonus depreciation studies to offset my W2 income.
Started career in CRE but also dabbled in tech internships in college. Had an ad agency + digital publishing biz at one point too.
Very unorthodox background.
Hey interesting background! Can I DM you and ask some Qs?
sure i'm an open book
Associate at a small RE investment firm. The only junior member on the acquisitions staff and we just hired a new partner so I know my hours will bump a bit with a new report. I really like my position, but we are a fully remote firm with no office, tough to get an idea on what my pay should be for the hours I put in. Also trying to get a sense of what most peoples roles are as an associate because right now it feels like I do everything by myself and my reports just say yes or no and that's the extent of their work.
I'm the only one that sources, the only one making decks, the only one underwriting deals, the only one walking investors through deals, and I'm running 1 deal, 1 refi, and putting together material for another deal all by myself. Seems like a weird setup considering I don't get carry or any PS, but we are not the norm for RE firms.
Pay is about $130k-$175k depending on deal flow right now which is very hazy to predict. I tend to work 65-75 hours a week.
How small is the shop and how many years of experience do you have?
1 Founders who work part-time, a CIO who is part-time, 1 full-time partner (heavy focus on equity raise), 1 associate (myself) and that's the acquisition/equity raise side. We have we have 4 AM and 1 finance/accounting and will be hiring another AM here shortly. Total of 9 people, but we are only about $1B AUM, it's just that we did $650M last year, and will do another $650M+ this year. We just received $100M in equity to buy hospitality assets which is about $250M in assets that we are looking to deploy.
We just brought on a new deal and a new dispo this past week, so I'm running 2 deals, 1 deal we are looking at putting in our LOI next week, 1 refi, and 1 dispo now. Is that typical, I have no time to continue sourcing so I don't understand how we can keep the pipeline.
I have 2 year banking -> MBA -> 2.5 year RE, my hope is I get the promotion to Sr associate/director or whatever the next title is at the end of the year and we hire an analyst.
Acquisitions at mid-sized REPE firm. $250k-$300k cash comp + long term carry. I do enjoy it, though it can be very stressful at times.
what are your typical hours like? do you have much work/life balance?
Office hours aren't bad (9-6/6:30 most days), but the travel every week is getting to me. I rarely work a weekend, maybe once every 3 months.
how many years of experience do you have?
Development manager at a national developer in a Tier 2 city. ~$175K all-in with 3 yrs dev, 2 yrs finance experience. 60-65hrs/wk+ Not sure if I like the work...get bounced around a lot and most days the work load is overwhelming. Good experience? Probably, but I'd gladly take the 40-50hrs/wk. Career is a marathon and the experience will compound over time.
Ok,
Co-Owner / Global CRE Asset Management & North American-Only private business LBOs, Profits from our business (I get about 1/3 of it) / Yes I do love it.
CRE Divison:
Apartment towers & Industrial assets across Canada, USA, Europe, Middle East
About 1,500 units under ownership
About 500,000SF owned.
LBO Divison:
Logistics, & Packaged Foods businesses.
Only 2 business owned currently.
Very Cool! Did I read it wrong or do you LBO businesses and use the cash they generate to invest in RE? Would love to hear a little more about how you operate.
Glad to answer,
About CRE Division:
Income is sticky, so I enjoy having this division grow. I take the cash from here and look for real assets or private businesses.
If nothing, I just keep it in bonds till I can find a deal.
Up until now I looked to buy Core+ assets so that I would have an income source that's very sticky.
Now, since 2021, I look to buy value-add assets that can become CORE.
LBO Divison:
I look to buy sticky businesses in non cyclical industries with room for growth because the returns are great.
Yes, I do take the cash from this division to buy real estate but only if the deal makes sense. If I find a PE deal, I'll buy that instead.
The major question should be how I even got to this stage.
Basically my father had a food recipe that I thought would be greatly appreciated by the market. At the time I was a CRE Broker and had enough cash to take this recipe and build a business on it. Long story short - after testing customer demand, after meeting food scientists and building the firm. I eventually sold it to a larger packaged foods manufacturer. Took that money and bought US & Canadian assets. Then went after assets in Europe, then Middle East.
I spent a couple years learning Agency lending specific to Senior Housing and HUD lending. Mostly senior housing and multifamily, but a view that encompasses new development, refinances, capital markets, equity, and MBS.
All very interesting and can be fun depending on the day's work. I enjoyed development the most and might return.
I was hired in Fintech to bring some of my experience over, and make $135k + bonus and raise negotiated in for the first year. This wouldn't have been possible without having a background in Senior Housing, but I'm sure relatively similar jobs in the MF space are out there. I could possibly make more elsewhere, but WLB is great and full work from home. I live in a mid- sized city.
I don't have a Master's either. I think having an industry specialty is a way to supplant to some level having a graduate degree. For me that meant grinding through a few years appraisal with senior housing experience, which was an absolute drag, but also essential for where I'm at.
Did you enjoy working in the senior housing space? Is the fintech firm you work for now related to senior housing?
REPE associate 1, comp $250k yr1, 45hrs/wk. Love it got the best culture
How many years experience to get your associate role?
3.5yrs
Director - Multi Fam PE Sponsor MCOL location
Base: 125k
Bonus:50%
400bps carry
Stressful but generally enjoy it.
AM VP at a Mid Size REPE firm. 350k all in. 30ish hours a week, I enjoy it.
Can you breakdown your comp?
Won't get into specifics but its a high base + my yearly "sticky" bonus. No carry.
Market? Sounds like a dream job
CRE Broker - AVP, 100k+, no getting burnt out, want to go to the principal side. looking for other jobs currently.
IMO unless you are making $300k+ (market dependent), not worth the grind of brokerage.
Development Associate on a small regional team of an old, private developer. $85K Base + discretionary bonus + dev fee splits. 2 years prior experience at a REIT then MF REPE. Very happy with my comp package at my level. I am passionate about what I do. The combination of financial analysis, working with all types of people (learning how to negotiate well, I mean cmon so fascinating), project management, design, learning about municipalities, contracts, debt stuff, tracking the market, hiring really smart people to answer questions- I like the breadth of it. My job puts a high value on creativity, which fits my type well. It's corny, but there really is something about seeing a raw piece of land turn into something you and your coworkers talked about in a meeting. I like looking at the upside on a deal opposed to quantifying the downside. Makes it more fun. There's a pretty critical city politics element to it all too which adds like a whole dimension of interesting stuff. Something that attracted me to this space is the quality of knowledge you get from an entrepreneurial standpoint. If you can work towards a niche in product type/market/deal size/whatever, you are building a skillset that can yield the opportunity to become self sustaining and potentially create real wealth (opposed to paper wealth). I'm in a textbook tertiary market, which has its positives and negatives. A positive often overlooked on it is the flexibility to visit buddies in the bigger cities to enjoy that vibe, without the burden of building business in them.
What’s your total comp with all those bonuses added up?
Asset Management Analyst
Retail REIT
100k base
15% target bonus
4 years post-undergrad (2 years of real estate experience)
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