Q&A: Investment Sales / Brokerage Analyst at a Major Shop
Currently a 3rd year senior investment / finance analyst for a big player in a major market (NY/SF/LA). The team I work for focuses on IS for Retail and Multifamily. Happy to answer any questions for students or people thinking about switching over to this industry. Shoot away!
Thanks for doing this. How are you enjoying it so far? And what's your end game?
Also interested.
I actually enjoy the work I do for my team. This is also because my team are heavy hitters and see around 2-3 deals a week. I'm constantly working on underwriting, comps, escrow and agreement documentation as well as making sure all OMs are perfect.
Even though I was unsure of IS when I first started as an analyst, I've learned a lot about the asset classes I'm in as well as gaining a good understanding of the market I'm working in. My end game is to either stick with my gig and end up as a finance/investment director for the team or move over to acquisitions / development. Both areas interest me but I'm undecided at the moment since I'm happy where I'm at.
how much money do you make
This is my salary progression within the past 3 years.
1st year: 60k base + 30% bonus (All in ~80k)
2nd year: 70k base + 45% bonus (All in ~101k)
3rd year: 80k base + 50% bonus (All in ~120k)
Would you ever move from an analyst to broker on strictly commission?
Long term are you planning to stay in IS?
It depends. I"m happy where I'm at and I'm getting paid pretty well too. I believe I have strong exit opportunities with a few REPE firms. My brokers have a strong list of REPE and development firms that I'm sure they would be more than happy to refer me to if I choose to leave after this year.
Do you plan on advancing to brokerage or moving to something like acquisitions?
Definitely dependent on whether I can stay in the market I'm in. If I can secure a few offers that match up to at least 80-90% of my all in salary, I would definitely consider moving over the acquisitions.
What could be the scenario of IS for multi-family in 2020?
I believe multi-family is still going strong and will continue doing so in 2020. Again, this is really market dependent due to the effects that a recession would have on different major markets. Multi-family saw a huge spike in 2017 / early 2018 and I think we'll start to see a lot of players flip multi-family in 2020.
Are you seeing any notable volume of deals that don't sell in the market, and rather than dropping the price, Sponsors look to refi at the same value that isn't proving out in the market? Further, are they going to a different Debt shop if they can't get the IS side to work out, or staying internal?
How is the recent JUUL ban affecting morale within your pit?
The ban has very much affected morale within our team. We just had 2 analysts and associates quit because they weren't able to hit their JUUL in the morning. It really is devastating to see how vaping has become an essential part of some of our lives.
There's always bennies
Is this another one of those AMAs where the OP just dips?
WSO needs a bot that crawls for "AMA" in the title. If there are no responses from the OP within 48 hrs it pings them.
My apologies. This was actually my post but WSO doesn't publish AMAs until a week or two after it was posted. I posted this AMA around 1-2 weeks ago and didn't realize it finally got published until now. They need to fix the 1 week publication because a lot of people will forget or might not have time to do this anymore.
EDIT (since you've already touched on 2/3 of my original questions)
What was your day to day like when you started vs now?
As an outsider (no RE work experience) that has been considering a career in RE- I get confused at times as how investment sales is different than industrial/MF/office brokering. Is it really as simple as your actually just selling assets in lieu of leases? It also seems like IS makes for an easier transition to acquisitions or development due to doing more modeling and gaining more tangible hard skills as opposed to other brokerage? Forgive if these are dumb questions.
My day to day has definitely changed since I first started. As a first year analyst, I was learning the market and gaining a deep understanding of the asset class I'm focused on (multifamily / retail). Multifamily generally has very simple modeling and you won't find yourself spending more than an hour or two glancing over rent roll and operating statements. Nowadays, I work a whole lot more on the whole deal execution process. I'll help generate BOVs and OMs quickly and accurately. I'll help with the escrow transition process with either the buy or sell side. I think it is extremely important to double check, triple check, and to keep checking over your work to ensure all your financials are accurate as an analyst on IS teams.
Not a dumb question at all! What industry are you working in at the moment? IS is definitely different from office/retail leasing. It really is as simple as selling assets vs office/industrial/retail leasing. In my opinion, IS is maybe a tad bit better than leasing on terms of transitioning to acquisitions or development. If you work for a strong leasing team, you have just as good exit as IS. Some people prefer leasing over IS because you generate residual income over long periods of time while in IS, you get maybe 1 fat paycheck a year if you're starting off as a broker.
Thanks for answering and this AMA in general. I work in the energy industry in TX. I guess a follow up question, now that I think about it, is how is being an IS analyst different than an IS broker/someone else on your team?
Just curious on your input. I’m about to graduate in December 2020 with no prior RE experience. I was planning on getting an internship but the virus has really put a halt on anything that moves. I would like to get into a top brokerage but, I was wondering how difficult this is from your point of view and what favors play into it?
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