Real Estate Credit Analyst Program KeyBank, thoughts??
Hey guys, I am a May 2025 grad and landed an offer at rotational Real Estate program working with Community Development Lending, Agency Loan Servicing, Credit Risk. The role entails financial modeling, corporate finance, cash flow analysis, credit/risk analysis, risk ratings, etc. I will get experience in different asset which is great (Multifamily, office, industrial, etc) But I wanted to ask the community: is this a good starting role as someone looking to get into the investment side of real estate (REPE like acquisitions / asset management)? I always enjoyed thinking like an investor but I am concerned this opportunity might not be the ideal first step as it is focused on credit/lending/banking. What do you guys think? Will shops still see this experience very valuable? Thank you and I appreciate everyone’s opinions!!
Yes great place to start and well done landing an offer in RE given the environment. Keybank is pretty well known in the real estate industry. You're almost fresh out of college, any real estate finance role that puts you in front of excel is a great place to start. You won't be headed to Blackstone from here, but certainly many developers, small/mid-size REPE, RE lending/credit firms will value your experience and the brand name of Keybank. I would have killed for this role fresh out of college. I also believe Keybank has an RE IB arm? Perhaps you could lateral there after.
Thank you for your comment! CRE recruiting was difficult and glad to hear this. I also always been interested in REIB as well but being I had a REPE internship I thought that route would make more sense after this program experience.
Even though I am not happy with KeyBank right now I think it’s a good place to start given the state of economy and that it’s a big regional bank. Just make sure you are able to get underwriting or debt AM reps for balance sheeting deals.
Sounds great thank you for your comment! Anyone familiar with Truist CRE Credit Delivery program, how does Truist in CRE compare to Keybank?
Key isn't a bad spot to go straight out of school. Decent name and you'll get exposure. As a general rule, they underpay their people across the board which has resulted in a lot of turnover across the CRE vertical over the past few years. Which office would you be working for CDL out of? It's a good group that Key has put a lot of capital behind over the last 5-10 years and has fairly consistent performance given the role the group plays in the bank's CRA needs. Don't worry about it at the analyst stages, but affordable can lock you into a niche given it's a different way of looking at deals since it's based on tax credit equity for developers/investors and CRA need for banks, so the traditional incentives don't always apply. For the other two groups, I'm assuming your agency loan servicing role would be with their LSAM group out of KC? Credit risk is a non-value add role in the three of these and would do everything you can to make sure you don't get placed there. Would be hard to pivot to a front office lending role from there.
This was very valuable. Thank you so much. What do you think of Truist in the CRE space vs. Keybank? Specifically the Truist CRE Credit Delivery program.
I’m not as familiar with Truist’s overall CRE platform, but their Grandbridge unit was basically killed off after the Suntrust/BB&T merger. They had a decent construction arm I believe at one point but I’m not sure how it has fared as of late given where rates have been. As far as credit delivery there goes it’s basically a middle office role the way Truist is structured. Deals are already signed up post term sheet by the originations team and the credit delivery team’s job is to underwrite and close. They have a third team that handles portfolio management of balance sheet positions. Comp in the latter two groups is substantially below their originations teams. If you have a better offer would avoid credit delivery given it’s not a track into a client facing role.
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