REIT Interview

I have an interview tomorrow with one of the nation's largest REITs. The role will be a Senior Analyst position on the Strategic Initiatives team. I am expecting some technical questions along with the traditional fit questions. I am looking for some advice regarding what to expect on the technical side of the interview!

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I work in the private markets strategy side of a top asset manager, and REITs are a big focus area here. If your role is anything similar to mine, you may be doing more strategy work (business casing, channel expansion, M&A) than deal-team work. Given that assumption:

  • Have your past deals down cold. What worked, what didn't work, why some key decisions were made vs alternatives, your specific contribution. Go in with the expectation that you'll need to recall key numbers from the deals on your resume

  • Have a fairly good understanding of what's going on with REITs at the moment, depending on your REIT's focus areas. For example, if your REIT is big on multi-family, it would be helpful to be able to speak on some ongoing big picture trends in that asset class. This includes the next big growth drivers for the class, since identifying and implementing on that is pretty much the job description of "Strategic Initiatives"

  • The "REIT" you're interviewing for may also be active in other asset classes such as timber/agri, so it would be good to be able to speak towards ongoing trends on that side (returns pressure, consolidation). I would be very surprised if they grilled you on details of this stuff, but being able to have a conversation on this could help you shine through

I'm not entirely sure if all this would be overkill, so feel free to use your judgement here on how deep you wanna dive. Perhaps other posters more knowledgeable than I can provide more/better colour. You're already in the industry so I have ignored RE basics. Good luck!

Move along, nothing to see here.
 

Some of my friends work for Vornado and SL in NYC and I interfaced with REIT leasing guys whne I was a tenant broker in NYC. Really if you are doing leasing for them especially as an analyst you don't really need to know all that shit. Its all about time management. As a building agent you will be bombarded with calls and emails all day, most asking the same questions over and over. The most important thing they will want from you is knowing that you can jugle 3 dozen lease deals and not forget one.

They wont be asking (well they may but they shouldn't) you about market specifics,cap rates, rental rates etc. You should know the structure of a lease, how RET or OpEx is calculated over base years. You may be running DCF to compare deal structures (IE, should the LL pay for the work or give free rent, etc).

One of the most effective skills a leasing guy for a REIT will have is time management and organization. People skills and follow up are next.

 

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