REPE Interview Questions / MF Technicals
Hello, have an upcoming repe / development interview for sophomore summer, and I'm also looking to prepare for my junior summer repe (sculptor/ares/bx/kkr) interviews in the spring. If anyone is willing to share, what are some unique questions that you've encountered in your real estate interviews?
I've heard that they get significantly harder for your junior summer. I'm familiar with the basics of repe, but any updated or new advice would be greatly appreciated, like would I need to understand data centers? (given AI) taking REITs private?
Thank you
Current senior in college who had a wide variety of real estate interviews, including at BX and KKR.
I would say the most important thing is your why real estate and story. And it means that I don’t think they look for a lot of experience in RE or lots of technicals (caveat to sculptor and KKR who ask extremely hard technicals, realestate interviewing(dot)com saved me for those questions, BX depends on ur interviewer for technicals). Looking at the past, I’ve noticed that usually there’s something else that stood out that proves you are smart, which may be studying engineering or some crazy accomplishments in high school, like winning a national science fair or sports competition. Just something unique that’s not real estate and then you say you are passionate about re. I’ve seen exceptions, but that’s usually when your family is in re or finance.
Once you convince the interviewer you are smart, then it’s just culture fit. Most re groups are more fratty for sure.
Ignore title. Agree with post above, but different firms like to hire different types of people. I do think having a strong grasp of your technicals will help you stand out, especially when it is significantly stronger than your peers. Like everyone knows how to calculate a cap rate or cash on cash yield, but can everyone derive a cap rate from a perpetuity? Does everyone know how to value distressed real estate debt? I think some firms would value that mindset while others don't care.
If your interviewer hits you with a question that no one can answer, but you can, I'm sure that would help.
Makes sense, to take a stab at your questions:
Cap rate as a perpetuity: a perpetuity is valued by a cash flow divided by the discount rate, so in the case of real estate, the cash flow would be NOI and the discount rate would be the cap rate... not sure where to go from here though
Distressed debt: I would look at where the market is trading at? and then make a guess if the market is over or under by projecting cash flows? also not sure how to approach
I'll just give you some more things to think about: for a cap rate, think about a growing perpetuity and for debt, think about what would cause a bond to trade below par as well as what happens during bankruptcy (chapter 11 and chapter 7)
Dude where have you been asked these haha? Genuinely curious
I think a cursory understanding of each asset class, including the trending ones rn would help if brought up in conversation, so for data centers, knowing that the main concern is power and hyperscalers vs colocation.
For REITs, taking private usually is when it is trading at a discount to NAV, would read up on past deals, believe the latest corporate deal was bx airtrunk
Hello OP,
I agree with all of the current comments above,
1) Your "why RE"?
2) Your culture fit/personality
3) Lastly is technical - I can add a bit here for technical.
I just had an interview yesterday with a MD that asked me:
"If we have a unlevered IRR of 10% and a levered 8%, where would you expect the cost of debt to be?"
A cash on cash question (i made it more difficult than how it was asked from me below for practice purpose):
Where would you expect the property levered COC to be?
Property purchased at: $1,000,000. The Loan to value on the property is current 60%. The limited partner's has 90% of equity.
The property was purchased at a 6% cap rate with a interest only loan of 5%.
how do you calculate the cost of debt one?
"If we have a unlevered IRR of 10% and a levered 8%, where would you expect the cost of debt to be?"
- since the levered is less than the unlevered, the cost of debt is greater than 10% (depends on what the LTV is). I believe if the LTV is 50%, the cost of debt would be 12%?
Where would you expect the property levered COC to be?
Property purchased at: $1,000,000. The Loan to value on the property is current 60%. The limited partner's has 90% of equity.
The property was purchased at a 6% cap rate with a interest only loan of 5%.
- NOI is 60k, Equity put in is 400k (LP has 360k, GP has 40k)
- Interest amount is 30k
- NOI to equity is 30k on 400k, so cash on cash of 7.5%, if LP and GP are receiving pari passu, then 7.5% would be the levered cash on cash.
1) I agree with all points and answers.
2) Curious, how did you get this LTV part?
How can you guess the LTV % based on the unlevered 10% moving to a levered 8%?
I've interviewed for several REPE shops, including Sculptor and BX, for either internship or full-time roles.
Sculptor in particular asked a lot of math-based questions (calculate equity multiple given xyz, etc.) and some standard "why would building A's value differ from building B if they're both the same" type of questions. They also work on some very niche asset classes compared to other large REPE shops, so in my experience they don't tend to ask specific technicals about one asset class unless you have experience with it. BX asked some questions about how I viewed the market and thoughts on some of the well-known asset classes in addition to the traditional technicals.
The only unexpected question I got asked was for a credit interview which asked about legal stipulations that could help limit default risk.
bump
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