REPE vs REIT

Curious - for those working in REPE how they view candidates from outside backgrounds, such as a REIT, developer, owner operator, family office, etc.I started at a prestigious Family Office that managed outside pension capital, made a jump to a REIT, and now it seems I'm having trouble moving back to the private equity side. When interviewing, I keep receiving the feedback that "they are looking for someone with more of a PE background." Am I daft to why they are passing, or is REPE vs REIT at the Director/VP level really that different?

4 Comments
 

I may be wrong here but it sounds like from the feedback you’re getting, the firms you have spoken to may be targeting more of a traditional PE background.
 

Additionally it could be different at the director/VP level but I have received plenty of interest from a few repe acquisitions teams despite working out of a life company’s debt platform for the last 2 years and investment sales analyst experience prior to that. At the end of the day a REIT is just a tax structure, as long as you have worked on relevant deals, I don’t see why a hiring firm would care about type of firm where you’re currently employed. 

 

The thing to keep in mind with working at a REIT is they often underwrite to a different standard than REPE. Given they don't need to return equity to investors in 5-10 years like REPE, they may not undertake as aggressive a business plan as REPE. Likewise they may pay all cash and backfill, so on the acquisitions side, you may not be as exposed to the financing side. I worked at a REIT and our model was far simpler than what we use now. 

 
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