Spin Property Management Internship
I graduated recently from Rutgers University. Sadly did not have enough RE internship experience in College. I got an offer this summer to be a Property Management Intern at Harbor Group Management. I will be "living a day in the life" of the regional manager, property manager, maintenance supervisor, etc. I'm curious how I can spin this internship into more of a role I like. I really want to go into Debt/Equity Placement, Acquisitions, or a more finance-based position. Where can I go from this role? Any tips on how I should spend these next 10 weeks? I do not want to do Property Management at all but this is my best option for now.
timriggins97, bummer your thread hasn't had a response yet. Maybe one of these threads could point you in the right direction:
More suggestions...
You're welcome.
bump
I wouldn't attempt to "spin" in sense of to "misrepresent" or "conflate" as something it is not. It is is experience in understanding multi-family property operations, working at on-site office (I'm guessing). There is nothing bad about that. Just frame as you wanted any job in real estate you could get, and this was it for now, given Covid not so crazy.
While on the internship, try and get into the financials of the property as much as you can: focus on...
- rental rate setting - pricing - revenue mght
- Expense tracking (opex)
- Capital improvement projects
- Competitor research (volunteer to visit/drive/call the competitors)
- Leasing/marketing (understand why people lease/make decisions)
- Performance/financial reporting
I.e. do all the tasks someone working in institutional ownership should understand. If you are really crafty.... get to know the asset manager, maybe you can "flip" to working with them and then legit turn this in to an asset management internship or maybe "dual" internship.
Just go in with right attitude, there is a lot you can learn here that can help you in next role.
Yeah that is my plan to focus as much as I can on the financial aspect. How would I turn it into a “dual internship” per say? I’m pretty sure the asset manager works in NYC and I’ll be working at their on-site property down south. Would I even be in contact with him ?
Well, to be honest, this is totally a matter of luck and you own ingenuity. Once you are settled in the internship, you should ask the property manager to connect you to the asset manager. If they are going to make a visit to the property, try and get lunch/breakfast with them. The real answer is simple, you ask! If you can get assignments from the AM (even if they just relate to your property) then you get to see some of their world. The "dual" idea is that you legit get to work on tasks for both functions, asset mngt and property mngt (note, do not attempt to over conflate this on a resume, just be honest about the nature of your duties whatever they are).
You could get totally ignored, or just get a meeting or call or two, or in a wild scenario get invited up to HQ for sometime (low probability, but not impossible). Interns have wide boundaries, so just stretch yours as best you can!
Honestly, just make the most out of it. Learn as much as you can, network and use whatever you can to your advantage. Spend your free time learning/honing your excel modeling skills.
I switched into my schools RE major late and had no experience after graduating. I used a marketing internship to get my foot in the door at a very small PE shop, then used that to move to a large RE services/appraisal management company (largely through my experience doing market research and also learning modeling on the side - this is HUGE) and I used that exposure to huge RE portfolio valuations to land an acquisitions role at a prominent PERE firm.
Spend your time wisely and learn as much as you can.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. After 5pm I’m free from duties so my plan was to take some financial modeling classes and learn as much as I can to hopefully land a corporate type gig after the internship ends. Just have to see the networking part goes as I think it’s a fairly small team and I’ll be mostly interacting with leasing specialists, maintenance supervisor and of course the Property Manager.
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