Take a Property Management Role?
Hello,
I am in need of some advice! I am looking to transition from Financial advising in to CRE and am still trying to land my first role. I’ve been hoping to find an analyst role involving underwriting but so far have not had any luck. I know that my goal is to get an MBA in 2-3 years no matter where I land but I would love to have some real estate experience before starting an MBA focused in Real Estate.
I am currently interviewing with a small property management firm to be an assistant property manager and manage industrial commercial properties as well as residential properties. Do you guys think it would be worth it to take that role just to gain some industry experience these next 2-3 years or should I continue to wait for an analytical role on the capital markets side? I think that my end goal is to be on the equity side, but gaining experience in property management is intriguing to me.
Bump
Property management isn't a bad route to go, but I don't think it will help much in actually getting you to the equity side. I think it should, but I haven't seen it in practice.
Couple comments
1) As long as you're prepared to have to get an MBA, I think this route is fine. I think it will be difficult to go from PM into acquisition, dev or AM starting from PM without one, though crazier things have happened
2) I would make sure the PM role is mostly commercial properties (and by that, I guess you can include 200+ unit multifamily projects, but I don't think you'd want to go for something where you're managing duplexes or even 50 unit projects). What you want is to be property managing for projects that are owned by institutions as these will at least give you a look into how they run and will also give you some connections to people in the industry that can help you down the road
By the way, I don't think you necessarily need an MBA. There are some really good 1-year masters programs specialized in CRE that should do the trick (just make sure it's one of the best 1-year programs and not some mid-tier program). Honestly, I don't think MBA helps much in RE unless you're working for a top 50 REPE player and/or are wanting to spend your career in high profile group in NYC, which given your background might be a stretch to make it into anyways (but I wouldn't worry about that - it's CRE, I'd argue most of the best long-term jobs are outside of the top 50 anyways - of course those big players are an amazing stepping stone and can pay really well but they are a grind long term, and some of the best money making stories I've heard are people joining smaller shops and getting a big piece of promote, and most of those smaller shops aren't going to place a ton of value on you having an MBA over a 1-year masters). I'd go for the 1-year masters and spend your free time becoming really good at modeling/Argus (which isn't even that difficult, but we've hired for an associate recently and you'd be surprised how many of them flop a simple modeling test, even the ones with prior experience or an MBA) and try to meet a minimum few people a week in the industry.
If you're targeting capital markets roles, I would keep looking. For the amount of experience those roles require, you should be able to land something for the same or similar effort. Property management isn't a bad place to start but a capital markets role will be better experience that will later setup for a buyside role.
Property management (especially as an assistant property manager) is a job where you're constantly putting out fires, sometimes literally. You're getting bitched at by tenants, you're cleaning up after messes your vendors left behind (this time figuratively, hopefully), and you're not learning how to underwrite or really value real estate.
What you do learn, though, is how to physically operate a building and its contents. That's invaluable, especially if you want to own your own properties. The sad truth is that property management (especially in the assistant PM role) is looked down upon as an un-educated desk job. It's hard to break into the white-collar acquisitions/AM/capital markets side of things from that starting point. But like someone else said, it's not impossible.
If this is your best job offer to get into a field you know you want to be in long-term, take it and work hard to take the leap to the higher-level arena of the equity side. Good luck!
Thank you! I appreciate your response. The entrepreneurial side of me really wants to take the job. I definitely want to own my own properties in the future and who knows, maybe go the route of starting my own PM company instead of trying to make it big on the corporate side.
In my experience (as someone who has worked as an asset manager for a smaller institutional group), some PM jobs have a lot of interaction with the AM's, and you can still pick up on a good amount. Given I work for a smaller, more entrepreneurial group, if I had a young PM that was always showing up strong and had good communication skills that came up to me one day and told me they spent the last 6 months perfecting their real estate modeling at night and they really want to become an analyst, I'd probably put them in front of my bosses for an interview the next time we're hiring. That said, I don't think that's the norm, and the definition of PM can vary wildly depending on product type, deal size, market, etc. I'm talking about PM's on commercial properties in Tier 1/2 markets that are owned by institutional groups, and even then it could be hit or miss depending on the personality type of the AM you're working with
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