Time Frame for College/Career Suggestions
Hey, I just graduated high school and I am attending UF in the fall of 2022 (so this year), and I have had some on my mind for a little bit back-and-forth in my head.
So, first off, I am just absolutely fascinated by real estate, and wish to get into the real estate game of being a landlord and having rentals for passive income. However, because of that, I've had some people tell me in the past that I should consider Real Estate Private Equity. I think it would be cool to do that, but don't know if it's realistic at all, so I'm not tripping if I don't. If not that, I don't mind going for regular investment banking, even if it's a smaller regional role. But I do plan to save up money and try to house hack with FHA loans if possible and expand a portfolio over time and hoping I pass my real estate exams to get licensed before the end of the year. So take that tad bit of information on me as you wish.
Now, I want talk about what I should do during my college time because I will be finishing up my AA from a local community college this summer, therefore having the AA and most junky prerequisites completed before I move to Gainesville in the fall, meaning I would have done 60/120 credit hours (even though I know they may not accept all of them). I do plan to major in finance, and hopefully get a decent-paying job from that, but I do not know whether I should go with finishing up 2 more years or spread out my classes across 4 years.
Some of my thoughts of that comparison are: If I complete my college in 2 years, that means that I'll officially be done with school and will have time to work and do real estate and not worry about school work, maybe be ahead by 2 years in investment banking, and get more real-world experience. But I don't know how that goes with investment banking recruiting, and am worried it'll hurt me. But if I complete my college over the span of 4 years, I'll still stay in-line with the investment banking recruiting timeline and stuff I think, and maybe be able to get more relevant experience if I have more time between my classes.
I really don't know what route to take and why I should take that. So I want to ask you all, what would you do if you were in my spot? I greatly appreciate all the help and look forward to all the comments and responses!
Talk to people. Get great grades. Be personable. Work hard. The rest will come
I will surely try my best. But I just don't know where to direct myself towards with it. Like I don't want to meet people, work hard, build connections, get good grades, but still be a headless chicken, if that makes any sense. Kind of what I want to focus on now is whether or not it'd be better for me to take the 2-year or 4-year route in college.
I was in a very similar situation to you when I was a freshmen. I really couldn’t decide between banking and real estate so I decided to get on calls with people from both industries, read this forum, and just did as much research as I could. Decided on real estate in the end after doing an internship and realizing how much I enjoyed it versus banking and at that point I knew what I wanted to do.
So if I were you, I’d network as much as I can and maybe try to get an internship in real estate. Investment sales is pretty easy to get an internship in, it doesn’t even have to be the big firms, a strong local firm will do fine. I did an unpaid internship at a local boutique during the height of covid and it really helped me out. Get on calls, send your resume out and you can probably land something.
REPE is also not out of the picture, you don’t have to land role right of college, plenty of people lateral from other areas of the industry.
I'm definitely leaning towards the real estate part of things, so I'll try to go for that. However, I don't know what kind of internship I am able to get, considering I've never had a job before sadly. Would local firms in Gainesville hire someone who's had zero job experience? And how are the work conditions in that real estate "banking" field compared to regular banking? And also, what would you recommend between a 2-year or 4-year route? I don't mean to bombard you with questions, but I just want to learn the most I can. Thank you!
Network. I don’t think anyone will expect you to have much experience. So reach out to people at firms in your area (alumni or not), introduce yourself and ask to get on a call, meet for a coffee or whatever. At the very least you can get an unpaid internship through this and then go from there. Work conditions depend on team and firm you work for. I assume real estate investment banking would have similar hours to investment banking in general but you can work long hours in brokerage too. As for 2 vs 4 year college I don’t know what you should do there. Perhaps someone else can offer advice on that front.
First off, the Gators suck!!!!!!
Second, UF actually has one of the strongest, most-established RE programs in the southeast, so you should def take some RE classes and maybe see if you can add as major/minor (this will still be a helpful add on for i-banking or general finance or whatever). Regardless, use the UF network as soon as you get there. Meet people, intern, etc. As others have said, learn as much about real estate as you can before you 'commit'.
From a job perspective, I'd attempt to get a summer analyst gig at some top RE or banking firm, those are competitive and beyond me to know how you will rank. UF will be "target" for many SE shops, but far from it for the NYC/Chicago/LA shops, so regional focus is probably smart (that said, I'm sure some UF people get NYC gigs each year). From there.... just play it as it goes, there is no perfect path, people shift and change. If you want to do i-banking and land a legit gig out of UG, might as well take it, getting to real estate later won't be hard. If you get a legit RE gig and want to take it.... great, I doubt you will have regrets in all reality.
So I'm definitely considering getting a real estate minor in along with my finance major, so I hope that can help in my resume. And I've pretty much already decided I want to involve real estate in my life as a career, but just wasn't sure if I wanted to take the standard "renting out homes, flipping, house hacking, etc." or take a more professional route with the banking side of things. I'll still shoot for both as I can, but I want to have a focus on real estate no matter what. But (don't want to make myself sound like a wimp) I'm worried that my physical health is going to turn to shit because I'm probably gonna be in front of a computer or something all day. I love fitness and wellness, but I do wonder how a job like banking will affect me. Also, I don't mind something regional either, so I was wondering about Miami possibly as a destination and might lateral my way in the future. Any thoughts?
So, one of the fun things about CRE is that there are many many career paths that will allow (or require...) all sorts of "away from desk time"... and this is true regardless of being "institutional" or "mom/pop" scale tbh. So, framing this as "home flipper" vs. "banker" is super reductionist.... the more you learn/see about the CRE industry (if it really is what interests you), you will probably see many paths/career options where you won't feel this risk.... A few to consider look at...
- Broker (gotta go meet with clients, see/show properties, network/prospect)
- Development (clearly spending time on project sites, driving for sites/acquisitions, etc.)
- Appraisal (gotta do site visits, meet with clients, etc.)
- Property Mngt (gotta be on site often)
- Site selection/corp. real estate (out and about, on site, etc.)
Clearly all those also have "desk time" and your time spent as "analyst" (not all go that route by necessity tbh) could be more desk time allocated. Even roles in investment management will get you out of the office (acq. more than AM, but they all go see what they work on). Real estate is a physical asset, so seeing it, touring markets, etc. is part of most jobs at some point.
Stay in college as long as you can!!! F the real world.
You really think I should? I would love to experience college life for longer, but at the same time, I see a benefit to be thrown into the real world to have more time to financially support my family and life's endeavors. Still as stuck as I was before lmao.
Fellow Gator here. To set yourself up for success I’d pursue MSRE there. They essentially guarantee you a job. Most IB people at UF come from MSF and I think you’ve prob missed your boat on that program due to some prerequisite requirements (at least at UF). I’d focus on networking and getting experience this summer so you can get a better internship next summer that will lead to full time offer. Feel free to DM as well 🐊
Hey man, great to connect with a fellow Gator. So my orientation is in mid-July, so that's where I believe I will be confirming my major and such. But as for the MSRE, what do I do to go for that? And I did actually sign up for getting into MSF, but I've decided I'd like a more real estate-oriented career. But yeah man, I just have so many questions since I'm a freshman going into a whole new place. But I really appreciate your help man, and I'll DM you for sure.
I wasn’t in the program but you’d need a GMAT score and 3.3 or above for GPA. Internship experience helps too. Attend some of the info sessions as well. Exit opps are broad. I know people who’ve done brokerage, PE, or IB from the program because of strong technical skillset. For IB or consulting MSF is best but the lady in charge plays favorites so if you’re on her good side it makes things easier from what I understand.
LinkedIn and just start networking with everyone crazy. Search up list of REPE firms (look up Pere 100) and go research those firms, watch videos, etc… Then go on LinkedIn and find a bunch of people to connect to and write a note about how you would like to learn more about what they do. I wish I narrowed down what I wanted to do as much as you have that early. Good luck
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