Trending Content - Real Estate Forum
Career Resources
WSO Free Modeling Series - Now Open Through
September 30, 2026
9 Free Financial Modeling Lessons
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
+Bonus: Get 27 financial modeling templates in swipe file
+Bonus: Get 27 financial modeling templates in swipe file
High Finance Applications
Guaranteed
Get at least one offer GUARANTEED
- 1:1 support
- 92% success rate
- 2,000+ mentor network
- Unlimited Live bootcamps
- AI for resume + LinkedIn
- Networking automation tools
- HireVue simulation tool
- Full course library
- Private Slack community
- 20hrs of mocks
- + much more...
As someone who did this, the number one piece of advice I can give you is to change your entire mentality / approach to deals. What I mean by that is as a broker your only incentive is to close as many deals as possible as quickly as possible. On the buyside, you will do way less deals and you will go WAY deeper into the analysis of each one because its your job to do so. As a broker you are a mile wide and an inch deep - now you need to be an inch wide and a mile deep into each deal. Consider every little detail important - you will be doing so many things you never touched or thought of as a broker cuz it wasn't relevant to you. You are now a steward of capital so you gotta act like it - ask a million questions when you start about what matters, what your CIO cares about diligencing and paying attention to on each deal - this is how you build out your evaluation process for your strategy. Then implement it relentlessly until it becomes second nature.
This is great advice, thank you!
Congrats on the move - very tough to get an acq job right now! I made a very similar switch about 2 years ago. What asset class are you buying?
Thank you I appreciate it! I’ll be in retail
One tip I have is definitely try to spell it Acquisitions. Usually helps
Hahah great catch, moving too quick
People (brokers, sellers) will say things in passing that could influence the assumptions you make. You can’t take them at their word. For example, If someone tells you they are trading LOIs on a vacant suite at $x, you ask for the redlines.
Asking for redlines would be helpful but feels cumbersome as the LOI should outline those important terms that will impact you as the Buyer. What really separates acquisitions from brokerage, especially in retail, is the narrative and conviction you are required to build around various moving pieces of a deal. For market rents, large brokerage firms often have leasing arms, where they can source data to get a pulse on market comps which they will use to generate their assumptions. For multi-tenant retail deals you will see generalized MLAs which applies a single market rent to multiple tenant suites. However, on the acquisitions side, often every suite gets its own MLA with various market rents based on a number of factors like positioning, frontage, suite size, targeted uses, traffic counts, and much more. All these can be factored into decisions for market rents within your model and likely overlooked by brokers. This is the attention to detail supported by research and evidence from an acquisitions lens which is much different from brokerage. Also brokerage firms aren’t in a position of risk like acquisition individuals are and are focused on volume to get paid, regardless if the deal is good or bad.
Ea ut maiores dolorum magni et impedit perspiciatis. Repudiandae aliquid et velit pariatur ipsum et quisquam tenetur. Accusamus explicabo commodi ut voluptatem hic architecto. Pariatur molestiae quidem et molestias ad. In nulla nesciunt voluptates sint sit enim molestias. Molestiae suscipit fugit animi voluptatem deserunt. Molestiae repellat odit qui accusamus.
Aperiam sint sunt repellat aut voluptatem. Accusamus quia labore fugiat maiores. Quis expedita ut aut velit voluptatem quo molestiae. Suscipit exercitationem voluptatem in atque. Quibusdam nesciunt voluptatem provident in cumque quae. Ut et laudantium neque quibusdam aliquam.
Et dolor voluptatem perferendis. Repudiandae aspernatur blanditiis ex ea nihil dolores sed. Mollitia et pariatur in.
Facere necessitatibus eos blanditiis qui et. Aliquam rerum nesciunt minus hic id.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...