Dear,
I am a sophomore gunning for IB and MC. I've heard real estate many times over the course of learning finance, but I really don't have a good grasp of what real estate is and what skillsets are required. Thouhght it would be good to learn from your stories and I might even try to get an RE internship this upcoming semester.
Thank you so much!
P.S. What did Trump do as an RE guy?
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I didn't study finance. I was on the prelaw track and did an internship with the city of philadelphia's planning commission. Had no idea the amount of work that went into an RE development before that. From there, i was able to get an internship the next summer with a local retail developer, really just helping everything from updating their models and checklists, to printing and binding investor PPMs.
I'm in REPE now, and what i've learned over the past 5 years is that the skillset required to be successful in RE is extremely diverse. I see a lot of IB/Finance guys come in, trying to bring the banking culture with them and really drilling down on excel/powerpoint graphs, etc.
Numbers, modeling, etc. are important but being able to communicate effectively, develop and maintain relationships, be normal during a happy hour or golf outing with brokers or GPs in a city you are unfamiliar with, articulate a deal story to your IC, and navigate internal sensitivities to the numerous risks in every deal are more imporant skills to have.
Thanks for your answer! It really helps. What kinds of knowledge do you need to get into development or REPE? Is an economics major desirable for the area?
Economics is a great major. I would say anything that is research based and involves some element of verbal and written communication would be desireable.
Look around you. Maybe you're in an office building at an internship. Maybe you're in a Starbucks, or hanging out in your apartment. That's all real estate. Each one is its own business. People build real estate, sell real estate, acquire real estate, turn real estate around, manage real estate, and own real estate. Real estate includes all of the physical parts of where we live and work. Land, homes, buildings, streets, open spaces, and infrastructure are all real estate.
There are a wide variety of beneficial skillsets in real estate because there are a wide variety of both direct and tertiary roles associated with it. Real estate includes the person making $35k a year down at the city planning office and the entrepreneur worth hundreds of millions, if not billions, from the properties they build and buy.
The main two "tracks" often discussed on this website are development, which is creating real estate, and REPE, which is acquiring and owning real estate (or investing in development). These are the most akin to "front office" positions on Wall Street in terms of desirability, compensation, and "prestige."
Put his name on a bunch of shit? Go bankrupt? Trump is a poor example. Google Gerald Hines or Trammell Crow (the person) or Jonathan Grey.
Helps a ton!! Thank you very much for the input. I see you're also doing RE. Can I ask what you usually do between development and REPE?
Bump!
I am reading Trammell Crow's book right now and it gives a great sense of someone who built an empire with little to nothing, leveraging his few connections to generate equity, and was aggressive in his own, different, methods of suiting tenants and their trust. Actually rented the book from my University Library, which is an easy way to save a few and get introduced to a legend in RE. Maybe take a look to see if your University has it!
Very few people do both at the same time. I work in development - finding sites, underwriting deals, working through design and entitlements, overseeing construction along with the CMs, overseeing lease up and stabilization, and then overseeing disposition.
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