Where to start

When I was interviewing for similar types of jobs, I put the BIWS courses (the financial modeling basics course and real estate modeling course) that I self-studied at the top of my resume and was asked about it in many of my interviews, so I do recommend taking a financial modeling course and putting it on there. However, don't just study the course so that you can put it on your resume. You need to actually understand the concepts and know how to financial model because anything is fair game for the interviewer to ask about if it's on your resume. Also you will need real estate finance knowledge and financial modeling ability for your entire real estate career. I would also encourage you to look at roles outside of REPE and REIB such as investment sales and valuations/appraisal. Sometimes these roles can be less competitive than REPE/REIB, especially valuations/appraisal since it is overlooked by many, but these roles give you very relevant skills/knowledge in order to lateral to REIB/REPE. When I was job hunting and saw a role that I was interested in, I would either use Linkedin or the company's "Team" page on their website and find someone who worked on the team that the role was on and then I would try to figure out that person's email. Usually is something like [email protected] or [email protected] and I would run it through some type of email verification website. Once I figured out the company's email format, I would email 2-3 ppl on the team and express my interest in the position and attach my resume and ultimately ask for a coffee meet or quick phone call. My response rate was about 10%-15%, which is pretty good considering every 10 people I emailed, one would be willing to chat. At the end of the day it's a numbers game, so just keep grinding and cold emailing. Just be sure to have solid real estate finance knowledge. The worst thing that can happen is finally getting an interview after hours of cold emailing just to get dinged because you didn't remember how to calculate NOI.