Which Offer Should I Take? (Analyst at Valuation & Advisory Services VS. Capital Markets)
Hi, I am a recent graduate from architecture, interested in real estate investment and development (PE, Project Financing, etc.)
Fortunately, I got two junior position offers from the real estate service firms: Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE, JLL, Savills
First one is **Capital Markets Analyst ** (Investment Sales and Transactions)
Second one is** Valuation & Advisory Analyst** (interviewer said the responsibilities would be focused more on the valuation aspect, which including collecting data from cold-calling, site visits and establishing cash flow analysis)
I plan to get either CFA or MBA after few years of my career. And for the exit strategies, I am considering investment arms (REPE, AMC) OR Consulting (Deloitte, KPMG FAS - development/investment consulting)
With that in mind, which option should I take? I would like to maximize learning and build good foundation in real estate, so that I can jump to the next level. I would really appreciate your opinions and insights.
Thanks!
Holy crap man, are you a paid troll from GSE? All you do is post how much volume they do.
Why not? Maybe you need to understand the securitization business, and make easy money with just a few hundred employees instead of doing the hard works in the field
Alright buddy, I was half joking in that post but if you want to take shots - tell me more about how much preftige is in the 'securitization' business, which is only tangentially related to the underlying real estate itself.
Other comments:
1) Just because a massive organization has high transaction volumes, doesn't mean the deals / experience you actually work on are high quality, regardless of sector (see: AIG, Lehman, etc.). The volume isn't what makes or breaks the experience in and of itself. If your headcount is accurate, that means that $100B / 200 (let's say for argument sake) equals 0.5 B/year/person.... I got news for you, if you're at a big PE shop or a heavy hitting brokerage, you're going to underwrite 4-5x that EASY in a year, and you'll learn deal the DD and closing/execution process more intimately as well (even if the # of closings are less).
2) I probably understand the securitization business better than you ever will because I'm the one actually putting together the investment briefs that you and your crew are going to rely on since you've never even toured a building - so get off your high horse ('Easy money' =/= smart money).
3) OP asked what would set him up better in the future - In this instance, capital markets at a brokerage shop actually working on live deals on the front end of the process (as opposed to the credit side) sets OP up way better for things like REPE or development.
Is the investment sales role an analyst position? Assuming you will be running numbers all day, I think the IS role will be better to leverage later due to being closer to the transaction. You will also create a network of investors your team works with.
The valuation role is a strong role as well. It will teach you a similar skill set. It sounds like it is probably an appraisal team? Although you can get to the same spot with this role, I would do the investment sales role. It is probably viewed as a stronger foundation coming out of investment sales instead of appraisal due to being closer to the transaction. Additionally in investment sales you will see why investors like or don’t like transactions, etc. whereas in appraisal you won’t get that knowledge, you will appraise the property as part of due diligence when the transaction is already set to occur, and the firm needs to check the box they have an appraisal. Please let me know if this valuation role is not an appraisal role and I will edit this post to reflect the update.
One is brokerage, the other is appraisal. You'll get a stronger RE foundation with the appraisal route, but you'll get more property specific and buyer/seller knowledge with the investment sales route.
Appraisal is appraisal, you gotta work a lot to make a lot, but you've only got so much time in a day. I was a commercial appraiser for 2 1/2 years and recently moved to a tenant rep role with a stellar team. Like I noted earlier, you're gonna learn a ton about RE which is great if you want to move to brokerage, acquisitions, etc.
The investment sales analyst role is more reliant on how strong a team you'd be joining. Do your research, see what asset class they're working and their track record. No point in joining a small/weak investment sales team in a small market.
I'd suggest the valuation analyst role, unless the investment sales role is with an established and strong team with good track record. They're both analytical roles which should serve you well in your career. Good luck