As this is platform is mainly used by Americans, thought I'd ask: Have you ever entertained yourself with the idea of getting into real estate whether in brokerage, investing abroad (like Europe or Asia) or have ever heard of someone actually navigating their RE career overseas?
As this business is a relationship one and specific market/ individual city focused, we don't have the easier luxury to pack up our bags compared to people that are analysts/directors at these F500 companies and live in London or Hong Kong for a couple of years.
I've always had a goal to live in Europe at a certain age (love it there so much) and always loved real estate and intend to do brokerage in DC after graduation. It's a tough pill to swallow for me that I have to pretty much be tied down to a city for 15-20 years to really do well in brokerage (or even owning). Have you ever heard of someone trying to do it overseas instead or made a later career change to make it happen? I highly doubt it, but who knows maybe someone has...
what the fuck are you saying
Are you illiterate bro? He is impress for this post.
I've been able to work in RE in both NY and London.
It's definitely easier as a young person / in a junior role, as the expectations are more process / output based than relationship based, and you're right - building relationships is largely a local thing. I was lucky in that I had lived in both places growing up / was a legal resident in both, and was able to have a network on both sides of the pond. I think it's very difficult to break in and convince people that you're willing to stick around and build a network to have them 'invest' in you if you aren't able to pitch a similar story.
With that said, NY is in my view, a more open-minded place. In London, even having spent my formative years there, and having gone to a brand name (one of the non-Oxbridge top 5) school, it was a very hard sell for them to hire a non-native Brit, even though I'd naturalised myself and didn't need sponsorship. Again, I was very lucky, in that I was able to lean on family connections to get me over the line in the UK. Coming back to NY was comparatively easy. The fact I had no NY work experience / had started in London meant very little - all anyone cared about was the fact I had a 'brand name' real estate firm on my resume, and location preference was a minor question. No family connections necessary in NY. And once I'd done both, it was very easy to switch (I went London (Brand Name) --> New York (Small Shop) --> London (Same Small Shop, Different Office) --> New York (Higher Profile Shop)).
As to later career changes, my dad did something much more like you're describing. He started his CRE career in DC in his late 20s, moved to NY for his 30s and some of his 40s, and finished off his CRE career in London / across Europe. His small shop in DC was bought by a much larger, brand name in NY. My dad stayed post-merger, but most of his team started from scratch / off family connections in Europe, and my dad rejoined them later in his career. His story can be partially attributed to 1) working on large transactions from the start, which can put you more into a national than a local bucket, 2) developing a broad, transferrable skillset, particularly wrt management of people and processes, and 3) pure luck that his crew of Americans were successful in London and needed a new C-level person at the right time in his mid/mid-late career. As for his coverage - he was based in London, but was in different European countries 2-3 weeks per month for most of his time there.