Would I get hired after graduation?
I have a year left at a state college (Texas State University) and would would like some input yall think I would have any issue getting hired after college. I'm thinking either analyst or appraisal for a few years and save some money and become a broker.
Facts/assumptions:
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Age: 24
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Degree: Computer Information Systems
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GPA: 3.0-3.2
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Marketplace: Houston
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Internship experience: Currently at a marketing firm doing web design.
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No impressive job experience. Just retail.
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I do have a connection through my Dad to someone that is high up with CBRE. We have briefly spoken but he is willing to talk with me.
Assume from now until graduation I've studied CRE extensively, networked a fair bit, and become an expert in excel, argus...whatever software is valuable. Have gained knowledge of the marketplace, etc. From now until I graduate I plan on doing whatever it takes to prepare myself for the job.
With all of the above, what do yall think? And where can I learn to use excel and argus how someone in the industry would use it? What else should I try to be learning? Thanks in advance
I started my career in Houston. I think that finding an analyst spot as an appraiser wouldn't be that hard. An analyst spot might be a bit harder because there aren't a whole lot of RE companies/groups down there. Yes, all of the brokerages have fairly large offices there and Hines is headquartered there, but otherwise there aren't a whole lot of other RE companies in the market.
Honestly, you would probably be better off in Dallas where there is more RE/banking than in Houston if you didn't want to go Appraisal.
If you do want to go Appraisal, join the Appraisal Institute and try and go to a few of their meetings. Great networking events because pretty much all appraisers in the country are a part of the group.
If you want to go brokerage and can swing being a little poor for a while (my suggestion would be to live at home for a few years), then I would try for brokerage right off the bat. It will be harder to move from Appraisal to brokerage a few years down the line because once you start building a book/business, while you now have a great set of contacts, leaving a job where you make money to start a new commission/fee split job is going to be hard. You can do pretty well as an appraiser (I cleared close to 90k my first year out of school), and once I started bringing home checks like that, I was not prepared to ever go backwards even for the lure of making big money at a brokerage.
CBRE, C&W and HFF all have big offices in Houston. If your dad knows a big CBRE guy, then he can put you in contact with people at all of the other brokerages. Start there and start early.
Good luck.
Being a principal at your own firm, with an MAI and a couple of licensees under you, you could easily clear mid 6 figures.
For me, the problem with appraisal was that it felt more like a job vs. a career (sort of how I view accounting). The learning curve is steep and you will touck all sorts of things in CRE, valuation, tax code, property code, architecture, etc. but once you know it the curve flattens out a lot and you reach a point where you aren't really learning all that much.
MAI is a designation given by the Appraisal Institute. Minimum of 2 years, but most likely 3 to get designated (4,500 hour requirement).
Setting up your own shop is a different story. That could take years or you may never do it because you make enough from a C&W or a CBRE and don't want to take on the overhead.
There is an actual state license you need to be an appraiser, similar to being a RE agent. There are two levels, trainee and general. Trainee is the first 18 months. General is after that (there is education and experience requirements to get that license). And then there is the MAI designation which is a professional designation and not from the state.
Appraisal is all fee split. Figure 35% as a trainee (split gets higher as you get more experience). Usually, expenses are taken off the top and then you split, similar to brokerage.
When I worked in Houston, appraisals ran from 3k to 10k. But there was enough business that you don't have to travel all that much (your biggest expense would normally be gas/mileage), so you were splitting the majority of the fee.
If you want to make 100k, you need to bring in 300k net in fees. If you figure 6k each, you need to do 50 a year, or one a week.
Really though, the big money is in working for a fund/institutional owner as most get appraisals quarterly. It will be something like a full report yearly and a restricted report quarterly. If you charge 6k for the yearly and then 2k for each update, you are talking 12k a year for a property across their whole portfolio. Get a couple of funds with several assets in TX and you can pull in hundreds of thousands with very little work (the report writing is easier if you already know a property because things like SF and construction date doesn't change, it is really only your value assumptions and model).
I do all of our appraisal ordering for our debt closings. We do about 25 deals a year with 3 companies. Our average fee is around 10k. Our equity group has 10 assets and they have the annual/quarterly split thing. Figure that my office covering PA and north spends around 400k a year on appraisals.