Hi All,
It has been a while since I posted but I thought I would get everyone's inputs on their thoughts/recommendations for the relentlessly repeated question "what should I do with my life?"
Here are my stats:
Education
-Went to top public in NY
-graduated undergrad with 3.43
-did a two year MBA program immediately after (5 year program - HUGE mistake) - 3.66
Work Experience
-Started out investing in my own property, buying multi-family with a small investment group
-Did great for awhile but got killed in the downturn and my investments went upside down - we ended up breaking roughly even but all of my hard work was pretty much erased
-Moved into commercial real estate investment advisory for a big firm, did really well and was on a senior management track at a young age (23)
-Got an opportunity to work in an opportunistic private investment firm with two former PE guys
-After 15 months, our compensation structure changed and I had to leave
I have sold off my real estate and got a lot of exposure to financial modeling and opportunistic deals when I was at the private investment shop. I am good communicator and salesperson and I have put some good (albeit smaller) deals together in real estate. Unfortunately, there is a lot of turnover in real estate and I am not sure that I would like to work for a big organization.
My finance skills are pretty good. I am taking the CFA next week although I am not sure I am ready. I am curious to hear about people's experiences, advice, thoughts, who have been in a similar situation and where they went to next. What do you like? What don't you like? I enjoy being an entrepreneur but I also don't like the risk associated with it. I like advisory but sometimes I find the "eat what you kill" mentality to make the anxiety almost unbearable. I really enjoy real estate but the jobs aren't there which forces me to go back into developing on my own which is risky business.
Any thoughts (hopefully constructive) will be helpful.
REPE firms are hiring
Although this is true, I think they are jumping the gun a bit.
There are still a lot of problems in RE that need to be worked out. A lot of the REPE firms that are hiring now over fired when their investments went down the shitter. They will likely have trouble raising new funds in the future which will result in a lesser pay/carry. What I am saying is you should really do your homework on REPE firms.
r/e ibd as an associate or 3rd year analyst?
There's a top public in NY?
But anyways, try going into the real estate group in the BBs, or join the REIT if you are really good. Your background might be ideal for some of the groups out there so start networking
Thanks guys for the comments.
Some thoughts.
What's the best way to find an REPE job? I have been networking locally but nothing has come to fruition yet.
It seems that in REPE and like most funds, there are a core group of guys that really control your destiny (both educationally, professionally, and just how much you like life) so how do you recommend I sift through finding the right group (assuming I actually have a shot at landing in a group)
In talking with some larger developers who typically are more on the operator side of the business (some finance guys included), they have strongly recommended going back and getting a JD given the lack of market activity and how beneficial a JD would be, not just to real estate, but other types of transactional work as well. Any thoughts on this? (WARNING: I have read plenty from the naysayers about law school on WSO, so I would prefer that you address this comment if you aren't just going to lawbash).
i would love to hear more about this 'top public' in New York.
SUNY-Binghamton?
Binghamton,,, Says so on his profile
We have remarkably similar stories, but in reverse. I am a former IB analyst, multifamily appraiser, and multifamily underwriter and now am a multifamily asset manager for a large (enormous) bank but will likely be moving back to production/underwriting in 2011. I also sat for and passed L1 of the CFA exam in June 2007 (3 weeks after graduation) but never took anymore tests as I went a separate way in my career.
In the last 12 months, I began to build single family homes, leveraging my cash and contacts and using my savant in-law builder as a competitive advantage. I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life (except politics). The idea of moving to ridiculously long work weeks for $200k per year (REPE) is laughable to me—if it were even obtainable today—when I can pull 60 hours of work I love and make double that as a 25-year-old punk kid. I also think the real estate investment banking model is absurd, which is why the industry has been dead for several years, so I don’t recommend RE IB, assuming you could even find a job in it.
My honest advice to you: get on with a legitimate, real bank (Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc. or some community bank) and really, REALLY learn how REAL finance works (i.e. the vast majority of real estate finance). I quickly learned that the world of REPE/REIB/REITs is simply a method for the ultra rich to increase their wealth and not an avenue for young entrepreneurs to learn how to create 6 figures in value through facilitating personal relationships, hard work, creative solutions, calculated risks, obtained knowledge and through proper managerial discipline (e.g. to whom or who and how much do you delegate?).
I’d also not advise getting back into multifamily as an entrepreneur. As a budding multifamily expert, multifamily seems to me a method for the rich to protect their wealth and not a great method for the aspiring entrepreneur to become wealthy (although this is dictated by local markets).
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