Advice: The Dreaded AM vs. ACQ Question

I found that part of the segregation between Acquisitions and AM folks when I was working for the big firm was personality/aggressiveness/deal junkie-ness, willingness/ability to grind to meet deadlines (ie Investment Committee; modeling prowess), ability to synthesize large amounts of info and communicate key points effectively, and the wild card ability of having vision.

I think the fact that you currently worked in Acquisitions as an intern helps craft your story as someone who could go back.  That said, big brand AM should open many doors, including in Acq, so don’t be afraid of pigeonholing at this stage in your career. 

As far as moving to a big city, I moved from my hometown Honolulu to San Francisco post graduation from the Univ of Hawaii.  Had three friends and my girlfriend move up same time. That’s all the people I knew.  In normal times, you will make lots of new friends.  My 5-year plan was to do something I never imagined.  You have an exciting journey ahead.
 

Congrats on the offer.  

Agreed w others, won't hurt to do a couple years then exit back to a deal role somewhere.  There's a reason you went through this interview process, it's not like the offer fell out of the sky.  Clearly you have an itch.

So, if this is really your first post-UG graduation job, worrying about being "piegonholed" is flatly ridiculous. First jobs are rarely last jobs, you can move/shift (and probably will) many times. The concept of being "piegonholed" is also really misunderstood by people new in their career. People self-limit or choose to remain in their field/specialty by choice 90%+ of the time? Why? Because you will probably maximize your pay/success by doing so. Jumping is risky/costly, as you can't play on prior success/seniority so much. Firms will give people the chance to do new stuff all the time, but you are resetting the counter/clock to promotion most of the time, thus it's often suboptimal from a career path viewpoint.

In truth, the longer your career runs, the AM and Acq run together in practice. It's all the real estate business, and more senior roles will be holistic by necessity. If you are truly a "deal person" (I'd assume the source of your love for "acq"), then you can get there with seniority (where you serve as "analyst" is more pointless long-term than you realize). 

So, in your situation, the question is really simple (IMHO)..... which job do you really want and will allow you to maximize career success? 

Frankly, name/prestige is probably one of the lowest items to rank. It means tons to college students, far far less to experienced professionals (hard truth). With that said, having a "big name" on your resume early in a career can have major positive career implications. Better visibility, access to resources, and just general awareness of the brand all help in "getting noticed". Still, MANY (myself included) start with "no name" firms and end up a big name firms all the time. Further, many make just as much (and sometimes more) money at smaller/unknown firms. 

You also mention different markets for each job. If staying in your hometown (I'm presuming its a "smaller" type secondary city or something like that by context) is really important to your happiness, then staying where you are is not a bad idea. If the other job is in one of the primary HQ markets (like NYC/LA/CHI), then there can be benefits to getting that network or even "certification" effect. But if your dream goal is to return to the hometown (note these dreams shift a lot...), then are you really gaining much by the big city effect? 

I guess bottom line, go with your gut on what leads you to long-term success. What you are worrying about, is not what to worry about.

I will observe that the "big" job probably has more options for "opening doors", and you may value that a lot more in 5 or 10 years than you do now (hard to know right?). That is really what you need to weigh, the value of the option on the upside of the unknown. Personally, while this wasn't for a first job out of school, I had a similar dilemma when I landed an offer for a "big name" in "big city", but would have to relo and leave a job I actually loved. I took the job and moved, end result, massive acceleration in my career to the point I couldn't even imagine that I even considered refusing the offer. That is just my personal path, I know MANY people who are having very successful careers/lives in the "smaller cities" with firms nobody on WSO would recognize. Just be happy with what ever path you take.