Bad GPA, Employment Gap how do i land a job in CRE
I graduated from Penn State with a degree in Finance in 2015. I did not know what sector that I wanted to go into and had plenty of entrepreneurial aspirations anyways.
So I got the genius idea to work in fields totally unrelated to my major as a way to have more time to figure out what I wanted to do in entrepreneurship. I coached soccer in the afternoons and the weekends while being a wantrepeneur. (Not enough capital to stay in business)
Fast Forward to today. I'd like to get into in CRE and eventually doing my own syndication deals in the future. How does someone from my background break into CRE as an entry level analyst, ideally in Acquisitions 3-4 years out of college?
I have done some wholesale deals myself in single family and am quite knowledgeable on how to evaluate properties, doing market analysis and even talking to sellers.
I'm not looking for a sales role.
Can you elaborate a bit more on 'wholesale deals in SFR'? This could mean a few things in my mind.
+/- 3 years of employment gap will be challenging, to be frank with you. If you have something you've been doing continuously for that time, even if it's not related to CRE, I would recommend piecing that together/coming up with something to put on your resume.
Syndication is difficult in my opinion just because you have to have a lot of different skillsets. You have to be able to source deals, analyze the deals, effectively pitch the deals to your investors, and then be able to get the deal across the finish line to closing. This means you obviously have to be able to raise the equity, then structure the partnership/syndication (and be legally savvy enough to do so or have a good lawyer you can afford to pay - this is harder than you would think), then be able to deploy the capital. Then once you have that all up and running, you have to be able to do sophisticated financial models, negotiate the deal docs (PSA, etc), and then manage the asset once you acquire it. So this can all be extremely complex or extremely simple depending on the type of deals you work on.
Something isn't connecting with your ask since you're saying you need to get a role as an entry level analyst, but then right below it you say you know how to evaluate property and do market analysis and negotiate with sellers. This stuff is all extremely different from the residential and commercial sectors.
The reality is that the vast majority of principal firms aren't going to hire you into an acquisitions role with your current background. You might get lucky and find the 1 in 1,000 that will, but your best bet would be to go to a brokerage firm and try to get an analyst gig there first, then leverage that into a role at a principal firm doing acquisitions. This is definitely doable, but it's a question of if you want to spend 2+ years doing that before you would be able to lateral to an acquisitions role. Assuming you're 25/26 now, that puts you at 28/29 by the time you get into acquisitions, and probably another 3-4 years at the earliest until you'd be comfortable trying to go out and do something on your own.
Just to give you some data points, I've been in the business close to 6 years now and still wouldn't feel totally comfortable that I know what I need to know to run my own shop/syndication. Another guy I know that worked at a top REPE firm with about the same experience went and did his own thing and struggled to raise capital - and he had a very, very deep network and a good track record at his shop.
Sorry if this sounds bearish - You can definitely pull this off, but I just want you to have a realistic expectation of the likely path you'll have to take. If none of this is off-putting to you, then definitely go for it, but it's not a walk in the park.
Thank you so much for such a detailed response, I can certainly see how I could be underestimating what it takes to do deals. To be honest, financial freedom through Entrepreneurship is certainly my long term dream. And I was thinking that jumping into CRE would give me a good network and skills to learn how to do big RE deals that will give me passive income freedom to do whatever I want to do in the future.
Do you think the ship has sailed for me to land a good corporate job where I could do maybe five years to build some capital and build some skills to learn how to analyze future investments?
PS Wholesaling single family houses is pretty much getting properties under contract and assigning them to other investors for a fee.
Happy to help.
I mean accumulating $ and then acquiring CRE deals for relatively 'passive' income (reason I put it in quotes is that it can be very hands-on at times) is something that a lot of people do and it's something you don't necessarily need to be in CRE as a career to do. If you want to do that, you could really get into any corporate finance gig and make 6 figures and save up enough to do this after 5-10 years. So the ship hasn't sailed in that sense. Hell, that's what I want to do, I just want to own a bunch of apartments and collect rent and then casually visit them once or twice a quarter and pay a property manager to do my dirty work for me. That's the dream for a lot of people in finance, regardless of whether in 'CRE' or not.
The ship hasn't sailed for getting into CRE and you're correct that it would set you up to run a syndication in the long term, the difference is that it will take more time to do that since you're dealing with other people's money and you have investors to satisfy (and want to get paid for your efforts in doing this) as opposed to just making some money and then parlaying that into a small rental portfolio of 10-50 units. So I do think that you can still do it but the most likely path will be the one I outlined above, and it's going to take you longer than you anticipate most likely.
Just for your own knowledge, I'd stay away from using the term wholesaling in that case. Wholesaling to me would be like if you bought an entire track of homes, then refurbished them and flipped them. Or if you're working for like Toll Brothers, Standard Pacific, etc, and you help them develop huge lots and sell off the homes in bulk.
my first thought is the same as MonkeyWrench .... straight into acquisitions at a reputable firm is a bit of a stretch, most that do it out of undergrad had solid internships all the way through. Brokerage is a more reasonable ask. You could interview really well or have good connections, so dont let me burst any bubbles, but for a good position, there will be a line of candidates who have good resumes.
LOL at not wanting to do sales. As stated above, syndications is selling. Once you find a deal, you have to sell it to investors, banks, municipalities (if you need zoning changes for ground up development), and potential tenants. I’m not saying you should go rack up credit card debt trying to hack it at Marcus & Millichap right now but given what you want to do, spending some time in a brokerage shop as analyst at least would definitely help.
Shit, the best brokers often start buying into their own deals and I’ve heard many cases of them going off and starting a syndicated equity group once they’ve built a vast network of players and capital sources. Saying you don’t want to do sales but want to be an entrepreneur seems like an oxymoron to me. The best deal makers in real estate are excellent salespeople.
Couldn't agree more. Also a brokerage is probably going to be the easiest way to break in
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