Hello everyone,
I am preparing for a career transition into CRE. I have worked in economic consulting for the past few years where I have gained quality professional experience and transferrable skillsets (data/financial analysis, modeling, research, etc.). However, I have zero tangible real estate experience. I am aiming for an acquisitions analyst program spot at a real estate investment management or private equity firm where I will likely be competing with recent undergrads from top universities and former IB analysts with deal/transaction experience. I am confident I can use my experience to set myself apart from undergraduates, but I am well aware I need to beef up my resume to compete with IB analysts.
That being said, does anyone have recommendations for RE financial modeling courses and/or certificates that are worth their price? For those that have used one to transition careers or land an analyst program role, I would especially love to hear your advice.
Thanks much.
Edit: FYI, I am contemplating courses such as Udemy (dirt cheap) and BIWS, WSO, REFM, WSP (< $1000). If anyone recommends one over another, your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I don't mind spending more money for a better program - especially one I can list on my resume.
I'm in the same boat with zero professional RE experience, non-target and have several leads to RE firms / brokerages due to networking. I think the thing that made me stand out was when I mentioned I was pursuing my ARGUS certification. Because it's a big financial investment (at least for me) and well known within the RE community, it showed that I was committed to this industry and line of work. Going through the ARGUS cert program also helped me a lot learning different RE finance terms and concepts, as well as valuation methodologies for different asset types.
I also went through REFM's Excel for Real Estate bootcamp. It's probably best suited for someone going through REPE recruiting as it focuses on debt/equity waterfall modeling. Levels 1 and 2 are fairly straightforward but not too useful if you already have decent Excel skills. Level 3 gets complex, and while Bruce is a smart guy his teaching style definitely won't work for some. He basically just reads through the excel formulas with little to no explanation on the actual terms and concepts, and I found myself spending most of my time reverse engineering formulas trying to figure out how the model worked. It's confusing because it's advertised as a program that's suitable for beginners with little RE experience and yet there is an expectation that you should already have prior understanding of complex debt and equity structures. It also won't teach you how to build a model from scratch or modeling a pro-forma, but it'll get your resume taken more seriously.
I'm looking into the BIWS course. I took the equities financial modeling course from them and it was superbly helpful. Brian has a very concise but effective way of explaining both core concepts and nuances, and he will guide you step by step in constructing a full model, from the research to the setup to the finished product.
REFM is the best for big picture overview, Adventures in CRE for partnership and waterfall modeling, BIWS for detailed lease modeling, I-Banking, REIT analysis etc. Those are the top 3 in my opinion.
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