Career swap advice? Not sure where to go next.
Hey monkeys, lurker here that finally made a post.
So, background:
I've been practicing commercial appraisal for almost 8ish years now. Started at a small shop and then made my own firm after getting State-Cert Gen licensed. I'm getting bored of it; I'm unhappy with the instability in clients and $$. My area is small, the county is only 125,000 people or so. Although it's a wide variety of types, I've probably valued everything worth valuing at least twice.
I graduated in late '09 with my MBA from an R2 university. The same university gave me a BBA In RE. When I graduated with my MBA, I set a bunch of local, state, and national records since I had just turned 19.
I know that I'm unhappy in my current setup. As a side thing, I program a lot. Pretty good at python and webdev. I'm also looking into flushing out my AI knowledge.
I've been thinking heavily about trying to get into portfolio management, but my network is crappy and I'm not sure the best way to break into it. Also, not sure if portfolio is the best path. Maybe y'all have better ideas.
So, monkeys, what would you do if you were in my shoes?
PM is going to be difficult to break straight into coming from an appraisal background. People in PM tend to have acquisitions experience (this is most common) or asset management experience (less common). Appraisal has applicable real estate skills, but I think you are going to find AM to be the easier path.
If you hate appraisal, or are bored, changing careers at 27 isn't unheard of or even that crazy. My advice is to try out a career change (while keeping your certs active). You can always go back to appraisal.
A lot of the large Single-Family Rental Firms (Invitation Homes, Colony Starwood, American Homes 4 Rent), are having a hard time appraising the thousands of homes the own as they attempt to securitize the underlying assets. There has been a recent uptick in articles written about the imperfect appraisal methods that these firms are using. My reason for mentioning is that, since you mentioned you "program a lot", perhaps you can work on an appraisal solution that involves programming. What that is, I have no idea. Just some food for thought but if it becomes big, I want some serious licensing fees.
Re: Portfolio Management - I used to work at a top 5 REPE Megafund, our sole Portfolio Manager was the Head of the Real Estate Strategy. Obviously, the asset management provided crucial support, but I don't think this a role that you switch into. As mrcheese321 said, PM is typically the last step one makes after working in Acquisitions or AM while working of a fund. if
Sorry, clicked the wrong comment reply.
Can you link a few of these articles? This is the first I'm hearing of the problem; I figured Zillow had it down to a science, but I also knew they were having trouble because of hands-on nature of property condition.
Sure.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/whats-a-house-worth-wall-street-turns-to-d…
mrcheese321 Alright, thanks for your input!
I'm going to look into Asset Management. I'm sure there's some threads lying around for how to get break in.
Thanks!
You got your MBA at 19 and you became a...small town appraiser? Why are you not curing cancer or sending your car to Mars?
All jokes aside, why do you want to get into portfolio management? What about it is intriguing to you? Why is your network crappy? What do you want to do with your life?
It's impressive now, but it wasn't when I got the MBA. Instead, I got the reverse; you're 19, no practical experience and a "we don't even want to train you" attitude.
Thankfully, I groveled for a bit and after 6 months of unpaid work, one of the commercial dudes in town took me under his wing.
Anyways, I was thinking portfolio management just because I still enjoy working with real estate oriented finance. Maybe asset management, as stated above, is where I should aim for. I'm really great at cash flow forecasting from basically anything. It's the only part of my current job that I enjoy.
My network is crappy just because of the nature of where I live. Very clique-ish. Bubba Land. And ageism really goes both ways. And you're right, I'm not sure I have an answer for what I want to do with my life. That's why I reached out, wondered if there was anyone out there that could say "If I was in your shoes, I'd do this or that."
Edit: Trust me, I wish I was curing cancer. I think the biggest problem I have with my situation currently is that there is no "thrill of the hunt." I'd give my left nut to do something bigger than me.
I think it's the opposite. It was impressive then but mostly just an interesting anecdote at a social gathering now. Also, assuming that a bachelors + MBA takes 4-5 years, did you start college at 14? Also, if so, you started college at 14 to pursue business? Usually it seems that the wunderkinds go into math, science, medicine, etc.
I'm sure your ability to generate a "network" is better than you think. I actually take the counter view that it's easier to develop a network in "bubba land" because there is less competition. Yes, a city like NYC has more successful people, but there's also significantly more competition from the next generation vying for that success. In "bubba land", I'm sure it's easier than you're imagining to befriend the few guys in your town who are consistently crushing it. I think part of what you need to work on is mental and how you are framing your situation.
Have you thought about a job in tech? Sounds like you have a pretty good skillset for it if you keep practicing and maybe learn some more languages, or also maybe look at data science certificate programs and transition into that.
I looked into it about 6 months ago.
I pinged a half a dozen tech recruiters, 3 of them got back to me. They all had a variation on the same thing. Basically, they could get me a junior programmer position somewhere, but salary would tank. They were in the $40k range and they explained I needed at least 2-3 years of that before I could advance. They also weren't pleased at my skillset and said it was too wide.
So, I backed off. At the time, it seemed like the drop in $$ wasn't worth it. Maybe now it's worth it to try something new. I'll send them a fresh batch of emails between tomorrow and today. Thanks!
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