Day in the Life - REPE Acqusitions Analyst

Can some of you acquisitions analysts walk us through your typical day? Considering making the switch soon and I want to make sure I have the right idea of what you do. Thanks in advance

 

As an acquisitions analyst I worked at a large institutional investor. I spent 90% of my time underwriting deals that had been brought in by more senior members. This basically included writing an investment memo and maintaining the model on all the relevant information for a certain deal and presenting my findings to the investment committee. My hours were generally 7:30-5:30. The answer to your question will vary greatly depending on where you will be working.

 
AcquisitionsGuy:

I did a Day in the Life last year. I do acquisitions for a REIT but the experience will be very similar.
//www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/life-in-acqu...

Process-wise this is a great summary ^^

I too am an Acquisitions Analyst at a very large REIT supporting two major metro areas and my process is almost identical to this. Broker sends OM or basic info on the deal, my boss, who sits on investment committee, dictates which I should focus on and which not to. I then run the numbers (project cash flows) and get an understanding of the "story" of the deal and talk it over with my boss. He then makes a call. If he doesn't like it, on to the next. If he likes it, he'll have me send out an LOI. If our offers accepted we start DD, which I run point on.

We keep our ear to the ground and glance at any deal of reasonable size just to understand the market and keep tabs on where buildings are trading per unit and per SF. The same goes for land deals. Hope that helps.

 

Underwriting is the glamorous/easy part of our job.

At a small shop like mine, we are in the throws of due diligence for a new acquisition on a tight timeline for hard money deposit. The last month has been 60-70 hours weeks neck deep in reading through leases, understanding each tenant's expense reimbursement and getting granular right down to the last dollar.

 
Best Response

Portfolio manager makes the overall strategic direction of a particular fund, separate account etc. He'll usually decide on the buy/hold/sell strategies (often in conjunction with other high level executives). He generally runs the portfolio of an account.

The acquisitions team sources and underwrites the acquisitions for a fund (duh!) Your day is usually call brokers to talk about deals, creating models, acquisition due diligence, etc.

Asset managers run the day to day finance and operation of a group of assets. Usually lease negotiation, contract negotiation, bid pricing, creating budgets and trying to maximize the value of their group of assets. Doing refinancing and sell/hold analysis is often handled by this group as well.

Property managers handle the day to day nuts and bolts of a group of properties. Tenant has a roof leak? They call you, property managers will handle service calls, manage a group of porter/service men, negotiate service contract and give advice to the asset managers on whether certain repairs or capital improvements are necessary.

 

Thanks! Good to hear this was in line with what I thought (as I'm primarily familiar with the acquisition part). Am I correct in assuming the portfolio management role is more reporting/technically oriented (in a portfolio theory kind of way)? There is much less pro-active / deal-oriented work and networking than for the acquisition roles?

 
CandyKing:

Thanks! Good to hear this was in line with what I thought (as I'm primarily familiar with the acquisition part). Am I correct in assuming the portfolio management role is more reporting/technically oriented (in a portfolio theory kind of way)? There is much less pro-active / deal-oriented work and networking than for the acquisition roles?

Generally (as titles vary) portfolio management in equity real estate companies are high level strategic/executive/management roles. In large REPE companies you have several to dozens of portfolio managers. often portfolios are separated geographically or by asset class or both. At insurance companies that to separate account investing its usually by account. Portfolio managers are responsible for everything everyone I mentioned above does on a daily basis.

 

Seems you've missed the biggest fun. The analyst's role is company-specific I guess? I interviewed with a REPE firm before. As an analyst, they didn't expect me to crunch numbers much, but to liaise with JV partners to ensure the REPE's 'interest is intact'.

Wait for more replies.

The Auto Show
 

whatever you do, don't be a broker. with your experience, you should either:

a) get into a distressed REPE fund where, in addition to crunching DCF models, you can participate in restructuring the RE via refinancing/redevelopment/repurposing/repackaging/re-lawering (leases, tenants, vendors)

b) go work for a developer and help them deploy their capital in a more efficient way

 

Does anyone else is this business see the brokers that are making $500K per year and feel like shit working at a fund? I could easily do that job, bank some $$$ and then start investing on my own. Why do we need to say that we work for a large money manager to feel a good sense of self worth?

I am actually alone in the "I can't stand wasting away one more day at a desk running DCF models" category?

 

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