Curious if anyone knows someone or has worked within a Family Office (~$2bn in equity) and what exit opps look like? Specifically, how it would look to Business Schools, REPEs, and potential investors if one was to open their own fund one day.
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I can speak to this. At a $2 billion family office you will likely have a lot of exit options depending on how involved you were with the deal process. REPE, development, lending, are all on the table and REPE top 50 firms are definitely a possibility. It might be slightly harder to get your foot in the door than if you were coming over from Eastdil or another major REIB or fund. There is a big difference between a lot of family offices. Some family offices play in the smaller private capital space where other family offices play in the institutional space. Obviously your relationships and experience will likely push you in a certain direction, but you should have options. Opening your own fund will rely heavily on your past deal experience.
I can't speak to business schools, I'm sure someone else can though.
Thanks picklemonkey . To be honest, I dont have intimate knowledge of their specific assets. Although, I have a general understanding. Feel free to PM me if interested, but no worries if not.
I believe they take a barbell approach on the risk spectrum on their investments. A large allocation to core/core-plus assets to provide protection on their capital and a smaller allocation on riskier/speculative opportunistic deals. I know certain families take only a capital-preservation investment perspective which can be boring and/or a less-than-stellar learning experience for a young professional.
$2 billion in equity, or total portfolio value?
This would be equity. Not leveraged value of assets.
Marry one of the family's daughters.
Sounds like an entrance opp...
Making a move through the backdoor.
If only. They have sons...
.
It's 2017 bro
.
Best answer
To me at least, family office is the exit opp....
Care to share more as to why this is...? Most mentors that I've spoken to seem to believe that a Family Office is the end-all-be-all scenario. From my nascent understanding, a family office provides the following:
You've hit most of the big points. Honestly, it all depends on what your career goals are. If you can work reasonable hours, have a total compensation package that is competitive with the potential to do extremely well due to participation, and be in a position with a lot of face time with decision makers, I don't know what else you would be looking for. Sure some of these family offices work on smaller/less sexy assets, but some of the bigger family offices are playing in the institutional space where you have the opportunity to work with the likes of Wood Partners, Tishman, ProLogis, Blackstone, KKR, etc. It would be really hard to check all those boxes at a lot of institutional shops.
I currently work at a family office with about $500 million in equity and it is definitely a dream job. Problem is, there is no place to go--I can't go up, so my comp is bumping up against a ceiling. But it's hard to beat 35 hour work weeks, 2 hour lunches paid by the boss, and zero pressure work environment.
For my boss, it's a true dream job--his comp is 3-4 times mine, his hours are about 45 hours/week, down from 100 at his institutional firm, and he's got no one gunning for his job. He hit the jackpot.
Thanks again, picklemonkey . You mentioned that that is how you did DD when you were looking. Does that mean you're currently at a family office? If so, would love the opportunity to pick your brain a little more.
Additionally, I've been told that the family is very active in deals and that I can reasonable expected to be called or met with often to discuss current or future deals, which is exciting to me.
The role would only be myself and two others. One who has been there for decades and two others that have been there for between 5-10 years. In our conversations, it seems that this is a role in which the expectation is that I stay there for a while. So I imagine compensation is fairly distributed.
Also, it's funny that you mentioned having to work on other family member's small real estate deals. This was exactly the type of one-off ad-hoc work that I could/would be expected to do in addition to the normal role.
Looking for interns?
One of the best parts of working in this type of office is that you learn how the actual business of being in the real estate business works, as in all the stuff that goes on beyond making investment decisions/managing projects. Great exposure for those that aspire to start their own shop - you see how people build true wealth.
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