From Quant to RE?
Hi guys,
Apologies if similar has been posted.
I am looking for advice on best ways to break into the CRE industry as a career lateral from quant asset management. The main problem I have been facing is "why the fuck do you want to do CRE from a quant?" which was expected.
Any insight into the different areas of CRE is appreciated. I have mostly been talking to people in capital markets/IS & asset management, curious for any insight from lending / principal side guys? Why did you guys pick what you did?
Current experience: non-target(3.9 GPA), 1yr Investment management analyst at BB, 1yr investment analyst at a research heavy quant (active equity and multi-asset), for a total of 2 years.
You should be looking at the acquisitions side. Your background is a better fit for that. Also, your valuations skills will be more valuable there.
Given your skillset, it sounds like you should target the principal side. If you can build advanced models that would be very beneficial given the lack of direct experience. I agree with all the above posters, but I don't know any quants personally that went into real estate but I believe you could be a good asset.Myself I've never been interested in that side of finance, but came from IB to development now. Curious what is making you want to pivot?
Thank you for replying and the advice. What's making me want to pivot is a combination of personality and career outlook.
Speaking on personality, sometimes there will be multiple days in a row where no one communicates a word besides through email, literally face-to-screen for 14 hours straight. The work is really repetitive and not that fulfilling, at least for my current shop. 100% in the weeds 24/7. I need some face-to-face action. Not even sure how I got here at this point, just followed the advice of my professors in school.
Speaking on career outlook, and my personal opinion, down-ward fee compression and large asset flows to passive-management is not healthy long-term(it's every asset managers #1 concern), mostly middle-office work, strong caps on progression unless you get a CFA and MBA/MFE from top-tier, heck, a good majority of VP+ have PhD. Not much room to grow into any other roles.
Hope this answered your question!
May I ask why you left IB to development?
Long story short, the culture wasn't for me and I really didn't see it long-term. I had thoughts of real estate before IB, and it wasn't until one of my fellow analysts that I had worked with put me in touch with different groups in real estate primarily developers and I eventually found a group that I really fit in with. Two others at my current shop came from IB, so they had very similar experiences moving over. All in all, I'm very happy about the switch and I see a very clear path to moving up vertically within the current firm I'm at.
Good luck to you!
If you ultimately make the move, you will without a doubt notice the relative lack of sophistication/pedigree of those in CRE from where you're currently at (and from the BB bank you previously worked at). You certainly do not need a college or high school degree to do well in CRE. You just need experience.
So if you are getting the "Why CRE" type question.... you need to come up with some version of "I think my current industry is boring, and CRE sounds cool"... in all honestly, A LOT of people in CRE are finance/accounting major types who realized that traditional finance/accounting roles were boring, and CRE was cool, so this actually works better than you think.
Also, the more you seem familiar with the industry and can talk like you about it the better and less this will be an issue. A few ideas on that...
Cheap/Free.... read GlobeSt.com/Bisnow/IREI/etc.... just read up and sound like you know what's going on can mean tons (like focus on what/where each firm you are chatting with is doing before you meet)
Some Cost/Worth It - Join NAIOP/ULI and other real estate orgs... membership has its "privileges'" and one is that it makes you appear very serious about the industry, plus you can network within it, and get access to the membership rosters.. still, if you do this, actually attend meetings/events or kind of a waste.
Expensive. take actual real estate courses up to an including MBA/MSRE/D courses.... do this and nobody will question your commitment (not saying you need to do this, but people in your shoes do stuff like this)
You probably get what you pay for in this domain, but that is how you cross the divide you are facing.
Thanks for all this, redever. I had an opportunity to talk with someone who moved from a big asset manager to CRE(d/e) recently and he gave the same reason you mentioned in first para. I want to make the move for similar reasons.
I signed up for NAIOP/ULI, not too pricey by any means and giving me some networking ops. Thanks for the advice.
For the classes, quick question - I will look into the higher level courses, just wanted to note that I took a real estate principals and real estate finance class in undergrad upper vision course(was trying to break into cre in undergrad at some point). Would it be wise/stupid to add a relevant course section on my resume to add these two classes? Not sure if that would help my case here at all. Would love to know your thoughts.
Thank you again.
To you question on "relevant courses".....
I guess, it's a maybe... if you got some form of certificate (like REFM or from a university or industry org) then for sure, if not, then just see if it fits in the education section somehow (like its own "line"). You can also talk about your "familiarity" with the subject elsewhere. Part of what you want to do is get into the "keyword" search of your resume/linkedin. It can always be near the top of the cover letter too.
So, I think yes, but be smart about how much space you use and don't over conflate. Also, if you join any committees/task forces, etc. at NAIOP/ULI (and you should) get that on!! More important for what you are trying to signal tbh.
I bet you could get an acquisitions analyst role at a good REPE firm. Reach out to acq/originations folks for informational interviews. Your quantitative ability will blow your competition out of the water, you just need to learn the lingo and get embedded.
People keep mentioning acq roles. I am open to it. I have been having conversations with folks who work in that realm, it just doesn't seem that appealing to me, however this could be a bi-product of the types of people I have talked with. I do recognize my technical skill will help me more in this type of role vs brokerage at a big sell-side shop.
Thanks again everyone for all the help. The advice I am receiving here is making a huge difference for me.
You could consider doing RE research or prop tech. I suspect vanilla RE (appraisal, credit underwriting, equity investing, property mgmt, etc) would be too intellectually boring for you. But the money is in brokerage / sales. Idk your personality type but keep in mind certain roles would be easier if you were type A or type B
Quick Update / Seeking Advice- received two offers from acquisition shops this week(industrial focus, 1 has some life science as well), one offer from a small brokerage that niches in Retail. The only thing is that I have been working very hard on getting in with a CBRE/C&W/JLL capital markets team, Interviewed with an analysts and both associates on the team and they brought me out to breakfast the other day and it went really good, but noted the hiring process for their team lags. And of course Producers/brokers are typically hard to grab in December - after the new year.
How would you guys play this? I was debating a few options: not taking the offers presented and gunning for the big shop capital markets team, or asking the associate I have a solid connection with if I have a good chance moving forward or if I should take the offers currently presented to me in an attempt to leave it in his ball-court sort of speak? I don't want to come off like some candidates that brag about having other offers, but also really want to break in by January start-date.
Congrats that's great! Question for you is what do you see yourself doing in the long-run, brokering or making investment decisions on the buy-side? Given your skillset I would have thought you would have gone instantly with the buy-side. Why are you so interested in getting in a big brokerage shop?
Also, curious what they offered you from the 2 acquisition positions since you are pivoting from another industry? Also I don't know where you're located but I'm curious on comps.
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