Goldman Sachs Realty Management vs. Big 4 Real Estate Transaction Advisory

I'm assuming Goldman is in Irving. I just let go an offer from RMD, and here's why: you can be pigeon-holed so hard into Real Estate, you'd have to at least get an MBA to shake yourself of it. From a lot of research, I came to realize that analysts in RMD never really left the RE industry, and when I asked a few of them, they said they could not shake themselves of the RE image planted on their resume. Now, it seems like you want to be in RE, so this might be exactly what you're looking for. If you want to go into originations IBD, I'd say that you may want to take Goldman.

Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic place to work and 'end up,' (if you could call it that). They seemed to be very happy, nice, and pleasant people, and while I'm no fan of that part of DFW, the office was nice.

What part of the RMD are you interviewing? I assume the RE Asset Mgmt division. If so, I'd take Goldman. In Big 4 RE transaction advisory you'll mainly be reviewing appraisals. In my opinion, this is not the best experience. RMD will give you exposure to underwriting assets and Asset Management (relevant for whatever you do in RE). Big 4 will not give you that experience.

If REPE is your goal, I'd take Goldman hands down. RMD can be a feeder right into REPE, if you network with the right people. One last word: you seem to not have offers yet. Don't start counting and comparing offers before you have them. I know plenty of absolutely brilliant, and hardworking people who were turned down by RMD. There doesn't seem to be any real rhyme or reason to who they choose and why. Good luck OP.

You can find several threads about TRE on WSO. My thoughts on TRE are as follows:

Your experience will vary a lot based on the office and partner that you end up working for. Some offices bring in a variety of work for non-audit clients, and I would consider those groups "real estate consultants", while other groups rely heavily on audit teams to provide work, and those groups end up being "real estate auditors". If you're a real estate auditor, you will spend most of your time doing appraisal review and the real estate takeaways will be minimal. Conversely, if you can get your hands on a variety of consulting projects, this can be a great way to figure out exactly what about the real estate industry interests you most, as you will have the opportunity to work on multiple asset classes doing different types of analyses. I highly recommend doing your research on what type of projects your group works on most, and don't let them sell you the "national platform" pitch unless you're interviewing for the NY office (or possibly Chicago). The NY office is large and has a lot of analysts, if the home office is slow, they will lend out analysts to other offices, but the small regional offices are rarely slow enough to loan out one of their 2-3 analysts.

I felt my TRE group struggled to keep quality talent because they didn't have an "up or out" mentality, it was an "up or up slower" mentality which meant that people became complacent knowing that the next promotion was going to happen eventually, and in the meantime, the salary is fairly good for a low cost of living city and the benefits are very good.

I came out of a non-target with a mediocre GPA and needed/wanted a big name on my resume to help get my foot in the door at groups that I otherwise wouldn't be appealing to. I spent a little over a year in TRE, learned more about excel and gained some real estate experience that I could talk about during interviews, and this was enough to make me stand out compared to other applicants going after analyst positions at the investment firms. I don't regret spending a year at the Big 4, but I'm not sure that I recommend it either, it all comes down to the specific group and your background. If you're on WSO, you're probably career oriented and won't be fulfilled with TRE in the long run, but it's not necessarily a bad place to start.

What are the Big Four Transaction Advisory firms?

Hi question, I'm a soph and I have a quick question. Were your internships more RE Private Equity focused or Development focused? Thank you & congrats on TRE.