Internal Transfer Offer Letter 1st Year Financial Analyst
I received an offer letter for a Financial Analyst position yesterday located in the company's corporate office. Currently I am working onsite as a leasing agent. The promotion would be an internal transfer which is rare considering I only have 1 year experience working onsite right out of college. The offer letter presents a lower salary base than what the market rate is, but everything else I'm fine with. The position would open up a great opportunity to network and work alongside management and reputable people in the industry.
My goal was to be onsite for only 1 year and move forward into a finance role in multifamily. In your opinion, would I be able to negotiate the offer letter without jeopardizing the only offer I have at the moment?
What is your background in finance? What is your degree in? Do you have financial related internships?
I graduated with a BBA in Finance in December of 2017. This is my first experience working in the real estate industry full-time. My previous internships come from the financial services industry, oil and gas, and sales. The position will require extensive excel use which I am intermediate in. I mentioned during the interviews that I am taking Udemy courses online to learn excel. The position also requires public speaking due to numerous presentations I will have to provide throughout the year which I am comfortable with.
Ok, this is good. I imagine you are expecting around $70K all in depending on your location and they are hitting you around $55K all in or something similar. I am assuming the analyst position is related to asset management or acquisitions. If the analyst position is more of business analyst/reporting analyst, market comp will be lower than acquisition asset management analyst. Still the position is much more related to finance and has significantly more growth potential than the current position you are in.
If business analyst/reporting analyst: Market might be 60-65K all in depending on your location, so I would just tell them "really excited for the position, I know this will be demanding and I am willing to put in the work required, but I feel the compensation is below market, would can we work something out to get me to market over a specified period of time?"
Same thing for acquisition/asset management, just higher market rate.
You should both negotiate and be ready to accept a slightly lower base.
You negotiate because it's the thing to do and often times it's expected of you. Give a reasonable counter along with a short explanation as to why and see what happens.
Then, honestly regardless of if they budge or not, you take the job because that is a major bump and is exactly what your goal was. You can always re-negotiate for a raise or leave for a similar role at a different company after a year or so. That's not difficult. Going from on-site leasing agent to financial analyst, however, is very difficult and very uncommon. Don't discount that for a few thousand dollars.
Congrats on the bump. Your comp might not be going up as much as you want it to, but your "status" within the industry will be exponentially higher. I'm fired up for you here at my desk and I don't know you at all. This shit is exciting.
OP, this is a good point that I did not emphasize, leasing agent ---> analyst, you take it, period. That being said, demonstrating that you know what the market rate is for analysts and that you negotiate for it signals confidence.
+1 for camaraderie.
It doesn't hurt to try to negotiate. If you come back with figures on market rate, that would at least make them aware that you know that you are below market rate and may make them bump it up. Otherwise, you don't have really any leverage (unless you make up another offer figure, which is pretty dicey).
First and foremost, I want to thank you guys for your valuable input in this exciting journey of mine. I have taken into deep consideration your insights and it seems unanimous to explore the option of negotiating my offer knowing that it's below market rate. At this point, I was planning on negotiating the offer and accept anyways if they did not budge, but wanted multiple opinions first. REPESailor2020 stated earlier on some liners to use, any other nuggets of wisdom you guys would like to share?
Don't be aggressive, defensive, or weird in any way and don't overthink it. This is all just business.
Like REPESailor2020 said, tell them you're excited for the position, say that you would like to counter them at X, give a reason or two why, and thank them for the opportunity. Keep it short and sweet.
Have a reason. Don't just go to the table and say "I want $5,000 more because I want money". Go in to the negotiation with a legitimate reason for wanting more money, or present it in the right way (i.e. market is $xx,xxx, and the offer you presented to me is $xx,xxx - $5,000). $5,000 is pocket change to a company if they think the person they're hiring it worth it, but if you try to negotiate in bad faith by asking for something without basis, then I would fully expect to be shown the door.
Let them know that you're excited about the opportunity. Bring the CEL Associates report and use that as support, or hell, even use Wall Street Oasis comps.
The research I plan on bringing to the table shows data with a similar background from LinkedIn Salary insights, Glassdoor, Payscale, ZipRecruiter and the 2018 CEL salary report. I am prepared to highlight the fact that all these reports indicate a higher lower and median starting salary for the same title and experience across my area.
I am going to take the contrarian point of view and say you shouldn't negotiate. Obviously if you are going from something like 50k currently to 25k then of course get them to try to budge. However if you can pay all of your living expenses and bills, I would just take the pay cut.
You just went from leasing agent --> Financial analyst. That is more than impressive. I'm currently a research coordinator at one of the big 3, and trying to network in to a finance role. It is 2x as hard as I thought it would be and I see these people everyday. I can only imagine the amount of work you had to put in. It is awesome and I am happy for you. I wouldn't want to risk throwing away all you have earned for an extra 5-10k (don't get me wrong that is not a small sum of money, but over the course of your career it is a drop in the bucket).
I would urge you to think big picture. This extra sum of money will seem small in the next couple years when you are targeting development, REPE, etc jobs (if that's your goal of course).
Bruh its not risky negotiating an offer. We live in the land of opportunity and employers expect candidates to negotiate.
Without a doubt I am all for o/p getting all the money he can. What I am saying that in my opinion the risk is not worth the reward.
Do you work in CRE? Do you understand what o/p pulled off? You can believe that he or she wasn't the only applicant for this job, and if HR feels like he could be a problem they can just as easily move on to the next candidate.
If you want a finance role go get Argus certified. Easiest track there.
I think many people here are confused about "hierarchy" or "status" in the CRE world. Moving from leasing to finance will give you a better high-level understanding of the industry (particularly exposure to development), but being a financial analyst doesn't come with any immediate status.
"Status" in real estate comes from control of revenue, whether that be acquisitions, lending, leasing, or asset management. The individuals controlling the relationships have the brunt of the leverage and status. Leasing actually gives you a faster trajectory to build leverage within a shop if you can successfully build a network.
In summary, my advice would be to do whatever your skill set and personality is best tailored for. Do you enjoy math, are futuristic, and want to own property one day? Go the finance route. Do you enjoy marketing, business generation, and controlling your own destiny/earning power quickly? Go the leasing route (if eat what you kill and not just portfolio administration).
I would question if you know how low on the totem pole a leasing agent making $35k a year and getting calls from people who clog their toilets while getting beat up about only getting 4 leases that week and not 5 really is.
Sure, Financial Analyst isn't akin to CEO, but it's a hell of a lot closer
I do know because my family owns a fully vertically integrated development/leasing/property management/legal shop and I know the career progression of all the leasing agents and how much they make. Keep in mind this is institutional Class A CRE - the average portfolio property value is roughly $60mm.
Their leasing agents start at $50K + bonus as an analyst, and then have the ability to transfer to 100% commission after a year if the principals see fit. Because the portfolio is ~7mm SF, these new leasing agents start with roughly $35-50k per year in recurring income from renewals/options alone and then get commission on top. Their lowest paid leasing agent probably makes $150k and the highest (partner but handles the big leases) can do $2-3mm in commission alone in a year...
It's actually not a hell of a lot closer because without leasing activity no revenue can pay the salaries/overhead... Financial analysts are a number-crunching cost center until they move into deal managing/execution and eventually deal origination.
You received some really good advice on this topic. I'm happy for you networking into a role like this, I hope you use this as motivation for the next potential steps you take in your career! Who knows the next role you negotiate yourself into could pay the big bucks! The journey starts with baby steps but i'm sure you will leap and bound great distances soon.
I don't think now is the time to negotiate. I'd want to know what your offer was before recommending that you go back asking for more. This puts you into a better position within the industry, period. You're getting a pay bump as well. Take the pay bump, become smarter, and then ask for the additional bump when you've accomplished measurable achievements.
So the final verdict is in. Yesterday, I called my supervisor and stated how excited and grateful I am for the opportunity. We then commenced the negotiation phase and mentioned that I am willing to put the work in required to learn and develop within the role. I then stated after conducting research in the area, I found the market higher than the rate offered. I also mentioned that I had numerous reports from the CEL 2018 report, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Texas Workforce Commission, BLS, Ziprecruiter and others ready to highlighting the fact that an entry level position was starting off higher. He then stated that the initial verbal offer made was lower than what was provided on the offer letter by a few $X,XXX's which is true. The entire team consulted on what would be a reasonable offer the prior week and my supervisor stated that they were at the highest amount they had budgeted for with the updated higher amount on the offer letter. It was then I felt that it was the best they could do without seeming greedy or starting off on a bad note. I reiterated how grateful and ecstatic I am for the role and that I am ready to accept. Like many of you mentioned above, I see more value in the fact that I am going from a Leasing Agent to a Financial Analyst than a few $X,XXX's more, plus it pays the bills and its good for me. Also, this was a valuable experience in that it was my first offer letter negotiation which means that I have taken many notes on how to improve. This en devour provided me with feeling a satisfaction of asking for what I want. Please feel free to use my experience as an example for anyone who you think can benefit from it. Thank you again Monkey community!
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