Investment Sales Insights
I know there's a lot of threads on this already, and I've read most if not all of them and I am still confused. If someone that works in investment sales as an analyst or broker, or has in the past, could share some insight that would be great. I'm very attracted to starting as an IS Analyst as I've read it is a great place to start in the industry and I would see a lot of deal flow with various assets. I've posted my background here a few times before but to those that don't know/forgot etc., I have a year left before graduation, and no relevant internships. I'm currently expanding my networking and learning CRE fundamentals and excel modeling.
What do you want to know?
I think I know the answer to some of these questions but would like to hear more perspective:
1) What exactly is CRE Investment Sales?
2) What is the analysts duty? What kind of modeling is an analyst doing?
3) What would an associates duty be?
4) Comp?
5) Exit ops
Those are just a few that come to mind. Just looking for some insight on investment sales as a whole.
1) Investment sales is selling investment properties. It’s basicslly a commercial broker who focuses on selling a commercial building/ land. There’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s a basic understanding. 2-4) I’m not the guy to answer these. 5) Read CRE ’s post about his brokerage experience, I found it super helpful. Just click on his profile and scroll through his posts.
It's going to be difficult to give concrete answers, because roles/responsibilities/team makeups/corporate structures/etc. change from company to company and even city to city. Essentially, investment sales is "the same exact thing as a commercial broker," or in my experience, a specialty among brokers. Back in my brokerage days, my office was split into the following "teams:" Office Landlord, Office Tenant/Corporate Services, Industrial, Retail, and Investment Sales. Our industrial and retail deal flow wasn't large enough to split landlord/tenant like our office deal flow was, and our investment sales practice wasn't large enough to split along product lines at all. That was at a flagship shop in a mid tier city. In larger cities, or even at CBRE in my city at the time (they were the largest; my company and another fought for second), they were more broken up and specialized.
Why "Investment Sales" is seen here and elsewhere as a higher tier or holy grail is that it is "closer" to the principal side and because some of your daily tasks (modeling deals) are a lot more transferable to the principal side. When I was an office broker, I was cold calling companies, giving tours, and convincing people to sign leases. That's much further from what I'm doing now, as a developer, than what my buddy in investment sales was doing.
It isn't any better or worse than leasing, although in my experience you make larger commissions but much further spread out, but it is arguably a better start if you're looking to be a broker for a year or two and then exit.
Thanks for the reply, always great info. Do you have an idea of what kind of modeling an IS analyst would take on? And what would the typical role options after 1-2 as an IS analyst? Analyst -> Broker -> ?
IS MF Analyst here, my modeling consists of DCF analyses of in-place apartment buildings (plus direct capitalization analyses of potential land sites & condo construction/conversions). We don't use Argus. It is all in our proprietary excel model. I work for one of the big firms (HFF, CBRE, JLL, etc.) in the Northeast and for a very successful broker in the space. We value a ton of properties. My job is to tee-up values for my broker and make edits based on his suggestions. I've been in this position for about a year now. In terms of exit-ops, previous analysts have gone on to the principal/developer side after 2/3+ years. HFF pushes analysts to become producers, but that takes years of experience. In my experience, many of the strong IS teams require some sort of real estate experience in order to be hired. Appraisal may suck, but it forces you to learn the fundamentals of a piece of real estate. One/two years of that would help you.
What kind of background did you come from before your current position if you don't mind me asking? From what I've read about IS gave me the impression that an IS analyst role could be entry level, and not as hard to break into as something like acquisitions. But I guess my lack of relevant internships would be what is holding me back? I'm planning on taking what I can get when the time comes, but definitely trying to stay away from Appraisal as much as possible. Thanks for the information by the way!
Didn't see this reply until now... I was in an acquisitions role with a affordable housing (LIHTC) group. It prepared me for some of my current responsibilities, but looking back I realize I was unprepared for this position. The other analyst and VP came straight from appraisal and they were much more prepared than I was. Now, I've figured things out, but I had my lumps along the way. I would advise that you don't completely rule out appraisal. It may be a thankless, soul-sucking job, but the knowledge gained is well worth it. Good luck with the search.
Going to lump this question in here instead of making another thread: Is it safe to judge how well a certain team does and judge their company by looking at the brokers featured on http://costarpowerbrokers.com? I was planning on emailing brokers featured on those lists to network with, but wanted yalls take on it.
edit - Also, what are the downsides, if any, to cold emailing/networking with people from the same office, that likely have interaction and work together?
Keep in mind, at least in primary markets, these brokers are very senior people with very large teams and getting them to respond to an email might not be very easy. You may be better off trying to identify associates on the brokers team to reach out to.
Wouldn't those be the guys that would basically be hiring me as an analyst though?
Bump
Bump
Deserunt amet ipsa numquam et rem ut quam repellat. Repudiandae voluptates ipsam non quos ducimus. Quaerat quia illum nemo rerum tempore dolor ullam.
Beatae cupiditate voluptatibus consequuntur tempore cupiditate non. Veritatis non maiores neque voluptates eos dicta. Iste ea dicta laudantium est. Quo dolorem repellendus molestiae animi aut est ad. Magni ullam voluptas debitis aut corporis repudiandae.
Quo eaque quam non repellendus incidunt est. Possimus pariatur perspiciatis quod corporis. Animi sit itaque nihil est quo dolorem. Minus assumenda quis sint est nostrum maxime id. Eaque molestiae nihil molestias eius fuga incidunt quae. Mollitia officia eveniet ut nobis reprehenderit sit. Totam sed corrupti accusantium nihil esse incidunt natus beatae.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...