A little background, I am a third year associate at a family investment and development office in the Tri State area and work directly supporting the principals in acquisition and development. One of the problems our shop has is we do not have any middle level guys on the deal team. So while I have access to decision makers, I really don’t have anyone teaching me the technical skills. What technical skills and software do people find valuable? I am proficient in argus and excel. Should I get comfortable in software like blue beam? How dangerous do we really need to be in design/construction?What soft skills do people find valuable?
Also, curious to hear opinion on comp for roles like mine. I am 25 years old and have an MBA from a non target school.
The modeling side of RE is not rocket science. If you can build a dynamic cf model you are fine. The soft skills are much more important to transition to more senior roles. My firm doesn't do much on the development side so I will let others speak to that. On the acquisitions side, as a mid level professional you should be able to go beyond just putting the numbers into a spreadsheet and be able to craft and articulate the investment thesis on transaction. You should also be able to identify potential transaction landmines that could come up during DD and prevent them from blowing up in your face. You should also begin developing relationships and sourcing transactions. However, this can be difficult at a FO if it began as a RE company because the family members often take on the role of the deal makers.
Regarding comp, I am of a similar experience level, MCOL, no MBA. Currently at 85k/15k base/bonus.
This is pretty common outside of the big name shops and is also a problem at my company. Very few people in their 40s in this industry compared to 50s and 60s and 20s and 30s. The recession wiped a generation out.
Bluebeam is great if you're going to be marking up plans. I swear by it.
Design/Construction level of danger required varies wildly based on role and firm. Knowing enough to ask the right questions is the goal though. You don't need to be the expert - it's your job to keep the expert accountable and inspire/push them to achieve their best work.
As far as soft skills, the absolute most essential, beyond the obvious like intelligence and professionalism, is a sense of urgency. Things need to be handled yesterday, not whenever you get around to it. Real Estate is a rapid response industry, and "time kills all deals" and "time is money" didn't become sayings out of nowhere. Act like the owner and drive everything to completion.
Three fantastic comp resources:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZG2FIjkUJKxJDgqcc-56E4uLADlr3qe…
http://celassociates.com/pdf/cel2019compensationsurveyresults.pdf
https://www.adventuresincre.com/salary-commercial-real-estate/
For me, I feel that being able to change gears quickly is very important. It's very rare that I get to sit down at my desk and crush through a task. It's typically interrupted by various stakholders wanting time sensitive information. As CRE stated with time killing deals... it's the truth.
Had a nice well thought through response that WSO deleted. In short, my conclusion was that good acq guys are cool to deal with and bad ones are douchebags. 100% of my 2019 off-market volume went to the same 2 acquisition teams - i knew they'd get it done, and i knew i'd enjoy doing it.
This isn't the answer anyone is looking for, but organization is the most important skill. Development folks don't need to be great at anything, you hire for that. You need to be able to assess incoming information, pass that along to the person who is responsible for it, and track that part of the project as it develops so it doesn't lag and drag down the entire development. Now extend that one or two items a day to every day for 2 years, and that one consultant or contractor becomes 75 different people at 25 different firms. So every day you probably add one more thing to your "to track" list and only take one off a week.
That requires an insane amount of concentration, memory, and organizational ability, and that's before value-add skills like design or underwriting etc. If you can keep yourself organized and not sink under the weight a million different things dragging on your time, you'll learn everything else in time
> This isn't the answer anyone is looking for, but organization is the most important skill.
Different context but similar theme: staying current on what various outside parties are focused on is a lot more work than it should be. For brokers (where I came from), this meant tracking buyer, seller, and lender appetites. On the principal side (especially GP), I imagine tracking LP and lender appetites is the equivalent.
As others have pointed out, networking is one of the central responsibilities as you rise in the industry. Having a process for staying current with your peers/partners/counterparts is key to outward-facing organization.
I always felt that one way to solve this would be to create an online network specific to the industry where you could be as private or public as you want. WSO kind of proves there's some demand for this, although I'm more interested in something that replaces my manually updated contact list.
To put my money where my mouth is, I built and deployed a simple first pass at this. Not surprisingly, it faces a chicken and egg issue to getting traction. But I think the value-add is there.
BDE
Negotiating PSAs and JVs is usually the next step after you learn how to underwrite.
Mindset. Are you a deal / transaction guy or someone who wants to build something great but could take years.
If you are both, work for a smaller shop. It’s harder to prioritize and be great at both however.
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