Moving Cities in RE

People who had the experience of moving between cities in a repe or development career - how difficult was the transition? At what phase in your career did you do it and how long did it take to get comfortable at the new location?

I understand that a lot of local politics / code compliance elements of the development process are very different between cities and states, but from what i've heard the skills you learn working on one place are relatively easy to transfer as long as you are talking about a similar market/asset class, thinking like NYC to Cali/Chicago/etc. The industry just seems more region specific relative to other finance careers.

I work in NYC and have no plans to leave, but am curious what people's experience has been.

 

Don't have any experience in this unfortunately, looking to do this myself in 2020 so hopefully someone with some insight can answer.

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This is a fairly open-ended question and will depend greatly on your role in real estate.

The hard and soft skills you learn in any role will be easily transferable, although there will be new things to learn when moving. For example, if you're in property management - managing an asset in hot, humid climate will differ slightly than one in a cold, dry climate. This can be applied across the spectrum, from Property Management to Investment Management.

With all of that said, real estate is a relationship business. This becomes increasingly true as you progress further along in your career and even more if you don't work at some mega-REPE firm. The value you bring as a senior team member is going to be strongly connected to the local brokers, banks, contractors, and other service firms you have relationships with.

At the end of the day, real estate is a local game. The mega-REPE firms get a lot of press, but they barely scratch the surface of the real estate world at the end of the day. Therefore, moving can be extremely difficult as you're likely restarting those relationships. At a certain age and point in your career, you're best to find a place you want to be long-term and settle there, or at least in my opinion.

 

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