RE Compensation Negotiations / Expectations

There has been plenty of posts about junior level jobs within RE I wanted to reach out to see if anyone with more experience could provide me any insight.

Been working at a REPE firm with about $2.5B AUM for about 2 years currently investing out of a $650mm fund. Was recently told I would be promoted to Associate Director and prior title was Associate. My role is primarily finding acquisition opportunities for the West Coast markets and I report to the Head of Acquisitions.

Curious what people's expectations would be for compensation for Base / Bonus / Carry. Roughly 5 years of RE experience as LP Equity. Currently $115k base with 30% - 50% bonus with no carry. They told me they wanted me to think about comp package when we sit at for year-end review.

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I have put together several survey and data points which I think are helpful but was also thinking of backing into a total comp number by taking the total AM fees that we would generate from a typical year in my region which is 4-5 deals / year. Then taking assigning a percentage like 20%-25% of the total AM fee. Backs into like a $200k - $250k figure which aligns with the survey comps. I was thinking of asking for $140k and 50%+ bonus but willing to settle to $130k and 50%+ bonus. Does anyone have any insight on typical carry and structure?

 

Generally speaking, I've seen REPE be more carry/participation based and REIT's be more acquisition fee based. But it's all over the board. If you're focusing west coast and sourcing deals, with your experience level I think the all-in number can vary anywhere from 275-400 all-in. The lower end of that will be due to a higher base & defined % bonus target, whereas the higher end will be more performance based. How that translates is very firm dependent, but it seems like you've got a pretty good handle on it already. The numbers you threw out above didn't make me react very strongly one way or the other, FWIW (as in - 'wow that's a shitload' or 'wow he's lowballing himself').

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