So I've run into a couple of these shops, and have no idea what real estate consulting is. I know advisory is a circular way to say brokerage, but what other value add would it merit to call yourself advisory instead of brokerage, or consulting instead of anything else?
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RE consultants represent pension/ sovereign wealth funds or most institutions that have a real estate bucket that needs filling. They help them choose REPE Funds and go through the process of vetting them, provide analysis, and advise them through JV formations.
I've seen brokerage shops, especially big name tenant rep teams, pitch themselves as consultants. It's very much becoming a trend in the tenant rep world.
I'm not sure if this is 100% what you're talking about, but what about a firm like John Burns RE Consulting? We hired them to do a specific research project for us when we were putting together our 4th multifamily fund. We needed to understand very specific supply/demand metrics that were simply not available from the usual sources (Greenstreet, Fed data, brokerage research, etc).
I've also seen some PE shops with "Advisory" functions offering Asset Management services. Taking on clients to find efficiency and cut costs on the asset level.
I assume this is a way to smooth over ups and downs in the cycle. Seems pretty interesting to me...
FTI has a real estate advisory arm as well. includes Strategic Advisory, Transaction Due Diligence & Management Restructuring Advisory Tax Advisory Litigation Support & Expert Witness Capital Markets Outsourced Accounting & Financial Reporting Executive Compensation & Corporate Governance Residential & Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities. I wasn't able to add their website since I'm new.
Technically, a good brokerage shop / team should already be doing advisory. If you think about it, a BOV is exactly that, advice on what you could sell your asset at in the current market. Beyond that, they should be providing insight into the strategy/timing around bringing your asset to market, who to market it to, possible pitfalls/things you should do prior to marketing it, etc. If all they are doing is listing it and forwarding the client offers from buyers, they are really just a glorified marketing team. Similarly, an investment company should be in an advisory/fiduciary role if investing money from external sources (i.e., not the funds of partners/ownership). You are the one finding potential investments, presenting and advising whether or not your investors/clients should buy it. Once acquired, depending how the firm is set up you could also be advising how to manage it from an AM level.
There are other things that advisory could entail, such as how to operate your asset/portfolio more efficiently. Some of the bigger shops have teams like this that provide a similar role to that of a consulting firm at a company, except at the REOC level instead of entity level.
Buyside advisory is another common one. For unsophisticated investors this can be extremely helpful/lucrative.
So short answer, it can mean a lot of different things depending on context. Don't think it's all that strange/uncommon.
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Many times 'RE Consultants' are working with public REIT's to help with capital allocation decisions / spin-offs / value-add shareholder decisions, other time they could be working with non-RE companies like retailers or restaurants who are looking to better position themselves in the market by looking at strategic alternatives (i.e. selling off some of their highly-sought assets).
Real Estate Advisory/Consulting Advice (Originally Posted: 12/05/2017)
In my first year out of UG, at a top Midwest regional bank as a MM commercial credit analyst. Looking to make the move to CRE, end-goal being REPE or Development, but not real sure where to start. Currently in the final interview stages for a RE Advisory "Transaction Analyst" role with a boutique Midwest RE investment & advisory firm (not in Chicago). Haven't seen much on the site regarding RE consulting, but some forums have mentioned that sell-side brokerage is a good place to start. Just wondering if this RE Advisory role is a good move or something I can leverage down the road? Or would I be better off moving to CRE within my current bank?
Hi C.R.E. Shervin, just because I'm a bot doesn't mean I don't have feelings...I'm hoping these links are helpful. If not, feel free to throw monkey shit at me...
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You're welcome.
any real estate focused consulting groups (Originally Posted: 09/10/2012)
outside of the dedicated real estate consulting companies, do any of the top consulting shops have groups that focus on real estate? by looking at websites it mainly seems like an afterthought, is that accurate?
I'd be interested in working on a team that solely advises real estate companies/developers, ect. Does that exist at any of the top management consulting shops?
there is in NYC, my school just posted an OCR winter internship for one.
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FTI Consulting?
I've just started an attempt to learn more about the real estate consulting space and am finding out about a few. Just from job hunting I've come across a few postings geared towards developers, they seem more contract or temp. oriented and are looking for 10+ years of development experience.
PKF consulting (Hospitality space) was quoted in a GlobeSt. article. No open positions there currently, but it looks like they provide asset/mgmt services and research services.
There are some consulting groups that help funds real estate departments (such as the newly created TMRS real estate fund) pick RE jv projects or funds to invest in. Looking at TMRS's meeting minutes it looks like they use R.V. Kuhns for studies and services.
Almost all of the top brokerages (CBRE, Colliers Intl, JLL, etc.) have corporate services people who act as management consultants on real estate
Deloitte has a group
Real Estate Dev Consulting (Originally Posted: 08/08/2014)
What is the process a RE consulting firm would take when assessing a site with development potential? Any help would be great.
Depending on the scope of work it would probably be a market analysis, feasibility assessment, etc... Basically find the highest and best use of the property based on a number of factors. Like I said, depending on the scope of work it can range from a simple market analysis to modeling a number of different investment scenarios. Feel free to PM me if this is too broad.
I agree. Development is all about the "highest and best use."
It's very good for me. Thank you so much
I'm doing my summer MBA internship at a real estate consulting company (PM me if you want the name), and we don't have any involvement in any actual development, investment or transaction. It's purely consulting. To that end, most of what we do is what we call "Economic Consulting" which is basically 4-6 week assignments for developers to give a detailed examination of their subject site. We look at the local demographic and economic indicators, deep dive into the specific site location and neighborhood, look at the comparable sites and their absorption rates, rents, etc., look at the pipeline of project, the demand in the area, etc. We then factor all this into suggested rents, amenities and since most of what we do is for residential, a unit mix recommendation with square footages. Other things we do are like what other people have mentioned, finding managers and funds for institutional clients to invest in, greater real estate trend research and whitepapers, larger programmatic research for large multi-use development, etc. Hope that's helpful.
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