Real estate guidance as an undergrad
I’m currently in undergrad and I am interested in real estate. Do any of you have recommendations on different resources I can use to learn more about the real estate industry? I know this is really broad, but I feel like there are so many different paths (development, brokerage, REIT, etc.) that I just don’t really know where to start as a student. Also, what are some internships to help prepare for a good start in the industry?
Again forgive my ignorance I’m just not well versed in the many fields within real estate.
I'm still in UG too and relatively new to CRE. This site has so much information just search around for stuff. There are a lot of different paths in this industry, and you'll probably change your mind a few times on which path you want to take as you learn and talk to people in the industry. Other than that, some good starting points: https://www.adventuresincre.com/ and http://astudentoftherealestategame.com/
Thanks for these, have you found that school prestige matters as much as other finance fields?
I don't think it does. If you're interested, look around websites for companies in your area, and read the bio's of the people that work there. In my area, the most common schools people come from are A&M, UT, and UH.
You are asking the right questions.
I feel reading online can give you a good idea of all the fields in real estate. This forum is a great place. "The Real Estate Game" by William Poorvu is pretty standard reading. Once you identify a direction that interests you, listen to the masters of that field. I am in private equity/investment so i listen to/read anything by Sam Zell, Jon Gray, etc. I also listen to some hedge fund managers to see what they are up to, I read a lot of Byron Wien. I study the careers of individuals who are in my field.
What are you studying in school? What interests you about real estate?
Thanks for the recommendations, studying finance. Acquisitions seems interesting to me right now, so I’m going to do some further research.
Cool, acquisitions is the role most related to finance I would say. That is what I do, I was a finance major also. I do development and acquisition modeling/sourcing/asset management/financing etc. I traded stocks and currencies full time before undergrad. I love inefficiencies in markets. Real estate will always be an inefficient market relative to anything that can get centralized. That is what brought me to real estate.
Acquisitions has the most upside in my mind, i could be biased. Luckily I enjoy it more than the other options.
I’d recommend three things:
1) Major in finance (if it is an option). Finance is by far the most practical business degree you can get, and sets an excellent foundation for multiple paths. The beginning of my junior year, I wanted to be an equity analyst at an institutiona asset manager. Three months later, I wanted to be in investment banking. A year later I chose commercial real estate as my path. Studying finance allowed me to be nimble and change my path as my interests changed.
2) Learn all the different facets of he finance industry. Know the difference between sell-side and buy-side. Have a basic understanding of investment banking, private equity, etc. Why learn what these roles are when they aren’t related to CRE? Because there is infinitely more information online about investment banking and PE careers than commercial real estate. The business models do transfer over to the CRE world.
3) Once you have a foundation level understand of the above, learn what the difference between a brokerage, development, and private equity shop. Understand how they all play a part in the bigger industry.
Just take things in bite size chunks. Learn the basics first and then go from there. Following this forum is a good start. You’ll be surprised how much you start to pick up by hanging around on here.
My only advice is if your college offers real estate related courses, take them.
If there are no such courses, take business/econ courses.
It will be easier getting a job out of school with that background in the CRE realm.
Do your research/Google things. scshtx 's blog recommendations are good, but you can find those things and others on your own too. You need to be inquisitive and seek knowledge. You know some of the lingo, such as "REIT," so a good exercise would be to start down a path of learning about REITs, for instance, and see where that leads you. Learn all you can about REITs. Inevitably you will stumble upon other terms you won't know. You'll read something like "cap rate compression" and you'll think to yourself "shit, what is a cap rate?" and you'll google that. You'll read "Capitalization rate, commonly known as cap rate, is a rate that helps in evaluating a real estate investment. Cap rate = Net operating income / Current market value (Sales price) of the asset. Description: Capitalization rate shows the potential rate of return on the real estate investment." and think "Well what's net operating income? How does that differ from gross operating income? And what the hell is operating income anyhow?" and you'll Google all of those things. Eventually you'll get to the point where you might get stuck or you need additional information, or you'll know a ton but don't know how to relay that to someone to get a job. Then you can post here and someone can help you.
Outside of Googling, if you're in undergrad, take any real estate and finance classes you can take. Start reading Biznow, Curbed, and the Business Journal for your city or city of choice. Get a student membership to ULI or something of the sort and start reading materials/going to events. Consume as much as you can in as many different forms as you can.
At your point, any internship is valuable as long as it is in commercial real estate and not selling houses. Even a property management or construction gig wouldn't hurt. This is the perfect time for you to experience anything and everything because at the very worst, you realize you hate one aspect and choose not to pursue it further. Real Estate in general is very big on in-industry experience and very flexible with how they define in-industry experience...but very cautious of hiring people without any because of how (relative) easy it is to get experience. Get out there and find something. (and feel free to ask for advice as to how, but do your research beforehand)
Hey there. I'm still in UG at a non-target school (Pac-12) and honestly the fact you are here is already a huge step towards success in real estate. WSO has been great in terms of learning new things and receiving advice on career moves in real estate. -The most important thing to start doing if you are serious about CRE is networking and cold-emailing potential brokers/developers. Show a GENUINE interest in real estate and enough knowledge to hold a decent conversation and should be able to network yourself into an internship/analyst role at most brokerage shops. As far as internships go, my approach was simple. Work for the family-owned property management companies who own multifamily in my area, learn the business, and slowly transition to the brokerage side after gaining their trust and guidance. I'm 21 right now going back for my senior year and I probably have a decent 5-10 clients already that would give me a listing or buy a property from me, simply because I worked for their previous company and made a great impression. Udemy is a great website that sells training courses from people in the industry, so for 15 bucks, you can buy real estate modeling courses. This is a great way to get some exposure to financial modeling. Also, adventuresincre with Spencer Burton does a lot of great work and honestly watching any case study on Youtube will help you with the analytical side of commercial real estate. If you have any questions feel free to Pm me, I'm currently working at a brokerage company on the underwriting side of value-add properties in the Southern California region.
You should watch every episode of Million Dollar Listing
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