Starting in IS
Hey folks,
Months ago I posted about doing an MSRE. After a lot of research, reading @CRE" posts about how 2-3 years is likely the best experience to maximize the impact of the masters, and recently getting my MA RE license, I have started looking into different avenues in commercial real estate in Boston.
So I'm headed into my senior year and will be taking on an internship in the fall that deals with helping brokers with leasing/doing market reports/advertising properties. It's not a ton of excel/financial stuff, but at least its CRE on my resume (even if its a bit of a weak internship). This summer I'm doing a finance internship at Fortune 50 company so I'm happy to hone my excel/analysis skills there.
My end goal is the work my way up at an REIT or REPE firm. I have looked around and the Boston area seems to be somewhat thin on roles that are not in brokerage. That's fine with me, I like to think I'm salesy, and I began to look into brokerage and have taken a huge interest in investment sales/capital markets.
I'd love to do my summer internship, continue into CRE in the fall, and bag an analyst gig at CBRE/JLL/HFF but I come from a state flagship and I'm wary my resume will fall to the wayside.
What is the best way to get started in investment sales? Is becoming an associate or "investment advisor" at a more regional firm still a viable path into REPE?
Also, I know pay can vary greatly in IS. Is there ever a base salary for first year associates, and how rare is a draw for a first year?
Cheers for any info guys.
Never worked at a brokerage but have friends in brokerage. Always was lead to believe it was excel heavy at the analyst level. Even if not, I wouldn't discount yourself by calling it a "weak internship", the internship will be what you make of it.
If you're looking for comp information for brokerage houses I suggest seeking out the RE Comp google spreadsheet in the forums. Many guys were in your position in the last few years and were generous enough to post their comp info - probably will give you a good idea for what to expect.
Cheers for the response!
Definitely checked it out and it's incredible how much variance there is between different brokers. I assume the various shops just have different pay schemes for entry level guys
Newmark is also really strong in Boston, as is Eastdil, I would add them both to your list. Even from a state school you can def network your way into these groups.
Also as far as I-Sales goes, if you want to work on the bigger deals your going to have to start as an analyst for one of these teams. This means primarily doing UW, Pitch Decks, OMs for a few years before they start to ease you into facing clients. If you want to start at a M&M type place working on small deals you can start as an associate but your gonna spend all day everyday cold calling.
I thought that, thanks for confirming. How competitive would hiring for one of those analyst roles be? I’ll have RE intern experience, the finance internship as I mentioned and a 3.65.
I was more-so looking into the M&M type shops simply because I wasn’t sure how competitive I was when stacked up against more “target” folk.
For what it's worth, while I can't remember if I've said 2-3 years before, I would say today that 1-2 years is an ideal amount of experience before an MSRE/MRED, trending toward just 1. I had 3 years prior and it was too long.
I really dont think 1 year would be ideal... a year isnt a long time at all. it takes like 6mo-1year to really get in the groove of a job IMO. Id say 2-3 is better
That was what I thought too. I was wrong.
MRED courses are, by necessity, taught to the lowest common denominator. You're going to have to be taught what a cap rate is, whether or not you already know what one is or not.
One benefit that I had with more experience is better internship and job opportunities, but if I were to do it again, I would have went to graduate school much, much earlier.
IS teams will hire young analysts with at least some experience in the Boston area. Your best bets are HFF or CBRE. HFF is constantly interviewing people and they keep a "bullpen" of potential analysts because of the amount of turnover there. The JLL acquisition might throw a wrench into this. JLL, Cushman, and Newmark will only hire experienced analysts (1-2 years at least in a real estate role). Eastdil has a small team in Boston with a handful of analysts. They hired a few out of college, but it'll be tough to break in there. There are always exceptions, but that tends to be the case. I came from an acquisitions role at a LIHTC shop to IS in the Boston area. I ran the gauntlet with all of these guys for almost a full year. They want Argus experience for non-multi-family or hotel, writing ability, and some finance background. The excel skills will come with time.
The REPEs/Developer/Owners in the Boston area tend to only hire experienced (2+ years) analysts. It obviously depends on the shop, but take a look at Rockpoint's associate pool on LinkedIn. They either worked REIB or other BIG real estate owners (Starwood). However, Beacon Capital takes on interns that eventually become analysts. It depends on the shop. Working 2-3 years with an investment sales team will give you a lot of options and the experience needed to work with the majority of real estate owner/operators.
Good luck with the hunt.
2-3 in IS at any shop? I'm currently going to work for an IS shop in NYC that's smaller. Guess it's the experience that counts more than where it is?
I would be careful with HFF right now due to merger. If you want to go over there, make sure their office in that city is substantially dominant over JLL's.
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