Transition to REIB

DBCooper:

My initial reaction is that you are going to need B-school to get a BB associate gig. MM shops would be your target. You'd be in good shape for REPE at some places, but it depends on culture.

RE is a little weird though, in that if there is opening and you know the right people, you can sneak in. This can be done much more easily than in traditional high finance roles. I guess it's a benefit to being "pigeon-holed" in RE.

Hope that helps.

This definitely helps a lot. I kind of figured that I should target MM, but I'll see what networking at BBs can get me too. Quick follow up, are there any MM banks that have a particularly strong reputation in REIB or is it just the normal players? Just wondering cause I've heard banks like Merrill and Deutsche are considered to be the top players in BB REIB.

re-ib-ny:

One thing I would note is that of the three firms the OP mentioned--Eastdil, CBRE, and JLL--Eastdil is the only one that I feel has a "real" investment bank. The Eastdil investment bankers are Wells Fargo's REIB unit, so they actually work on what I would consider genuine investment banking transactions (IPOs and other public market offerings, REIT M&A, etc.). The other firms use the term "investment banking" in its literal sense, i.e. they raise debt and equity for transactions, but it is generally for individual properties and portfolios so the content of the work is indistinguishable from plain old brokerage (can a car salesman call himself an automotives investment banker because he helps to raise debt and equity for the acquisition of vehicles?).

So in other words, I think if your offer is at Eastdil then yes, I think you could easily seek to transition to a bulge bracket investment bank's real estate investment banking practice. You may even have some luck in other coverage sectors if there is a surge in hiring (which happens from time to time). Your odds are much lower at JLL or CBRE.

Thank you for clearing that up a bit. From my understanding, Eastdil's true investment banking groups are housed out of the offices on the East Coast. With that being said, would someone in one of Eastdil's offices on the west coast, that may be more focused on Investment Sales/Debt Placement, have similar opps to the guys working in the offices on the East Coast doing more of the traditional REIB work?