Hi Everyone,
I am lucky to be in a situation where I have been given two offers and I really need a bit of guidance to pick which one I should take. For a little background out of me, I am a year out of college, and have worked for a pretty strong multifamily fund on a year long acquisitions analyst contract. I was unfortunately only offered more contract work instead of a salaried offer so I decided to apply out and see what I could get. I have narrowed down to two offers but am extremely torn between the two.
The first offer is for a multifamily development shop as a capital markets analyst doing some of their debt and equity sourcing/number crunching. It is a decent sized shop that has done about 14 billion dollars of development in its lifetime so it is relatively stable. I know development is strong and could probably lead to a lot of good exit ops, however I am afraid I may pigeonhole myself into multifamily (no argus etc.) The other huge downside to this role is that it is in a different city. This means that it would be an hour fifteen to an hour thirty commute each way for the next 7 months until my lease ends and I can move down there. At that point my rent would go up a lot (as I currently have the ability to live with friends in my current situation to split rent) and I would have to leave having a close by social life/girlfriend close by to move to a new city. This job is offering 80k +15% bonus (could probably negotiate up higher if needbe).
The second offer is from a retail brokerage team at Colliers as an analyst. The main broker is pretty high volume (has done over 2 billion in sales) and seems like a great guy to learn from. They just moved over from a different brokerage, hence are hiring a new analyst. Here I would be doing the analyst work for the team (not cold calling thankfully) in both the excel model that they use and in Argus. They have a ton of dealflow, and it would give me a chance to break into a different asset class/use Argus. This place is only ten minutes away from my current house, and pays 70k + commission split (which I have been told should be in the 15k+ range on an average year given how high volume the team is). The downside of this place being that I would be going into brokerage which I have heard from recruiters is somewhat inferior as far as exit opps. I have however been told that due to my personality, I would be a pretty successful broker so this may be an avenue I want to try.
The location, asset class, and chance of liking brokerage has made me lean towards the Colliers gig, however a recruiter has started to make me second guess myself. I am now afraid that I will not be able to leave brokerage in case I don't like it and won't get many looks from principle side/development if I get stuck with the brokerage stigma. Any advice in this situation would be very much appreciated.
TL/DR Will going into brokerage hinder me from getting into the principle/development side again?
TL/DR - yes
Stop being a dumbass
OP, ultimately only you can make the decision for what you want to do. Having experienced both, I personally would always lean toward a role on the principal side, but I do not discount factors such as an absurd commute (although you could always break your lease earlier and move earlier), and leaving your social life behind (although girlfriends can move with you, friends can come visit, etc). Also, being a capital markets analyst at a development shop is different than being a developer for sure.
You will not get "stuck" in brokerage at all if you don't want to be and you actively network to leave, so I wouldn't worry about that. If Colliers' retail team is strong in your market, starting with them is a good option as well.
There is no real wrong answer here. Make sure you take into account all of the factors that go into the decision (who you'll be working for, who you'll be working alongside, etc.) and then pull the trigger on whatever feels best. You can reassess in 6 month, 12 months, 18 months, etc.
Thank you for both this response and to the DM. Is being a capital markets analyst an inferior position to being a regular development analyst?
I really do appreciate all of this insight. Truthfully up until a couple of days ago, I was really set on working for Colliers. They seem like an extremely strong team with not only a lot of dealflow but also would allow me to experience brokerage. What has been giving me doubts lately is a couple recruiters have said that it may be harder for me to get a principle job down the road and they do not want me to regret my decision. Your response has given me a lot of clarity thank you!
What do you mean by inferior? Who are you concerned about weighing it as inferior (REPE, REIT, etc)?
CM can be useful for a multitude of different paths going forward.
Please listen to this advice as my past self failed to follow it and was miserable as a result. If you have an opportunity on the principal side and you want your career to be on the principal side DO NOT GO INTO BROKERAGE. I worked at two of the top 5 IS firms in the country and the amount of analysts vying to get an opportunity like the one at the development shop was huge because the entire IS space is overcrowded and there is no more room to develop all of the talent at the bottom.
Culturally, brokerage becomes a miserable place for those that do not want to be a broker because the too often terrible experiences at the analyst/support level ar not worth it unless you have confidence you can build a book of business and become a producer. Also, you will want to kill yourself if you have to run shopping centers through Argus for 3-4 years every day because you get stuck as the Argus guy and can't move to the principal side
What market you in?
I don't work in brokerage anymore. Worked in TX whole career.
When you say stuck as the Argus guy, do you mean that in brokerage you do not develop skills that will allow for good exit opps after? The thing I am definitely most concerned about is making sure I am set up for my future. Also, I second what market are you in? I am in Orange County so I have no idea if there is less or more opportunity there.
You learn how to crank out models and pitchbooks, but don't get a well-rounded real estate education across things like site selection, development/construction management, operations, and accounting. At the end of the day investment sales is just that, a sales job. People can make tons of money in the space but only through originating their own deals.
@Malta Monkey" makes a similar commute to you (but LA into OC). The commute can be soul sucking and (if you're going to SD) the Oceanside traffic will get old. On the flip side, the colliers office isn't in the best location and I would imagine they're the 3rd best team (at best) behind CB and JLL (HFF). I think the turnover for their analyst job has been high so I would ask why they left/ where they went. There are upsides to both and downsides to both. When you're in traffic you'll wish you took the brokerage job and when you're sick of co-tenancy provisions you'll wish you were at the multi shop.
I wouldn't worry too much about exit opps at the brokerage shop, especially because it's at the analyst level i.e. you're still working in models, writing deal books, etc. If you were a full on sales associate and you were doing more sales work than analytical work, then that would be a completely different story.
My belief is that as long as you are analyzing real estate, it doesn't matter (all that much) what kind of shop you are at. There are plenty of transferable skills that are being developed that can translate to the principal side. Just my 2 cents.
Brokerage is like sales & trading--there is no exit opp, this is the exit baby! Honestly though, sales is the end game, so if you don't want to be like your boss, go to the FO now. 75 mins each way is just a commute to the other side of town in some cities.
I had to learn the hard way! Hahaha
Principal, not principle.
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You didn't really share what your longer term future goals are. It sounds like you are not sure yet and are trying to learn through work experience, which is totally fine.
Without taking a position on either role, I would caution you about the level of analysis you will be running as an "analyst" on a retail leasing team. Unless your team is doing retail investment sales, I would expect the analysis component is limited to NPV and whole dollar cash flow calculations--not full acquisitions level modeling. Principal-side employers are going to generally make that same assumption in the future.
As someone who has done both (leasing brokerage and principal side development), it is definitely more difficult to transfer out of brokerage to principal-side development work than vice versa. Your natural transition point is going to be to developers that work in retail or mixed-use with a heavy retail component--keep that in mind.
Just wanted to say don't let the recruiter sway you. They're going after their own commission $$$ and are going to act in their own self interest
First year Wake grads at a family developer in Charleston need to relax on the definitive career path advice... OP - choose the one you like better, either are fine.
I've never had trouble placing an analyst on the principal side, however, my team (IS, Tier-1 market) does NOT promote analysts into production. They're ARGUS only analysts, typically H-1B visas w/ top-15 MBAs, and usually stay 18-24 months. We expect to place them, some brokers don't. It's miserable work, but they have tremendous success making the jump. I wouldn't even know, but we're definitely not even sniffing "top-whatever" IS teams globally - whatever that's based on.
The garbage about not seeing things from the principal side is false unless the team is full of hacks. The big dogs want you to make their lives easier/faster, our analyst pit has worked in just about every fund/institution in our space's model. It's the $50MM AUM secondary market shops that protect their models like Gollum, then wonder why they're getting passed on for B&F. A successful IS team is going to expose you to more deal flow - period. Sure you won't learn management of a construction site, but in return your modeling will be far more advanced (if your manager doesn't suck). Respect to all the developers, but top IS teams are not routinely selling raw dirt- your broker perception is jaded.
Just don't cross over into brokerage, you'll get stigmatized. If you're expected to make the jump into production quickly, run. If it's an IS/leasing hybrid, run. If you have contacts in your market, ask about the managers rep. $2B in total sales may seem like a lot, but that's a shitty year to some. No firm, outside of ES, has the cache to overlook this step.
FYI - I did the reverse and went from development to IS (unheard of apparently). You can get lost in the shuffle and have a horrible experience on either side, which is why the TEAM is always most important. My real concern would actually be regarding the recent switch, especially if the manager left a team and started a new at Colliers. Lot's of launching pains, especially with someone who hasn't steered the ship before. Also, not ideal if it was a result of some of the M&A. Regardless, there's always a slowdown post shift. Food for thought. Also, seasoned development guys should chime in about slowing down a capital markets division this late in a cycle...
Solid post, would give more than one banana if I could.
What's your role at the firm? Sounds like you're overseeing analysts, but not in a production capacity?
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