Which Offer Should I Take? (Analyst at Valuation & Advisory Services VS. Capital Markets)
Hi, I am a recent graduate from architecture, interested in real estate investment and development (PE, Project Financing, etc.)
Fortunately, I got two junior position offers from the real estate service firms: Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE, JLL, Savills
First one is **Capital Markets Analyst ** (Investment Sales and Transactions)
Second one is** Valuation & Advisory Analyst** (interviewer said the responsibilities would be focused more on the valuation aspect, which including collecting data from cold-calling, site visits and establishing cash flow analysis)
I plan to get either CFA or MBA after few years of my career. And for the exit strategies, I am considering investment arms (REPE, AMC) OR Consulting (Deloitte, KPMG FAS - development/investment consulting)
With that in mind, which option should I take? I would like to maximize learning and build good foundation in real estate, so that I can jump to the next level. I would really appreciate your opinions and insights.
Thanks!
capital market pays more，get some experiences and try to get into capital market at GSE, they do over $100B securitization a year combined in multifamily, bigger than everybody else
Couldn't agree more.
Source: Went from Valuation Advisory > CMBS Credit Analyst > GSE Capital Market's Analyst. I've saw more deal-flow in 6 months than I saw my entire year as a Credit Analyst.
Holy crap man, are you a paid troll from GSE? All you do is post how much volume they do.
Why not? Maybe you need to understand the securitization business, and make easy money with just a few hundred employees instead of doing the hard works in the field
Alright buddy, I was half joking in that post but if you want to take shots - tell me more about how much preftige is in the 'securitization' business, which is only tangentially related to the underlying real estate itself.
Other comments:
1) Just because a massive organization has high transaction volumes, doesn't mean the deals / experience you actually work on are high quality, regardless of sector (see: AIG, Lehman, etc.). The volume isn't what makes or breaks the experience in and of itself. If your headcount is accurate, that means that $100B / 200 (let's say for argument sake) equals 0.5 B/year/person.... I got news for you, if you're at a big PE shop or a heavy hitting brokerage, you're going to underwrite 4-5x that EASY in a year, and you'll learn deal the DD and closing/execution process more intimately as well (even if the # of closings are less).
2) I probably understand the securitization business better than you ever will because I'm the one actually putting together the investment briefs that you and your crew are going to rely on since you've never even toured a building - so get off your high horse ('Easy money' =/= smart money).
3) OP asked what would set him up better in the future - In this instance, capital markets at a brokerage shop actually working on live deals on the front end of the process (as opposed to the credit side) sets OP up way better for things like REPE or development.
Capital markets
Is the investment sales role an analyst position? Assuming you will be running numbers all day, I think the IS role will be better to leverage later due to being closer to the transaction. You will also create a network of investors your team works with.
The valuation role is a strong role as well. It will teach you a similar skill set. It sounds like it is probably an appraisal team? Although you can get to the same spot with this role, I would do the investment sales role. It is probably viewed as a stronger foundation coming out of investment sales instead of appraisal due to being closer to the transaction. Additionally in investment sales you will see why investors like or don’t like transactions, etc. whereas in appraisal you won’t get that knowledge, you will appraise the property as part of due diligence when the transaction is already set to occur, and the firm needs to check the box they have an appraisal. Please let me know if this valuation role is not an appraisal role and I will edit this post to reflect the update.
I really appreciate your advice!
Yes, it is a junior analyst role for investment sales (Capital Markets). I was told that, as a junior analyst, I would be doing preparation of RFPs&IM and cash flow analysis. Also job posting says the major tasks are: investment sales, RE Acqusition advisory, international property sales advisory and finance structuring advisory.
And Yes, Valuation&Advisory is the appraisal position. In fact, the head of this team is RICS holder (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyor). I believe I will be doing due dilligence and analysis thru proprietary cash flow model. Also they said it is more about valuation and 'reporting' duties. Job posting says, major responsibilities are: preparation of valuayion report, market research, cash flow analysis(income/comparables/cost approaches)
Thank you for your opinion! Here are the updates and let me know if you have more feedbacks for me. Based on my research and considering all the feedbacks, I would probably take capital markets analyst position!
It sounds like you are in a Canada or the U.K.? Please keep in mind my thoughts are for the USA and the markets might be different. I would take the investment sales role. You will understand why certain buyers buy, etc. it will be more transaction focused. I personally believe this will prepare you for a role on the buy side better than appraisal. Additionally, both of these jobs as you move up are about sales and selling your services. Although there are less sales transactions, the fees are larger and upside, on the most part, is probably higher. There is more volume in appraisal, however.
In whichever role you decide, make sure it’s somethint you enjoy. Don’t take a role because this forum is telling you to take it. Everyone will have a different opinion. If you think it will be more fun and interesting for you to take the valuation role, do that. No one here can tell you what you will enjoy and be more successful in / set you personally up for long term success.
Both will give you a decent foundation in real estate but I would choose the Capital Markets role. Valuations might expose you to a broader set of assignments but the hands-on transaction experience you'll get from the Capital Markets role beats all of that in my opinion, especially given where you want to exit to.
I've worked with both types of teams from and the modelling/analysis from the Capital Markets teams have been more in-depth and sophisticated than any of the models I've seen from the Valuations/appraisal teams.
Most if not everyone will have MRICs in firms like Jll/cbre/Savills/kf/cw since it sounds like you're in the UK) so that in itself is nothing special. That being said, go for cap markets role
Agree here, the closer you are to the actual deals getting done will position you better for REPE. Depending on what shops you go for you may or may not need the MBA as an aside.
Investment Sales > Valuations. It's not even close.
I have been a commercial appraiser for 3.5 years (including 1-yr as intern my senior year of college) with two national firms and can say the experience has been decent. I was weak analytically after graduating undergrad and couldn't get into capital markets, but have a strong enough understanding of the economics and attention to detail to transition now if i wanted to. Lots of weak resumes in appraisal, even at big firms in Dallas-Fort Worth, but can be a decent place to start for someone motivated to learn.
I am considering a transition into equity research or b.val now and believe my skills will be well suited to either field.
If they are both at brokerage firms then I doubt the responsibilities would differ that heavily for a junior position. CM requires a lot of valuation skills and credibility to make deals happen, so either one you'll be crushing argus runs for a couple years before you move on. Brokers and landlords all know each other well, so if you can get under a really strong lead broker then you can set yourself up well to go into REPE or Investment management after your transition
Capital market pays more,get some experiences and try to get into capital market at GSE, they do over $100B securitization a year combined in multifamily, bigger than everybody else.
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