I am trying to determine which job would better strengthen my chances of working at a brokerage like HFF, Eastil, etc down the road. I am split between the decision of pursuing to work for a regional cre brokerage or to work on a cre team as a credit analyst for a regional bank. Which path would you choose?
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IMO if your goal is to get into investment sales at those firms, why not take the cre brokerage gig? Will you be joining a strong team or will be fending for yourself?
Jimbo my goal is to get into investment sales. The brokerage team is strong IMO.
The investment sales job sounds like it would be a good choice then (as long as you're sure you don't want to do debt placement). Word of caution though I would make sure the firm still has a good reputation in town because both of the firms you mentioned can be total prestige whores.
If it's a shitty firm, even if it is in fact investment sales, then the only way I see you making it to Eastdil or any firm like that is by personally killing it as a broker. Be careful out there. I'd take the CRE job at the regional bank. HFF and Eastdil operate in a cozy bubble of limited institutional relationships. Selling crappy user buildings or leasing crappy suburban office space is a totally different world.
Of course, if the OP is a complete badass and will take the world into his own hands, then he can control his destiny through any brokerage role. But knowing the attitudes on this board and knowing how rare that personality is among young entry-level people in the twenty-first century, I wouldn't count on that.
take the brokerage gig. your value add proposition to an investment sales team seeking a long term addition will be: a) demonstrated market expertise; b) proven ability to hustle; c) valuation underwriting experience (probably 3/4 in importance on this list for entry level analyst); d) market relationships with local owners, brokers, developers. Brokerage is definitely the best way to get everything except the underwriting experience, which you can easily demonstrate your commitment to by getting an argus certification and taking REFM/BIWS online classes.
Thanks for the quality feedback guys
Should I stay in my acquisition role or shift into some place like Eastdil? (Originally Posted: 01/16/2014)
Hi all,
I've been fortunate enough to work as an acquisition analyst for a pretty reputable real estate company for the past however many months since graduation. Of course my goal is to one day become an owner/investor myself. long story short, does it make sense for me to shift over to a firm like Eastdil from my current acquisition role? Or do people from places like Eastdil shift over to acquisition after their stint at the company? Am I back tracking? I'm not entirely familiar with the career path in Real Estate. All I know is that I've been incredibly fortunate with this opportunity, as it is one that doesn't come by often. When I tell people I work in acquisitions at my age, they are somewhat in shock. Is this a fair reaction?
Thanks again.
It really depends of what type of role you want to take on. You can progress to your goal both ways but one is an analytical path and possibly more structured while the other is more of a relationship/transactional path and far less structured.
Two means to the same end and really depends on the personality of the person, what you want to do day to day and the specifics of what company you work for and what you would be moving to (and more specifically the team you would be working with inside that company). Only you can make that decision.
Good luck
If you are doing acquisitions at a good firm, stay put. You will build more of an owner/operator skillset in acquisitions, and probably meet more people than you would as an analyst at Eastdil.
Just my two cents
I recall a pair of nyc Eastdil brokers (who also had prior acquisition experience) started their own acquisitions shop after maybe ~5-7 years in the business and leverage all their contacts (relationships with legacy manhattan property owners) to source and acquire off market deals like the now Apple Store in Soho (and jv with the much bigger guys as a result of this value add). The critical piece in their success story was their time at Eastdil as they were owner focused and thus built out (and later leveraged upon) those critical relationships. The story of their company is in a few trade journals if you do some searching.
I would stay in acquisitions. However, you shouldn't ignore what you're good at/enjoy. One is sales, one is not.
Even if your end goal is to be an owner, if you think you could be awesome at selling, then don't ignore the broker path. You might move up faster. You might find yourself making twice as much, knowing twice as many people, and doing twice as many transactions. Sometimes it takes a long time to move up in acquisitions.
Thank you all for your input!! Nice to know the opinions of others
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