Real Estate

Hey everyone, Wondering if anyone has any interview experience with Tishman Speyer? Have an upcoming excel modelling test/interview and would be great to hear some thoughts. Best (1st year analyst - out of school)

30 Mar 2021

What the best method for modeling a FOF hypothetical? A) utilize the the 1, 3, and 5 yr average net return of the underlying operators or B) utilize assumptions of cash flow based on prefs and estimated appreciation of the underlying assets? i've modeled both methods and with A (using net return) and B (using IRR) the returns are within 15% of each other however the MOIC is very different. i also modeled in a refinance/recap of some sort in year 3 under method B. I know what i'm doing in application but am not an excel guru and am struggling to ensure i model the hypotheticals accurately to

09 Apr 2021

I don't see too many Real Estate Q&As so I thought I'd give it a go. Happy to answer any questions related to MF real estate, financing, path, etc. My Background: Graduated from a semi target school and sort of fell into a real estate consulting role at a boutique consulting firm that advises state pension funds (CalPERS/CalSTRS, etc.). I spent 3 years there before hopping to a west coast focused multifamily PE firm focused on development/value-add where I moved from an associate to VP, to Director. The firm gets its money mainly from pension funds but has several strong JV relationships with

05 Mar 2021

Dear members, I have a phone interview with Dartmouth Partners in London for the Analyst programme of Tristan Capital Partners (Real Estate fund) and I wanted to know if somebody did it and what topics/questions did they give? Thanks so much.

18 Jan 2021

As the title says, I'm currently trying to grasp which is generally the better route. I understand everyone has their own opinion on which is best, but I'm hoping to learn from you all to make that choice myself. These are the main things I understand about the two sides: GP (invests a smaller portion of equity) gets more hands on experience on the deal. Not only sourcing the deal upon acquisition but also executing the business plan to earn a promotion. Business plan work includes leasing, capital plans, development, redevelopment, etc. Lots of local expertise in a given region and asset

29 Oct 2020

Hi WSO! I have finally come to the conclusion that I will be buying my first apartment building as an investment. I feel like this is the best way to learn how to become a successful principal and although I am still in school, I want to start now. I am a senior in college with enough capital to be a GP on my first acquisition. I will need to raise money from limited partners in order to meet the down payment requirement. Still waiting for clarity in the market over the next 6 months but actively looking and receiving influx of deals. Looking for advice of DOs and DONTS when buying my first

24 Sep 2020

The following is an interview with RE Acquisitions Analyst and new WSO Blogger PinkPoloShorts (he is also available to answer your questions) Are you a professional and want to do an interview? View our interview template here and then email me your responses to [email protected] Q&A's and "How I Work" posts are also an option. Let me know! 1) I am a financial analyst in acquisitions at a small real estate private equity firm specializing in residential land development and management. 2) This is my first finance job and I started in January of this year. Prior to working at my current

24 Nov 2020

I am currently an underwriter for a regional bank who is a driver of CRE in the region. I make around 65k. I could be a lender in 1 year and make 80-100k. I am being poached by CBRE - a multifamily IS group - to be an analyst. They keep telling me the first couple of years will be rough but will guarantee that I make 70k the first two years. I am not sure which path to go. I want to make more money - I know that my bank is safer but the potential at CBRE is untouched. I have been wanting to get into acquisitions on the buy side but have been having a very tough time. Any advice on where the

25 Sep 2020

Hey all, I am a current senior in college, and I was very lucky and fortunate enough to receive offers from Freddie Mac as a capital markets analyst. Do you guys think starting a career as an analyst at a government-sponsored enterprise is a good choice for a beginning career? Any 2-cents from you guys would greatly be appreciated (Job prospect, exit opps, pay etc.)

12 Oct 2020

Right now I'm a second year asset management analyst at a private real estate firm, but I've found the work becoming incredibly tedious as the job (all the way up the chain) is just JV partner reporting and emailing all of our other teams to gather information. I majored in quantitative subjects in school and miss that critical thinking/analysis type of work, plus I've been coding on the side for about two years. Is there any path in RE that would use these types of skills or am I going to have to switch fields? I've been looking into some kind of CLO research or something but am having a hard

31 Aug 2020

I am a third-year analyst at a family office seeking advice on lateraling. We invest in core/core-plus assets around the country and AUM is north of $3B. Due to their permanent capital, the family (see IC) makes a lot of investment decisions based on the qualitative features of an asset (see trophy asset) rather than the returns analyses. Recently, things have gotten quite political at the office, which has resulted in high turnover and a huge drop in productivity. I don't see this going away soon and think it may be time to leave. I landed an offer from a smaller, opportunistic shop that

22 Aug 2020

I am starting at a new shop in a week. Will be working on real estate acquisitions, real estate development and small venture capital opportunities. My new employer is offering me a low-interest line of credit to co-invest in deals, to be used at my discretion. The line tops out at $25k/year, which for reference is about a third of the base comp. The interest and principal on the line get paid out as the deals perform. I am not very familiar with the various co-investment structures out there so I am wondering if anyone has any experience with this type of structure and what some of the

24 Aug 2020

Who is making loans in this environment? Have heard that many big banks like Wells Fargo are on the sidelines. It seems like the GSEs are lending, but with more structure, such as escrow requirements. My bank, about $20 B in assets, is lending, but it's still somewhat unknown what we can get approved. We're requiring full recourse, lower leverage, and it will probably take some money pledged for Debt Service in the event that tenants can't pay.

27 Apr 2020

Hi All I am a recent grad from a semi target uni for Economics (top 6-10 in the UK for Economics) and I have worked in Business Restructuring at a Big 4 for 18 months now where I am due to complete my ACA by summer 2022. Over the past six months or so I have been figuring out what career I would like to have and decided that Real Estate is what really excites. I feel like the ACA isn't teaching me much that is relevant and I will have to still wait another 2 years for it be complete, so I am wondering if it is best to try move into RE now. My long term aim is to end up in Acquistions at a REPE

20 Aug 2020

Trying to get an idea of what my chances are and what next steps I should take. Background: I have a social science undergrad and an MBA from a bottom of the barrel University. I was fortunate enough to do one internship at boutique a M&A firm, always with the intention to get a job in real estate. After graduation, the job hunt didn't really pan out and I had to start working quickly. Apprehensively I settled for a job as a data analyst at large marketing agency. After 2 years, things are going well. I've had a few promotions and learned a lot of technical skills, but I hate the ad industry

15 Sep 2020

There's a lot of threads about top RE groups, but between CS and RBC it's unclear to me. I've seen deals from RBC but not CS, but websites seem to mention CS more. Thanks!

26 May 2020

Looking for some advice from some family office peeps. I have a great gig now but this opportunity feels too good to pass up. A close mentor and friend asked me to leave my job and help him grow/manage his personal investments. He has told me he wishes his kids (who I am pretty close with) were involved in his companies - they each have their own hobbies/businesses. He said he wants to essentially set me up in his businesses and give me some participation in deals. It feels like he is putting me in position to manage his investments when he is ready to retire and live easy. His investments are

30 Jun 2020

Wondering how people are approaching CRE in the near term, say 6 to 12 months, in terms of transactions. Both from a sponsor and lender perspective. What product type are you looking to buy, begin construction on, or lend on in the near term? Seeing any challenges in finding debt at desired terms? Difficulties in finding construction financing? At my lending institution we are taking it deal by deal, as our thinking is evolving given all of the unknowns. Looking more favorably towards multifamily, distribution, and maybe self storage. Office and retail are dead unless under very consrevative

16 Apr 2020

Curious to see if any of you have pulled the trigger on owning property yourselves. I'm putting in offers on buildings in Cleveland between 7-15 units so crossing my fingers I'll have a deal under contract by end of Jan!

04 Jan 2020

Hi Everyone, Curious if any of you had any insight on Turner Impact Capital. Worked on a deal with them, or have insight on the culture there? Seems like a very smart group. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

11 Sep 2020

EDIT 1: Thanks for all the replies below and fair comments. I should have mentioned I joined in global markets (illiquid sales for 4+ years) but looking to move to RE but experience on RE modelling is severely lacking. Got the interview after bare networking given that my background is not RE and can't screw this up. Barely having time to prepare and was looking for a shortcut - not sure where to start but will give it a go and get back to you with specific question. Cheers! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Can some provide me with the excel solution to the

29 Feb 2020

I'm about to start my summer internship at a large development firm on the west coast and wanted to see if anyone can speak to what tasks they have had as a development/acquisitions intern? Just hoping to get an idea of what I should be learning before so I'm not dead weight, thank you!

03 Jun 2020

Hello - I'm in a not so uncommon situation but am curious how folks in the CRE world feel about this. Ive had about ~9 years of CRE experience (6 at my last job) and i recently started a new role at another financial institution. Most things are fine, comp is decent and I have a ton of my responsibility since the group is super lean (handful of folks) and i get to make a lot of fairly important decisions/calls even not being super-senior age/experience-wise. The problem is that the institution is having internal issues - when I was hired I was told that they had gotten approvals form the head

06 Feb 2020

Looking for a tutor to do a few one on one sessions with me via zoom to review case studies and give basic overview of REPE modeling basics. Any resources for live tutoring? Or anybody on this forum interested? I have done online self paced courses.

25 Aug 2020

In a particularly interesting thread the other day, featuring a great podcast recommendation, a discussion popped up between @Dumpster Fire Yuppie" , calculatedrisk , and I about CLT/GluLam/"Heavy Timber" construction (and also I discovered there are people out there who like brutalist architecture, which was...unexpected.) Low and behold, an article came out yesterday about [Mjøstårnet, an 18-story apartment, office, and hotel tower that became the world's tallest timber building when it opened last year.](https://www.cnn

14 Feb 2020

What have you accomplished professionally in 2019? What wins have you celebrated? What mistakes have you had to overcome? What worries are on your horizon? What makes you excited for 2020? I've always found commercial real estate to be an industry very willing to extend an olive branch to both friends and strangers alike. I want this thread to be a place for the Certified User crowd to look back on the year that was, hopefully with insights that readers can carry with them into the new year, and celebrate both monies made and [manatees saved.](https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/get-over

09 Dec 2019

How does a Single Family Rental development deal pencil? I work in MF development in the southeast and hear about these deals for a few years now but have not seen one yet. The demand story checks, but I can't figure out the execution. As I see it, unless you have a waiting list of tenants, you can get crushed in lease-up waiting on these 3BR renters. Plus the value of the house today is worth more to a homeowner than an investor, so you are better off just building and selling than building to rent then sell. Anyone in this space having success yet? Whats the exit CAP? Long term financing

14 Apr 2021

If I were to accept a debt capital markets analyst position at a REPE firm (AUM is >$20billion), what would my exit opportunities be? Also, would it be a good experience to transition to acquisitions or asset management at a REPE firm?

05 Nov 2020

I've progressed through a few rounds of a top 40 REPE firm. I recently got an email to take an excel test and set up an interview with a few people who I would be working closely with in the role. I did not do well with the excel test, which covered basic financial modeling. I was under the impression I wasn't able to use resources as it was a test on my knowledge, and I forgot how to calculate NPV :/. I feel like I generally have relied on template models throughout my internships. My education is in urban planning, but I've had a lot of real estate internships, and recently enrolled in a

29 Oct 2020

Lifestyle? Work hours? Pay? Good Firms? Chances of becoming a Millionaire (haha). Just some questions I have - I'm trying to learn about RE in LA and I appreciate all the responses.

08 Apr 2021

As the title says, I landed my first job at a private real estate investor as an "Acquisitions analyst in training." I worked my ass off networking, teaching myself the lingo, and taking the Justin Kivel Courses (love that guy <3 ) Now I want to ask you what steps I can take to really maximize my experience? Assuming my firm won't make more than 2 acquisitions a year, I'm not going to get crazy deal experience like at a big shop. I still want to make the most this experience so please leave a comment about what advice you would give someone just starting out. Books? Networking? Hard skills /

08 Apr 2021

Each quarter I see increased late cycle behavior in the real estate world. From vast amounts of SFR home flipping at an institutional level (see Door/Zillow/Redfin) to development sponsors needing to farm out their 10% equity pieces due to insufficient cash at the operations level plus the reemergence of unsecured and interest-only debt at record high leverage points this cycle, irrational exuberance seems to be inundating the space. Multiple sponsors have approached us seeking opco level investment to recapitalize their firm because they have become so overextended chasing promote despite

14 Oct 2019

Anyone have experience working with smaller, value-add deals in secondary/tertiary neighbourhoods in major cities? I'd imagine some potential hurdles, at least compared to stronger local markets, would be less sophisticated owners, less demand, less DD material, less comparables, longer project timelines, etc. At the same time, I'd also imagine that a lot of the smaller deals in these locations would fly under the bigger players radar, potentially leaving really good opportunities left untapped. Additionally, you'd be dealing with mostly private guys (many of whom I think is fair to assume

07 Apr 2021

Hi WSO, I am reviewing a model where the client has calculated the EV of their Freehold Portfolio, by subtracting a central cost EV. So they have taken the freehold and leasehold portfolio EBITDA * EV/EBITDA Multiple (of 12.5x) and then subtracted Central Costs * EV/Central Cost multiple (of 9x).. I have never seen this before. Why would they do it that way rather than just multiplying EBITDA by the multiple to get EV. The underlying business is operational real estate. Any help would be much appreciated! Gracias,

06 Apr 2021

I am an IBD associate at a low-tier BB. While I failed to land an offer of corporate PE, I may have an opportunity to join a REPE with a good brand name and solid deal flows. This REPE not only does asset-level investments but also is very proactive in corporate-level deals. These deals, though still RE-related, are like what corporate PE does (focusing on EBITDA rather than the assets). Is it possible to leverage these corporate-level deal experiences to join a corporate PE in the future? If the answer is "possible and very very difficult", how can I increase the possibilities? Any advice is

06 Apr 2021

I am almost 1 year out of college and work full time at a smaller real estate development company that develops luxury apartments (mixed use) in the greater NY area. I've been working here for ~9 months now, and have been tasked in all kinds of areas of development - diligence, financial/pro forma work, project mgmt, design/creative, marketing, etc. Now that I kind of have my feet under me and understand how all these different facets work together; my boss is asking me how I'd like to approach the next step in my professional career (aka, what area/areas I'd like to focus on and begin to take

05 Apr 2021

This will be my first post so forgive me if I sound naive, but I've done some reading on the forums here and I couldn't find a recent answer to this question or a person with a profile quite the same as mine. I'm currently a junior and will be doing debt valuation for REIT's as a SA this year. This is not something I see myself doing in the future long term and I'm not sure about RE in general either as a field. I'd like to switch into IB if this is at all possible. I guess the question I have is if I would be able to get a SA position after I graduate next year, especially at a MM/ boutique

01 Apr 2021

Dear fellow primates I am currently conducting research to determine the long term structural change in office demand due to COVID-19. For this I would like to analyse how work from home was handled before the pandemic and how office workers' opinion and situation has changed. If you would work in an office or are a student planning to work a white collar job please fill out following survey. On average it takes 3 minutes to fill out and would be highly appreciated. Feel free to share it as well! The survey is completely anonymous! Please also feel free to share it. Office - a thing of the

31 Mar 2021

Buying a home needs proper planning and financial assessment. There are multiple home-loan options available. Do proper research to get the best home loan as per your situation and needs.Be practical in setting a goal for home buying.Create a homebuying strategy in advance and go as per the plan. One can also take the help of professionals in the process. If followed correctly, all the steps make a huge difference in the process and make things systemised for you to execute and understand, consequently helping you to get the best deal out of the available options.Do budgeting to see how much

31 Mar 2021

Dear Fellow Monkeys, I wanted to reach out for advice/insights/guidance on career paths to REPE. I've been 2+ years at a RE boutique family office underwriting CRE senior/subordinate loans and some hybrid debt/preferred equity transactions, with increasing exposure to origination/deal structure work. The work itself is fun especially with more players getting into bridge debt space but it offers very limited growth progression/potential due to the size of the firm and how it's been operated so I'm currently looking for exit opportunities. Also, I wanted to point out that I'm international so

13 Jan 2020

Does anyone on the forum do development management? Would love to hear more about your day - I know this is pretty broad - I am looking at a job that is going to include Development Management as a large part of the day. So I am curious as to what you do most of the day, what your career growth may look like, and of course pay...Thanks for the help!

24 Mar 2021

So I'm planning on joining a CRE brokerage firm this summer for an internship. I'm going to be working with the capital markets guys. So far all I know is that they connect the clients with financing. I listened in on one of them doing calls and basically he was cold calling people asking if they wanted to refinance their property, he was also working with a client doing a 1031 exchange. Any more info on what the capital markets do in a brokerage firm? He was talking about treasury yield and how that effects pricing? Could someone give me a crash course on this stuff lol. Or provide a link to

22 Mar 2021

Hi all, I'm looking for some advice. I've landed an internship at a top RE Brokerage in London (CBRE, ES, Hines, JLL) and in the current environment I feel incredibly lucky. However, I can't help but think my exit ops may be better in an RE M&A function at a Bulge Bracket? Could someone possibly shed some light on this, and the distinction between IB at these brokerage-esque shops and at a BB? How is the modelling/ day-to-day role different?

21 Mar 2021

My current position is in capital markets/investment sales at a national brokerage firm. I enjoy brokerage, but my real goal is to become involved with investing and property ownership. Can anybody speak to different career paths in CRE that translate well to property ownership? Example.) I've heard appraisal and property management offer the ability to learn a great skillset to facilitate growing a healthy portfolio. Asking specifically about: - Appraisal - Private Equity/Fund Acquisitions - Property Management - Brokerage/Capital Markets Bonus - What activities/content do successful real

14 Feb 2020

So I have had a passion for real estate since graduating from my master's program (Urban Planning) 5 years ago. Since graduation I've been working for my family's asphalt paving business, so completely unrelated. I recently decided to follow my own path and dive into the real estate development industry. I've been networking online with some success and applying to any position I can find with no success. As you can imagine companies aren't looking for someone with my lack of experience. Therefore, I've decided to switch up my job search a bit and look for similar jobs (real estate agent

17 Mar 2021

Hello, I'm new to this forum and career. Passed the real estate broker exam. No college degree + not many connections, so I don't have much to offer commercial brokerages, but most residential brokerages offer training and will employ about anyone with a license because it costs them little to nothing if they fail. My theory is to build a track record of completed transactions and gain connections in RRE, then use as leverage to get into CRE, with the goal of starting a development team once I build up enough credibility/ capital. Is this possible? Should I sign with a big franchised brokerage

17 Mar 2021

-How is it in regards to hours/pay/exit ops? Is there travel? -I'm equally interested in debt and equity, which one is more established and has better exit ops?

03 Sep 2019

Hello all, I have been cold emailing and organizing calls starting with alumni from my school. I am close to graduating. I would like to work as a real estate analyst. I think getting work in a development or acquisitions role would be helpful because I have no experience in real estate. It seems that many are very receptive to getting on a call. I would like to break into a good company if I am able, but I want to give myself as many chances as possible if that is possible. What companies would be best to organize calls for and try to break into? I have no experience in CRE, but my resume is

11 Mar 2021

Interested in getting more information on PJT Park Hill. What's the culture like? Exits? How competitive is it to get in (compared to MM REPE, MF REPE, BofA/Citi/GS REIB). Interview difficulty as compared to other boutiques? What profiles/backgrounds are they looking for? When do apps open (assuming I haven't missed them)? Give it to me straight. I'm a prestige whore. -some sophomore with exaggerated self worth

11 Mar 2021

Any thoughts on PIMCO private equity real estate group in London? Seems that they are raising their fourth global BRAVO (>$4 bn) fund and have a couple of other vehicles they invest for (including a hedge fund-like business). Any hint on comp/culture and overall strenght of brand/team in PERE compared to other shops? Also impact of recent merge with Allianz CRE arm? Cheers

10 Mar 2021