7:45 a.m.: Arrive at work, grab some coffee, and collect your thoughts for the team meeting in a few minutes. You want to have all the facts straight on the condo development that you’ve been working on .
8:00 a.m.: Development team meeting gets the week rolling. The development company president starts with his update and then the ball moves around the room to discuss each project underway. Your project is particularly thorny in that there is a vocal minority of local citizens who are trying to block your conversion of an apartment building to condos. They’ve been able to get a hearing to potentially landmark the building that’s happening tomorrow. The team discusses strategy.
9:30 a.m.: Finally check your voicemail and you’ve got a few calls. You call a broker about some land you’ve been researching and may want to bid on. You gather some of his input on the site and update some assumptions in the back-of-the-envelope model you put together in Excel to see if the project pencils.
Naturally, the price has to be right. You give the broker an indication of where you stand and he says he’ll feel out the owner for you.
Customized for: Shivani ([email protected]) Visit Vault at www.vault.com for insider company profiles, expert advice, career message boards, expert resume reviews, the Vault Job Board and more.
Vault Guide to Real Estate Careers Development
85 10:00 a.m.: You check your e-mail and see that you have some new construction figures for different development scenarios on your condo deal. You stop by the analyst’s desk to ask him to update the financial model with the new information you received and build in some pricing sensitivities.
10:30 a.m.: A development manager asks you to handle a request by one of your equity investors. You call the associate at the fund and find out they are looking for an updated pro forma to help them with a portfolio performance update. You get off the phone, open the model, input some updates, and e-mail to the investor.
11:15 a.m.: You get a call back from the broker about the land. Unfortunately, it appears the owner is firm at $15 million but your numbers don’t support more than $12 million. You double-check your assumption and reaffirm. Just to have it in your back pocket, you look at a scenario where you offer the owner some upside on the backside of the development deal should it prove successful.
12:00 p.m.: Grab lunch with your development manager and analyst but bring it back to the conference room. Discuss the condo deal financials.
12:45 p.m.: Contact a few of your consultants on the condo deal – get an update from your traffic consultant and tenant relocation coordinator (evictions). The building is almost empty since you’ve been offering a generous relocation package but there are a few hold-out tenants.
1:30 p.m.: Get a call from your former business school buddy at a competing development company. Catch up a bit and make plans meet up at a networking event later.
1:45 p.m.: You head out of the office to sit in on a zoning hearing for one of the company’s developments.
2:15 p.m.: Traffic was bad but you made it. Your project is just about to come up on the agenda. Your company president gets up and presents the plan.
Some of the local residents that attended voice concerns about the development, and the city planning officials ask your team to address the issues. You respond to some emails on your BlackBerry while listening passively.
3:45 p.m.: Meeting still underway, but you take off back to the office to handle some more pressing items.
4:10 p.m.: Back in the office. Circle up with the analyst to get the new scenarios on the condo deal. Take them back to your desk to review.
Customized for: Shivani ([email protected])
Vault Guide to Real Estate Careers Development
86 © 2009 Vault.com, Inc.
4:45 p.m.: Follow up with architect on where they stand with their renderings.
Arrange for them to present to your development team next week.
5:00 p.m.: You turn to working on a financing request package that you will eventually pass on to some of your banking contacts to obtain debt for the deal.
6:15 p.m.: Save your work and head to real estate young professionals networking event. Commiserate with your business school buddy about his company’s development deal gone awry due to zoning issues. You start to sweat about tomorrow’s landmark hearing for your condo project – another drink please.
Customized for: Shivani ([email protected])
Conclusion
After reading this guide you should have come to the following conclusions: (1) the real estate industry is a tight-knit community; (2) when looking for a job, it pays to be aggressive and to network as much as possible; and (3) many different roles are available to the ambitious job seeker.
To get the job you want, use resources such as your alma mater's alumni network, real estate related websites such as those listed in the Appendix and network within the industry as much as possible. Remember, most real estate jobs are filled by word of mouth, so build your own network within the real estate community. Once you get the interview, be ready to demonstrate your passion for the industry.
Remember – real estate is a cyclical game. Though it is challenging to get started in a downturn, the key is to stay involved in the industry however you can to learn and position yourself for the next wave. The booms and busts can be big, and that’s what makes real estate such a challenging but rewarding industry. Those who navigate the swings have the opportunity to be wildly successful.
87
Customized for: Shivani ([email protected])
APPENDIX
Vault Guide to Real Estate Careers
Customized for: Shivani ([email protected])