Getting into Real Estate PE Funds

REgirl07 · 发表于 2010-3-31 17:38:52

"非常高興您是RE FUND的業内人士，我有8年多Developer投資與項目管理的經驗，想通過讀書進入RE FUND.想請教您我是應該選LBS/CBS這樣的金融強校MBA，還是MIT/Cornell這樣的房地產金融碩士呢？
Thanks for your time."

Have been getting some questions about my industry. Figured I'd answer this here for everyone's benefits.

There are several things you need to know before you go get your MBA.

First, your school is not going to help you with recruiting. Most RE PE shops recruit on an as-needed basis. So you could end up with nothing at all if you go into recruiting dead-set on getting into RE PE right away. In addition, most RE PE shops don't even recruit on campus. Since most of them only look for one or two associates at a time, they rather go through headhunters, which is more cost and time efficient for them. So you can use your MBA as a platform (see below) to transition into RE PE, but don't count on it giving you a job at a RE fund right out of school.

Secondly, you need to figure out what type of real estate person you want to be. Many people just have a vague idea of "real estate" but have no concrete conception of their jobs. RE PE is within the realm of real estate finance.

eople at these funds have more in common with people at other PE shops or buyside than they do with developers. They know enough about real estate to make investment decisions, but they still rely on operating partners to carry out the business plan. Their job is all about the numbers (that's to say, they won't know what building materials to use for certain homes, etc). As such, a strong finance background is better suited for RE PE than a pure real estate background. However, if your interest is in the bricks-and-mortar real estate business (development, homebuilding, etc), and your eventual goal is to become a developer, then you are better off with a real estate education and working for something like a Hines development position. I have seen many, many people who are still confused about this difference when they walk into an interview - not good.

The path from MBA to RE PE. It's not straight forward, and a lot of it depends on luck.

rior experience is crucial. So if you have a real estate background and have a finance education, that's a pretty good combo. Also ideal are people who had done real estate IBD before at (preferably) GS/MS. During a good year, large RE PE funds such as Blackstone, MSREF, Carlyle, etc all hire fresh MBAs. In this market, none of them is that active. If you have never done real estate finance, one path is to do re banking for a while. It's not ideal but it will give you access to some of the contacts in the industry. If you have done finance and want to do real estate, then some of the programs at REITs or other real estate entities could work. The key is balance - you need a strong finance background and enough knowledge about real estate.

Lastly, your original question: go to the best school you can get into. Nothing you learn at that school will get you the job. But you want to have access to the best network. Real estate transcends every industry. For example, if you want to buy a mall that has Nordstrom and Macys as the anchor tenants, who would you call to get a sense of these tenants' financial health? I'd call my friends in consumer and retail banking and ask them how those companies are doing. Of course, it's not that simple in real life, but you get the idea.

Hope this is helpful.

DebeersHk · 发表于 2010-3-31 17:50:32

Ding... It's very helpful...

DebeersHk · 发表于 2010-3-31 20:47:31

Another very impressive article by a Harvard MBA, from Business Week:
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My friends,

Today we will discuss a topic near and dear to my heart: REAL ESTATE. As many of you know, in addition to running , I am also a very active real estate investor, developer, and manager. After graduating from HBS, I worked at Trammell Crow Residential, ING, and others doing RE stuff. And we often get emails from friends on these boards, asking whether to go for a Masters in Real Estate versus an MBA. And frankly, I have very strong feelings about the matter. So today, for all our real estate junkies out there, I will offer up our first annual "Top five reasons to get an MBA--not a Masters in Real Estate." And as usual, I would appreciate a marketing person emailing me offline and helping me come up with a more zippy name... : )

1) Picture yourself raising money. The guys who may be financing your real estate ventures may not know much about advanced degrees, real estate programs, "the fact that Stanford is harder to get into than HBS" etc. But I'll tell ya what they DO know: "Harvard Business School." "Wharton." "MBA." A well-renowned MBA amounts to instant respect. And in the fund raising world, sometimes that is the most valuable currency around.

2) You dont actually know what you wanna do. I know you are certain that you will be doing real estate when you grow up. But what if someone comes along, and offers you something else that you cant refuse? What if, say, you wanna launch part deux? WHO KNOWS what youre gonna be doing in your life in 20 years. But Ill promise you one thing--no matter what it is, you will get mileage out of your MBA as you do it.

3) Real estate is actually easy. You dont need to go to school to learn it. You will learn everything you need to on the job anyway. You should go back to school for the OPPOSITE reason--not to learn more about real estate, which you will learn about for the rest of your life after school--but to learn about the OTHER stuff. How will I market my new company. How will I raise funds when I launch my new development company. How can I lead a team, once I have my own venture. THAT is the stuff you actually need to go to school to learn. Not "how do I calculate an IRR on a real estate investment..."

4) Meet OTHER people--outside real estate. This is key, both for personal and for professional reasons.

art of why business school is so great, is that you will meet amazing people. An entrepreneur from Argentina. A McKinsey consultant from Mumbai. A record executive from LA. You want to meet these people--to expand your horizons, both as friends (how cool is it to get to know amazing, creative people) and as possible partners (youre the real estate guy--these dudes become your finance guys. Contacts.) EXPAND your horizons, people--thats the best and most valuable part about business school

5) Getting jobs is easier. Can you imagine being in a program with 150 people, all in Boston, looking for the exact same job? Maybe some folks would prefer finance to development, or Boston to Providence or NYC. But...still. It is VERY hard to get jobs, when you are surrounded by people with your exact background. Now, imagine that youre at Stanford GSB. Even Cornell. How many real estate folks will be there in your class, do you think? Ten? Twenty? Spread across the country, when job season comes along--you will get a job. Much, much, much less competition. And that is pretty important, wouldnt you say?

Hope this helps, gang. Get an MBA--its the only game in town.

amgzhb · 发表于 2010-4-1 04:19:59

第一个看了很high
第二个看了就毛了

anyway
顶

idle_lie · 发表于 2010-4-1 11:03:57

第二个说得很好很坦诚。
但是问题是一个在advanced degree in RE 和general MBA 中摇摆的人经验一定是偏重RE，那么根据第一个的逻辑，it is hard to get a job in finance anyway even if you've got an MBA。有点矛盾嘛。。。

REgirl07 · 发表于 2010-4-1 11:35:19

第二个说得很好很坦诚。
但是问题是一个在advanced degree in RE 和general MBA 中摇摆的人经验一定是偏重RE，那么根据第一个的逻辑，it is hard to get a job in finance anyway even if you've got an MBA。有点矛盾嘛。。。

-- by 会员 idle_lie (2010/4/1 11:03:57)

The point is, you need to figure out what within real estate you want to do. Said differently, are you a RE finance person, or are you a RE RE person? More concretely, do you want to analyze the returns and capitalization of different investments at once, or would you rather take a real estate project and manage its day-to-day operations?

If you want to make it to a RE PE fund, your best bet is to get a MBA. There is no guarantee, but getting a MBA is far more valuable than getting a Masters in RE for a RE PE position in the long run. However, if you want to do development type of work, then by all means go for the advanced RE degree.

Also, the second article is written by , an admissions consultant. While I am a huge fan of him and his team (I think he gives fantastic advice about how to approach your application), keep in mind that he is always ever so gently advertising his business and pushing people to apply to bschools.

idle_lie · 发表于 2010-4-1 14:46:43

第二个说得很好很坦诚。
但是问题是一个在advanced degree in RE 和general MBA 中摇摆的人经验一定是偏重RE，那么根据第一个的逻辑，it is hard to get a job in finance anyway even if you've got an MBA。有点矛盾嘛。。。

-- by 会员 idle_lie (2010/4/1 11:03:57)

The point is, you need to figure out what within real estate you want to do. Said differently, are you a RE finance person, or are you a RE RE person? More concretely, do you want to analyze the returns and capitalization of different investments at once, or would you rather take a real estate project and manage its day-to-day operations?

If you want to make it to a RE PE fund, your best bet is to get a MBA. There is no guarantee, but getting a MBA is far more valuable than getting a Masters in RE for a RE PE position in the long run. However, if you want to do development type of work, then by all means go for the advanced RE degree.

Also, the second article is written by , an admissions consultant. While I am a huge fan of him and his team (I think he gives fantastic advice about how to approach your application), keep in mind that he is always ever so gently advertising his business and pushing people to apply to bschools.

-- by 会员 REgirl07 (2010/4/1 11:35:19)

Thanks!
Very good point.
However, I think for RE RE person, kind of difficult to be admitted to the top MBA...

sophiadc · 发表于 2010-6-8 23:44:08

mba 本来就是networking, real-estate is all about relation, no skill.

Getting into Real Estate PE Funds

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