Ian has been kind enough to share his typical daily routine and discuss what it takes to land a successful career in CRE Mortgage Lending.

 Deep Dive Interview with Ian Hawk

Day in the Life of a Mortgage Lending Company Associate

About Ian

Ian received his Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Yeshiva University in May 2018. Prior to joining Dwight Mortgage Trust as an Associate in their Bridge and Construction Lending team, Ian was a Senior Analyst at a capital markets advisory firm that focuses on debt and equity capital for real estate developers, and institutional and entrepreneurial sponsors across all asset types nationally. Prior to that, he was an analyst on a commercial mortgage team where he specialized in CRE CLOs and CMBS.

About Dwight Mortgage Trust

Dwight Mortgage Trust, LLC (“DMT” or the “Fund”) is an actively managed real estate investment trust (REIT) specializing in the origination and financing of commercial mortgages across a range of real estate asset classes. DMT works in conjunction with affiliate firm Dwight Capital to source and evaluate lending opportunities nationwide. The Fund partners with experienced sponsors on projects in major markets, focusing on investments with a clearly defined exit strategy.

Advice for those interested in this Position

How do you prepare for a career in Mortgage Lending?

The most important thing, aside from Real Estate Financial Modeling and knowing about the CRE industry, is networking. In short, the CRE business is all about people. It’s an ecosystem, and everyone plays a factor in it, so it’s best to connect with everyone. The CRE is also quite small, so make sure to go about your business with integrity.

Companies like Dwight Mortgage Trust specifically look for candidates who show they are invested in this industry. Examples of this would be:

1. Degree in Real Estate Finance or Related
2. Internships in Commercial Real Estate
3. Active Leadership Role in your Real Estate Club
4. Taken/Graduated from the A.CRE Accelerator program
5. Good Writing Skills

Traits like these are important because the technical skills will provide you with a base level and they will get you in the door. Furthermore, the relationships you make will accelerate your career

What does a day in the life look like?

As an associate at a REIT, Ian spends most of his day reviewing and underwriting deals.

He starts his day by easing into it and taking a quick look at a couple of deals, giving feedback to the originators or the sponsors on, “Hey, this is where we think we’re going to shake out. Are we competitive? How do we look? Do you have interest in pursuing a deal with us?” Basically, just doing a quick underwrite and reviewing those deals at a high level and then a deep level.

Then the rest of the day is spent underwriting deals, on calls with lawyers, through the closing process, helping sign up and win new business, etc. Night shift or the evening hours are generally spent doing deeper underwritings of deals, really analyzing them, and working with the analysts to put together credit memos. Every day they’ll also look at that initial feedback given in the morning and refine based on it – deciding which deals they want to do and really putting out a full quote and term sheet to sign up new business.

Where does the money you lend come from? What needs to happen to lend this money?

Since Dwight Mortgage Trust is a Private Mortgage REIT, the debt comes from capital that was raised internally.

Typically, a deal comes in through a broker or a relationship (which is why networking is so important). When a deal comes in, it’s taken through an application process, a term sheet is issued, the deal is underwritten, and a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis helps us to determine the risks and potential outcomes.

Most companies use 3^rd party reports like the following: Environmental Reports, Appraisal Reports, and Engineering Reports, all of which help give the team an unbiased opinion of the facts to supplement their underwriting.

If the deal pencils out, it’s taken to their credit committee. The ultimate purpose of the credit committee is to summarize all facts, discuss the merits of the transaction, and approve the deal.

Interview Transcript

Tucker Wells (00:08):

Hey, what’s up A.CRE fans and readers? This is Tucker Wells. We’ve also got Ian Hawk on the line. Ian is an associate at Dwight Mortgage Trust, really cool company based out of New York. We’re actually working with them on the recruitment side as well. So, if you are looking to break into the industry, we’re going to talk about what a day in the life of a mortgage lender looks like. But before that, thank you guys for watching this. I know one of our goals at A.CRE is to help prepare you and propel you into a great career.

Tucker Wells (00:43):

So, thank you, Ian. Guys, if you don’t know Ian, he is a big proponent of A.CRE. He’s really a student of the game. He’s reached out to us to do book reviews. He’s reached out to us for recruiting purposes and then to a Day in the Life. So, Ian, thank you just for wanting to give back.

Ian Hawk (01:02):

Yeah. Tucker, thanks for having me.

Tucker Wells (01:04):

We appreciate that. So, if you’re watching, we’re going to take Ian through about 10 questions today. Let’s start off, Ian. So, you’re, I don’t know, three or four years removed from college, right?

Ian Hawk (01:16):

Mm-hmm.

Tucker Wells (01:19):

If you were jumping into a mortgage lending role and you were a, let’s just call it sophomore, junior, senior in college right now, what would you tell yourself to be prepared for this role?

Ian Hawk (01:30):

I would say that probably the most important thing aside for modeling and aside for learning about the industry. So, you go into your first interview and your second interview and through the process and really know what you’re talking about, but also networking and finding people you could connect with and speak to.

Ian Hawk (01:46):

Because at the end of the day, the commercial real estate industry is a really small industry, and it’s a people industry, and there are technical skills that you need as a base level. But beyond that base level of technical skills, which you could really get from A.CRE and from reading and some other modeling courses, and obviously work experience too, it’s really a people business, and building relationships, and getting to know as many people in the industry as you can. And a lot of those people will be willing to help you along your way.

Tucker Wells (02:13):

So, you talked about the people business and about relationships. Yeah, technical skills is one aspect, but would you say people is more important?

Ian Hawk (02:24):

They’re both really important. You need to have a base level of technical skills. There are certain things you need to do. And at the analyst and associate roles, when you’re lower on the totem pole, it’s more important to have those technical skills. And the technical skills are what gets you in the door, but then the people skills and understanding how to work with others and how to build relationships are really what accelerate your career.

Tucker Wells (02:47):

So, the one thing when I was a college student is the real estate industry is so broad. There’s mortgage lending, development, private equity, asset management, acquisitions, brokerage, I mean, those are just a few. What is a mortgage lending company?

Ian Hawk (03:08):

So, a mortgage lending company… And by the way, if you’re looking to network and you’re in school, I would say speak to all those different people, because they all interact on a daily basis and they all interplay within one ecosystem. But the mortgage lender is the group that’s going to be providing the debt. So, typically, in a real estate transaction, you have debt and you have equity. And the equity’s going to come from investors, going to come from family, offices, or institutional investors.

Ian Hawk (03:32):

The debt is going to be coming from a mortgage lender, someone like Dwight Mortgage Trust. A lot of mortgage lenders will specialize in a few specific product types. Some of the bigger banks, like the J.P.Morgan‘s, the City Banks, the Goldman Sachs‘, they’ll have different teams that cover different items. And whether it’s development, whether it’s stable properties, whether it’s even land, the lender’s going to play an integral role in a given real estate transaction.

Tucker Wells (04:03):

So, you mentioned key stakeholders, and if you were a college student today, wanting to learn more about the business, you’d talk with all of them. What does a day in the life look like as a mortgage lender at Dwight Mortgage Trust, and out of all those key stakeholders, who are you talking to each day?

Ian Hawk (04:23):

So, each day, I’m really talking to a good deal of them. I’m talking to developers, talking to our asset management team, internally, talking to investors that are buying new deals. So, you really end up talking to everybody. I guess specifically taking you through day of the life at the associate level.

Tucker Wells (04:41):

Yeah, take me through exactly what you did today.

Ian Hawk (04:43):

Yeah, absolutely. So, this morning I got into the office around 9:30, caught up with our head of asset management. Spoke to her a little bit, then spoke with one of our new associates, helping her get up to speed with the team. She just joined us on Monday, so walking her through some of the processes our team does. Wrapped up those two conversations by about 10:00 in the morning.

Ian Hawk (05:08):

Then immediately, I like to start my day, we review a lot of new deals. We review those new deals at a high level and then a deep level. So, I typically like to start my day and ease into it by taking a quick look at two deals, giving feedback to the originators or the sponsors on, “Hey, this is where we think we’re going to shake out. Are we competitive? How do we look? Do you have interest in pursuing a deal with us?”

Ian Hawk (05:34):

So, that usually occupies the first half hour to 45 minutes of my day, doing a quick underwrite and looking at those deals. Then the majority of the rest of the day, during normal business hours, call it from 10:00, 11:00, till about 5:00 or 6:00 is going to be spent underwriting deals, on calls with our lawyers, through the closing process, helping sign up and win new business. And then the night shift or the evening hours are generally spent with doing deeper underwritings of deals, really analyzing them, working with our analysts to put together credit memos. And then every day from the initial feedback we gave in the morning, refining based on that feedback, which deals we want to do, and really putting out a full quote and term sheet to sign up new business.

Tucker Wells (06:23):

Sweet. And then you end it by talking to Tucker?

Ian Hawk (06:27):

Exactly, exactly. And we’ve got some time after this or we still got some wood to chop.

Tucker Wells (06:34):

Good, good. Okay. So, you guys are giving debt to projects. Specifically, at Dwight Mortgage Trust, you guys are working in secondary, tertiary markets, and multifamily, and health care, right?

Ian Hawk (06:47):

We’re working primary, secondary, and tertiary markets. I would say, most of the loans we’re writing are going to be in the top 150 MSAs. But because we have a bridge to hut option, that does allow us to go a little bit broader in terms of what we do and lend in some other markets. But we do a good deal of business in the primary markets as well.

Tucker Wells (07:09):

So, if I’m a student, I’m wondering, you guys are giving out debt, where does that money come from?

Ian Hawk (07:16):

So, Dwight Mortgage Trust is a private REIT. So, that’s coming from within our private REIT, basically. It’s capital that was raised that we have the ability to lend, similar to the public rates, basically.

Tucker Wells (07:30):

Okay. And I guess, what needs to happen to actually lend that money? You talked about underwriting, you talked about talking to different stakeholders, what needs to happen for money to transact?

Ian Hawk (07:56):

So, typically, it’s just a full underwriting process. So, it’s from that initial stages of looking at the deal through issuing a term sheet, going under application, and then really going through the underwriting process and making sure we understand the risks in the transaction, we understand the potential outcomes, and getting a good grapple of that. And a big thing we rely on is third-party reports, environmental reports, appraisal reports, engineering reports, to get us through that process. And we work with third-party groups that are able to give their unbiased opinion of the facts on the ground, to supplement our underwriting and ultimately get comfortable with the transaction.

Ian Hawk (08:36):

And then typical, most debt funds will have a couple rounds of credit committee or a round of credit committee prior to closing a loan, where all of the information that the analysts, associates, VPs put together into your final credit committee memo is all summarized and outlines the strengths, and weaknesses, and opportunities of the transaction. And then you’ll sit in a room and this is similar to equity shops. We’ll have investment committee, debt shops, wealth credit committee. Rating agencies will similarly have a credit committee too. And you sit in the room, you discuss the merits of the transaction, and then you discuss where you ultimately will approve the deal.

Tucker Wells (09:16):

Perfect. Well, we want to keep these short. Is there anything else that if you were a college student, if you were a career transitioner that you’d want to know about what it’s like working at a mortgage lending firm?

Ian Hawk (09:35):

Anything else that people should know? So, I mean, I think really it’s just the base technical proficiency, and networking and building up relationships. In addition to that, I would say something, an underrated skill. Or the two most underrated skills, in my opinion, we’ll go that way, are one, empathy, and your ability to understand what people want and what people need. And that’s both when you’re dealing with borrowers and also when you’re dealing with your manager, understanding how you can make their life easier and reading between the lines and understanding what they want and what they’re looking for into writing.

Ian Hawk (10:10):

So, it’s an underrated skill, but being able to write well, being able to write coherently is something that sets you apart and allows you to communicate better. Really, in all of real estate, it’s understanding the people, your ability to communicate, and your technical skills. And those three together will really make you an all-star.

Tucker Wells (10:29):

One last question, Ian, and thank you for that. I really like that empathy part of it and the writing. I would not have thought of that. I’m not a good writer myself. But what I want to know is, you’re giving out money, you’re talking about turn sheets, you’re talking about the credit committee, where are you getting these deals from? Are brokers bringing it to you? Are you guys going out and finding them? Where are these deals coming from?

Ian Hawk (10:59):

So, it’s really both. At a place like Dwight, we have brokers coming to us and we have direct relationships. And depending on which shop you’re talking to and which lenders, some lenders rely exclusively on brokers, some lenders rely exclusively on direct relationships, and it’s really going to depend. At Dwight, we see a good blend of both. And at a lot of shops, you get different varieties and you get different ways of finding deals. And it’s interesting, it’s always an adventure.

Tucker Wells (11:26):

I love it. While you’re talking about adventures in CRE, here we want to help educate just the commercial real estate in general. And if there’s someone out there who needs help, needs guidance, where can they reach you?

Ian Hawk (11:41):

Yeah. You could feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. Happy to help in any way I can. Adventures in CRE I think really has the best resources. And I would say, being able to help yourself and show yourself starter is excellent, and that’s why we love candidates that have taken the A.CRE Program. And it really is just a great opportunity to show that you’re invested in this industry. And it’s a great way to also get that baseline proficiency.

Tucker Wells (12:09):

Well, Ian, you did not need to say that, but I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you for your time today. A.CRE readers, we got Ian Hawk with Dwight Mortgage Trust. If you want to reach out, please reach out. If you guys want to find another part of the industry that you think we could have a guest like Ian on, please let me know. And if you are interested in working with a company like Dwight Mortgage Trust, you can let us know as well. Thanks, bye.

The post Mortgage Lending with Ian Hawk appeared first on Day in the Life of a Commercial Real Estate Professional.

Note: This Day in the Life profile was made possible thanks to the help of Emily White, a Class of 2022 MBA Candidate at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. Prior to pursuing her MBA, Emily was a Development Manager for the Alpha Gamma Delta Fraternity Housing Corporation. Emily holds a BA in History from the University of South Carolina. A huge thank you to Emily for her contribution!

Day in the Life of a Managing Director

Current Firm

Anar Chudgar

Artemis Real Estate Partners is a female-founded real estate investment management firm headquartered in Washington, DC with additional offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. Artemis has approximately $5.6 billion of AUM across the core, core plus, value-add, and opportunistic strategies. The firm makes equity and debt investments with a focus on multifamily, office, industrial, retail, hospitality, seniors housing, and medical office. Artemis specializes in joint venture partnerships and direct investments.

Early Career Path

Anar started her college career at Birmingham-Southern College where she discovered a love for business through economics classes and studying abroad in Amsterdam. After chatting with a family relation who was an investment banker at Salomon Smith Barney, now Citibank, she realized she wanted to work on Wall Street and transferred to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

After graduating, Anar took a job at JP Morgan and was matched with the real estate group. Unsure she wanted to specialize, she realized within two months she loved the tangibility of real estate and stayed with the group honing her quantitative acumen. After two years, Anar moved to iStar when they began equity investing, drawn to its entrepreneurial aspects and the opportunity to learn how to evaluate deals.

A year later she got the opportunity to start an opportunistic fund, a higher returning fund that invested in all asset classes in North America, for Onex Corp. Anar remained there during the Great Financial Crisis and learned critical skills like evaluating and mitigating risk and adapting both professionally and personally during her tenure.

In 2010, she had the opportunity to start a business within Credit Suisse to focus on middle-market real estate investing. Anar credits this as the best decision of her career. She co-headed the business and grew it to $3 billion dollars over a period of 9 years while having two kids. During this time the business was sold to GCM Grosvenor where she continued working until 2019.

After speaking at a large real estate event, Anar received several job offers which led her to evaluate what she wanted in the future. She decided aligning herself with an investment firm that valued diversity through background and perspective was important to her, as well as a seat at the decision-making table. One of her mentors, and co-founder of Artemis Partners, asked her to join the firm and run the New York office which she accepted.

Main Responsibilities

For Anar, Mondays are Investment Committee days with back-to-back meetings. These include reports on how each investment vehicle is performing, prioritizing fund goals and deals, asset management meetings, and operations meetings. Prior to the pandemic, she traveled weekly to visit assets and meet investors. Post pandemic she believes her travel will be reduced.

During the rest of the week, Anar is working on deals. This includes screening new deals, evaluating whether they are worth her team’s time, and meeting with lenders. Additionally, she frequently meets with new and current investors to keep them updated. Recently she also worked on establishing a new debt vehicle for Artemis, which launched last year. Moreover, she reads constantly to identify new trends and strategies the fund can employ. On top of all that, she also manages the New York office.

Advice for those interested in this position

Successful Traits

From Anar’s experience, a person with a successful investment career has strong quantitative skills, “know your fundamentals, if you hone that skillset and show your confidence in it, no one is ever going to doubt you.” A strong work ethic, being proactive, a positive attitude, and patience are also important.

Advice

“Personal and professional relationships matter,” looking back to her early career, Anar wishes she had spent more time investing in her relationships with others rather than being focused on deliverables. She recommends taking time to maintain your relationships and develop new ones so you can expand your network and build your brand.

Anar also recommends working globally if you have the opportunity. She has found working on global projects provides an important perspective about risk and reward and can help you better understand different investor perspectives.

The post Managing Director – REPE Firm appeared first on Day in the Life of a Commercial Real Estate Professional.

Note: This Day in the Life profile was made possible thanks to the help of Emily White, a Class of 2022 MBA Candidate at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. Prior to pursuing her MBA, Emily was a Development Manager for the Alpha Gamma Delta Fraternity Housing Corporation. Emily holds a BA in History from the University of South Carolina. A huge thank you to Emily for her contribution!

Day in the Life of a Director of Corporate Real Estate

Current Firm

Jesal Acharya

Lenovo is a multinational corporation with over 52,000 employees serving customers across the world. They are the world’s largest PC vendor, with a global headquarters in Beijing, China, an operational headquarters in Morrisville, NC, and 160 additional facilities across 59 countries. These facilities are part of the 5M SF global portfolio which includes office, industrial, manufacturing, warehousing and lab space.

Early Career Path

Jesal studied finance during his undergraduate years at the University of North Carolina but knew he did not want a career in investment banking or corporate finance. Interested in a career that would allow him to utilize his quantitative skills and learn and use new soft skills, Jesal pursued a consulting path with the intention to return to school later for an MBA.

Starting at Accenture, he worked on business and technology strategy for the financial services industry. Driven by the desire to translate business strategy and goals into tangible metrics, Jesal returned to get his MBA at Wharton after 5 years in the workforce.

Using connections from his years in consulting, Jesal landed a corporate finance position after business school at Bank of America where he supported technology operations of different business units. He landed there just as the Check 21 Act was going into effect, a federal law that gave banks the ability to create electronic images of consumers checks to process them. This change greatly reduced the need for check processing centers banks had across the country and one of Jesal’s main task was answering important questions like how many processing centers do we really need? Where should they be located? How does is impact costs?

Managing this transition and reduction in real estate was Jesal’s first exposure to corporate real estate. Jesal joined the bank’s Corporate Real Estate group and led various strategic initiatives to optimize the footprint.  Having spent over 15 year in financial services industry, Jesal was looking for a new challenge, which he found in the Technology industry as he joined Lenovo.

Main Responsibilities

Jesal’s main responsibilities fall into two categories. The first is serving as a strategic advisor to senior leadership. This means developing and strengthening relationships with internal teams, understanding their business challenges quickly, and being able to clearly communicate what is relevant to them since they are not real estate experts. It is also important to understand each leader’s goals, which vary by function, from company growth and cost containment to energizing employees, developing new products, and improving the supply chain.

Jesal uses this information to inform his second major responsibility, to develop a holistic real estate portfolio strategy. Lenovo has 160 facilities throughout the world, so the strategy needs to consider how to optimize the footprint to support the needs of the enterprise and be agile enough to adapt as internal business transform to achieve corporate goals. Unlike traditional real estate companies, buildings for corporations do not make money, they are exclusively a cost center, meaning the corporate real estate team is constantly refining their strategy to have the perfect balance of space that allows for business flexibility at rational cost.

Similar to commercial real estate, every day is different. There are no standard hours because Lenovo is a global company and Jesal frequently meets with leadership based out of different countries. In addition to interacting with leaders from various business units, Jesal partners with Lenovo’s service provider JLL who manages Lenovo’s facilities. When not in a pandemic, he travels about 10-20 percent of the time to different facilities to meet with local executives and ensure the real estate continues to support their business priorities.

Advice for those interested in this position

Successful Traits

When asked to describe the traits needed to be successful in corporate real estate, Jesal said individuals who have strong quantitative skills, the ability to understand the big picture quickly, actively listen, build relationships and trust, and seek a diversity of opinions. These skills are critical in order to serve as a strategic advisor to leadership teams.

Advice

“You don’t need to be a real estate expert to be in corporate real estate.” To be successful in corporate real estate, Jesal recommends understanding the enterprise from end to end. What is the company’s vision? How does each business unit connect to that vision? What products do they have and how does each impact the company? This knowledge is critical to forming relevant strategy and to communicating effectively to key stakeholders.

Jesal also recommends being comfortable with ambiguity. Even though real estate is tangible, Jesal and his team work with lots of variables and work in uncharted territory frequently. Part of their role entails creating road maps to navigate thru uncertainty and serving as positive change leaders.

For anyone interested in learning more about corporate real estate check out CoreNetGlobal.org. CoreNet Global is a non-profit association with the mission of advancing the practice of corporate real estate through professional development opportunities, publications, research, conferences, designations, and networking.

The post Director of Corporate Real Estate – Fortune 500 Company appeared first on Day in the Life of a Commercial Real Estate Professional.

Note: This Day in the Life profile was made possible thanks to the help of Emily White, a Class of 2022 MBA Candidate at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. Prior to pursuing her MBA, Emily was a Development Manager for the Alpha Gamma Delta Fraternity Housing Corporation. Emily holds a BA in History from the University of South Carolina. A huge thank you to Emily for her contribution!

Day in the Life of a Development Associate

Current Firm

James Richardson, Development Associate

Founded in 1963 in Charlotte, NC, Crescent Communities is a diversified real estate investment, development and operating company dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for people through sustainable multifamily, residential and commercial communities and responsible land management. Crescent Communities embraces a fully integrated approach to development and views each community as an opportunity to create an extraordinary place to live or work. From amenity-rich resorts to efficiency-focused offices, they look to create exceptional environments that deliver what matters most to their customers and the people who will live and work there. Their communities go beyond bricks and mortar to ensure long-term success and sustainability.

Early Career Path

James graduated from the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and International Business with the intention to return to school for an MBA after spending some time in the workforce.

With the goal of gaining finance experience, James moved to New York where he worked for JP Morgan’s Private Wealth Management unit. After working with JP Morgan for two years, James moved to Paulson & Co., an investment management firm based in New York, where he honed his skills as a jack of all trades for the small firm, working on everything from legal and compliance to tax and accounting to investor relations and operations.

Deciding he was not being fulfilled by his career in finance and ready to move closer to home, James decided to return to school for his MBA and chose UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School because of its location, reputation, and collaborative culture.

He had exposure to the real estate industry through his father and while at business school decided to explore whether it was the right fit for him. Through classes, the real estate club, and his student leadership experience, he found his passion for building communities that better people’s lives.

Typical Week

James’ top responsibilities include researching and evaluating market trends to identify growth opportunities; performing market, property, and financial due diligence; underwriting proposed development projects; and coordinating with architecture, land planning, and project design to bring a project to life.

He is also responsible for staying up to date on city initiatives which include city development plans, zoning updates, and funding available for infrastructure and community development. James currently spends most of his time on the River District, a 1400-acre master-planned community west of the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, and industrial pursuits.

As part of his role, James also travels to potential sites. While on-site, he gets a feel for the property and surrounding area by driving, walking, and talking to locals. He and his team then use this information during the development process to ensure they are designing and delivering a product that will meet the needs of the community.

Due to Covid-19 and working remotely his schedule has changed, giving him more autonomy to manage his day including work and personal appointments while delivering work on time.

Advice for those interested in this position

Successful Traits

James emphasized communication as the most important soft skill in real estate. He recalled visiting a competitor’s project where he built a rapport with locals to learn more about the property and to understand how they use it—what’s worked and what has not—so he could apply those lessons to the River District and other Crescent developments.

He also views great communication as a way to be memorable; “Memorable people are typically effective communicators, listen more than they speak, and ask questions when they do speak. People love to talk about themselves, and it’s been shown that those who speak less and ask more questions about the other person during a conversation are seen as more likable; ergo, more memorable. Being an effective communicator will help you build your network.”

Most importantly, communication is essential in the development progress when working with counterparties from different industries. “There are so many acronyms and abbreviations in real estate, and sometimes they’re the exact same but different meaning (for example SF = Square Feet; SF = Single Family). Most times context makes it easy to tell the difference, but other times context isn’t enough without explicitly stating what you’re talking about at the start. This is especially crucial when having conversations with different segments of the industry. Developers, architects, general contractors, and city planners…all have different points of view on real estate and use terms differently, so it’s important to pay attention to who you’re talking to to ensure you’re on the same page.”

Advice

When asked what advice he would give to someone interested in entering the real estate industry, James recommended reading as much as possible to better understand the market, product, and trends you are targeting and then working to apply that information to your work. In addition, he recommended talking to other professionals in the real estate industry, no matter their profession to learn from them and build upon the knowledge you gain from reading.

The post Mixed-Use Development Associate – U.S. Development Firm appeared first on Day in the Life of a Commercial Real Estate Professional.

Note: This Day in the Life profile was made possible thanks to the help of Emily White, a Class of 2022 MBA Candidate at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. Prior to pursuing her MBA, Emily was a Development Manager for the Alpha Gamma Delta Fraternity Housing Corporation. Emily holds a BA in History from the University of South Carolina. A huge thank you to Emily for her contribution!

Day in the Life of an Acquisitions Manager

Current Firm

This firm is a vertically integrated real estate private equity firm that develops, owns, and operates multi-family, industrial, office, and mixed-use spaces. With multiple offices across the country, this firm owns and manages 140+ properties and employs over 900 real estate professionals.

Early Career Path

Immediately after completing his Bachelors, this professional worked on structured products in commercial mortgage-backed securities. In 2008 he shifted to the advisory side and worked as a mortgage broker. After a couple of years, he decided he wanted to get closer to the asset side and returned to school to get his MBA with a concentration in Real Estate. After graduating he was a portfolio manager for 16 months before transitioning to acquisitions.

Typical Week

This professional’s team juggles several acquisitions at a time, on any given week he is sourcing transactions, talking to brokers, beginning the underwriting process, and analyzing metrics he and his company value. His team pitches their acquisition deals internally to their insurance, accounting, and debt teams, etc to get everyone on board with the project before they pitch the deal to the Investment Committee. If the deal is approved, his team works on due diligence and closing before the property is transitioned to their property management team.

Potential Career Paths

Someone just starting in acquisitions can expect an analyst role where they run numbers and talk through inputs. Depending on the firm, they may get to visit the property and attend some deal dinners.

Those with experience or a graduate degree can expect to start at a level sourcing deals. As they gain experience, they start to cover a region, say an entire state, before being promoted to a larger region, like the mid-Atlantic. The highest step an acquisitions professional can reach is to be a member of the firm’s executive committee or Chief Investment Officer.

Advice for those interested in this position

Advice

If you’re interested in real estate, talk to everyone, not just people at the shops you know. Urban planners, lawyers, architects, construction managers, investors can all provide great insights into the industry and are great relationships to develop.

The post Acquisitions Manager – REPE Firm appeared first on Day in the Life of a Commercial Real Estate Professional.

Note: This Day in the Life profile was made possible thanks to the help of Emily White, a Class of 2022 MBA Candidate at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. Prior to pursuing her MBA, Emily was a Development Manager for the Alpha Gamma Delta Fraternity Housing Corporation. Emily holds a BA in History from the University of South Carolina. A huge thank you to Emily for her contribution!

Day in the Life of a Vice President

Current Firm

Will Thompson

Will is Vice President and a Principal of Fairlawn Capital, Inc. which provides formal investment and asset management services to internal and external investor groups. Today, Fairlawn Capital has acquired and developed over 28 multifamily, retail, office and mixed-use projects with a gross asset value over $160M and over 80 employees.

Early Career Path

Will’s father is a land developer and home builder in Baltimore–meaning real estate is in Will’s blood.

From an early age, he saw tremendous value in providing good quality housing to people and also realized he could have a greater impact in a smaller environment.

Graduating college at the end of the Great Recession, Will thought about pursuing a CPA, but decided instead on a law degree. Upon graduation from law school, he practiced at a Baltimore law firm where he primarily represented lenders and developers in real estate transactions.

During his years as an attorney, Will learned how deals work and, most importantly, how bankers think–which he says helps inform how he approaches deals now. It also allowed him to gain valuable buying and selling experience and even work on sophisticated new markets tax credit deals for affordable housing. After moving to Champaign, IL, he decided he wanted to shift from law to business and decided to pursue an MBA.

He connected with his business partner while in business school and began to consult for him before joining as Vice President and Principal in 2017.

Typical Week

Will travels frequently to scout properties for acquisition and keep an eye on existing properties.

When he’s not on the road he’s reading market reports, searching for potential new projects by following up with brokers and talking to lenders and investors. In addition, he attends weekly leadership meetings and monthly budget meetings with his operations, property management, and finance teams to review budget reports and identify any issues that may need to be corrected.

As part of his asset management duties, he reviews the performance of different properties and supports his property management colleagues in their shared goal to maximize operations. His typical work hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. unless important issues that pop up outside of that. Will is married with two young children and values the time he gets to spend with them outside of work.

Motivation

Will admits that real estate is part of his DNA and working in the industry keeps him grounded in his past. He sees value in affordable and workforce housing and enjoys the positive impact it allows him to have on people’s lives. In addition, he feels that he naturally fits into the industry and finds that successful ventures motivate him to pursue even greater successes moving forward.

Advice for those interested in this position

Successful Traits

When asked to describe three traits of people who are successful in CRE, Will said that individuals who are smart, dedicated, and personable tend to succeed.  CRE is a meritocracy and, sooner or later, good people will rise to the top. CRE professionals don’t necessarily need to be superstar math wizards, but they need to know which numbers and assumptions are important and how they all fit together. He also says successful professionals passionately care about what they do and are largely people-oriented.

Advice

Will mentioned that a successful real estate professional can quickly identify an important problem and then prove value by using their skills to solve it. An example Will shared from his own life was when he was in business school and met his current business partner. His partner had recently started his own firm but needed help to aggressively underwrite deals, look for new properties, and watch over the performance of the growing portfolio. Will began consulting with him while in school to exercise the knowledge he had been learning, but then later joined the firm full-time after he had an opportunity to show the impact of his efforts across the entire company.

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Note: This Day in the Life profile was made possible thanks to the help of Emily White, a Class of 2022 MBA Candidate at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. Prior to pursuing her MBA, Emily was a Development Manager for the Alpha Gamma Delta Fraternity Housing Corporation. Emily holds a BA in History from the University of South Carolina. A huge thank you to Emily for her contribution!

Day in the Life of a Development Associate

Current Firm

Founded in 2010, Milhaus is an award-winning, mixed-use development, construction, and property management company that specializes in Class A, urban, multifamily residential buildings. With markets in 10 states, Milhaus has developed over $1.5 Billion in projects.

Early Career Path

After earning a Bachelor of Urban Planning and Development with a minor in Real Estate Development she continued straight into a Masters of Urban Design before being recruited by Milhaus as a Development Coordinator. She held that job for two years before being promoted to Development Associate.

Typical Week

A Development Associate is typically assigned five to seven projects with two under construction, two in development, and two to three being explored.

When a project is under construction an associate leads on-site meetings, reviews finishes, evaluates market position, formulates beginning of marketing campaign, and prepares to hand the property over to the property management team upon completion.

Projects in development take a majority of an associate’s time which is spent researching the market, underwriting, drafting proformas, leading weekly design meetings and coordinating a team of 10-15 consultants (e.g. attorneys, architects, traffic engineers, structural engineers, construction manager).

A Development Associate typically works with a team of associates and reports to the Vice President of Development for their market. The associate is responsible for keeping the Vice President up to date on current projects and assisting them as needed. Associates typically work 50 hours a week with a flexible schedule and aren’t expected to work nights or weekends except when critical issues must be addressed. Work travel is minimal because associates are placed in the market they work.

Professional Development

Involvement in CRE membership organizations (ex. ULI, NAIOP, CREW, etc.) is invaluable for finding and building great business relationships that can lead to new jobs and/or sites. Depending on the region, one organization may be more active than another so it’s important to do your research before joining to make sure you’ll get maximum benefits. Joining a membership organization is especially important if you move to a market where you have no connections.

Advice for those interested in this position

Successful Traits

Someone successful at Milhaus fits well with in company culture and the team they are assigned to. They are a critical thinker and ask good questions to better understand the big picture and underwrite accurately. They are responsible, willing to learn, and aren’t afraid to follow-up with questions or consultants.

Advice

A great developer is always thinking about the big picture and how every little detail impacts the whole. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and poke holes when something doesn’t seem right.

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Day in the Life of an EVP/Asset Manager

Working for small family office, I get to wear a lot of hats. My position is basically being the person in charge for a Class A family office portfolio in Los Angeles, and leading the organization on the day to day operations. On any given day we could be dealing with property management issues, negotiating leases, talking with architect/contractors on the latest TI or cap-ex work that we are doing, or working with lenders and sellers on the next acquisition in the pipeline.

The particular company that I work for is a very close knit family, that never sells their assets, simply cashing out the equity from time to time to invest in the next deal. Being part of a small company gives you tremendous exposure to the entire breadth of real estate, but it also makes you self-reliant because you area literally responsible for making everything happen.

However, I’m not alone; I have some great staff under me, a property manager, office manager, leasing associate, accountant, and construction manager. All of us together work as a team to keep the assets running and bringing money into the company.

Advice for those interested in this position

I have worked for two family office organizations, and have found that the on boarding process and need for educational credentials to be more informal. It is also very nice to work directly with the Ownership, with essentially eliminates the red tape to making time critical decisions. If you are a generalist and like tremendous variety in your work day working for a smaller real estate shop may be the way to go.

The pay and benefits can be just as good as a larger company, and you will learn very quickly. Depending on the office, they usually encourage employee participation in the deals that come through the door, which adds an extra layer of emotional investment in the company. However, make sure you understand the personalities of who you will be working with and the culture you are working into.

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Day in the Life of a Senior Associate – Investments & Portfolio Management

Robert Lathan

MacFarlane Partners can be defined as a light armor warrior in the vain of Achilles from the The Iliad. We are a PERE Firm that is small yet Big, meaning we have a small headcount where there are 6 of us involved in the real estate efforts of the firm with a total headcount of 20.

MacFarlane participates in the full cycle of the real estate business, acting as a pseudo hybrid GP and LP of urban core Transit Oriented Development in the US Gateway markets (NYC, San Francisco-Bay Area, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Seattle). Focusing on the markets with high barriers to entry allows us to do Big transformative mixed-use projects where we can take advantage of volatility through various cashflows.

With this as the foundation of our platform, the roles I perform are various, and can be best explained as acting as an investment banker focused in real estate. These duties involve underwriting potential deals (development, preferred equity, and structured finance), asset management, due diligence of active projects, developing pitch books for institutional equity partners, market research, and participating in the negotiation of term sheets.

Advice for those interested in this position

You must first determine what is most important for your career at the point you are seeking employment. Without this as the genesis, one cannot find the right environment to accomplish their goals. The crucial factor for me post graduating Cornell’s Baker Program in Real Estate was to find an organization where my foundational skills would be exponentially grown through the coaching of senior members of the firm. As a former Division 1 athlete in football at Stanford, great coaching and development will always be how I grade firms. Are the senior individuals good at coaching the proverbial blocking and tackling? Can they build on the simple plays to make complex ones that yield multiple points? If not, then the firm would not build my career as how I envisioned. The vision for my career was to have daily interactions with these co-ordinators/coaches who would assist in launching my career. It would provide me the opportunity to hear and see how they both value and develop real estate based on their successful past.

Additionally, roles at smaller firms can be a much longer process because it is all about fit. Not only does the work of the firm have to fit your goals, but you have to fit into the culture of the firm. After ascertaining the factors that will grow your career the most, you should focus on finding a firm whose culture matches your own. Culture symbiosis will insure that you are with people who will be invested in your growth like you are invested in the growth of the profitability of the firm.

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Day in the Life of an Portfolio Management Associate

Julio Duran

I see the role of Portfolio Management similar to the role of a State Governor. The state has a strategy and challenges at state level (Portfolio level) and the cities within the state have a strategy and challenges at local level (property level). These two levels work together in order to achieve common goals, but at the same time, each property faces different challenges based on different factors such as investment stage, property and market conditions, etc.

As PM, In a typical day we might be reporting to investors, negotiating with a potential partner, analyzing a potential investment or coordinating a major capital expenditure. As we take care of daily obligations we should always be running a hold vs sell analysis to make sure we don’t miss a good exit opportunity. Excel and Argus are two of the most common tools for those analysis.

As part of the Portfolio Management role, you have to focus on the big picture. It does not matter if one of your properties is doing fantastic if you are losing the battle at the portfolio level, you have to focus on the forrest and not only the trees. That does not mean you ignore the issues at the property level, it just means that you have to make sure the asset and property manager are doing a good job.

It has been said that in any transaction you make the profit at the acquisition, wish in many cases is true, but without a good investment management (property management, asset management and portfolio management) during the holding period, that profit can disappear very quickly. Therefore, it is important to establish, implement, and maintain good management practices. The job of a Portfolio Manager is the equivalent of running a marathon while the job of a Transactions team (acquisition/disposition) is like training and running a 5K race, they need different skill sets and strategy to win the race.

Advice for those interested in this position

Having experience in property management, transactions, and asset management really prepare you well to succeed in a role as Portfolio Manager. You have to build a good foundation.

My best advice for anybody starting a career in real estate investment, is to have a solid understanding of real estate excel modeling, and to have a good understanding of real estate concepts and fundamentals.

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