I have been asked to interview for an acquisition analyst position at a real estate firm. Has anyone worked in a similar role that can provide some insight on day-to-day work, exit opportunities, positives/negatives, etc?
Duties for the position are updating and maintaining advanced acquisition models in excel, assist in identifying multi family acquisitions, preparing initial underwriting and write-up of investment opportunities, participating in on-site due diligence, preparing market research and modeling different disposition scenarios.
I currently work in corporate finance doing credit analysis and assisting in corporate development when we want to do an acquisition, but I want to get out asap.
I work for an REPE firm however I do not work in acquisitions/originations. Those analysts spend the bulk of their time researching prospective deals, underwriting the property & securing financing etc. RE financial models are not particularly complex, you will be spending the bulk of your time researching comps on the market to see if your assumptions are realistic and if the plan for the property is possible.
Very different areas of CRE could be construction, properties needing lease up/repositioning/significant capex, and stabilized properties each of which has their own nuances.
Exit ops could be REPE or to REITs. Guys on the deal teams at my firm do quite well, spend the bulk of their day updating models as well as a significant amount of travel to visit properties.