Advice for College Students Looking to Get into Brokerage Part 1

There is a lot of uncertainty now in everything, including the real estate industry, but as a student there is one thing I know for certain: the opportunity cost of your time will never be lower. Here are some things you can do NOW to put you in the best position to get a job as an analyst upon graduation:

1. Read

To ensure you have a good grasp of the basics of creating and representing value in a property, I recommend reading these two books. The Real Estate Game by William Poorvu is a great primer in development and valuation, while Global Property Investment by David Hartzell goes into great depth. The latter is also the textbook we used in the UNC Real Estate MBA concentration.

2. Build a broker network

The first step to building a broker network if you are starting from scratch is reaching out to your existing non-broker network and asking for referrals. Start with the people closest to you and ask if they know any commercial brokers. If you know anyone who owns or runs their own company, chances are high that they have used a tenant rep broker in the past and can recommend someone to reach out to. One thing to keep in mind is every time you meet with someone (especially brokers) end the conversation by asking the name of another person (or two) who you should meet with. Another area to look for connections is on LinkedIn. You can search by title or company name. If you don’t know the names of brokerage companies in your area, just search google. Lastly, some local papers will publish lists of the most active brokerage companies. In Raleigh, every year the TBJ publishes a list of the largest firms by broker count. My last point on networking is an evergreen piece of advice: the most important step in building a network is actually upkeep. Once you add someone to your network, make sure you keep up with them and stay in touch. Most people in your network will become aware of a job opportunity at some point in the coming year, and if you are not top of mind (from keeping in touch) you will have a hard time being clued in on that opportunity.

3. Call Brokers

In real estate you should always be building your network. Since you are looking for a job as an analyst, the obvious place to start is with brokers. In Raleigh, you can look at the Triangle Business Journal Spaces Edition to find the largest brokerage firms and start there. Starting with a warm introduction always helps. Make sure to search LinkedIn for brokers that you are a first or second-degree connection to. Once you figure out who to call, start reaching out and setting up informational interviews. Given the stay at home orders, you will be limited to phone calls, but given the slowdown in business the brokers may have extra time on their hands. Silver lining. After you have interviews, add your new contacts to some form of list and keep up with them over time. Meeting people is important but keeping up with them is where the real value lies.

4. Call local real estate reporters

Here in Raleigh the two papers that have the most reporting on commercial real estate are the Triangle Business Journal and the News & Observer. If you are elsewhere, I am sure your local paper has someone covering real estate. These reporters make it their job to stay up on the market, but they will likely have different set of resources and a different perspective from the brokerage community. Start off by reading and keeping up their columns, but then reach out and try to build a relationship. Ask them where they get their leads, and what informational resources they utilize. It would also be beneficial to ask questions about their macro views on the market as well as the current state of things.

5. Ask your brokerage contacts for Offering Memoranda for past deals

Now that you have built up a network of subject matter experts and dealmakers it is time to dive deep into researching real deals. Reach back out to some of your broker contacts and ask if you can get a copy of a few of the Offering Memoranda (OM’s) from recent deals they have put on the market. If you have a favorite asset class (office, multifamily, retail, industrial, etc.) you can try to focus on those types of deals, but at the beginning, I think it helps to build a broad base. The Offering Memorandum is used to give detailed information to a potential investor on not only the asset being sold, but also the market at large, and why the investor should make the investment. Part of the package will be detailed financial information about the asset and tenants, which is all highly confidential. Because of the confidential nature of this information, you will likely be required to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). This NDA should not be taken lightly. As you start off in the real estate industry, one of the biggest assets you have is your reputation, specifically your honesty and integrity. Do not tarnish your reputation and put yourself in legal danger by sharing confidential information. Whether you sign an NDA or not, do not share any OM’s or financial information you receive with anyone. As you read the OM, jot down questions about sections or phrases you do not understand. Reread every page and every line a few times, you don’t want to ask a question in the next step when the information is in the OM already. Next, call up the broker who gave you the OM and see if you can ask questions about the deal specific items on your OM reading list.