analyst,acquisition firms

wbsgn12:

I'm looking to break into real estate as an analyst at a place like Prudential (PREI). They have a cool program from the looks of things, but I am sure that competition for those positions are incredibly tough to come by...

So I was hoping to gather a list of other places to apply? Some other names I have come up with are:

GE Real Estate Capital TIAA Cref Northwestern mutual Metlife La Salle Investments CBRE Investors Cushman Investors unit

Who else should I consider? What are some other potential investors to hook up with?

Those are all great places to start a RE career; however; those groups have varying strategies in how they invest in RE -

*Some of the bigger institutional investors (any LifeCo, Pension Fund, SWF, big public REITs etc) will typically focus on core assets in primary markets using both equity and (vanilla) debt investments. Occasionally, these groups have value-add strategies on the side, typically with experienced JV partners.

*CBREI and LIM are the two on your list that probably have more aggressive strategies (seeking 10-20% lev. IRR before fees); they could be considered part-REPE, part-traditional RE investment manager.

It would be good for you to know what type of group you want to work for and why - either a nice stable institutional investor or PE-type group that focuses on the more volatile investments.

Its difficult to secure an analyst-level (straight form ugrad and/or zero exp) job at any of those groups. The people that do usually have combination RE internship exp and RE coursework.

An option you should consider is starting as an analyst at a brokerage that provides services to institutional clients - groups like Eastdil, CBRE, C&W, JLL have groups that broker big-time institutional transactions. They need analysts to run Argus/Excel models. They don't tend to pay well, but its a foot-in-the-door and you will have exp looking at institutional transactions. Again, they also require Argus/Excel exp, but theyre more lenient since they dont analyze deals as in-depth as an investor would.