Opinions on Valuations &amp; Advisory as a career path in real estate?
Hi guys,

I'm currently a 3rd year finance student interested in real estate finance / development. How is valuations and advisory at a brokerage viewed upon in the industry? Are they the laughing stock? Is it just a checkmark that is an inconvenience?
[{"id": "dqdx40s", "text": "I couldn't speak for USA, although am in valuation and advisory elsewhere. \n\nHere it is not considered the laughing stock, and is (generally) the more conservative, highly educated and generally most respected division of property. By saying that, I mean that after becoming a registered valuer, here you can easily cross into any division of property - being on the finance side in a bank, into working for a developer, or into management/agency. \n\nAnd considering checkmark that is an inconvenice - yeah sometimes you feel that way. But at the end of the day - the bank needs you, which means that your clients need you. \n\nBut the advisory aspect of it is great, the rental analysis and getting into discussions with other valuers trying to settle rentals is great. Liaising with the clients and offering them advice that turns into a real tangible result is fantastic also. \n\nValuation can vary wildly depending what you get into though - some people can go into a shopping centre division and just value shopping centres and nothing else. Some people can go into residential, and just be doing single home houses and duplexes.... although the same technical job title - their day to day experiences will have essentially nothing in common. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dqe4dn4", "text": "I work in REPE in the US, and I would say Valuations &amp; Advisory definitely isn't the laughing stock. But its also not sexy at all.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dqeqiax", "text": "Appraisal is a profit center, like property management. You can make $, but it is not the home run that brokerage is. Appraisers are respected and each broker has their guy that they use, but most appraisal work is on the lending side. Depending on what shop they feed you work or expect you to dig it up and pay a commission. It is steady whereas brokerage is boom or bust. \n\nI like good appraisers that look deeper and that run in the same circles as the brokers, they tend to get it. They focus on a market and deeply understand values. Others are appraising things all over the country and are little better than an auto appraisal. Depends on where you are I guess.  ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "dqhmi97", "text": "In the CMBS world, broker-opinion-of-value analysis reports are mandatory, loan servicers are required to get 3 of them before any modification is agreed upon. So there is plenty of business to go around, I would imagine. But valuation is tricky because there are often conflicts of interest -the servicer can advise a broker to sandbag the valuation or a broker's opinion of value might be influeced on the brokerage firm getting a deal done. Valuation of real estate, or anything, is often not worth the paper it is written on. Investment banks have produced garbage valuations for public companies that they publish as their expert opinion. I see professional appraisers produce garbage valuations all of the time. They value an asset at $40million and it later sells on an online auction platform for $19mm.\n\n I would stray away from that as a career choice and suggest it become something you are good at to use as a tool -for acquisition or asset management opportunities. Its hard to distinguish yourself as a valuation expert -valuations are full of assumptions and best guesses. With acquisition or asset management, at least you will have a tangible result, profit for your company, in the event your valuations are accurate. Just my, jaded, opinion.", "replies": [{"id": "dqhnphi", "text": "Thanks for the opinion, its interesting to hear from a finance background about the issue. \n\nSo perhaps valuation is seen as a good entry point in the CRE world? One that has good exit opportunities into say asset management like you mentioned", "replies": [{"id": "dqhth3l", "text": "Take what I said with a grain of salt. Im 2 years out of college, finance degree, and have been working in CRE advisory for a little over 2 years but Ive learned a lot from some senior people. Its a small company so Ive done just about everything. If you go to a very large company or a large brokerage firm, you will make more money, but will likely get less experience. I think an analyst or broker is a good starting point. I dont know about valuation as a starting point but I would think it is. \n\nEdit, a lot of jobs require a finance degree, 2 years of CRE experience, argus and excel proficiency, thats about it when it comes to asset management jobs.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]