Transitioning from brokerage to asset management/development
I have been working in CRE brokerage for a little over 4 years now at a mid sized local shop in a tier 1 east coast market, mostly doing office leasing with some tenant rep on the side. I have a large portfolio with my team, but its mostly B and B- buildings with cheap owners who make it difficult to retain and attract new tenants. The money has been fine, but brokerage is not really something I'm interested in doing long term, especially as I'm looking to start a family and have a more stable income stream. I also have this feeling that  the role of a broker is changing, larger shops will continue to consolidate, the market is WAY oversaturated with brokers, and new advances in proptech will further streamline the process making most brokers unnecessary. Obviously office has taken a beating from COVID and more recently high inflation. I'd like to see about transitioning into another sector of the industry, perhaps asset management or development. I'm curious about roles to pursue and if anybody here has done something similar and what their success has been. Still young (under 30), have a bachelors degree, and my skill set is mostly tailored to brokerage/office leasing:

\- cold calling

\- contract negotiation

\- financial lease analysis in excel (from tenant and owner perspective)

\- amortization calculations

\- pitchdeck creation

\- market reports

\- CoStar products

\- etc

Wondering if it makes sense to pursue an MBA, CFA, CAIA, Argus Certification, etc. Have saved up some money so not afraid to spend some to get a designation but wondering which one is going to give me the most value to begin the transition now. Thanks in advance.
[{"id": "if8dd10", "text": "I'd recommend an mba with a real estate focus or a solid masters in real estate program. I transitioned from leasing to acquisitions/development doing an MRED program at NYU. You have to get solid internships whatever program you do. Just having the certification won't get you a job, a lot of people make that mistake when career changing.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "if8iqit", "text": "Get an MRED!!!!", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ifehi23", "text": "it is not uncommon for people to change to something they\u2019re more interested in in commercial real estate. depending on where you go probably depends on your skill set.\n\ni personally am moving from asset management to capital markets (investment sales) at one of the big firms.\n\nArgus would probably be most useful, CFA is pretty respected but doesn\u2019t provide much value. MBA i think is great for late 20s / early 30s professionals to get. even better when your company will pay for it.\n\nasset management is definitely interesting glad to answer any other questions", "replies": [{"id": "ih4lf8z", "text": "FWIW, Argus is useless in development. Where it shines is in underwriting complicated office, small bay industrial and retail (especially) lease structures. It\u2019s still a garbage program overall, it isn\u2019t hard to learn. I\u2019d recommend learning how to run all the calculations in excel as a jumping off point - you\u2019ll understand all the back end math that goes into your ARGUS spit out, which is far more valuable IMO.\n\nSource: spent a couple years buried in Argus models during my last analyst role (an actual monkey could be proficient at it)", "replies": [{"id": "ih4orpo", "text": "yeah i would agree with you for the most part but i used it day in/day out in asset management. i was focusing on retail so argus was key for those complex recovery pools.\n\ndespite its shortcomings, its basically the industry standard for asset management and brokers to build their models and assumptions in argus, then export to excel for 5/10 year projections. so yeah id agree with you as well that excel is just as important, if not more important. like i dont know anyone who uses the debt features in argus (almost always done in excel). their portfolio roll up feature is nice too\n\nat the end of the day, when you're competing for an analyst position, a small investment in argus certification can go a long way", "replies": [{"id": "ih5ibpl", "text": "This guy real estates!", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]