Can someone explain the difference between Real Estate Brokerage (Debt/Equity placement) and "Real Estate Investment Banking"?
A lot of these big shops like CBRE and JLL have "Investment Banking" groups.

How is this different that a Debt and Equity team finding capital for  a single Asset or portfolio of assets?

I always viewed investment banking as raising capital for the buying and selling of companies. What is Real Estate Investment Banking?
[{"id": "d32t0ez", "text": "Real Estate Brokers sell real estate.\nMortgage Bankers sell mortgages.\nInvestment Bankers sell risk capital (equity, debt, mezz)\n\nMortgage bankers can work in an Investment Banking group, but Equity guys don't.  \n\nReal Estate Investment Banking is investment banking focused upon the purchase and sale of third party real estate assets, either in \"one-off\" deals, or in portfolios.....", "replies": [{"id": "d32t46m", "text": "And Mortgage Brokers work with purchasers to find debt for to be purchased properties - they have relationships with multiple lenders, and they try and match the best programs with the project(s) being considered.", "replies": [{"id": "d32ykao", "text": "I understand this, and the big brokerage firms have teams of these guys. but in addition to these teams, they also have \"Investment Banking\" groups. If both teams are raising capital for one off or portfolio deals, what is the difference between them?\n\nFor example, JLL has numerous \"Debt and Equity\" teams. These guys connect buyers with lenders, equity partners, mezz loans, etc. for one off deals and portfolio sales.\n\nBut JLL ALSO has an Investment Banking Group, that ostensibly does the same exact thing.", "replies": [{"id": "d331iv9", "text": "It has to do with how they raise capital. The debt/equity guys typically source conventional financing (i.e. CRE loans collateralized by the property) with lenders including banks, conduits, insurance and even credit unions. \n\nThe investment bankers are usually focused on raising capital through IPOs on major exchanges. ", "replies": [{"id": "d331wxa", "text": "Make sense, but still a bit confused:\n\n&gt; The investment bankers are usually focused on raising capital through IPOs on major exchanges.\n\nBesides a private REIT going public, I cant seem to think of any other instance in which a \"Real Estate Investment Banking Group\" would be necessary. Could you elaborate a bit more?", "replies": [{"id": "d337d3p", "text": "not really, since that's not an area i'm active in. my assumption is that they would primarily be dealing with REITs. there's also a chance some large properties, $100MM+ , might require different financing structures, but again that's not my area of expertise, so not sure. \n\nnow within many of these shops you have investment/sales divisions which deal with the purchase and sale of CRE. This would be analogous to your typical residential real estate broker, except they work with CRE instead of SFR. they often work in tandem with the debt/equity division (which operate like mortgage brokers) to secure multiple financing quotes for those properties they are selling. you might just be confusing the terms of investment/sales and investment banking i suppose.", "replies": [{"id": "d33ym14", "text": "Not confusing the two. CBRE, JLL, C&amp;W have \"Investment Sales\" teams, \"Debt and Equity\" Teams, and \"Investment Banking\" Teams. Another guy commented that the IB teams are more for real estate companies that are merging, issuing equity, etc. I guess the Big brokerage firms are seeing opportunity by creating these Investment Banking teams to hand what your typical investment bank would do, only for real estate related companies.", "replies": [], "depth": 7}, {"id": "d35to5q", "text": "large properties / portfolios (loans of $250M+) likely get done with a large insurance company (or a club of a few), bank syndication or single-issuer cmbs (eg. $1bn+ manhattan office deals, dominant regional malls, etc). Largest deal i've taken down as a single lender was $225M. Also participated with $80M of a $340M syndication.\n\nIt really depends on the situation. The big boy reits with investment grade ratings have no reason to use mortgages - they're a pain the butt and very restrictive. They can just issue public bonds, at much cheaper rates with a phone call - that's where the Investment Banking groups that have been mentioned come in.\n\nFor example, avalon recently issued $475 million of bonds, 10 year money at like 120 bps.", "replies": [], "depth": 7}], "depth": 6}, {"id": "d33pdj7", "text": "I'm a commercial lender. Our REIT clients will come to us for individual property financing, portfolio financing and even senior unsecured loans. But if they want to sell the company, merge with another company, issue equity, or other \"Corp finance\" type activities, we are not the ones to do it. So, the brokers we work with would play a part in the first set of transactions, but their investment banking division would advise on the second set of transactions. ", "replies": [{"id": "d33yjnl", "text": "This makes sense - best answer to my question, I assumed REITs would just use your standard Investment Bank for that kind of stuff, interesting that these large \"brokerage firms\" have IB groups. I assume they are pretty small.", "replies": [{"id": "d3447su", "text": "I think it depends. For example, Eastdil Secured is a subsidiary of Wells Fargo and is their RE IB arm. It's a big shop and they place billions of debt and equity investments every year. They're our largest brokerage relationship by far. ", "replies": [], "depth": 8}, {"id": "d344fn9", "text": "I'd add that for Eastdil, they have a competitive advantage vs other REIB groups due to their investment sales side which gives them expertise at the asset level and real time capital markets awareness. The other big banks RE groups are often part of a larger sub-verticals such as FIG (financial institutions group) so I would argue they have less asset-level understanding.", "replies": [{"id": "d34598e", "text": "&gt; I'd add that for Eastdil, they have a competitive advantage vs other REIB groups due to their investment sales side which gives them expertise at the asset level and real time capital markets awareness. \n\nBut brokerage firms like CBRE and JLL also have this competitive advantage... perhaps even more so since they cover more markets ", "replies": [{"id": "d34h1ft", "text": "Eastdil gets the assignment on the best deals. I'd argue HFF is in the same tier. CBRE and JLL is the b-squad. Eastdil's IB group is on par with BAML's REIB group. They're the best in the biz. ", "replies": [{"id": "d34o9t5", "text": "I agree....", "replies": [], "depth": 11}], "depth": 10}], "depth": 9}], "depth": 8}], "depth": 7}], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}, {"id": "d33m69o", "text": "Groups like CB Richard Ellis and jll recruit guys to run their debt and Equity brokerage groups. They were a lot of people, search differentiate them they call themselves different things. I'm telling you l- it smoking mirrors.  He's competing profit centers provide cash flow to the bottom line Ari's big investment houses.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "d32yffq", "text": "&gt; Real Estate Investment Banking is investment banking focused upon the purchase and sale of third party real estate assets, either in \"one-off\" deals, or in portfolios.....\n\nThen how come these big firms like CBRE, JLL, C&amp;W have their Capital Markets teams (that do debt and equity placements, including mezz financing, CMBS lending, etc.) **as well as** \"Investment Banking\" Groups?", "replies": [{"id": "d35triy", "text": "1 word - fees. you fish where the fish are. If spreads blow out in the public market, they still have private-side deals going to keep the lights on, and vice versa.\n\nKeep in mind, most of these divisions weren't created all at once when the company was set up. They are likely bolt-ons from acquisitions in order to expand their product base.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "d38oegw", "text": "At the major wall street institutions (JP Morgan, Goldman, etc), the REIB group refers to the group that does advisory for real estate companies at the *corporate* level. Basically the same as traditional investment banking, just focused on real estate companies. Issuing debt/arranging IPOs for REITs, arranging the sale or merger of one real estate company with another, etc. I know sometimes they'll also work on portfolio acquisitions (ie buying a group of properties from another company), which is more of a traditional real estate transaction.\n\nI can't speak to what JLL and CBRE's groups do - I've often wondered the same myself. Eastdil, which calls itself a REIB, is closer to brokerage than it is to traditional IB. They mainly focus on investment sales and debt placements, although I believe they've done a handful of more complex transactions.\n", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "d52n5tm", "text": "Real Estate Investment Banking delivers a full range of industry-leading corporate and investment banking products and services to public and private real estate client. They play a major role in raising capital for large-scale development projects. \n\nhttp://investmentbank.com/real-estate/\n", "replies": [{"id": "d52olkb", "text": "&gt; They play a major role in raising capital for large-scale development projects.\n\nBut don't debt and equity placement teams do the same thing?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]