Advice for applying for an investment sales internship at a commercial real estate firm?
I'm a college freshman studying business (hoping to focus in real estate finance). I have very limited knowledge of the industry and am hoping to set my foot in the door. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.
[{"id": "f5uci2l", "text": "Use your network to get informational meetings (\"just want to learn about your path in the industry\" and \"what steps should I take to prepare myself for a role in the industry after college?\"). They'll probably say the word \"internship\" at some point in that convo, which should allow you to ask / soft sell if they have a need for an intern / you'd be happy to help in whatever fashion just to be around the business. Then ask if there's anyone they can think of that you should talk to next. Focus of those convo's should be informational, networking, and internship attainment in that order.\n\nBe good at Excel (getting Excel certified can help). Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat skills in general will be clutch. Some shops may use InDesign - in case you have familiarity it could be a useful offer.\n\nBe a good researcher - you'll probably be asked to pull data / reports / property info.\n\nRead some industry white papers to acclimate yourself to general trends and terminology. CBRE is a good place to start - they're the largest CRE servicing company in the world, put out a ton of research, and you can freely sign up for a profile to gain access.\n\nAt your age / experience level you're going to be essentially worthless - no offense. Your best bet is to have someone in your network get you in the door where you can offer to do whatever grunt work they need and then promise to not be a drag on the business. Don't be nervous that you can't offer more than that and don't be too full of yourself to believe that you're providing more than they're offering you.\n\nWay to start early - you'll have some experience and knowledge behind you in no time. Congrats on taking the first steps.", "replies": [{"id": "f5ue2vd", "text": "Can you elaborate on what you mean by good researcher? Overall, thanks for the advice. It really helps.", "replies": [{"id": "f5ulpu0", "text": "Yeah that part is tough - you'll need to get good at CoStar, the main property research platform for commercial real estate (excluding hospitality and multifamily, though you can use it for multifamily). Unfortunately you won't have access to that until you get into an office that has a subscription.\n\nI'd suggest this: position yourself well as someone who is good at finding information on the internet and turning it into something presentable. That's a big part of the job. Presentation deliverables will include 1) good looking excel spreadsheets (formatted into nice clean tables with formulas to calculate averages and totals and weighted averages), and 2) \"flyers\" or similar - a page or multiple pages of images and text describing a building, tenant, market, investment thesis, etc.\n\nCome to think of it... You can get a start by using LoopNet, which is free and open, to poke around at the kind of info you'll be looking for. That's a great way to get familiar with what is presented / terminology / etc.\n\nExamples:\n\n[https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/1-Post-Dr-Irvine-CA/17241364/](https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/1-Post-Dr-Irvine-CA/17241364/)\n\n[https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/18565-18575-Jamboree-Rd-Irvine-CA/12771372/](https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/18565-18575-Jamboree-Rd-Irvine-CA/12771372/)\n\nA case study assignment:\n\nCreate an excel table (for presentation) of available sublease space within a 1 mile radius of 2525 Main St 1, Irvine, CA; include building address, property name, building square footage, sublease space square footage, sublease space suite number, sublease space rate, leasing broker name, leasing broker company, and leasing broker phone number.\n\nYou should be using the advanced search tool and you should find six buildings with available sublease space totaling 20,172 sf. Your table should have headings, borders, and consistent formatting. The bottom of your tables should include totals for sublease space square feet (\"SF\") and weighted averages for rental rate (rate weighted by square footage of space, [see how to create that formula here](https://www.excel-easy.com/examples/weighted-average.html)). Your sheet should include a title and the date in the top left corner and should be formatted to print on a single page in landscape.\n\nIf you can do that, your next step would be to create a map (hint: screen capture the map that LoopNet offers and paste it into Paint). You'd then want to add a reference number column to your table (n the leftmost side) and assign numbers to each building. Then drop numbers into the map over the appropriate building location.\n\nYou now have a two page deliverable. That's the kind of thing you'd be asked to produce regularly as an analyst. If you can bring that in as an example of the work you can produce (along with maybe something from your school work as well as some references), you've got a full brag book (for your age/experience). If you can do the above but in some way make it applicable to the internship you're seeking, even better. Example: Replace the center of the study area address with the address of a building they own or have sold/are selling.\n\nYou should also be able to describe why it's useful information. Sublease space is space that is on a traditional lease that the tenant no longer occupies and is attempting to sublease to another user. It's like if you have had to ditch your apartment lease - either you have to pay the rest of the lease out or you have to find someone to take it over for you. Sublease availability is one view of volatility and risk in the leasing market (which impacts asset values). Too much sublease spaces shows a lot of tenants moving out prior to their lease - that's less than ideal. And since sublease space is usually priced below market (\"the lease on this apartment is $1,500 a month but I'll offer it to you for $1,000 and pay the other $500)... sublease space is a good indication of how badly you could get undercut on market rents. A bunch of sublease space collectively means you have unstable tenants in the market and a ton of cheap space that you're now competing with - both are negatives to asset values. Sublease space as a percentage of total building square footage would be a useful metric but you won't be able to total the area square footage with LoopNet (you'd be able to do it easily with CoStar).", "replies": [{"id": "f5upqfu", "text": "Holy. I'll be sure to take advantage of this. Thank you so much!", "replies": [{"id": "f5ur5z9", "text": "It's a wall of shit to think about, I know, but hopefully useful. For reference: I'm an acquisitions officer, 10+ yrs in the business, with $2b in transactions under my belt. My first internship was in a investment sales shop.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f5ukysi", "text": "Generate some seller leads and see how fast they take you under their wing to show you the ropes! ;)", "replies": [{"id": "f5vk8hq", "text": "Are you suggesting he try to broker deals without a license?\n\nSeriously though, this sounds a lot like \u201cpitch a stock at the interview\u201d kind of advice.\n\n\nGreat strategy on paper, but 99 times out of 100 the leads/ analysis are worthless and the child in the interview comes off as a cocksure fratboy.", "replies": [{"id": "f5xa60c", "text": "Yes. I\u2019m suggesting he should engage in illegal behavior. Last I checked, showing up to an interview with some market research, sweat on your brow and value in hand was still in good taste.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f5uzrni", "text": "Does your college offer real estate degrees? If so there will be a real estate student society.  Join it as soon as you can.  Also talk to those professors about networking opportunities in your are and internship leads", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f5wgvro", "text": "My advice is learn to be as resourceful as possible, this will make you the most valuable and give you the most opportunities. When you start, it\u2019s going to be hard and a whole new world of shit to learn but what is going to push you ahead is your ability to teach yourself and use the resources at hand to get results. There is an amazing amount of information on the internet, being able to use this information is what is going to set you ahead in this game.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f5x07nk", "text": "Persistence persistence persistence. This is the best way. These guys get a lot of people wanting to work with them. Don\u2019t get discouraged and be persistent.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f5yk2zx", "text": "Just intern at an investment sales brokerage as an analyst. That is the standard route to learn investment sales. All the other answers people are giving here are overcomplicated or vague.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]