Real Estate Private Equity Interview
I am set to have a virtual real estate private equity interview with multiple members of the firm which is estimated to last a few hours. The way it was described to me was it would be a series of back to back phone calls/ video meetings with members of the fund. I previously have interviewed with multiple people at the fund. Just wondering if anyone has any advice on what I should be studying up for this interview or should I expect this to be more fit based?

This is for an intern role.

Thanks in advance for the help.
[{"id": "fo0wfmt", "text": "Hey \u2014 lots of free resources on my site https://www.leveragedbreakdowns.com. I\u2019d check out all the \u201crepe interview prep\u201d blog posts, all recent if you click on my blog: https://www.leveragedbreakdowns.com/blog/.\n\nAlso I have a free case study you can work through, and tons more blog posts.\n\nObvious disclaimer this is my own site. But I made it because I work in Megafund REPE in NYC and remember how hard it was to break in as a non-target outsider. Good luck, DMs are open!", "replies": [{"id": "fo104h4", "text": "Thanks for responding! I\u2019ve read a ton on your blogs previously and done the quizzes in preparation of the previous interviews with the firm. The only thing is it seems a bit too advanced compared to what they were asking me. Is there anything you would recommend from your site solely for an intern role? The site definitely helped but with how the previous interviews played out I\u2019m not sure if I should go back through everything or if you could highlight a few things as they didn\u2019t ask about much of the things I was learning.", "replies": [{"id": "fo137dx", "text": "Highly recommend this course.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "fo1ek5x", "text": "I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around your request. I disagree fundamentally with the stance that a student can ever know too much, too early. **The best real estate private equity intern is one who thinks the most like an investor.**\n\nThis means three things, in descending order of importance:\n\n1. **You network your ass off and learn** from conversations with people further along the repe career path\n2. You have developed data-backed opinions on real estate markets, namely: **what has happened in the past, what is happening now, and what you think will happen in the future of CRE investing**. Investing requires a lot of hypothesizing, and your ability to hypothesize depends on you grasping essential market context. You only get this by reading and speaking with investors.\n3. **You know what it's like to buy a building from start to finish.** From screening teasers to teasing apart a CIM you get after an NDA. And of course troving through data rooms to consolidate disparate information into a real estate acquisition model. This is the sort of stuff \"technical\" questions are gauging. You just need to fortify your mental model through practice. Excuse the plug, but I genuinely believe you can't find a better course than my own [Breaking Down REPE](https://www.leveragedbreakdowns.com/course/). It shows you what it's really like to buy a building -- all the stuff mentioned above, and more. I also have an [\"ez\" course](https://www.leveragedbreakdowns.com/repe-intro-guide) if you're in a pinch and want the bare minimum.\n\nNotice I put technical skills at the bottom of this list. **The most devastating rookie mistake is to focus on technical skills above networking and developing market knowledge**. If you can't model, you will not get the internship. But a candidate who can model amazingly won't necessarily beat out a candidate who can model just good enough. Learning the art of modeling is essential, but the real winners focus on developing market knowledge and connecting with actual REPE professionals by any means necessary (yes, this means LinkedIn, Google, anything just do the work).", "replies": [{"id": "fo1gqlx", "text": "I agree with your sentiment wholeheartedly. Maybe I wasn't phrasing it well enough but my response was more of the lines of if you would recommend me going through the blogs again as I have read most of the interview ones or should I focus my attention on a few concepts that will be asked to be shown knowledge of during the interview. Since I have already completed the first stage of interviews at the firm I am tailoring my question towards this one specific moment in time. In the previous interviews I really wasn't asked anything too tough and went in way over prepared on technicals and neglected the fit questions. In my second interview I focused way too much on fit and real estate knowledge and forgot to brush up on my accounting. This is why I am focusing so heavily on trying to gain insight in this one step.  The interview is later this week which is why I am focusing on the extremely short term. I am going to look into the course and hopefully it serves me well. \n\nI understand the power of networking and am blessed to be going to a target school and through these efforts have landed an interview. With the economy slowing down my reasoning for posting this thread was solely to try to prepare for a single interview at a single point in time in order to secure an offer for the summer.\n\nI really do appreciate you reaching out and will keep the sentiments from your comment in mind. As an industry professional I'm sure you've interviewed your fair share of candidates if you can provide me any insight on where I am in the process and what to expect I would be more than happy to talk to you more privately about the current state of the process I am.", "replies": [{"id": "fo1hos2", "text": "Yeah sure, happy to chat directly if you DM. Also apologies if it was an irrelevant response, I\u2019m answering for a broad potential audience. So it is hard to know which angle is more relevant when responding.\n\nI think a live convo would help me more quickly help you. But if any questions I can help with publicly, happy to answer them here in case beneficial for others in similar shoes as you.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fo0xrc8", "text": "Lots of good advice on the forums at Wall Street Oasis.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fo16u4m", "text": "Be prepared to discuss the asset class(es) that the fund invests in. High level fundamental finance or knowledge of what drives value in these asset classes is important. Know how to build or understand conceptually how this would relate to the funds modeling of these investments. Who invests in the fund? How are they paid, on what basis (is it pure IRR? equity multiples?) What is horizon of the fund? Those are some interesting questions to look into. Maybe a little too complex and more tailored for an Analyst type role but it will help you get started!", "replies": [{"id": "fo1sisw", "text": "Thanks, will look into these. Hopefully it goes well!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fo186k1", "text": "Try to find out exactly what they do and understand the business as much as possible.  Some possible questions:\n\n1. What property types do they invest in?\n2. What size properties do they invest in?\n3. Where do they invest in the risk spectrum? Core? Core-plus? Value-add? Opportunistic?\n4. Where do they invest in the capital stack? Equity? Preferred equity? Mezzanine debt?  Senior debt?\n5. Do they invest in construction/development projects?\n6. If they invest equity, do they typically operate as the LP with a local operating partner as the GP, or do they own 100% of their investments?  If they work with partners, what do project hurdle rates translate to in returns to the firm?\n7. Do they work with local operating partners\n8. Do they use a closed-end fund business model?  Do they have an open-end fund business model?  Do they have separate accounts?  If so, who do they manage the separate accounts for?  Who invests in their closed-end or open-end funds?\n9. With closed-end funds, what is the length of the investment period?  What is the length of the hold period?  What is the length of the hold period?\n10. How much AUM do they have?  How is it distributed across funds?\n11. What size funds are raised?  When was the most recent fund raised?  How many funds have they raised?\n\nI\u2019m sure there are others that I should have thought of.", "replies": [{"id": "fo1sbi0", "text": "Will look into all of this. Thanks for the help.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fo25xql", "text": "Do you mind sharing some of the firms in the industry that are still hiring interns? My mentee is interested as he had a banking internship that has been canceled due to the virus.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]