QUESTION: What are the day to day responsibilities of a broker in the debt/equity group?
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[{"id": "goiu8i6", "text": "Day to day:\n\nAt the lowest analyst level. Putting together pitch books. Talking to the client to underwrite their deal or convert their existing underwriting to something lenders should see. Building out things like executive summaries, investment highlights and market overviews. There is a lot of writing or can be depending on how important the story is to the given deal. This is actually helpful because all this research will make you not sound dumb when/if you get to talk to lenders. You will talk to appraisers and leasing brokers if your firm has those experts to bring expert and local knowledge to your underwriting and presentations.\n\nYou will spend a lot of time flipping your pitch books back and forth between you senior staff the graphic designers and the client till every comma has found its perfect place and the client is in love with just the right rendering of their building on the key page of the book. This part is time consuming and annoying.\n\nYou will also gather all the other materials into a data dump lenders will access which means knowing what to show them and what to come up with a good story for.\n\nYou will be spending some time building out lender and investor lists since not every lender or investor is good for every deal. Run this by sponsor and they approve it. You will then once all pitch materials are approved launch to market. You will be then the conduit between dozens of capital providers asking due diligence questions and requesting materials and the 1 or more clients. You aggregate questions and start building frequently asked question lists to minimize bothering the client whose whole purpose for hiring you was so they dont have to figure out this process. You will be on a lot of phone calls with lenders as they try to conceptualize the deals you pitch to them but this isnt too bad because they want to do your deals so it turns out to be pretty collegial. You will build cool relationships with these guys over time and come to like and respect eachother as you do multiple deals together.\n\nYou will be catching up with the client relatively often during marketing to let them know how things are going. Who has passed and who submitted a bid. Eventually you will leverage your expertise to help client select a couple lenders to pursue and then to negotiate with these guys to get best financing terms from pricing to structure.\n\nYou will also be managing and facilitating the closing process since your team does not get paid till it closes even after a lender/investor is chosen. Which can mean arranging or sometimes fighting appraisals and other third party things.\n\nWhen you are not doing that you are building out guidances for prospective deals to display your teams chops and win business. Or you could be reaching out to capital providers with vague information on upcoming deals to survey from them what they are thinking on pricing metrics and what they are or are not lending/investing on.\n\nOther times you are doing research mining for new clients who need financing but most deals are coming from repeat clients your seniors know well. \n\nPro is you learn a ton about many different asset types. You will do many many deals like way more than investment sales guys but you wont master any specific property type. Your hit rate will be pretty high and most of your deals that get to market actually do close.", "replies": [{"id": "goiuq49", "text": "Wow thanks for the response! I\u2019m gonna have to reread this a few times hahaha but very informative, Thanks again. Sounds like a super solid position, definitely interested in pursuing it now.", "replies": [{"id": "goj29mb", "text": "Its a very cool role most dont know about. Really the nexus of finance and real estate. What investments bankers do for companies you do for projects.", "replies": [{"id": "gojz9vq", "text": "I\u2019ve been wanting to find a real estate role that is heavily finance related, and I feel like this really is the perfect job for me based on how you describe it. I\u2019m from the northeast United States, do you know any strong offices or brokers in that area that I should keep on my radar, and any advice for trying to get an interview? I really appreciate your help. Also, I looked at your account and just wanted to say I\u2019m a huge Stellaris fan, can\u2019t wait for the new update hahaha", "replies": [{"id": "gok2dd3", "text": "Honestly I have been single minded focus on imperator but do love stellaris. Of course you like it Mecha Jesus lol. Just not as much.\n\nAs far as the firms, keep an eye on the top brokerage firms to see if they have rolls open up. Cbre, JLL, eastdil, newmark, b6 etc. A lot of recruiting is out of the originations groups at banks since those guys understand the debt side very well but you can break in with just real estate experience too and learn the debt side. I suggest you check out selectleaders.com for openings, also reach out to guys who have that title on linkedin and ask them to chat about what they do since you are interested. If you read commercial observer they often will report on recent financings and the guys who brokered it, hit up those guys who brokered the deals. If you can get anyone on the phone it is very likely they will let you know if they have openings. Dont be afraid to hit up MDs also in addition to younger guys since they are pretty chill and actually make the hiring decisions. Now is a good time to be hunting given its bonus season so a lot of people collect their bonus and then move to a new job leaving openings.", "replies": [{"id": "gomy6wk", "text": "Reading the commercial observer is a great tip, I\u2019m subscribed now. I should mention I\u2019m still a student, so not sure if I\u2019ll be replacing any of the guys leaving haha I\u2019m looking for an internship that hoped leads to a full time position", "replies": [{"id": "gomyv1n", "text": "Being a student is a great position to be in because people will love to talk to you. Start reaching out to people now. You are leagues ahead of me just asking questions. When I was in school I didnt ask any questions and figured life after school was just going to be handed to me and fall into place. It turned out a lot tougher and to require a lot more work and perseverance and putting yourself out there than I thought. So keep it up you are doing the correct things.\n\nHighly recommend you check out adventures in cre and learn some modeling commercial real estate if you dont know it already. The watch me build courses are free", "replies": [{"id": "gurgdva", "text": "Hello, \nWith some of your advice I was able to secure an internship offer from a small brokerage. The issue is, they specialize in investment sales at their headquarters in the northeast, which is where I want to work, and they only have a small debt and equity team there. Their best debt / equity team is in Dallas, which is not where I want to work. Do you think it\u2019s better to do investment sales in a larger market where I want to work, or debt and equity, my preferred position, in another part of the country?", "replies": [{"id": "gurhw86", "text": "Do the internship but toward the end of the internship try to network with the debt and equity guys and make it clear to the broker you are working for that you are interested. My team hired two guys recently both from investment sales so you will be fine to move just work hard and learn. If you know real estate you can do debt and equity for real estate. You can also leverage that internship experience to get a job at another firm in the northeast that does have a debt/equity presence, you are not stuck in it. And if worst comes to worst be open to going to Dallas for a year to get the experience, you may love it there since there is a huge cre presence there especially with cbre there. And if you hate it just leverage that experience to get a job back here in the northeast after a year. \n\nI cant say whats better since I have not done equity sales but I like debt and equity a lot. But take the opportunity you have and make the best of it while continuing to position yourself for your future. And good job", "replies": [{"id": "gurk8e6", "text": "Ok, so you think it\u2019s fine to just take the internship in the northeast. To be clear, I have the choice to do either.\n\nThanks for all your help in this process, it\u2019s been very useful for me being able to talk to someone in the field I want to go into. Appreciate it.", "replies": [{"id": "gurl2y2", "text": "If you have the option and can afford it taking the one in dallas may be best since you can see if you like the city/the group/the job as an internship where its low risk. Either will be a solid base of experience but the more specific debt experience will obviously be more specific to what you are trying to do and if it doesnt work it will be easy to go into investment sales later.\n\nNp, happy to help.", "replies": [{"id": "hy6kdg5", "text": "Hi again According Surround!\n\nYour advice has been super helpful to me over the last year. I ended up liking your branch of brokerage after interning in it last summer, and I\u2019m now a senior interviewing with a debt and structured finance team. I have an excel modeling exam coming up with them and I really would like to do well on it. Do you have any ideas of what would be best to brush up on, or (possibly) any sample exams? Again, thank you a ton for your help over the past year with nothing expected in return.", "replies": [{"id": "hywxqz8", "text": "Hey man, happy to hear things are going well. When I did my modeling test they handed me a rent roll and proforma and I just asked me to create a loan sizing sources and uses and build a presentation on it. For an excel modeling test specifically checking your excel skills though I would check out the watch me solve repe modeling test video from adventures in cre. Then I would do a few of the watch me build videos. Do the watch me solve 5 or 6 times and you should be able to handle pretty much anything they can throw at you.", "replies": [{"id": "hzlto4t", "text": "Awesome, will do, thank you sm", "replies": [], "depth": 14}], "depth": 13}], "depth": 12}], "depth": 11}], "depth": 10}], "depth": 9}], "depth": 8}], "depth": 7}], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]