Do you work in an in house acquisitions department?
Tell me how your department works. How many people work in it - what’s their role? Responsibility?
[{"id": "i6rpczm", "text": "Not anymore but did for a year. Lots of underwriting for acquisitions and disposals and then creating approval documents for investment committee. If approved the team would progress the acquisition through the negotiation phase until completion", "replies": [{"id": "i6skzia", "text": "What\u2019s the approval documents? Who did you report to?", "replies": [{"id": "i6uk3m3", "text": "These are very broad questions, what are you trying to understand here?\n\nAn acquisitions team usually has progression from Analyst -&gt; Associate -&gt; Manager -&gt; Director -&gt; VP before hitting executive level (sometimes VP/director are flipped).\n\nAt analyst/associate level you do all the modeling to underwrite deals with input from more senior team members. If the senior members like a deal and the numbers work, then an IC (investment committee, the executives who green light investments) memo is prepared to pitch the deal. If you get IC approval, then an LOI is drafted (analyst/associates may or may not help with legal drafting, but most shops have an in house legal team).\n\nIf a deal is won, then the director/VP level or above will work with the lawyers to negotiate an agreement of purchase and sale (again, final approval needed from IC). Once this is executed, analysts and associates come back in to help with due diligence to identify any potential issues with the property and verify the information you\u2019ve been provided. If all is well, a deal is closed and you move on to the next one.\n\nManagers usually oversee analysts/associates and are the last line of review for underwriting, and they are just learning to source deals.\n\nAt director and VP level your job is primarily sourcing and executing deals.", "replies": [{"id": "i6x2uce", "text": "I currently have an analyst. I\u2019m trying to get as many deals across his desk as possible. I\u2019m looking to add more people to my department to assist with this. I have a broad role - acquisitions is just one part of the responsibility. I\u2019m trying to figure out a structure on how to get as many deals as possible to have to analyst review and have me pitch to my owners.", "replies": [{"id": "i6x7ceu", "text": "At most shops I\u2019ve been at Manager to VP level generally take first glance at OMs and if they pass the sniff test it gets passed to Analyst/Associate for a deeper dive.\n\nSome places will have Associates vet the OMs if they are a large player and have a ton of deals come across their desk.", "replies": [{"id": "i6x9vit", "text": "Ok. I guess im asking how we get the deals across our desk. We\u2019re looking at hiring a person to cold call for us.", "replies": [{"id": "i6xa2j3", "text": "What size deals are you looking for?\n\nCold calling is a waste of time unless you have a strategy for it (I.e. identifying markets and buildings through research).\n\nMost people just have a network of brokers sending them OMs and beyond that are networking with other companies to try and find off market or partnership opportunities", "replies": [{"id": "i6xarx2", "text": "I have upto 100 million to spend.  I\u2019d like to put half into value add and the other half into core assets.  I should be networking with other companies. This is helpful.", "replies": [], "depth": 8}], "depth": 7}], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i6s7gmc", "text": "I work in acquisitions for a development company with 70-80 employees. My acqs department has five people in it including myself.", "replies": [{"id": "i6sgrr5", "text": "What do you do? What is the structure?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i76i2c3", "text": "I'm an analyst on our acquisitions team at a CRE firm. The team is small - the two sponsors (principal, gp, or w/e you want to call it) and myself.  As the analyst, I do all the deal underwriting and put together our loan/investor packages that we send out to banks and our investor pool. I'm also plugged in to any negotiations so I can update our internal forecasts if deal terms or rates change.  \n\n\nOne of the partners is focused on sourcing and negotiating deals. They have a network of broker relationships cultivated over a long period of time. The other partner is focused on executing signed deals, primarily working with our attorneys on PSAs, due diligence, loan docs, Operating Agreements etc.. As an analyst, I assist both partners in their roles - redlining LOIs, reviewing DD, etc..  \n\n\nOur deal flow is almost 100% through broker contacts. We do search through LoopNet &amp; CoStar regularly for listings but very rarely do we find anything that we end up purchasing.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i77n0i3", "text": "I do, and you need the following:\n- Head (Source &amp; Decision Maker)\n- Analysis (Underwriting, Creates Packages)\n- Legal (Reviews contracts, LOIs, etc)\n- Project Management (order's third party reports, coordinates schedules)\n\nThe above can be done by as few as 2 people, or as big as 10, it really depends.", "replies": [{"id": "i77suci", "text": "I want to hire someone to call a million people and give me warm leads. Thoughts?", "replies": [{"id": "i782fbf", "text": "Have the money, post some job openings, and buy cold leads.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i9w2wep", "text": "I just got assigned to source deals myself. Trying to figure out where to best spend my time.", "replies": [{"id": "i9xvsaq", "text": "What did you find to be the best way to get deals?", "replies": [{"id": "i9yuplb", "text": "I\u2019ll let you know once I solve that question. I\u2019m just getting started after years of number crunching and memo prep.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]