i have m. arch I, 5-6 yrs architectural work experience, but no real estate/ finance background nor work experience.
somehow even in this shaky market
received a verbal offer to work at a mid sized real estate company
in los angeles. am planning to accept since it sounds like
an interesting opportunity but we still need to work out
salary.
the company is mainly based in l.a. of about 40 ppl and
has a few other branches (a couple overseas)
that total maybe 30 ppl more.
the bulk of the revenue comes from property management
both residential and commercial mainly in l.a.
a solid amount of residential property though. about 900 million sq ft.
and the rest a pretty wide range of real estate oriented ventures including overseas development.
im wondering where to start regards to salary. i was able to delay salary talk until they tipped their hand and asked me to join on.
and while i really dont know diddly about pro formas, balance sheets, etc (but both the CEO and COO were completely unfazed by my complete lack of experience in this) i have been able to surmise that despite that im a pretty wanted person there.
they were even pretty explicit when they told me that they were hoping i could help fill an upper level managerial gap in their company. this is not to say they were hiring me as one but that that was the plan for me. essentially i would be a long term project for them. and that they had absolutely no idea what i would do upon entering the office but they wanted me to start soon since the learning curve was a long one, especially in my case.
who knows maybe this is yr typical rah rah pre employment talk but i have a strong feeling that this is not the case.
im pretty surprised at all this but at the same time i do feel i have a wee bit of leverage. not very much but more than someone typically entering a new sector.
ive been self employed in a sector completely outside of architecture for a few yrs so ive been out of the loop for a while. they dont know how much i make.
but the CEO probably knows how much architects generally make and what my current value as an architect in l.a. which is prob around 65-75k. which is where i was roughly when i was last in the profession.
but that number in my mind is just a piece of the equation.
either way the problem is the range is v wide considering my situation.
ive bounced this off of some people and ive heard anything from 60-70k
to 100k minimum. still not too exact.
: "real estate" is a pretty broad classification ... a lot would depend on what job you're being hired to fill and how your education and work experience can be applied to those new duties.
I spent a considerable part of my early career in the real estate development arena. While it can be a roller coaster ride as the economy shifts, my experience there suggested that base wages were 25-30% higher than what I could have expected in an architectural firm at that time.
One factor that may not make my experience relevant to your case is that I brought an Architectural License and an MBA with me to that job. Moreover, I will say that I worked a LOT harder in RE than I ever did in architecture, traveled considerably more, and the job pressure was considerably higher.
Again, depending on the role you'll be expected to fill, you might try salary.com for some baseline information on real estate salaries in your area.
Another approach would be to ask them to make you an offer and to explain how they arrived at that number ... then you can negotiate from there. This isn't rocket science.
real estate being broad and to make things more open the fact that there is no job description. the employers made a v big deal about not trying to figure out what my role could be bc it could involve anything outside of accounting/ brokerage dep't.
so just to throw out some things that were brought up. project management (needing someone to oversee completion of a small commercial building that had been on hold since it foreclosed), project design (some speculative overseas residential work), development (a local golf course that they wanted to redesign), proformas, etc.
im also while excited about this opportunity a little wary this will prob be on par at minimum w my starchitect experience overseas in the amount of workload. but the difference here is im at the bottom of multiple learning curves not just a few. i already am looking into some night finance and real estate classes. thats really just part of it.
there will be a very steep learning curve. i don't think i have as much experience as quiz, but i interned for transwestern and i've done some work on the banking side in commercial r/e development.
be careful to take swings on proformas if you don't know what you're doing. if you make a mistake, and they're depending on your spreads (financial lingo for analyzing financial statements), they will place the liability on you.
also, there will be a lot to learn about r/e law, especially with the amount of foreclosures that are inundating the r/e market right now. you'll want to be meticulous in your study of such documents.
i think your experience in arch will be a great asset for project mgmt, and that's probably why they're wanting to hire you.
i would agree with quiz on the salary. most "business" jobs make a lot more $$ than architecture jobs. it may be beneficial to start low, require a 3 month review with an increase in pay based on your performance. but you may want to be careful on this. make sure the review and compensation is detailed.
Do not take the bait of proposing a salary first. Always make the employer "toss out the first ball," so so speak, in starting this negotiation. This makes even more sense in your situation, where you're shifting fields.
"I understand that you'd like me suggest a salary for myself, but since my work experience has been in another field, I'd really feel more comfortable if you'd start the process with an offer. Thanks so much."
No matter how much they prod you to start, resist. This is one very useful piece of advice given to me when I was negotiating in new waters after many years at a small firm.
but, i would think if they're really pushing you to give a number after you explained the situation, i might reconsider the whole deal. if they're playing hardball now, the work environment is probably not that friendly
look -- real estate's a completely different ballgame than architecture. it's all about the "deal" all the time. these guys probably are just doing what they do naturally. that doesn't mean they're bad people to work with or that greenlander1 won't have a great experience if he does go over to "the dark side" -- even if he doesn't stay there forever, that experience definitely will make him a better architect ... I know it helped me immeasurably.
greenlander1 - I doubt these guys will think badly of you if you follow citizen's advice above. whenever employers don't really know how to price a position, they tend to ask the candidate what they want, then work down from there. the same applies to you. in the end, they'll make an offer if they want you in the firm. it'll probably be more than you expect.
it would be professional of you to work with this employer to define your duties, responsibilties and authorities before you make the jump -- you can't evaluate their compensation offer without a clear understanding of what they expect you to do. stick to your guns on this ... arm waving and smoke don't help you understand what you'll be expected to do ... my guess is that they're not entirely clear themselves ... use the job def. exercise so both of you can figure it out before you take the position.
Quiz is quite right, Greenlander. Even inside our field, sometimes job descriptions are muddled, unclear and left undiscussed--to the detriment of all concerned. When changing fields, the opportunity for misunderstandings and unmet expectations is rife.
Part of your interview process should be a friendly yet explicit hashing out of specifics regarding what will be expected of you, AND OF THEM. And, as Quiz suggests, this will probably help you both to focus in on an appropriate salary range.
for better or worse, if your changing careers and coming into the industry at an entry level position, its probably irrelevant what you were making at your old job.
that being said, i interned at a RE firm last year in nyc (with no prior training) and got paid $20 an hour for doing literally zero work.
im glad to hear im not the only one. without a doubt i dont regard this as jumping ship or joining the dark side. i realized i had some architectural ambitions that were going to be v difficult to attain within the architectural sector per se, so i here i am. the higher potential compensation i admit helps.
anyhow i went ahead and i accepted their offer of employment but i told them i needed a written offer to be able to proceed. ive deferred the salary answer until now and am waiting for them to make the first move. they said they could send me something next week.
so while i made it evident i want to take the job, i still want to negotiate. but i feel it is v important to keep things on good terms here since things are v much in a feeling out/ exploratory stage.
they definitely are not entirely clear themselves on what i will do. i think a lot of it is due to the fact the CEO seems v discretionary in his managerial/ business style and also how i can help them is a big unknown. he kept throwing out a lot of ideas while maintaining that i wasnt being considered for a specific job position. they seem to want a sort of a utilityman which actually is fine by me. i figure i could gain exposure then decide what i might be more specifically interested in.
it might be a bit of a hassle but maybe the fastest way to get the big picture.
im thinking the most realistic scenario is to agree on near term duties and responsibilities with an longer term agreement on exposure to ones where im not yet up to speed on the learning curve.
I went ahead and took the job a couple weeks ago. They are mainly a property management/brokerage firm w a small development wing.
I'm getting paid 60k w/o benefits. They initially offered 50k. I said 85k and thats the best I was able to do get out of them. Way below what I wanted but I wanted to get things rolling. I will have a 3 mo review and hopefully try to renegotiate things but they said the only thing that will kick in at that time is my benefit/ bonus package. My lack of previous experience in this sector really was what make things difficult so now my first priority is to take care of that. when I finally get a completed project/ deal on my resume I think it will help me a lot if I decide to fish for another job.
I took this job since I would handed a decent amount of responsibility immediately, being able to run an entitlement project right from the get go. would represent the first semblance of a bridge from architecture to real estate. The project involves getting approval from the city to convert existing land for residential use. They had another fellow running it and it wasnt working going anywhere so now I'm playing w the hot potato.
The timeline on this one is pretty short. My office wants to get the package approved within 4-6 mo. If and when the deal gets approved I'm gonna bring up the salary issue again. I've only been in the office in a short time but I can tell they dont really have the necessary ppl outside of the partners who know much about the approval process. And this is coming from someone who doesn't have a huge amount of experience in it either! The partners usually did much of this work themselves but are more looking for someone to do the set up work for these approvals/deals so they can be freed up to focus on finding more work.
I am already making quite a few contacts to other ppl in the industry. next week meeting a former architect who went into development and started his own residential development company in l.a.
On another note, I'm getting exposed to some of the profit margins some of these developers have. Compared to what architects make on their projects its pretty mindboggling. I've seen quite a few projects that had a 50%, 75%, even 100%+ ROI in within a year time span, typically unloading the property even before it gets into the construction phase. So pocketing a huge amount of profit and handing over all the liability to the next guy.
I was thinking years ago there needed to be a LOt more architects on the development side of the deal but now I'm absolutely convinced. Architecture as only consultants/ service industry IMO isnt going to cut it in the long-term future for the profession.
Also working on an overseas residential development project and for now doing the architectural work bringing it through planning/ v early stages of schematic design. After that we will hand over the project to a local architect. Not something I want to be doing a lot of but is something they do need help w near term as they have noone w any architectural experience.
that is great to hear.(your post on salary for entry level real estate?) i just graduated with a bachelors of arch and a minor in real property development. your right, it is shocking to see the difference in profit margins between what an architect takes and the developer. then the worst part the developer shows the project without even mentioning the architect, the ones who designed it. all this information is pretty inspiring. i'm moving to new york and have been applying to many architecture firms and i am also trying to apply at real estate firms.
i've worked full time in 2 arch firms, 1 arch firm for a competition, a landscape arch firm, and construction firm. but no actual real estate development firms, except for all my coursework.
what would you recommend i do as a course of action to get into this scene.
should i go straight into an architecture firm, or attempt to get into a development company, and what would I try to apply as.
I'd suggest you talk with them about getting a piece of the pie. 60k does seem low, but given the economy and their past experience, maybe they are being cautious. Still, I'd talk with them about getting a percentage of the profit, fairly common for the major players in the project.
circlek09 - get a job at a dev office. Diving in the deep end will give you tons of exposure to how things work, just by being in that environment.
I have about 10 years of experience in Architecture. I was wondering what your cover letter spoke to, why you thought you would be a solid addition to a developer and why you were leaving architecture? I am thinking of making the same moves but am having a hard time putting together a cover letter, because I dont know exaclty where I would fit. Any thoughts you have would be appreciated.
Emphasis your project management and delivery skills, team-playing, people management, general know-how of the industry.... Obviously, avoid any design blah...blah...
I suspect getting your foot in the door is probably the most difficult part, and just trying to get out there and meeting-greeting will be a good move...
as for leaving architecture, no need to mention anything. think of as specializing in a certain area.
My curent employer, a developer, does not really differentiate between architect in practice and project managers that work for him. Needless to say he's wrong but this meant that he offered me a job without me having much pm experience. I learnt the ropes as I went along, and ended up being moulded into a pm that works well with the company culture.
As for what that company culture is, that's another thread for another day.
I got the job through a personal reference. I didn't even write a cover letter but if I had to write one, revision's comments are spot on.
When initially I talked to these people I did say those things plus I would provide them with another way of evaluating projects and help act as a middle man btw them and architects. I have already worked with them a bit with some projects in entitlement/ SD phase. Sometimes just sending comments to the architects to actually being a bit more aggressive and actually marking up the drawings to push things along. But when I am working w the architects/ engineers it has always revolved around efficiency, making sure got have the most leasable/ sellable area to cost, i.e. packing more units in or say trying to minimize areas in the project where we wouldnt make money.
Right now I am really trying to network like crazy and gain better understanding of the finance side. The guy I work under has an MBA and initially did loan work outs and NPL's for quite some time. Every day I ask him questions about the balance sheets, IRR, operating income and costs, debt service, cap rates, etc. Im also leaning pretty heavily towards getting an MRED in the near future.
As for why I am doing this, the main issue is work w a better profit margin, although right now my salary is pretty awful. But close behind was the issue of wanting to drive projects rather than be the architect for someone else. The other thing is that everyone in development is constantly hustling for an angle on some work, either for themselves or their office. Its a much more aggressive business env't than architecture.
Sending apps to RE school now in couple weeks.
Most of recs are written, personal statement more or less laid out, but havent studied really for GMAT and it is on Saturday. Uh oh.
salary for entry level real estate?
ok im taking the plunge into real estate.
i have m. arch I, 5-6 yrs architectural work experience, but no real estate/ finance background nor work experience.
somehow even in this shaky market
received a verbal offer to work at a mid sized real estate company
in los angeles. am planning to accept since it sounds like
an interesting opportunity but we still need to work out
salary.
the company is mainly based in l.a. of about 40 ppl and
has a few other branches (a couple overseas)
that total maybe 30 ppl more.
the bulk of the revenue comes from property management
both residential and commercial mainly in l.a.
a solid amount of residential property though. about 900 million sq ft.
and the rest a pretty wide range of real estate oriented ventures including overseas development.
im wondering where to start regards to salary. i was able to delay salary talk until they tipped their hand and asked me to join on.
and while i really dont know diddly about pro formas, balance sheets, etc (but both the CEO and COO were completely unfazed by my complete lack of experience in this) i have been able to surmise that despite that im a pretty wanted person there.
they were even pretty explicit when they told me that they were hoping i could help fill an upper level managerial gap in their company. this is not to say they were hiring me as one but that that was the plan for me. essentially i would be a long term project for them. and that they had absolutely no idea what i would do upon entering the office but they wanted me to start soon since the learning curve was a long one, especially in my case.
who knows maybe this is yr typical rah rah pre employment talk but i have a strong feeling that this is not the case.
im pretty surprised at all this but at the same time i do feel i have a wee bit of leverage. not very much but more than someone typically entering a new sector.
no idea...
good luck and let us know...
Sounds like an interesting opportunity, Greenlander. I wanna hear how it works out.
But for salary info? We can't even get a handle on architecture salaries here, let alone those in another field.
There must be a version of Archinect for the real estate world. I'd search for that, and poll folks there.
Good luck!
What's your current salary and do they know how much you make?
ive been self employed in a sector completely outside of architecture for a few yrs so ive been out of the loop for a while. they dont know how much i make.
but the CEO probably knows how much architects generally make and what my current value as an architect in l.a. which is prob around 65-75k. which is where i was roughly when i was last in the profession.
but that number in my mind is just a piece of the equation.
either way the problem is the range is v wide considering my situation.
ive bounced this off of some people and ive heard anything from 60-70k
to 100k minimum. still not too exact.
: "real estate" is a pretty broad classification ... a lot would depend on what job you're being hired to fill and how your education and work experience can be applied to those new duties.
I spent a considerable part of my early career in the real estate development arena. While it can be a roller coaster ride as the economy shifts, my experience there suggested that base wages were 25-30% higher than what I could have expected in an architectural firm at that time.
One factor that may not make my experience relevant to your case is that I brought an Architectural License and an MBA with me to that job. Moreover, I will say that I worked a LOT harder in RE than I ever did in architecture, traveled considerably more, and the job pressure was considerably higher.
Again, depending on the role you'll be expected to fill, you might try salary.com for some baseline information on real estate salaries in your area.
Another approach would be to ask them to make you an offer and to explain how they arrived at that number ... then you can negotiate from there. This isn't rocket science.
thanks quizzical.
real estate being broad and to make things more open the fact that there is no job description. the employers made a v big deal about not trying to figure out what my role could be bc it could involve anything outside of accounting/ brokerage dep't.
so just to throw out some things that were brought up. project management (needing someone to oversee completion of a small commercial building that had been on hold since it foreclosed), project design (some speculative overseas residential work), development (a local golf course that they wanted to redesign), proformas, etc.
im also while excited about this opportunity a little wary this will prob be on par at minimum w my starchitect experience overseas in the amount of workload. but the difference here is im at the bottom of multiple learning curves not just a few. i already am looking into some night finance and real estate classes. thats really just part of it.
there will be a very steep learning curve. i don't think i have as much experience as quiz, but i interned for transwestern and i've done some work on the banking side in commercial r/e development.
be careful to take swings on proformas if you don't know what you're doing. if you make a mistake, and they're depending on your spreads (financial lingo for analyzing financial statements), they will place the liability on you.
also, there will be a lot to learn about r/e law, especially with the amount of foreclosures that are inundating the r/e market right now. you'll want to be meticulous in your study of such documents.
i think your experience in arch will be a great asset for project mgmt, and that's probably why they're wanting to hire you.
i would agree with quiz on the salary. most "business" jobs make a lot more $$ than architecture jobs. it may be beneficial to start low, require a 3 month review with an increase in pay based on your performance. but you may want to be careful on this. make sure the review and compensation is detailed.
Another recommendation, Greenlander.
Do not take the bait of proposing a salary first. Always make the employer "toss out the first ball," so so speak, in starting this negotiation. This makes even more sense in your situation, where you're shifting fields.
"I understand that you'd like me suggest a salary for myself, but since my work experience has been in another field, I'd really feel more comfortable if you'd start the process with an offer. Thanks so much."
No matter how much they prod you to start, resist. This is one very useful piece of advice given to me when I was negotiating in new waters after many years at a small firm.
My proposal would have been $20k too low.
^agree
but, i would think if they're really pushing you to give a number after you explained the situation, i might reconsider the whole deal. if they're playing hardball now, the work environment is probably not that friendly
look -- real estate's a completely different ballgame than architecture. it's all about the "deal" all the time. these guys probably are just doing what they do naturally. that doesn't mean they're bad people to work with or that greenlander1 won't have a great experience if he does go over to "the dark side" -- even if he doesn't stay there forever, that experience definitely will make him a better architect ... I know it helped me immeasurably.
greenlander1 - I doubt these guys will think badly of you if you follow citizen's advice above. whenever employers don't really know how to price a position, they tend to ask the candidate what they want, then work down from there. the same applies to you. in the end, they'll make an offer if they want you in the firm. it'll probably be more than you expect.
it would be professional of you to work with this employer to define your duties, responsibilties and authorities before you make the jump -- you can't evaluate their compensation offer without a clear understanding of what they expect you to do. stick to your guns on this ... arm waving and smoke don't help you understand what you'll be expected to do ... my guess is that they're not entirely clear themselves ... use the job def. exercise so both of you can figure it out before you take the position.
Quiz is quite right, Greenlander. Even inside our field, sometimes job descriptions are muddled, unclear and left undiscussed--to the detriment of all concerned. When changing fields, the opportunity for misunderstandings and unmet expectations is rife.
Part of your interview process should be a friendly yet explicit hashing out of specifics regarding what will be expected of you, AND OF THEM. And, as Quiz suggests, this will probably help you both to focus in on an appropriate salary range.
for better or worse, if your changing careers and coming into the industry at an entry level position, its probably irrelevant what you were making at your old job.
that being said, i interned at a RE firm last year in nyc (with no prior training) and got paid $20 an hour for doing literally zero work.
thanks guys for all the responses.
im glad to hear im not the only one. without a doubt i dont regard this as jumping ship or joining the dark side. i realized i had some architectural ambitions that were going to be v difficult to attain within the architectural sector per se, so i here i am. the higher potential compensation i admit helps.
anyhow i went ahead and i accepted their offer of employment but i told them i needed a written offer to be able to proceed. ive deferred the salary answer until now and am waiting for them to make the first move. they said they could send me something next week.
so while i made it evident i want to take the job, i still want to negotiate. but i feel it is v important to keep things on good terms here since things are v much in a feeling out/ exploratory stage.
they definitely are not entirely clear themselves on what i will do. i think a lot of it is due to the fact the CEO seems v discretionary in his managerial/ business style and also how i can help them is a big unknown. he kept throwing out a lot of ideas while maintaining that i wasnt being considered for a specific job position. they seem to want a sort of a utilityman which actually is fine by me. i figure i could gain exposure then decide what i might be more specifically interested in.
it might be a bit of a hassle but maybe the fastest way to get the big picture.
im thinking the most realistic scenario is to agree on near term duties and responsibilities with an longer term agreement on exposure to ones where im not yet up to speed on the learning curve.
you were worth 75-100K in LA as an architect??? What were you doing???
greenlander1
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Total Comments: 85
mdler
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Total Comments: 7136
765, that's hilarious.
I went ahead and took the job a couple weeks ago. They are mainly a property management/brokerage firm w a small development wing.
I'm getting paid 60k w/o benefits. They initially offered 50k. I said 85k and thats the best I was able to do get out of them. Way below what I wanted but I wanted to get things rolling. I will have a 3 mo review and hopefully try to renegotiate things but they said the only thing that will kick in at that time is my benefit/ bonus package. My lack of previous experience in this sector really was what make things difficult so now my first priority is to take care of that. when I finally get a completed project/ deal on my resume I think it will help me a lot if I decide to fish for another job.
I took this job since I would handed a decent amount of responsibility immediately, being able to run an entitlement project right from the get go. would represent the first semblance of a bridge from architecture to real estate. The project involves getting approval from the city to convert existing land for residential use. They had another fellow running it and it wasnt working going anywhere so now I'm playing w the hot potato.
The timeline on this one is pretty short. My office wants to get the package approved within 4-6 mo. If and when the deal gets approved I'm gonna bring up the salary issue again. I've only been in the office in a short time but I can tell they dont really have the necessary ppl outside of the partners who know much about the approval process. And this is coming from someone who doesn't have a huge amount of experience in it either! The partners usually did much of this work themselves but are more looking for someone to do the set up work for these approvals/deals so they can be freed up to focus on finding more work.
I am already making quite a few contacts to other ppl in the industry. next week meeting a former architect who went into development and started his own residential development company in l.a.
On another note, I'm getting exposed to some of the profit margins some of these developers have. Compared to what architects make on their projects its pretty mindboggling. I've seen quite a few projects that had a 50%, 75%, even 100%+ ROI in within a year time span, typically unloading the property even before it gets into the construction phase. So pocketing a huge amount of profit and handing over all the liability to the next guy.
I was thinking years ago there needed to be a LOt more architects on the development side of the deal but now I'm absolutely convinced. Architecture as only consultants/ service industry IMO isnt going to cut it in the long-term future for the profession.
Also working on an overseas residential development project and for now doing the architectural work bringing it through planning/ v early stages of schematic design. After that we will hand over the project to a local architect. Not something I want to be doing a lot of but is something they do need help w near term as they have noone w any architectural experience.
Thanks for the update, very helpful to hear about life on the other side now that you've made the switch.
that is great to hear.(your post on salary for entry level real estate?) i just graduated with a bachelors of arch and a minor in real property development. your right, it is shocking to see the difference in profit margins between what an architect takes and the developer. then the worst part the developer shows the project without even mentioning the architect, the ones who designed it. all this information is pretty inspiring. i'm moving to new york and have been applying to many architecture firms and i am also trying to apply at real estate firms.
i've worked full time in 2 arch firms, 1 arch firm for a competition, a landscape arch firm, and construction firm. but no actual real estate development firms, except for all my coursework.
what would you recommend i do as a course of action to get into this scene.
should i go straight into an architecture firm, or attempt to get into a development company, and what would I try to apply as.
Nice update, sounds like a good opportunity.
I'd suggest you talk with them about getting a piece of the pie. 60k does seem low, but given the economy and their past experience, maybe they are being cautious. Still, I'd talk with them about getting a percentage of the profit, fairly common for the major players in the project.
circlek09 - get a job at a dev office. Diving in the deep end will give you tons of exposure to how things work, just by being in that environment.
Greenlander,
I have about 10 years of experience in Architecture. I was wondering what your cover letter spoke to, why you thought you would be a solid addition to a developer and why you were leaving architecture? I am thinking of making the same moves but am having a hard time putting together a cover letter, because I dont know exaclty where I would fit. Any thoughts you have would be appreciated.
person- my opinion, from my own experience:
Emphasis your project management and delivery skills, team-playing, people management, general know-how of the industry.... Obviously, avoid any design blah...blah...
I suspect getting your foot in the door is probably the most difficult part, and just trying to get out there and meeting-greeting will be a good move...
as for leaving architecture, no need to mention anything. think of as specializing in a certain area.
My curent employer, a developer, does not really differentiate between architect in practice and project managers that work for him. Needless to say he's wrong but this meant that he offered me a job without me having much pm experience. I learnt the ropes as I went along, and ended up being moulded into a pm that works well with the company culture.
As for what that company culture is, that's another thread for another day.
person,
I got the job through a personal reference. I didn't even write a cover letter but if I had to write one, revision's comments are spot on.
When initially I talked to these people I did say those things plus I would provide them with another way of evaluating projects and help act as a middle man btw them and architects. I have already worked with them a bit with some projects in entitlement/ SD phase. Sometimes just sending comments to the architects to actually being a bit more aggressive and actually marking up the drawings to push things along. But when I am working w the architects/ engineers it has always revolved around efficiency, making sure got have the most leasable/ sellable area to cost, i.e. packing more units in or say trying to minimize areas in the project where we wouldnt make money.
Right now I am really trying to network like crazy and gain better understanding of the finance side. The guy I work under has an MBA and initially did loan work outs and NPL's for quite some time. Every day I ask him questions about the balance sheets, IRR, operating income and costs, debt service, cap rates, etc. Im also leaning pretty heavily towards getting an MRED in the near future.
As for why I am doing this, the main issue is work w a better profit margin, although right now my salary is pretty awful. But close behind was the issue of wanting to drive projects rather than be the architect for someone else. The other thing is that everyone in development is constantly hustling for an angle on some work, either for themselves or their office. Its a much more aggressive business env't than architecture.
am looking into an entry level real estate position myself....$60-80k
Sending apps to RE school now in couple weeks.
Most of recs are written, personal statement more or less laid out, but havent studied really for GMAT and it is on Saturday. Uh oh.
Going to the MSRED? Which schools are you applying to? I'm curious to see how things will turn out. Good luck!
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