How To Keep Your CRE Analyst From Moving On

NEWPORT BEACH, CA—Companies need to offer continuing education and promotions to their young financial analysts or be prepared for them to move on to other companies.

“Approximately 69% of our survey respondents, aged 23 –28 years, have looked at new job opportunities within this past year,” says Kent Elliott, principal at RETS Associates. “Employers understand that analysts do an average of 2 years before that candidate wants to do something else. Either you educate them and promote them or they will look for other job options.”

RETS Associates, a national real estate recruiting firm, recently completed its 7th Annual Survey of Real Estate Financial Analysts in association with Charles Schilke, JD, former Director of the Edward St. John Real Estate Program at Johns Hopkins’ Carey Business School. Over 200 financial analysts, with entry-level experience through 5-7 years, were polled with questions regarding their salary, education, willingness to relocate and other applicable, work-related factors.

Employers when searching for new analysts, request they have at least one year experience which means they should have already been trained elsewhere. Analysts, those with 2 years experience and associates, candidates with 4 years experience and who can accurately put together a financial model within a timely manner, are ambitious, confident and eager to put their expertise to work.

In order for those analysts to have an edge in the marketplace and move up faster, RETS Associates recommends college students take real estate-oriented classes, attain their real estate licenses, get an internship plus take a few formal classes in softwares such as Excel and Argus. These preemptive actions will make recent college graduates far more attractive as they enter the commercial real estate industry.

“We know college students who work 30 hours for appraisal companies and real estate firms,” says Elliott. “Every bit of industry-related experience helps.”

If a candidate holds an undergraduate degree, their salary rose by 19%. Over a three-year period, however, analysts with graduate degrees showed a 30.8% wage increase after they earned their MS/MBA degrees.

“Super high performers, who are few and far-between, are highly sought,” Elliott tells GlobeSt.com. “These individuals went to a great undergraduate school, worked for just a few years and then went back for their advanced degrees at schools such as the University of Wisconsin and Columbia. Private equity firms are clamoring for these individuals and will pay them top dollar. These are extremely high performers, though.”

The Pacific Northwest and the Northeastern regions, both which posted income growth of 30.5% and 29.5%, respectively, are where junior or senior analysts can expect to earn more than in the rest of the nation. The greater Seattle area, of course, has seen an increased demand for labor due to aggressive expansion and development by tech companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google and others.

Analysts, according to the survey, want to learn more and prefer to work in analytics/underwriting support, reporting to, for example, a VP of Acquisition. They are also interested in development and asset management.

“Overall, there is strong growth in hiring within commercial real estate. The next 8+ years looks robust as demand for analysts continue to increase,” says Elliott. “The US economy and the real estate industry are healthy as is the job market within our niche.”

Founded in 2002, RETS Associates is an executive search firm specializing in the recruitment, staffing and placement of interim, permanent and executive positions in the commercial and residential real estate industries, as well as land development and home building.