I have been interviewing for a Real Estate Private Equity firm in Dallas, TX. I just received an email from the Senior Analyst asking for salary expectations. Does anybody on this site have an idea of a range that I should ask for. I have no industry experience so keep that in mind. I do not want to ask too high because I really want an offer for this position. Any insight would be helpful. I know there probably aren’t many real estate professionals on this forum but I thought I’d ask.
You didn’t even tell us what the position is. The size of the firm is a huge factor. As is the type of investing they do.
If you have literally zero experience, you could ask for 60k base and hope to get 50 plus whatever bonus they pay you. If this is a top tier firm and you’re an Ivy league hotshot with multiple offers, I would ask for around $100k total comp.
My bad. It’s an acquisitions analyst role and I’d be working with the senior analyst and the two other analyst on the team. It’s middle market and they invest in value-add industrial properties amongst other things. I already sent my response and gave a range of 55-65k base. Hopefully that’s not over-bidding because I’m assuming they are talking to other candidates. For the record I have a finance degree from a non-target school.
Did you give bonus expectations?
No, I just strictly said base of $55-65k. Did I low ball my own offer? That would suck lol I would hope if they gave me the low end of my range (which they would), they would have other performance incentives that would push my pay up a good amount. I talked to a REPE CEO that I am close with, in the same market and he said he brought on somebody with similar experience/background and gave him $55k base. So I dropped the range $5k to be safe.
I don’t think those firms care about whether or not they are paying a little bit extra to the point that they’ll choose someone less qualified for the sake of saving a little bit of money. I’ve never heard of anyone not getting the offer for asking too high as long as it’s reasonable, only people not taking the offer because they think it’s too low.
Well…damn. I almost told him $60-70k and then got a call from my contact right before I sent the email. Honestly, I think I’ll live if they pay me $5k less. I’m back office right now, so I need the experience more than anything.
$55k with 100% bonus is fine for entry…if your bonus is 20%…well, I think you did low ball your own offer. Is this like a Lone Star or lesser known shop?
Do the firms really care if they pay someone $55k or $65k? I doubt that really influences their decision, as long as the numbers are somewhat realistic. So don’t lose sleep about this.
Well that makes me feel stupid because I pretty much just locked in that salary. Have you ever heard of a firm being generous and actually giving more than the minimun in their range? (doubt it, but it doesn’t hurt to ask) Is it industry standard to pay 100% bonus? I looked up the median salary for similar positions and it said $55k in Texas.
My current employer offered me $7000 more than what my desired salary’s lower band.
Yea but in PE a lot of you’re total comp is bonus…you should ask about that…see what your target bonus is and what the typical bonus in a good, flat, and bad year would be. Obviously, it is also dependent on your performance but if you work normal to hard you should be fine. I dunno, maybe it’s different for real estate.
My friend with some work experience had an offer from a large PE shop in texas, it was 70k so I don’t think you are getting screwed either way if its somewhere around 65k.