A Guide To Real Estate Internships [Pay, Hiring, Return Offers]

Internships are great opportunities to learn the industry, build relationships, and figure out where you want to focus within the real estate business, but it’s not necessarily easy to get your foot in the door.

On top of that, once you do land an opportunity, not all internship experiences are created equal. And while some can give you a huge head start in your career, others can feel like you’re wasting really valuable time.

So if you’re looking for internships in commercial real estate, this post covers four things to know before starting your search, and some key things to focus on when you do land an internship opportunity.

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Thing #1: Real Estate Internship Pay Can Be Low

The first thing worth noting here is something I wish someone had told me before I started this process, and this is that internship pay in this industry tends to be extremely low.

In my experience, it’s not uncommon for an intern to be paid an hourly wage that’s only equivalent to about 20% to 40% of a full-time analyst’s salary, which is especially frustrating if you’re paying a lot of money for an expensive degree.

Why It’s Still Worth It

The main benefit of an internship is the ability to learn the business in a way that really isn’t possible in an academic setting. The long-term financial upside of these opportunities almost always makes them worthwhile, but if you’re planning out your finances for a summer (especially if you have limited help from family), this is something you’ll want to be aware of going into this process.

Thing #2: How to Land an Internship

To put yourself in a position to land real estate internship, the three biggest things to focus on to make this happen are:

1. Building your network
2. Building Excel skills
3. Doing things that showcase your interest in the real estate industry

Why Networking Matters

A lot of commercial real estate internships aren’t even advertised online, and many of the best internship opportunities are found directly through networking events and one-on-one conversations.

If you have the ability to join organizations like ULI or NAIOP as a student, these can be great places to find people who are looking for interns to join their teams. Reaching out to alumni of your university who are working in commercial real estate already and setting up informational interviews can also be a great way to find positions that aren’t broadly advertised.

Stand Out with Excel Skills

Once you get in front of someone who’s actively looking to hire, this is where Excel skills and a proven interest in real estate come into play, and these things can set you apart from other candidates that may be in the running for the position.

Having strong Excel skills is one of the best ways to add value as an intern, and although you likely won’t be sourcing deals or raising capital at this point in your career, a strong Excel skill set can help you make updates to existing company models or even create new templates from scratch. This can help free up the other analysts on the team to work on higher-level, revenue-generating activities.

What to Include on Your Resume

Before you submit your resume for any open positions, you’ll want to make sure this lists:

• Any Excel-focused courses you’ve taken
• Any Excel-related certifications you’ve earned
• Any major projects you worked on where you primarily used Excel

The more your resume shows a potential employer that you already understand how to use this software (ideally in a real estate context), the more likely it is that you’ll end up landing an offer.

Showcase Your Real Estate Knowledge

Most firms will also want to make sure you have a solid understanding of basic real estate finance terms, like the cap rate, IRR, equity multiple, and cash-on-cash return. And although no one will expect you to know exactly where you want to take your career 30 years from now, in most cases, companies will want to see that you at least have plans to stick around in the industry.

To showcase this on your resume, you’ll want to make sure to list:

• Any real estate finance courses you’ve taken (either in school or on your own)
• Your involvement in real estate industry organizations (like ULI or NAIOP)
• Your involvement in your school’s undergraduate or graduate real estate club (ideally in a leadership role)

Thing #3: Act Like a Full-Time Analyst

Aside from just taking steps to land an internship in the first place, you’ll also want to be intentional about your actions when you start one of these roles. And this leads into my next point, which is to do the things that full-time analysts do as much as you can.

Match the Team’s Hours

Even if your internship only has you working a few days a week, try to get into the office and leave the office at the same time as the rest of your team. This is especially true if you’re working in an environment where full-time analysts typically work late into the night.

This is surprisingly very rare among interns. Not only does matching the team’s pace allow you to stand out to your manager, but it also gives you a realistic sense of what it would be like working full-time hours at the company and whether you’d ultimately want to come back if you were given a full-time offer.

Find Ways to Add Value

Even if you find yourself in a situation where you aren’t given a ton of things to do and you don’t have a clear direction on how to fill a 10 or 12-hour day, use the downtime you have to help other analysts on the team finish their work more quickly.

If you can lighten the workload of other full-time analysts, this is one of the best ways to add value as an intern and one of the best ways to maximize your chances of landing a full-time opportunity.

Thing #4: Full-Time Offers Usually Don’t Come Immediately

Commercial real estate hiring tends to happen on a “just-in-time” basis, and it’s relatively rare to receive a full-time return offer immediately at the end of an internship.

In this industry, especially at small to mid-sized firms, the vast majority of companies won’t know their needs more than about 30 to 60 days in advance. Because of that, companies usually won’t commit to a full-time offer in the fall if you can’t start until the following spring.

How to Stay Connected

With that said, a lot of firms will ask interns to stay on in a part-time capacity during the school year if possible. And even if there isn’t a need for ongoing work, staying in touch during the year can make sure you’re top of mind for opportunities when you’re finally ready to graduate.

Ways to stay in touch could include:

• Reaching out to your manager to ask for advice related to career options you’re considering
• Sharing major milestones you’ve accomplished related to school or real estate certifications
• Inviting your manager to speak at your university’s real estate club

Even if there doesn’t end up being a need internally by the time graduation rolls around, if you performed well over the summer, these people will very likely be willing to refer you to their peers in the industry that might be looking for talent.

How To Get Your Foot in the Door

If you want to make sure you’re ready for the real estate internship search and you have the technical skills you’ll need to land an offer, make sure to check out our all-in-one membership training platform, Break Into CRE Academy.

A membership to the Academy will give you instant access to over 120 hours of video training on real estate financial modeling and analysis, you’ll get access to hundreds of practice Excel interview exam questions, sample acquisition case studies, and you’ll also get access to the Break Into CRE Analyst Certification Exam, which covers topics like real estate pro forma and development modeling, commercial real estate lease modeling, equity waterfall modeling, and many other real estate financial analysis concepts that will help you prove to employers that you have what it takes to tackle the responsibilities of an analyst or associate at a top real estate firm.