The 5-Step Formula To Ace a Real Estate Interview

If you’re trying to land your first job in commercial real estate or looking to make a move to a bigger, more prestigious firm, you probably already know how competitive the interview process can be.

And with hiring managers often combing through hundreds of applications for a single open position, you need to find a way to stand out and prove you’re the best fit.

So in this post, we’ll walk through a six-step formula to help you ace your next real estate interview, what hiring managers are really looking for when evaluating candidates, and some practical tips you can apply to this process to increase your chances of landing an offer.

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Step #1: Prepare Your Own Questions

The first thing that can set you apart during the interview process (that most people don’t spend nearly enough time on) is coming prepared with your own set of questions, which can show you’ve done your homework on both the company itself and the part of the industry the company is involved in.

A lot of candidates make the mistake of only preparing for what they think they might be asked during an interview, and even if they do come up with a list of their own questions to ask, these still tend to be pretty generic and usually revolve around overall company culture or typical day-to-day job responsibilities.

And while you definitely want to make sure you’re going in informed about these things, the questions you ask an interviewer can also be a great opportunity to showcase your knowledge about the company itself, along with the industry sectors they’re most active within.

For example, if you found a recent article about the company acquiring a portfolio of industrial properties in the Southeast United States, you might ask what specifically they liked about the deal, why they’re bullish on the industrial sector, and what’s most attractive to them about this area of the country.

Or, for example, if you found on the company’s website that the firm has a number of properties in states like Florida or Texas, you might ask how recent natural disasters have impacted insurance costs in their portfolio and what they’re doing to mitigate the impacts of those changes.

These kinds of targeted questions show that you’ve taken the time to understand what the company does, and that you also understand how that fits into the fabric of the commercial real estate industry as a whole.

Step #2: Get Familiar With Current Market Conditions

The second thing I’d recommend preparing for when stepping into an interview is a discussion on the state of the commercial real estate market, and your thoughts on what’s currently happening in the industry (and what might happen in the future).

Hiring managers are often looking for candidates who can see the big picture when it comes to rent growth, supply changes, interest costs, and property values. But to be able to speak about these things intelligently, you need to do some homework.

This means doing some research before the interview on interest rates (including where the 10-year Treasury and SOFR are), what cap rates are in the market, and where things like rent growth, vacancy, and net absorption are trending, ideally in the markets the company is involved with.

CBRE’s Quarterly Figures page is a great place to get up-to-date information on transaction volumes and operating performance, and the Chatham Financial website is a great place to find up-to-date information on interest rates and where these are projected to go.

While you absolutely don’t need to memorize everything on these websites, just having an understanding of what’s going on in the market in general can be a huge differentiator during an interview.

Step #3: Have a Clear “Why”

The third thing to focus on heading into this process is having a very clear “why” that explains your motivations.

Especially if this is your first full-time job in the industry, hiring managers will want to know why you want to work in commercial real estate, why you want to work for their specific company, and why this particular role is the right fit for you.

If you’re asked a question related to this topic, the goal should be to tie your answer to specific aspects of the company’s business model, their investment strategy, or the culture within the firm, and how those things directly align with your background and/or what you’re looking to accomplish.

For example, if you have a degree in architecture and an interest in ESG, and you’re interviewing with a development firm that specializes in best-in-class office projects, you could talk through your interest in design and the company’s commitment to sustainability.

Ideally, you want to show that your goals and interests are aligned with the company’s goals and what your day-to-day responsibilities would be, and the more you can show yourself as a natural, long-term fit, the better your chances are going to be of landing an offer.

Step #4: Demonstrate Humility and Coachability

The fourth step in this formula, which is often overlooked (but extremely important), is demonstrating your humility and coachability.

Interviews are obviously a place where you have to prove your skills, and you need to put your best foot forward to succeed. But at the same time, especially at the analyst and associate level, companies are looking for candidates that are willing to work hard, be taught, and do some of the less glamorous things that need to get done on a day-to-day basis.

Ideally, your resume, cover letter, and performance on an Excel modeling exam should all speak for themselves, with the actual conversations during the interview process providing more details about your experiences, more insight into your personality, and a clearer picture of the way you think about work and your career path.

What you don’t want to do is come in exaggerating your involvement in different projects in past roles, overselling your experience or your knowledge of the industry, or generally coming off in a way that makes you sound overconfident or arrogant.

If you can come in telling a story about the work you’ve put in to get better at your craft over time, how you’ve learned from people ahead of you in school or at work, and your desire to work hard and contribute to the team in the role you’re interviewing for, these are the things that will help you stand out most from other candidates.

Step #5: Prove Out Your Work Ethic

The final step in this formula is demonstrating your ability to work hard over a sustained period of time, using real, tangible examples.

If you want to work at a top real estate firm, you need to be able to show your ability to put in long hours, especially at the analyst and associate level. And the more you can point to times when you’ve already done this, the more believable that story is going to be.

This means coming prepared with specific examples of demanding projects you completed, how you met tight deadlines under pressure, or how you took on additional responsibilities beyond what was asked of you in an initial job description.

It’s one thing to say that you’re a hard worker, but most employers at top firms are looking for candidates who have already excelled in a similar environment. Especially if you’re interviewing for a role where you know the hours will be tough, think through some examples beforehand of how you can prove to the hiring manager that you’re both willing and able to take on that challenge.

How To Stand Out During Interviews

If you want to make sure you have the skills you’ll need to ace a real estate interview and pass an Excel modeling exam that might be given to you during the process, 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.