One Day, One Job » real estate

Dwell

Willy Franzen — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:02:15 +0000

I hate stock photography–especially the kind that you find on many career related sites. It’s usually a group of moderately attractive, racially diverse people who are smiling while dressed in business suits and holding folios. It’s not real. These photos create an unrealistic view of what a work environment looks like. In the world of home design, the analog is the fruit bowl. Whether you’re looking through real estate listings or a home decor magazine, chances are that you’ll see lots of fruit bowls–and they’ll be in odd places like bathrooms and bedrooms. Dwell is a magazine that defines itself by focusing on real life, something that “has been conspicuous by its absence in most design and architecture magazines.” Fruit bowls are ok, but only if the owners eat fruit. And so are other things you may not see in similar magazines–things that “demonstrate that a home is truly livable” by showing “it as it is lived in.” Dwell is based in New York, NY and San Francisco, CA, and although they consider themselves Modernists, they’re “nice Modernists.”

Dwell on This

You can get a feel for Dwell’s take on Modernism through their Fruit Bowl Manifesto on their About page, but to really understand it you should pick up a copy of their magazine or at least check out their website. While the focus is on homes, they cover everything that can be part of the context of a home–products, places, people, events, ideas, and more. It’s usually pretty hard to get a grasp of the business behind a magazine, so I highly recommend that you take a look at Dwell’s Media Kit–it will give you some serious insight into how the business operates. Once you’ve done that, head over to Dwell’s Jobs page. Right now they have mostly internships posted, but there’s a Brand Specialist (they don’t say where it’s located) position that looks like it could be a good fit for new or recent grads. It’s more about ad sales/account management than branding from what I can tell, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read Dwell?

Inspirato

Willy Franzen — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:48:21 +0000

Mid-February is a great time for a vacation. It’s typically still really cold, but it’s late enough in the winter that you can reasonably expect that it might feel like spring when you get back home. Unfortunately, I’m not going anywhere anytime soon, but if I was, I’d really like to use Inspirato. It’s a super high-end vacation club that offers members access to amazing residences in fantastic locations. The company is based in Denver, CO, but they have long-term leases on properties in places like St. Barts, Paris, Patagonia, Jackson Hole, Kenya, and Tuscany. For a meager $15,000 initiation fee and a $2,500 annual fee, you can access any of these properties. You still have to pay a nightly rate, but it’s well below what’d you pay if you were renting a similar property on your own (the average nightly rate is $650).

Choose Your Destination

I know this will shock you, but Inspirato’s initiation fee is way below most vacation clubs–like an order of magnitude. It’s still not a possibility for most people, but they’ve significantly expanded the market for these types of services, and that has allowed them to grow extremely quickly. They’re targeting people with net worths in the $800,000 to $10 million range–so it’s super rich, not super super rich people. Inspirato already has more than $50 million in funding, which means that they should be able to add more and more great destinations. Their membership has grown to over 1,200, and they expect sales to increase significantly in 2012. All those stats came from this WSJ article on Inspirato, which does a great job of explaining how the business works. If you aspire to one day be a member of Inspirato, you might want to start by working for them. They use Facebook for their Careers page, which is annoying because it breaks the back button. However, there are some great positions worth checking out including:

Technical Business Analyst
Social Media Coordinator
Business Intelligence & Database Support Specialist
Destination Concierge, Vail and Beaver Creek
Graphic Designer
Sales Analyst
Web Designer
Destination Concierge – South Beach, FL

These positions tend to have higher experience requirements than jobs I usually write about, but Inspirato looks awesome, so it’s worth taking a look at these positions and trying to figure out how you can fit in.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Which of Inspirato’s destinations would you chose?

Loosecubes

Willy Franzen — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:54:05 +0000

The last time that I worked in an office was when I was an intern at Orvis. Since then I’ve had to learn how to get things done at home, and I’ve gotten pretty good at it. Still, I try to force myself to work out of the house at least once a week. I usually do this through Jelly Chicago, a co-working group that meets every Wednesday, but I also occasionally work at a coffee shop or my gym’s quiet room. Sometimes a change of scenery really helps my productivity–and if it doesn’t do that, sometimes it spurs my creativity. If I was looking for another place to work for the day, I’d probably go to Loosecubes (the site, not their office which is based in Brooklyn, NY and hosts co-workers). It’s a “community marketplace for workspace” that connects “people who have great workspace with people who need it.” Their listings stretch across 620 cities and 72 countries, so there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll be able to find something near you.

Do You Have a Few Cubes Loose?

Loosecubes makes their money by taking a 10% cut of the fees that co-working spaces collect, which seems like an ok business model, but I wonder if they’ll find a better way to monetize their marketplace in the future. I imagine that the idea of co-working may seem weird to someone who’s been in the corporate world for a while, but it’s probably pretty natural for most college students who are used to studying in libraries, lounges, cafes, and even outside. Here’s how co-working through Loosecubes works along with more info on why you might want to cowork or why a company might want to host co-workers. I think that co-working is an amazing option for job seekers. It’s well worth paying the daily fee to get out of the house and into a productive atmosphere that is filled with people who are working on exciting stuff. If you play it right, it could easily lead to a job–especially if you want a job at the company that is hosting. And since Loosecubes is both actively hiring and hosting co-workers, you’re in a perfect situation. Right now they’re looking for a Commander Awesome (Community Coordinator), an iOS Developer, a Product Designer, and a Software Developer. You can apply for the jobs online, but I think that you’d be much better off signing up for a day in their office and starting a few conversations. And don’t worry about having to stay in their office once you get hired–they even provide a monthly travel budget so that you can try working from new places.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you co-work?

RaceTrac

Willy Franzen — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:58:16 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I love the smell of gasoline–at least in limited doses. Oddly enough, I absolutely hate the smell of coffee, so I’m not sure how I’d do if I had to work at a RaceTrac. They’re an Atlanta, GA based chain of more than 525 gas stations and convenience stores that stretch across twelve southeastern states. The odd thing about them is that their home page puts more emphasis on their coffee than on the gas. I guess gas is pretty much the same at every gas station, but good coffee will actually bring people through the doors. Besides the coffee RaceTrac differentiates itself with its size–their stores are typically over 5,000 square feet with more than 4,000 items and 20-24 pumps. If I owned a chain of gas stations, I’d probably use clean bathrooms as a point of differentiation. I think it would be a goldmine, but RaceTrac’s $8 billion in annual revenue makes them the third largest private company in Atlanta, so maybe coffee is the right choice.

Start Your Engine

As I mentioned before, RaceTrac’s home page doesn’t make it very clear that they’re a gas station, but there is a huge emphasis on different forms of transportation. They’re obviously trying to sell themselves as a part of an on the go lifestyle. This makes a lot of sense considering that it’s often the convenience items that drive the profits for retail gas stations. I’m sure there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on behind the scenes at RaceTrac, which is why you should check out their Careers page. They have page for Associate and Manager positions, but my guess is that you’ll be most interested in the positions at their Store Support Centers (Corporate). Right now they have some great opportunities for new or recent grads including:

Real Estate Analyst (Atlanta, GA)
Fuel Pricing Coordinator (Atlanta, GA)
Engineering Coordinator (Atlanta, GA)
Recruitment and Engagement Specialist (Atlanta, GA)
Recruitment and Engagement Specialist (Baton Rouge, LA)
HR Business Analyst (Atlanta, GA)
Software Developer (Atlanta, GA)

There are some really interesting look positions at RaceTrac, so check them out and see if any of them make sense for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever stopped at a RaceTrac?

Smashburger

Willy Franzen — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:03:10 +0000

I love hamburgers, but I wouldn’t eat a fast food burger even if it could make me fly. Luckily, better burger places are popping up all over the place. Some are local joints and some are chains, but they’re all working to remind us what a burger is supposed to be. Smashburger is taking a leading role in restoring dignity to hamburgers, although I can’t fully support a burger chain that won’t cook a burger medium-rare or even medium. They’re another Inc. 5000 company with 2,673% three-year growth from $1.4 million to $39.4 million in annual revenue. Smashburger is based out of Denver, CO and they have locations all across the country. They “start with 100% Angus Beef, smashed, seared and seasoned on the grill, placed on a butter-toasted artisan bun and topped with the highest-quality cheeses, freshest produce and condiments.”

Smashing Jobs

It used to be that chain restaurants were indelibly linked to low quality food, but that has definitely changed. Smashburger is a perfect example of how combining higher quality food with the fast food business model can lead to rapid success. In 2007 there was one Smashburger in the Denver area. Then they opened a few around town. Now there are dozens of Smashburgers all across the country. If you don’t have one in your neighborhood yet, it’s only a matter of time (they plan to grow from 70 restaurants to 500 restaurants over the next 4 years). With this rapid growth, Smashburger is hiring a ton of people. Most of them are obviously in the restaurants, but they’re also growing on the Corporate side. If you look at Smashburger’s Jobs page, you’ll see a few opportunities that are suitable for new or recent grads including Strategy Analyst, Real Estate Analyst, Data Analyst, FP&A Analyst, and Field Marketing Coordinator (Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever had a Smashburger?

Curbed Network

Willy Franzen — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:43:46 +0000

There’s a lot more to getting a job than being able to provide for essential needs like food, clothing, and shelter, but that’s a pretty big part of it–especially when you’re just starting out. It won’t take a lot in terms of wages to be able to pay for your basic expenses, but chances are that you’ll want to enjoy what you eat, what you wear, and where you live. If you’re all about that, then you should be reading the blogs from Curbed Network. They provide essential reads on how to get maximum enjoyment out of your essential needs. They’re based in New York, NY, and they run the blogs Curbed (real estate), Eater (food), Racked (clothes, style, and fashion), and the completely non-essential Gridskipper (travel). They don’t have a blog about air yet, but I hear that’s coming. The Curbed Network properties are very clearly built for yuppies with disposable incomes (what we all aspire to be, right?). 87% of the Curbed Network audience has a college degree, and 46% of them have a household income over $100k. Those are great stats for selling ads, which is what a business like Curbed Network is built on.

Kick Yourself to the Curbed

The best way to get a better feel for Curbed Network is pretty obvious–start reading their blogs. You’ll also want to check out the About pages for Curbed, Eater, Racked, and Gridskipper. You’ll get a rundown of how their audiences differ, who their advertisers are, what’s being said about them, and more. If you really want to dig into the stats on the Curbed Network audience, take a look at the Curbed Network Media Kit. It’s intended for potential advertisers, but you should learn a ton about them. Two stats that really stood out to me were that they get over 2 million monthly unique visitors and have over 170,000 e-mail subscribers. That’s quite a reach. If you’re digging what Curbed Network is all about, visit their Jobs page, which is centralized for all of the properties. They have a bunch of cool positions posted right now including Account Executive, Marketing & Events Coordinator, Designer, and a number of Editorial positions. Remember that a lot of Curbed Network’s properties are focused on locales, so there are job opportunities in these locales in addition to the ones located in NYC.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read any of the Curbed Network blogs?

Network Communications, Inc.

Willy Franzen — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:45:22 +0000

If you had to think of two industries that were hit hardest by the recession, what would they be? Mine would probably be publishing and real estate. (Finance may have been hit harder, but they bounced back almost immediately.) Since I firmly believe that great opportunity lies in taking on difficult challenges, I’m going to tell you about a company in the real estate publishing industry. Their name is Network Communications, Inc. (which tells you nothing about what they do), and they’re located in Lawrenceville, GA (a suburb of Atlanta). They produce a wide range of publications that focus on three specific areas: Home Sales, Rental & Leasing, and Home Improvement & Design. Some of their titles include The Real Estate Book, Apartment Finder, and Mountain Living. They break things down both by vertical and regional, and they’re just as active on the web as they are with print publications.

Making Publishing Real

The real estate publishing business model is pretty simple. The goal is to create content and distribute to anyone who might have a remote interest in buying, renting, or improving property. Then you sell ads alongside that content to help businesses like real estate agents, architects, contractors, and many others reach potential customers. This is a model that lends itself particularly well to the Internet where it’s easy to track lead generation. Based on the numbers, it looks like Network Communications, Inc. excels in every area of this business. Here are some stats on them:

They “distribute more than 13 million magazines each month.”
They serve “500 markets in the U.S. and Canada.”
They work with more than 45,000 advertisers.
Their websites get 10 million unique visitors who view 500 million listings annually.
They have “a proprietary network of over 320,000 distribution points around the country.”

It seems to me that they’ve overcome many of the problems that plague publishing companies by moving quickly to adopt new technology, and now they just need the real estate market to thaw a little bit more. It’s tough when your core advertisers are scared to spend money (believe me, I know). If you’re interested in working at the intersection of media and real estate, then check out jobs at Network Communications, Inc. Right now they have a few entry level positions including Junior Account Executive (Sacramento, CA), Online Product Manager (Lawrenceville, GA), and Sales Coordinator (St. Louis, MO). I imagine there will be a lot more opening up as soon as the real estate market picks up (whenever that may be), and some of them could be pretty cool–think editorial, social media, etc.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about NCI?

Gerson Lehrman Group

Willy Franzen — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:57:18 +0000

Sometimes I get dubbed as a career expert. I guess in some ways that’s true, but I see myself more as an entrepreneur whose business is helping students and grads find jobs and internships. In my opinion it takes way more knowledge and experience to become an expert. I’m talking about people with PhDs and 30 years of experience, and, amazingly, there are experts on nearly every topic. But how do you find them when you need them? That’s where Gerson Lehrman Group comes in. They’re professional matchmakers when it comes to experts. Since 1998 they’ve created a global marketplace for expertise and “helped the world’s leading institutions find, engage, and manage experts across a broad range of industries and disciplines.” I have friends who have actually used Gerson Lehrman Group in their jobs to find experts, and I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews about the people at Gerson Lehrman Group and their experts (who are not employed by the firm).

Become an Expert on Experts

Now, you’re coming from a college campus which is likely littered with experts. You can probably walk into a random professor’s office hours and gain insight from the foremost expert on some archaic topic. Usually expertise isn’t so free and easy. Businesses, consulting firms, and non-profit organizations are constantly seeking outside expertise to help guide their decision-making processes. Gerson Lehrman Group takes the pain out of finding the right expert for the job. While they provide experts in nearly any area imaginable, Gerson Lehrman Group calls out Accounting & Financial Analysis, Consumer Goods & Services, Energy & Industrials, Financial & Business Services, Healthcare, Legal, Economic, & Regulatory Affairs, Real Estate, and Technology, Media & Telecom as their main areas of focus. There’s a ton of information on the Gerson Lehrman Group, so you should really dig in and get to know the company in a little more depth. Then you can check out their Careers page and Job listings. Some examples of their entry level opportunities include: Business Development Associate (New York, NY), Event Coordinator (Austin, TX), Survey Associate (Austin, TX), Associate Copywriter (New York, NY), Associate (Dublin, Ireland), Recruiting Associate – Fluent Portuguese (Austin, TX), Member Solutions Associate – Fluent Portuguese (Austin, TX), and Front End Web Developer (New York, NY). However, you may want to pay most attention to their Associate and Associate – 2011 positions, which are both a two-year program for new/recent grads in Austin, TX.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Gerson Lehrman Group?

Enterprise Community Partners

Willy Franzen — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 16:36:18 +0000

Chances are that housing is and will be your biggest expense for most of your life. It’s one of our most basic needs, so it makes sense that we spend a lot on it. Unfortunately, housing markets don’t react quickly to changes in demand, so we often have situations where housing becomes unaffordable for many who wish to live in an area. This may be ok when it’s some posh area of town, but what about when people who have lived and worked in area for years can no longer keep up with the real estate prices? Enterprise Community Partners is a Columbia, MD based non-profit that addresses these problems by creating “opportunity for low- and moderate-income people through fit, affordable housing and diverse, thriving communities.” They want to help people living in poverty “move up and out,” and they do this by helping to develop “a diverse mix of affordable and market housing options, access to jobs and social supports, and a strong commitment to the environment and civic participation.”

Join the Enterprise Community

Enterprise Community Partners has been doing their work for more than 25 years, and their site is full of information on what they do and how they do it. You can read about their Programs, Policy Work, Financial Products, and Local Work. They also offer a ton of Information Resources so that you can learn more about the organization and its work. Since 1982 they’ve helped to “develop over 240,000 affordable homes and invest over $9 billion throughout the United States,” so they’re operating on a scale that few other non-profits are. Once you’ve had a chance to check out the links above, you should take a look at jobs at Enterprise Community Partners. Most of the positions require a couple years of prior work experience, but there’s a Program Analyst position in Washington, DC that appears to be entry level. You should check that out, and also look at the other positions to see if they might be a good fit for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about Enterprise Community Partners?

Accruent

Willy Franzen — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:23:52 +0000

Location. Location. Location. You know how important it is. Chances are that one of the major drivers in your job search is location. It’s even more important for businesses, yet they rarely manage their locations as effectively as they manage everything else. There are all kinds of sophisticated software platforms to manage customer relationships, products, human resources, and plenty of other things, but what about managing the places where they do business? That’s what Accruent is all about. They’re a Santa Monica, CA based company that develops software to help businesses “analyze [their] real estate and facilities portfolios and implement actions to cut costs and drive performance improvements.” It may not sound like the most exciting stuff on the face of it, but when you realize that Accruent helps clients manage “over 1 billion square feet of commercial space, for which they pay over $100 billion in rent annually,” you start to realize how interesting what Accruent does actually is.

Accruent Is Accruing Talent

Think about your college. Huge facilities with lots of people using them. How the heck do they figure out how to make the most of what they already have? If you went to Yale, USC, Michigan State, Syracuse, Brown, or one of the other higher education institutions on this list, you’d know that they used Accruent to figure it out. Accruent also has clients in Retail, Corporate, and Public Sector environments. That includes “20% of the Fortune 500 and over 40% of the top 100 retailers.” If you’re intrigued by what Accruent does, then you should check out their Careers page. In their job listings you’ll see postings for entry level Account Executive / Sales positions in Little Rock, AR; Jacksonville, FL; Philadelphia, PA; New York, NY; Minneapolis, MN; Houston, TX; Boston, MA; Denver, CO; Chicago, IL; Altanta, GA; and Des Moines, IA. There’s also an entry level Software Developer and Quality Assurance Engineer positions in Austin, TX. There are lots of opportunities, so check them out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Accruent?

The LTV Group

Willy Franzen — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:56:23 +0000

It shouldn’t be a surprise that we haven’t covered many entry level jobs in real estate over the past couple years. Demand for real estate is way down, and the demand for new college grads in real estate businesses is miniscule. Luckily, there have been a few bright spots during the recession. Some real estate based startups have been able to gain market share from struggling competitors, and the demand for real estate based content has remained strong. I think it’s safe to say that media coverage of the real estate and mortgage markets has only increased over the past few years. The LTV Group, a Dallas, TX based “end-to-end communications firm spanning publishing and creative services,” has taken advantage of the growth in market for real estate related for information. The company consists of three subsidiaries, HousingWire, REOInsider, and LTV Creative. The latter is a full-service marketing communications firm, while the other two are magazines and websites that put LTV Creative to work.

Join the Group

From what I can tell, The LTV Group decided to create some clients for itself. I’m not exactly sure how a marketing agency came to launch two real estate related publications, but it seems to make sense. My guess is that they did a lot of work for clients in real estate, and when that work started drying up, they put their resources to use to build HousingWire and REOInsider. Both are publications that provide news and commentary on housing, mortgages, and other real estate related topics. HousingWire actually hosts it’s own job board, and on there you’ll find a recently posted position for a HousingWire Reporter. It does require some prior journalism experience, but it looks like it could be a pretty good fit for some new grads. You’ll find the application instructions on the job posting.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Did you want to go into real estate and change your mind?

AEG

Willy Franzen — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:54:32 +0000

I swear that half of all college grads want to work in sports and entertainment. Unfortunately most of the job postings you’ll find in those industries are actually scam jobs. Getting a position at a legitimate sports and entertainment company is not easy, but with AEG you have a shot. They call themselves “one of the leading sports and entertainment presenters in the world,” and although that sounds broad, it’s a good description. AEG operates in a number of business areas including Facilities, Sports (Teams and Events), Music (Events), and Merchandising. They own/control arenas like the STAPLES Center, Conseco Fieldhouse, and the Prudential Center, while also owning professional sports teams like the LA Kings and Los Angeles Galaxy (can you tell that AEG is based in Los Angeles?). They’ve also “promoted tours by artists including Britney Spears, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Christina Aguilera & Justin Timberlake, The Dixie Chicks, Yanni, Paul McCartney, Usher, Kanye West, Prince, Rod Stewart, Bon Jovi, Nickelback, and PopTarts Presents American Idol.” And that’s not even half of it. AEG is a major player in sports and entertainment, and a great place to start a career.

Join AEG’s Team

Describing AEG’s business in a few paragraphs isn’t easy, so I guess that the best way to put it is that if it has to do with sports or entertainment, they’re probably involved in some way. That means that AEG offers job opportunities in a wide variety of areas. They actually have a halfway decent job search function on their site, so you can narrow things down by AEG Company, Area of Interest, Location, or Facility. They have nearly 100 jobs posted (a lot of them are internships though), and they’re in locations all across the country. I’m not going to list entry level opportunities for you, so you’ll have to do the searching yourself, but you should note that AEG’s job offerings are typically in areas like Accounting & Finance, Administrative & Clerical, Box Office, Creative Services, Event Services, Facilities Operations, Guest Services, Merchandising & Retail, Player Operations, Real Estate, and Sales & Marketing. You can apply for any of the positions that you find through their online application process.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about AEG?

Classified Ventures

Willy Franzen — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:33:00 +0000

I remember being in middle school and deciding that I wanted a drum set. I already had a snare drum, but I knew that a full set would be much cooler. My mom bought me a copy of the Bargain News, a local paper full of classified ads, and helped me pore over the listings in search of a drum set. That’s certainly a relic of the past, but classified ads are far from dead. They’ve just moved online. You’re probably most familiar with Craigslist, and maybe you’ve considered using Facebook Marketplace or something like that. What you probably didn’t realize is that there is still a huge business behind classified ads. Take Chicago based Classified Ventures for instance. They’re another Inc. 5000 company, and they’ve increased their revenue from $146.7 million to $297.5 million over the past three years. They’ve done this with four distinct businesses: Apartments.com, Cars.com, HomeGain.com, and HomeFinder.com. You’ve probably noticed at least one of those sites before, which is exactly what they’re looking for.

Get Classified

Whether you’re looking for a car, an apartment, or a home, Classified Ventures is going to do its best to grab your attention and show you some ads. Since classified ads are the kind of ads that people actually seek out, Classified Ventures’ main focus is on driving traffic. As long as they can keep linking up more buyers and sellers, their business is going to grow. They’re already a pretty good sized company with “offices in Chicago, IL, Emeryville, CA, Santa Monica, CA and Austin, TX, and over 1,100 employees in 37 states,” but they’re not stopping there—their Jobs page shows 33 current openings. You might want to consider the following positions: Product Specialist – Cars.com (Chicago, IL), Ad Trafficker – Cars.com (Chicago, IL), Dealer Experience Advocate – Cars.com (Chicago, IL), Software Engineer – ApartmentHomeLiving (Austin, TX), Software Quality Assurance Analyst – HomeFinder.com (Chicago, IL), Inside Sales Manager SBU – Cars.com (Chicago, IL), Freelance Web Designer – Cars.com (Santa Monica, CA), Account Receivables Analyst – Corporate Services (Chicago, IL), Account Manager – Apartments.com (Chicago, IL), and Technical Web Producer – Apartments.com (Chicago, IL). You can apply online directly from the job descriptions, so see which of these jobs suits you best—no need to scan the classifieds.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you used classified ads in your job search?

eRealInvestor

Willy Franzen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:11:36 +0000

This morning I was reading a New York Times article about how some of the “super rich” are being hit hardest (at least in terms of total dollars lost) by this recession. A lot of this has to do with heavy investments in real estate. As we all know, real estate has not been the place to be lately. The good news about the bad real estate market is that it’s leading to all kinds of innovation. There are a ton of cool real estate startups, and I just came across another one called eRealInvestor. They’re based in San Francisco, and they offer a suite of tools that allow those who still have it in them to invest in real estate to be much smarter about it. Since I’m not a real estate investor, I don’t fully understand what all of the tools do. However, it’s hard to argue with a data based approach to buying and selling real estate.

eRealJobs

Since most new college grads don’t have the cash to start investing in real estate, they usually have to work their way into the world of real estate in a different way. A job at a company like eRealInvestor that is bringing innovation to the industry is a great way to do that. Their Jobs page doesn’t show much in the way of entry level jobs, but their postings on Startuply do. Current opportunities include Online Marketing Expert, Flash Developer, and Sales Executive. I’m sure they also have some Web Development positions available—even if the ones that are posted are a bit more senior. You can apply online, so get ready to invest yourself in real estate investment.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you think investing in real estate is a good idea?

CB Richard Ellis

Willy Franzen — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:55:21 +0000

Considering the fact that I drove by a house in Michigan that was on sale for $12,500 just a few days ago, it’s pretty obvious that the real estate market still has some rebounding to do. There has been a lot of hurt in the industry over the past couple years, but maybe things are looking up. A friend who works at CB Richard Ellis let me know about a position that they’re trying to fill, and after I checked their Careers page I saw that they’re hiring for more than 200 positions. Considering the fact that they just went through a round of layoffs at the end of last year, I’d say all those job postings is probably a good sign for where the company (and maybe the economy?) is going. If you have heard of CB Richard Ellis before, you should know that they’re headquartered in Los Angeles and they’re “the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm (in terms of 2008 revenue).” Clearly $12,500 houses aren’t a problem for them.

Be with CBRE

CB Richard Ellis is a huge company. Not only are they world’s revenue leader in commercial real estate, but they also happen to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 employees and 300 offices. That makes finding an entry level job with them a little bit intimidating. It’s hard to know where to start, especially when they don’t have anything tailored to recent grads on their site. They do have a Career Paths section on their site, but it only allows you to self-select as Experience Professional or MBA. Neither of those pages offers much information that would be helpful to a recent grad. This means that we’re going to have to dive into the dreaded job search function to find entry level jobs at CBRE.

Unfortunately, CBRE’s job search function doesn’t let us link to specific jobs, and there are 200+ jobs to wade through. CBRE does have jobs all across the country, so getting ultra-specific with your query still should turn up a few results that might interest you. CBRE’s job areas include Administrative/Operations, Business Development, Client Services, Commercial Real Estate, Executive Management, Facilities Management, Finance/Accounting, Human Resources, Legal, Marketing/PR/Communications, Project Management, Property Management, Purchasing/Procurement, Research Management, Risk Management, Sales/Brokerage, Technology, and Transaction Management, so there really is something for nearly everyone. There’s also the position that my friend told me about: Marketing Coordinator (.doc file) in Woodbury, NY. You can apply for this specific position by sending your cover letter and résumé to joscelyn.wippern@cbre.com. For other positions you can apply online through CBRE’s Applicant Tracking System, or you can apply through e-mail to cbreresume@cbre.com. If you still have questions about the CBRE hiring process you can check out their Careers FAQ.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you know about CBRE?

Starwood

Willy Franzen — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:42:12 +0000

Having a girlfriend who is a consultant, I’m often subjected to hours of consultant-speak. It’s not really English, as it consists mostly of acronyms. One thing consultants seem to talk about a lot, even though they don’t have an acronym for it, is the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Card. It’s apparently by far the best credit card for the consulting lifestyle (especially when you work for a firm that almost exclusively puts you up in Starwood hotels). Since I’ve been hearing the Starwood name a lot, and I’ve had a few people recommend their Jobs to me, I thought it was time to take a look at what kind of entry level jobs are available with one of the world’s largest hotel and leisure companies. In case you’re not familiar with the Starwood brand, they’re the company behind Sheraton, Four Points, aloft, W Hotels, Le Meridien, The Luxury Collection, Element, Westin, and St. Regis. All of them are nice places to stay, and a few of them are about as trendy as you can get when it comes to hotels – check out aloft.

Be a Star at Starwood

Starwood gets hospitality. They also get entry level recruiting. They make it dead simple for college students and new grads to figure out how to land a job with them. They have a College Recruiting page that outlines the 4 ways of getting a job with Starwood. You can go through Campus Recruiting or apply online, and you can apply for their Management Training Program or opt for Direct Placement. The Management Training Program seems to be geared towards students who are graduating from hospitality programs, but that’s not explicitly stated as far as I can tell. The program lasts 6-18 months and concludes with placement as an Assistant Manager or Manager in the hotel where the trainee trained. Applications for the Management Training Program haven’t been opened yet, but they say that you will be able to apply online in early 2009. If you go to one of the schools on this list, you’re better off talking to your Career Services office about when Starwood will be on campus than waiting for the online application to be posted.

If the Management Training Program isn’t for you, there’s another option. You can check out Starwood’s Career Paths and apply for Direct Placement. You have to go through a general job search function where you can narrow down from the 1,650 jobs posted by location, hotel, or job title. This is the one area where Starwood’s Careers site stumbles a bit. The job search function isn’t very good. Unless you enter specific criteria, you’re going to be inundated with results that are going to be hard to scan. Still, if you want a job in a posh hotel in an exotic location, that’s the best way to find one.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you stayed at any Starwood Hotels?

Rent Marketer

Willy Franzen — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:04:31 +0000

Now, I usually write themed posts for holidays, but since today is only a holiday for me and those whom I force to celebrate (it’s my birthday), I don’t have a themed post. I will, however, be announcing a contest later today where we’ll be giving away an iPod touch in celebration of my birthday. We also have another great internship opportunity for you today. Last week, a woman named Stephanie Johnson from Rent Marketer e-mailed me and told me that she had “relied on One Day, One Internship (and Job) to get ideas about what a great internship looks like.” She wanted us to share the details internships with you, and since flattery works we featured Rent Marketer’s internships on One Day, One Internship today. While we were researching them, we noticed some great jobs listed on their Careers page, so we’re telling you about those here. Rent Marketer is in the business of helping property owners post their rentals to dozens of sites all at once. Repeatedly posting For Rent ads can be mind numbing (kind of like applying to a lot of entry level jobs), and they do it all for you in a simple and cost effective way.

Market Yourself to Rent Marketer

When you start researching Rent Marketer, one of the first things that you’ll see is that they were founded by ex-Googlers; in fact, most of the press that Rent Marketer gets is in reference to the founders’ former employer. Nobody wants to live in the past, but you have to like that Rent Marketer is using any attention that they can get to promote their product. Their rental advertising platform is about as simple as it gets – you give them the info, and they post it on rental sites for you. Since most college students and new grads are tenants and not landlords, you may be more interested in their rental search engine, RentBits.

Rent Marketer is headquartered in Englewood, CO and has apparently carried on with the Google workplace philosophy – they have a casual environment with massages and foosball. They also have some great jobs that look to be perfect for new college grads. Their Careers page shows 3 jobs, all of which require little or no prior work experience. These include Jr. Software Engineer, Java Programmer, and Account Specialist. The job descriptions are thorough and should give you a good sense of what kind of skills you should have if you’re going to apply. If you think that you’ll be a good fit for one of these jobs, send a cover letter and resume to careers@rentmarketer.com with the job title in the subject line.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

RentMarketer.com
Jobs at Rent Marketer
About Rent Marketer
Rent Marketer FAQs
RentBits.com (Rent Marketer’s Rental Search Engine)
Rent Marketer’s Blog
Management at Rent Marketer
Rent Marketer in the Press

What do you think of Rent Marketer? Leave a comment.

Tishman Speyer

Willy Franzen — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:09:49 +0000

A lot of you probably started college with a strong interest in real estate. It’s understandable if much of that interest has evaporated as a result of the direction that the real estate market has taken over the last two years. New York real estate seemed to be the last bastion of hope, but with the fall of some major investment banks and a lot of fear on Wall Street, even that seemingly unstoppable market is starting to slow down. Still, if anyone can weather this storm, it’s hopefully the firm that did the biggest real estate deal in US history (the purchase of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village for $5.4 billion). The firm behind that deal is Tishman Speyer, and even they seem to be struggling a bit as of late. Still, they make moves with the long-term in mind, and they’re prepared (both mentally and financially) to take a short term hit. Real estate isn’t the hot place for careers right now, but it’s still a field that is loaded with opportunity. There will always be people making money off of real estate deals, and there’s no better place to learn how to do that than Tishman Speyer.

Don’t Give Up on Real Estate

A look at Tishman Speyer’s properties tells you everything that you need to know about the firm. Just look at what they own in New York City or London. If that doesn’t make you drool at the prospect of landing a job at Tishman Speyer, we don’t know what will. We can’t access Tishman Speyer’s job listings, but that doesn’t really matter. They have a separate page for their Analyst Program that is directed towards developing “the next generation of real estate professionals for the company.” That means that they’re looking to hire new college graduates, and a few quick Google searches confirms that they’re still making their campus recruiting visits despite the economic conditions. They aim to do interviews in October and November, so now is the perfect time to apply for a job with them.

Tishman Speyer seems to do most of its entry level hiring through on campus recruiting, but they don’t provide a list of campuses that they are visiting. That means that you’ll have to check with your career services office to find out if Tishman Speyer is coming. If they aren’t visiting your campus (or if you missed them), you can send a cover letter, transcript, and resume to Eleonora Rabinovich at erabin-recruiting@tishmanspeyer.com. We’re not sure which locations they put in Analysts in, but Tishamn Speyer is headquartered in New York City with domestic offices in Atlanta, GA; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Orange County, CA; Stamford, CT; San Francisco, CA; and Washington, DC. They also have 18 international locations.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you still considering a job in real estate or are you staying away?

Redfin

Willy Franzen — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:00:05 +0000

What’s the job market look like for a new college grad who wants to go into the real estate industry? Craptastic. Unless you’ve got a great connection or know something we don’t (which is actually pretty likely), you can head for another industry to get some work experience or you can take a stab at Real Estate 2.0 jobs. We’ve already looked at Zillow.com as one company that has insulated itself from sub-prime woes by breaking away from the traditional real estate business model, and today we’re going to look at another one. Redfin is an online real estate brokerage. They currently operate in only 7 markets, but they’re gaining ground by offering new services to people who think a realtor isn’t worth 6% of a house’s final sale price.

Zillow and Redfin are both Seattle based, online real estate companies, so there must be a big rivalry, right? Wrong! In fact Redfin has integrated Zillow’s features into their website. Still, people (like students at a college career fair) sometimes overlook Redfin’s revolutionary simple business model for the flash of Zillow and their Zestimates. Zillow will make you an informed real estate buyer or seller, but Redfin could potentially save you tens of thousands of dollars in your next real estate transaction.

So what exactly is Redfin doing that makes them so different? They offer many of the same services that a traditional real estate agency offers (they list your house online, aid in negotiations and contingencies, and assist with paperwork), but their rate structure is completely different. If you’re selling a house, you can do it for a flat fee. If you’re buying, Redfin will refund 2/3 of their commission (which is up to 3% of the sale price, so the refund is up to 2%). So while most real estate transactions result in up to 6% of the sale price going to real estate agents who sometimes don’t do much to really help their clients (read Freakonomics for more on how your realtor’s interests may not align with yours). Beyond their game changing rate structure, Redfin also offers some really great web-based tools that are integrated within their house listings. Unfortunately, their listings aren’t compatible with Safari, which is lame. Although their website and their rate structure are what make Redfin a true threat to traditional real estate agents, it’s their Satisfaction Guarantee that shows how serious the threat is – we’ve certainly never heard of a traditional real estate agent guaranteeing that you’ll be happy with his or her service. How can something so simple be so innovative for an industry?

If you’re intrigued by Redfin’s offerings, you can look a little deeper and read about how Redfin works. If it’s their business model that interests you, why not read their comprehensive first-year report. You might also want to look at the posts on TechCrunch that are tagged for Redfin.

Redfin’s jobs website shows off a great college recruiting program. Typically, they hire for 4 entry-level positions: Test Engineer, Developer, Product Manager, and Marketing Analyst. It’s a great mix of jobs for students whether you have a computer science background or studied liberal arts.

Another great thing about Redfin is that they’re all over the blog thing. There are few better ways to gain insight into what a company does and what it’s like to work there than reading blogs written by real employees. One post that we especially enjoyed was this one on a college intern’s experience at Redfin. Well any company that has a great internship program should also be a great entry-level employer (that’s the whole point of interns, right?). Take a look at all of Redfin’s blogs: Development Blog, Los Angeles Blog, Orange County Blog, San Diego Blog, San Francisco Blog, and Seattle Blog.

We know your Mom thinks you should take a job with a well respected company with a long track record of success, because she thinks it’s safe. Well look who killed the real estate market. It was those big, conservative banks – the safest of the safe. She’ll tell you that start-ups are too risky for someone with nothing to fall back on. We think it’s too risky to miss out on the future of a company that is about to eat traditional real estate brokers’ lunch.

Note: On April 23rd we revisited entry-level jobs at Redfin.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you have any other ideas for real estate jobs that are insulated from the sub-prime “problem?” Leave a comment and tell us what you’ve come across.

Zillow.com

Willy Franzen — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:00:21 +0000

When you started college, the Goldilocks economy (not too hot, not too cold, but just right) was cooking along with a nice balance of fear and optimism. You knew from freshman year that you wanted to get into real estate because, as they say, they’re never making any more of it. Well if you’ve been paying any attention to CNBC lately, real estate is not the place to be looking for an entry-level job. So how can you find a company in the industry that hasn’t cut out new hiring because of the down market?

Go where the innovation is. The Internet has changed how real estate transactions happen, and much of the industry is way behind the times. The guys who brought travel to the Internet with Expedia.com are now making moves in the real estate industry. Zillow is a service that helps consumers overcome the problems of asynchronous information when they are buying or selling a house. Zillow offers a free valuation tool that uses public information to estimate the value of any home in the United States. They also allow you to post your house for sale on their site at no charge.

So how does Zillow make money? Advertising. Skeptical of that business model? Lehman Brothers isn’t. Like we already said, the real estate industry has a lot of catching up to do online, and Zillow is poised to be one of the big winners in the next few years – credit meltdown or not.

You can be a winner too. All you have to do is land a job at Zillow. Not only will you gain experience in the real estate industry while others are biding their time in other fields waiting for the housing market to pick up, but you’ll also be working for 2007′s Best Seattle Start-Up (they were runners-up for best office party, coolest office space, best high-tech company and most laid-back atmosphere). Want proof? Check out their Halloween costumes, office activities, and after-work get-togethers. They’re even taking a different approach to recruiting.

So what do they have available? Unfortunately they don’t have a special section of their Job page for college students, but they do have a few positions that you might be qualified for. These include Data Analyst, User Experience Developer, User Experience Designer, and Graphic Designer. There is also an Advertising Analyst position that we’re pretty sure is too advanced for most new college graduates, but take a look anyways. We’ve also heard from various Internet sources that Zillow has done on-campus recruiting in the past, so there may be other entry-level job opportunities that aren’t listed on their website.

There are two more things about Zillow that we loved, but we weren’t sure where to mention them. First, on their Who We Are page they profile their team with head shots and a blurb – under each head shot is an “About My House” link with a blurb about the person’s house. This adds a personal, but still relevant, level that you don’t see on many corporate websites. Second, we’ve heard rumors that people at Zillow are mildly obsessed with the letter Z, and we found this picture to confirm it. The first person to leave a comment saying what we’re talking about will get an automatic entry into our contest (with a really awesome prize) that starts next week.

Note: On April 21st we revisited entry-level jobs at Zillow.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Does Zillow really have company paintball outings? If you can verify, leave a comment.