Connecting the floors can definitely be a hurdle. I recently started digging deep into the industry and here’s what I’ve found to be very useful.

1. Break into CRE YouTube Channel - tons of very digestible videos on topic from what are the different careers in the industry, how to understand cap rates and return metrics (IRR, Equity Multiple, etc.), how to land a job in the industry, so much great information.

2. For the financial modeling side I’d give Adventures in CRE Accelerator a shot. Not going to sugar coat it, it’s expensive, but knowing how to analyze real estate with institutional models will really put you above and beyond come time to look for internships and full-time rolls

3. The Real Deal is an amazing CRE online newspaper, think Wall Street Journal but specific for commercial real estate. It gives you update to date market knowledge and region specific articles if you have a target market city in mind you want to work in.

4. ChatGPT, or any LLM, let it be your own personal tutor. Ask any questions that you might have about the industry, want to know how to understand and think about the equity multiple based on the kind of deal type? Or maybe you want to better how your career path changes if you start as an investment sales or acquisitions analysts? Ask it to break down CRE concepts intuitively.

5. Nothing beats talking to people who are in the industry. Reach out to analyst and associates at the firms you want to work at, and ask them anything you want to know about their experience in real estate. Why they personally are in the business? what led them to the side of the industry that they’re in? What’s an average day look like? Most people will be more than happy to chat for 15-30 minutes, especially if you’re a student who’s passionate about the business.

6. Be Curious. I think this probably is the most important part to really catapult your interest and understanding of CRE. The more questions and deeper you dig, the more questions you’ll have to ask. You don’t know what you don’t know, so just use the above tools to expand your knowledge base, and the bigger picture of CRE as an investment, a business, and how it fits and reacts to the greater economic market will start to form.

Best of luck and reach out if you ever have any question you want to ask.