Anna-Marie Beal – 1st August, 2024
Good candidates are those who can think past the end of the term of a loan, writes Anna-Marie Beal
Asset managers and special servicers are in the market for junior and seasoned commercial real estate executives to bolster their ranks ahead of a heavy wall of near term maturities. But hiring the right professionals means looking at factors that go beyond the simple ability to work out a loan, according to recruiters and asset managers who have spoken with PERE Credit.
“Firms today are definitely looking for more well-rounded individuals who are apt and nimble to understand not just the financial side but also the strategic side of an asset and how you’re going to move through it,” says Berkeley Davis, principal at Denver based real estate executive search fi rm RETS Associates.
RETS Associates, which works with real estate owners, private equity shops, and public and private real estate investment trusts, is recruiting asset managers and special servicers at a time when declining property values and high interest rates are making the path forward hard to determine for assets under stress.
“With values declining, people are needing to be more thoughtful and more strategic about how to pivot in the marketplace,” Davis says.
Recruiting today is as much about finding people who can pinpoint real estate with value as it is finding people who can isolate a good financing strategy for the asset.
“[Finding a path forward for an asset involves] either creative financing or restructuring or being thoughtful about how you’re carrying debt and how you’re going to get out of carrying too much debt to continue to move forward in the pack,” Davis explains. “Folks that are not well-capitalized are not going to survive the storm.”
Skill Sets
Because it has been 15 years since the last significant commercial real estate downturn, the ranks of individuals with existing workout experience are small. But Davis notes asset managers and special servicers are looking further a field. A good workout specialist can also be disguised in the form of an analyst, she adds.
RETS has seen an uptick in the number of analysts hired for asset management roles, with the firm seeking to fill about 30 positions so far this year. This increase could foretell a rise in transaction activity, Davis says.
“We need more folks making sure that the strategies that they are going to implement are sound and make sense from an analytical standpoint. Oftentimes, when you have spikes or increases in analysts hires, that’s going to drive activity. It starts at the bottom and then moves up the food chain. We are bracing ourselves for substantial activity here.
What else is being prioritized when looking for workout specialist? From RETS’ perspective, another focus area is diversity of thought, which has helped produce better outcomes for properties.
“Of the candidates we put forward for an opportunity, 48 percent are considered diverse – that includes anyone that is not a white Caucasian male,” says Davis.
“It doesn’t matter where you come from; it’s a matter of what you can do with your skill set.”
