Acquisitions interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your CV.
2. Walk me through your most impressive deal or underwriting.
3. Tell me about a weakness, a failure, or feedback you've received and worked on.
4. Why real estate?
5. Why a REIT and not a private real-estate fund?
6. Why the firm?
7. When you're competing for an asset against a top competitor, what's the pitch to the seller that makes the firm win?
8. How does the firm's cost of capital constrain or unlock the acquisitions pipeline today?

Technical concepts to master

• The NOI walk — from rental revenue to levered cash flow

  Gross Potential Rent (GPR) · Effective Gross Income (EGI) · Net Operating Income (NOI) · Unlevered cash flow (NOI less capex and leasing costs) · Levered cash flow (after debt service)

• FFO vs. AFFO — the REIT-specific earnings metrics

  Funds From Operations (FFO) · Adjusted Funds From Operations (AFFO) · FFO accretion / dilution math on an acquisition

• REIT cost of capital and acquisition debt sizing

  Implied cap rate of the REIT's own stock · Debt sizing constraints — LTV, DSCR, debt yield · Joint venture and programmatic capital

Practical drills

• An industrial asset has Year-1 NOI of $8M. The seller wants $160M. What's the going-in cap rate? At a 6.0% target going-in cap, what would you bid? If you put 60% LTV debt at 6.5% interest-only on the $160M price, what's the unlevered and levered cash-on-cash in Year 1?
• A the sector asset in a Sun Belt secondary market: $50M ask, $3.2M in-place NOI, 92% occupied, in-place rents are roughly 15% below market, 7-year weighted average lease term remaining, the seller is a private fund at the end of its hold period. Walk me through how you'd underwrite this and what you'd bid.
• Pitch me a the sector asset or submarket you'd recommend the firm acquires. 5 minutes prep, 5 minutes delivery.

Smart-question anchors

• Capital allocation framework — how the team decides between external acquisitions, dispositions, development, and stock buybacks, with one recent named example
• Sourcing pipeline — broker-led vs. off-market vs. programmatic JV; how acquisitions associates contribute to deal flow at the analyst and associate level
• Underwriting standards — stated minimum unlevered IRR, stabilised yield-on-cost, going-in cap floors, and how those have evolved over the last 12-24 months
• Sector and geographic rotation — where the team is leaning in vs. exiting, what the senior team is seeing in submarket fundamentals
• Balance sheet and cost of capital — how the team thinks about external growth when the stock trades at a discount or premium to NAV

Sourced from

Mergers & Inquisitions — Real Estate Private Equity & REIT Interview Prep · NAREIT — REIT industry reference data and FFO definition · Green Street Advisors — sector commentary and cap rate ranges · Wall Street Oasis — real estate forum threads and interview reports · Peter Linneman — Real Estate Finance and Investments (textbook)