Crafting Your "Why Real Estate" Response

There are two things you need to have down (but NOT memorized) before you get into your interview:

1. Your elevator pitch (spurred by the inevitable "tell me about your self" or "walk me through your resume")
2. Why real estate?

​People in real estate love real estate, which is why they are in real estate. It is not like accounting/banking/consulting where people go for a few years to earn their stripes and then bail out to follow their interests. People in real estate are there because real estate is their interest.

"Why are you interested in real estate" is a guaranteed question. For most other industries, you can come up with some general answer which will likely satisfy the interviewer (e.g. "I want to work in audit because I want to gain a deeper knowledge of business"). That will not fly in real estate.

Each person will have their own reason as to why they want to work in real estate and you need to find your own. If you need someone to tell you what to say, then you probably are not that interested in real estate.

Here is my reason - I love how entrepreneurial real estate is and also how non-discriminatory the asset class it. Anyone and their grandmother can invest in real estate but few people actually do. Why? Because most people are afraid to take the risk. I love the knowledge I gain in real estate. You have the opportunity to learn, and become knowledgeable about numerous markets, industries, and companies. I love how real estate can completely change and affect an environment. I love that real estate is a physical asset and not some obscure instrument. I love that real estate affects every single person in this world. In short, working in real estate is pretty awesome.

Check out our Real Estate Career Guide for even more information on the real estate interview!