I see the XXXX Program in Real Estate at XXXX University as the optimal springboard to advance my career in the Real Estate Development industry, providing me with advanced preparation in real estate development. Your curriculum is precisely the material in which I seek a total immersion experience. I am incredibly excited about your focus on Development & Sustainability, which will be foundational and lifelong essential to my professional development as a Real Estate Finance and Investment professional.
I especially appreciate how the curriculum is taught by a world-class staff of professors whose research I find incredibly inspiring and whose recognition extends across the globe. For me, Real Estate is a social service and civic contribution. Thus, I want to prepare myself at XXXX to give my professional life to improving the lives of others, with a focus on hard-working, modest, humble people, not the ultra-wealthy. I neither seek nor enjoy the glitzy and glamorous aspects of real estate. I seek a career in Real Estate with a humanitarian and civic focus, concentrating on real estate developments that reclaim, revitalize, recycle, or transform empty or desolate properties into community assets that improve the lives of everyone involved.
I want to specialize in affordable housing and homeownership for millennials. It concerns me greatly that millennials spend, on average, 45% of their income on lodging over the first ten years of their career. This makes it most difficult at best to save money for the future. Homeownership for many, if not most, is out of reach, especially in large urban areas where millennials work. I see a lot of potential in rent-to-own properties where people have all the convenience of living in an apartment, plumbers, maintenance, pest control, landscaping, and all of their bills and utilities coming to one hub. My embrace of multi-family housing is central to my sense of professional identity and professional ethics. As a member of the Urban Land Institute, I especially enjoy spending time with emerging leaders in real estate and comparing notes on our ideas for sustainable cities with environmentally friendly multifamily housing. At XXXX, I look forward to lengthy discussions with my classmates worldwide, especially during these trying times of global warming and coronavirus.
My mother is a successful interior designer with her firm (XXXX Design, with thirty associates, two offices, and $15 M in annual sales). She has previously lectured students at the XXXX Hotel School. I grew up working with her company, transforming tired and worn-out spaces into clean and fresh homes, condominiums, and restaurants. I am close to my stepfather, who has inspired me to develop my career goals. He attended the Hotel School for his graduate degree and later built a successful Italian Restaurant Chain with $400M in annual sales. He remains on the XXXX Hotel Advisory Board.
As an undergraduate student of Business, I spent my summers and winter breaks enjoying an assortment of real estate experiences, beginning with a high-end condominium project in Florida, where I learned a great deal about construction management and planning from the ground up. In the second summer of college, I joined a company called Hoffmann Commercial Real Estate (90+ commercial properties owned) in charge of a $500M investment in historical downtown Naples, FL. I labored night and day throughout the summer to improve the experience of residents and visitors alike in our buildings. The following summer, I decided to try something different and went to work at XXXX on their New York Multifamily team, considered the number one investment sales team in NYC based on volume. The team is very niche and specializes only in multifamily properties within NYC.
The highlight of my senior year came over winter break, completing an internship with the company that went on to hire me full-time: Lifestyle Communities (8,700 units + 2,000 under construction, seven cities, 1000 employees, vertically integrated, Capex 750M). I have worked on the capital markets team, responsible for maintaining and building relationships with investors and preparing financial models for current and future projects. I loved working for this team as they brought me under their wing, exposing me extensively to the capital markets industry and how lending works.
Thank you for considering my application for the XXXX Program.
Real Estate Sustainable Development Finance Investment