Why Real Estate Interview Question

During the interview process, a candidate normally goes through multiple rounds of interviewing before being offered the position or role. The real estate industry is no different. An entry-level applicant for any real estate position can expect to go through 1 to 2 rounds of interviews.

Before any formal interviewing, however, an applicant normally receives a screening call from the HR representative or recruiter, where they ask the candidate high-level questions about their qualifications and some clarifying questions about their resume.

A common question in these interviews is the “Why Real Estate?” or “Why this position in real estate?” 

With Gen-Z beginning to enter the workforce, they are focusing on factors such as company carbon footprint, diversity, job satisfaction, and office environment when deciding where to work.

With all of these factors making the workforce very selective in where they work, companies ask questions like “why X industry?” and “why X job?” in interviews to evaluate the level of synergy that can be achieved between the company and the candidate.

Different real estate firms will have their variations of this question:

• CBRE: “Why commercial real estate with CBRE?”
• JLL: “Can you walk me through your background and how you became interested in this role?”
• PGIM: “Why Real Estate?”

In this article, we will focus on creating some sample questions to help you answer the “Why Real Estate?” and the “Why X job in Real Estate?” interview questions. 

We will break down what makes the response effective from those samples so you know what to highlight when talking to your interviewer. 

Your answer to the “Why Real Estate?” interview questions will be a personal story describing what led you to the job interview. These sample answers are meant to get the metal gears churning, so you can respond to your interviewer with your own personalized story.

How to Answer the Why Real Estate Interview Question

As stated earlier, this question is about fit and interest when evaluating your candidacy with your competitors.

Your interviewer wants to ensure that:

1. You are up to the company’s standard.
2. The company can provide you with a meaningful experience.

It is important to remember that your interviewer is still evaluating your academic qualifications, work experience, and behavioral character and is assessing how you would fit into the overall goal of creating a positive and motivated workplace.

The general premise among this question's variations is the same. 

What is driving you to pursue a specific job in real estate, and why do that job in the real estate industry specifically?

When you answer this question,  you should aim to answer the question as genuinely as possible. Ideally, you would tailor your response to this question depending on the exact specifications of the question. 

If your interviewer focuses on the industry, you will want your answer to explain your attraction to the industry.

• If your interviewer focuses on the role and why you want this role in real estate compared to other industries, you should be able to explain that.
• If your interviewer decides to tack on extra parts to the question, similar to CBRE, where they want to know why you want to work there, you must adjust your answer.

In the case you are asked by the interviewer, “why to work for X company?” it is important that you have done your research on the company beforehand. The Wall Street Oasis’s Interview Questions section should give you some inspiration for your response.

How to answer the “Why Real Estate?” Industry Interview Question

This statement will be reiterated throughout the article to emphasize its importance: Your response must be honest and sincere.

This and the “why X position” questions are staples of interview questions. A screening interview rarely occurs where this question is not asked. 

These questions are all about fit, so being untrue in your response may result in you not fitting in well with the company culture and feeling left out. This may negatively impact your work experience & performance.

When formulating your response to this question, you may find it beneficial to realize your motivations for applying for the real estate job. Although you may be tempted to cite reasons like “salary” or “position prestige,” try to think slightly deeper.

For starters, you may want to think about your choice of academic background. For example, most candidates for jobs in real estate have a business background, pursuing majors such as business and finance and concentrating on real estate or getting their license. 

After that, you may want to think about the properties of the industry that are attractive to you.

More often than not. This may lead to your interviewer asking more questions about the parts of the industry you are interested in. For example, if you genuinely enjoy talking about mortgage-backed securities, you will feel much more comfortable talking about that to your interviewer.

Here is a sample candidate’s response to the interviewer asking them why they are interested in Real Estate

Breaking down this sample, we can see the candidate has managed to convey multiple key details in his response to the question:

1. The candidate effectively explained his connection to the industry

While it may seem unprofessional to bring up something like legos, the idea of that sentence is to establish a baseline for motivation and connection to the industry. This is also a light-hearted statement that could alleviate the tension that may arise in an interview.

2. The candidate expresses his education and how that ties into his connection

The candidate explains how he grew interested in business, how he came across the position he is applying for at some point in his academic career, and how that ties into his personal story.

3. The candidate describes key aspects about their self

The candidate explains some key details about himself and how he is analytical. This is something asset managers need to be, so he has managed to convey to the interviewer he has one of the key characteristics needed for someone in that role. 

He also explains what the role of asset management and what about real estate sets it apart from other industries, which can express to the interviewer where his interest stems from.

4. The candidate shows interest in growth & impact

This candidate does a good job of expressing his interest in growing throughout his career by mentioning many opportunities in the field.

He also expresses how real estate is a physical asset (the reason why he chose real estate) and the reason why he thinks he will be able to make an impact with the firm.

As we can see, this candidate does a good job of answering this question. This question could have been used as a framework for the response during the PGIM interview. 

What if your interviewer is from CBRE and wants to know what attracts you to doing commercial real estate with their firm?

The sample from earlier still applies, but you would have to do some research on the company. This answer would be much similar to a “why X firm?” question. You would want to combine aspects of both interview questions to answer effectively.

A sample answer could be

Candidate:

“When I was very young, I absolutely loved the Lego City Theme. As I got older, I grew interested in business, which pushed me to pursue a degree in business administration. While exploring careers, I learned about Asset Management which combined my childhood love for building with my newfound interest in Business.  

As someone who is very analytical and drawn to the technical aspect of things, being able to evaluate the potential return on investment opportunities mentally stimulates me."

Especially since Real Estate is a physical asset, you can engage within the physical world, so it stands out to me compared to other asset classes. It is ultimately the reason I decided to concentrate on Real Estate while in college.

There are many aspects of CBRE that attract me to the firm. For starters, because of the firm's global reach, the potential access to training, mentorship & other resources will be more than that of other firms in the industry. 

CBRE is also technology-driven, exposing me to more tools & platforms that would allow for better results for our clients. This forward-thinking firm will help shape me into a better asset manager thanks to the access to resources I will have to help me learn and grow.”

These answers can be better tailored to express your personal experiences and goals but provide a start to how you would answer this question.

How to Answer the “Why do you want X position?” Interview Questions

In a similar manner to the other variation of this question, you will want to express your answer as honestly and sincerely as possible.

This question builds a lot off of the answer to the previous question. In that one, we established our personal connection to the industry, our motivating factors or desire for growth, and key aspects of ourselves.

We need to identify why we want this job in this industry more than others. Many jobs related to finance & business can be worked in different fields like healthcare, education, government, etc. We need to identify why we want to work in real estate. 

We also may want to provide some insight into our career goals, that way; we can double down on our growth mindset. 
Here is an example of how you could answer this question. We will build off our sample from earlier:

Breaking down our response from earlier, a lot of the notes from earlier apply here; some new notable mentions are:

1. The candidate explains why they prefer asset management in real estate compared to other industries

As mentioned, you should explain why you prefer one industry over the other. This may be prior experience or preference, or specialization. In this case, the candidate prefers to handle real assets, so he prefers asset management in real estate compared to other industries.

2. The candidate mentions career aspirations

The candidate does a good job mentioning his future endgame with his career. While ideally, you would want to fill in the space between your current position & end goal, whether that be further education or specific roles. 

This may be something your recruiter notes during the interview process, and they may keep you in mind for future roles aligning with your plan.

Ensure to look over the roles & responsibilities of the position you are applying for. For example, suppose you will wear multiple “hats” in your position. In that case, you should ensure you are interested in all those aspects and can provide information about your experience in those areas.

Also, check out the Wall Street Oasus’s Investment Banking Interview Course to help you prepare for your next business-related interview.

Key Points & Suggestions

To emphasize again, the response’s you give to your interviewer should not be anything less than honest and genuine. So be mindful when providing your response to these questions to make sure you are answering the question properly.

When providing your answer, try to ensure it responds to each of these critical points to help you give an effective answer. These points were used to create the sample responses and can help you create your real response:

1. Know Why

Know why you are making a decision, and explain that to the HR recruiter or representative conducting the interview. This provides confidence to the interviewer that you are someone who knows what they are doing.

2. Develop a Personal Connection

This isn't needed, but it helps express interest if you can find one. Also, it helps show that this role is more than just a job to you.

3. Express your Values

Express what you value about the industry to the interviewer. This shows that it motivates you in your role.

4. Do Due Diligence

Do your research on the company to align your response with what the firm is looking for.

5. Show Growth

Express to your interviewer that you plan to have a career past that of the role you are applying for and that you plan to learn more.

6. Answer the Question

Ensure you answered the question your interviewer asked. You don't want to not respond to certain parts of the question asked by your interviewer. 

Summary

During screening calls & initial interview meetings, it is common for your interviewer to ask you why you chose to pursue a career in real estate.  The variations for this question can be sorted into roughly 3 levels for how detailed it can be asked:

1. Why do you want to work in the real estate industry?
2. Why do you want this role in the real estate industry compared to other industries?
3. Why do you want this role with our real estate company rather than other industries or companies?

All variations of this question are designed to gauge the level of interest and passion the candidate has for the position and understand what motivates them to pursue their career beyond monetary compensation.

These interviewers want to hire someone with an intrinsic motivation for their role responsibilities as they tend to produce better results and a better attitude in the workplace.

They can also use these questions to evaluate what the candidate finds meaningful and see if the firm provides the candidate with responsibilities tailored toward that. 

Having a personal and passionate answer makes sure that the most important details the interviewer wants to know about you get conveyed. 

Be sure to prepare beforehand. Take a deep breath, a sip of water, and remember the skills you learned during your WSO interview course, and you will be successful!

Good Luck!

Researched and Authored by Rohan Rajesh | LinkedIn

Reviewed and edited by Parul Gupta | LinkedIn

Resources

To continue learning and advancing your career, check out these additional helpful WSO resources:

• CFO Interview Questions and Answers
• FP&A Interview Questions and Answers
• Sales & Trading Interview Questions
• Why UBS Interview Questions
• Why Trading?