Acquisition Associate

Summary

The Acquisition Associate identifies, evaluates, and advances new sites and opportunities for residential development, including multifamily, for-sale, and mixed-use projects throughout the Bay Area. He or she will have a working knowledge of real estate fundamentals, land use, and financial underwriting, and will work both collaboratively and independently to source deals, analyze site feasibility, and support transactions from initial outreach through due diligence and closing. The Acquisition Associate focuses on the front end of the development cycle; once a site is secured, the project transitions to the development management team. The Acquisition Associate will support partners, brokers, landowners, and colleagues to build a strong, high-quality pipeline of opportunities for the firm and must be results oriented.

Key Characteristics

To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate superior competency in the following key areas:

1. Relationship Building: Builds and maintains trusted relationships with brokers, landowners, sellers, municipal staff, and capital partners. Follows up consistently and represents the firm with professionalism and integrity. Listens carefully to understand the goals and motivations of sellers and counterparties. Accepts feedback from others and promotes a collaborative team culture of “we” not “me”.
2. Resourcefulness: Displays a passion for problem solving, original thinking, and creativity. Finds opportunities others overlook, including off-market sites, underutilized properties, and sites that may benefit from rezoning or state housing laws. Develops creative approaches to site assemblage, deal structure, and land use strategy.
3. Passion: Displays a passion for residential real estate, neighborhoods, and markets, with a focus on what makes a site work: location, access, transit, schools, retail, and amenities, and the residential product and end user best suited to each site.
4. Motivation: Sets and achieves challenging goals, including pipeline and outreach targets. Demonstrates persistence through long and unpredictable deal cycles and overcomes obstacles. Measures self against a standard of excellence.
5. Sound Judgement: Assesses opportunities objectively and is willing to recommend passing on a deal when the fundamentals do not support it. Exhibits sound and accurate judgement, explains the reasoning behind recommendations, and includes appropriate people in the decision-making process. Displays professionalism in all situations.
6. Resilience and Perseverance: The job requires someone who is not deterred by unsuccessful pursuits as the probability of success on any one opportunity is in fact very low. The job requires someone who can push onward to the next lead no matter the odds or number of times they have tried.
7. Great Communication: Speaks and writes clearly, informatively, and persuasively. Listens and learns. Responds well to hard questions. Prepares clear, well-organized investment memos and presentations, and is comfortable presenting opportunities to senior leadership and capital partners. Self-edits and self-corrects work for spelling and grammar. Presents written and numerical data logically and effectively.

Key Responsibilities

Included, but not limited to, the following:

1. Site Sourcing & Market Research: Proactively source residential development opportunities (multifamily, for-sale, and mixed-use) throughout the Bay Area, in alignment with the firm’s growth priorities. Canvass target submarkets, track listed and off-market properties, and conduct direct outreach to landowners. Maintain the acquisitions pipeline and tracking database. Monitor market trends, comparable land sales, rents, home prices, and changes in zoning, housing elements, and local policy that create new opportunities.
2. Financial Underwriting: Build and maintain pro formas and land residual analyses to evaluate the financial feasibility of potential sites. Research and support rent and sales comparables, absorption, development cost assumptions, and financing terms, coordinating with colleagues on construction cost and development budget inputs. Run sensitivity and scenario analyses to identify key risks and value drivers.
3. Site Feasibility & Entitlement Analysis: Evaluate zoning, general plan designations, density, height, parking, and other development standards for prospective sites. Assess entitlement pathways and risks, including CEQA, density bonus, and state housing streamlining laws. Coordinate preliminary yield and massing studies with architects and participate in early meetings with planning staff to understand municipal requirements.
4. Due Diligence & Transaction Support: Support the preparation of letters of intent and assist in the negotiation of purchase and sale agreements. Coordinate due diligence, including title, survey, environmental site assessments, geotechnical reports, and appraisals. Track critical dates, deposits, and contingencies, and work closely with legal counsel and consultants through closing.
5. Investment Presentations: Prepare investment committee memos and presentation materials summarizing market conditions, site characteristics, entitlement strategy, financial returns, and key risks. Support the preparation of materials for prospective capital partners.
6. Project Transition: Once a site is secured, prepare a thorough handoff of underwriting, due diligence findings, and entitlement assumptions to the development management team. Serve as a resource to the development team as needed, and track how projects perform against original underwriting to refine future assumptions.
7. Self-Management: Works independently and effectively on multiple opportunities at once. Accepts “handoffs” cleanly and collaboratively and asks questions as needed to fully understand the task. Prioritizes effectively and consistently delivers work product on time with exceptional accuracy.
8. External Growth: Join industry groups, such as ULI, NAIOP, and local building industry and housing organizations, and build your professional network, particularly with brokers and landowners. Move into more responsible positions in these industry groups.
9. Internal Improvement: Seek out opportunities for continuous improvement, always looking to grow professionally at a personal level. Function across departments and at various levels within the firm, creating an internal network as an extended resource base to drive successful outcomes. Learn and share best practices and innovation between groups. Strive to achieve company policies and set and track progress on long range goals.

Other

1. Education & Experience: Bachelor’s degree from a four-year college or university required. Work experience equivalent to 2 to 5 years in real estate acquisitions, development, investment analysis, brokerage, land use planning, or a related field. Applicable degree fields include Real Estate, Finance, Economics, Business, Urban Planning, Architecture, Engineering or Math.
2. Professional Expertise: Strong financial modeling skills, including pro formas and land residual valuation. Working knowledge of zoning and land use regulation, and familiarity with Bay Area residential submarkets. Desire to learn and continue to develop proficiency in a variety of subjects critical to successful acquisitions, including but not limited to: CEQA, state housing laws, entitlement processes, environmental due diligence, real estate finance and capital markets, title and survey review, contract negotiation, writing skills, and critical thinking. Ability to read site plans and basic architectural drawings is a plus.
3. Computer Skills: Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Excel for financial modeling is required, along with proficiency in AI, document, presentation, and email tools including but not limited to Claude or Gemini, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Experience with real estate data and mapping platforms such as CoStar, LandVision, Reonomy, or GIS tools is preferred, as is a general comfort with learning new software programs.
4. Writing Skills: The candidate will be regularly communicating in writing through offer letters on sites, emails internally and in the preparation of presentations and reports. The candidate must therefore be proficient in writing in English and may be asked to submit a sample in the interview process.

Travel: Frequent travel around the local Bay Area to tour sites and meet with brokers, landowners, and municipal staff is required; must have current driver’s license and automobile insurance. Some out-of-town travel may also occasionally be required.

Physical Requirements: While performing the duties of this job, the individual is regularly required to sit and/or stand and reach with hands and arms. The individual must occasionally walk on uneven terrain during site visits and lift and/or move up to 10 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, and color vision. Hearing and talking are regularly required.

Work Environment: The work environment described here is representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Primarily the employee will work in an office-type environment; however, the employee will be required to visit prospective sites, including vacant land and occupied or existing properties, where mobility is required and safety is important. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally exposed to outside weather conditions. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.