A long drive could result in new opportunities for aspiring real estate professionals. Despite restrictions imposed by COVID-19, Brooklyn, New York-based commercial real estate finance firm Eastern Union is training college and post-graduate students by offering Virtual Summer Underwriting Internships to help them develop their proficiency in banking, finance and commercial real estate. “Virtual” interns will participate from the safety and convenience of their homes and work remotely alongside Eastern Union’s commercial real estate brokers and senior underwriters Monday through Thursday from July 1 to August 31.
While Eastern Union founder and president Ira Zlotowitz was driving from Orlando, Florida to New Jersey in early June, he listened to a podcast that discussed the need to bring in young professionals to commercial real estate. Add in to the cancellation of traditional in-house internship programs because of shelter-in-place and social distancing requirements, and an idea was born.
“I was talking to a college career counselor at Touro, and he made it clear after sending me three brokers to join my team,” Zlotowitz said. “I decided we would do a summer internship program. We decided to take the plunge, give back and help as many people as we can.”
The program was rolled out within days, with 270 students applying immediately and a capacity of 1,000.
Eastern Union is not working with any specific colleges, instead promoting the program via LinkedIn and word of mouth. Unlike highly competitive in-person internships, Eastern Union’s program is designed to be as accepting and inclusive as possible, with minimal qualifying criteria.
“We’re going in reverse order,” Zloto acknowledged. “We’re going through the questions they’re asking and comments, and taking the approach that, unless we see something wrong, we’re accepting the applicants.”
The internship curriculum will be offered in conjunction with services provided by the company’s new and rapidly expanding “Multi-Family Group,” which recently reset market pricing by introducing an unprecedented quarter-point fee for refinancing multifamily properties backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, transactions known as “agency refinancings.” Zlotowitz mobilized Eastern Union’s 100-plus person staff, including co-founder Abe Bergman, to volunteer as faculty “to make sure every question these kids ask is answered.” If necessary, the group can be broken into classrooms to maximize communication.
At press time, students were applying from all over the country.
“I think we’ll have some kids from every state in the country,” Zlotowitz said. “We want to give everybody a shot.”
The program was developed quickly, with input from the Touro advisor and several students from different New York area colleges. A quick call with the group helped Zlotowitz structure the program. As more questions arose, he continued to consult with the students prior to the launch of the program.
“I told them, ‘I have no plan. What would you all want to do?’” he recalled. “We developed the curriculum based on what they wanted to accomplish.”
The internship program covers four tracks: underwriting and finance education, sales and origination education, hands-on education and business development and underwriting. Students may enroll in multiple tracks. The interns will participate in a daily zoom call, followed by calls with questions and answers. Each week, the students will dissect a live deal to be presented to a bank, with access to Eastern Union’s data (for that deal only) and have an opportunity to underwrite it. Eastern Union will then supply the results afterward.
“That’s the part I’m most nervous about — I might have to break up the class into 20 or 30 classrooms, depending on the size,” Zlotowitz admitted.
If any student brings in a deal, they’ll be able to work with a senior underwriter to closing and get a commission.
“If you bring in a deal, we’ll let you work it even though there’s a low probability of it happening, so you’ll get hands-on experience,” he said.
That experience is what the students are craving, he said.
“The benefit we’re bringing is pure intel,” he said.
The internship is unpaid, but there is no tuition. Zlotowitz has even set up a $5,000 fund to assist those who may need help covering optional third-party programming to access Eastern Union’s internal communications systems. Those students who can afford the money have declined the assistance in favoring of helping those in need, he reported.
Eastern Union has had summer programs in previous years, hosting 10 or 15 students at its offices. COVID-19 presented the company with a unique premise to create a unique and much larger solution. How the company will conduct an intership program next year is anyone’s guess.
“We’ll see how it works,” Zlotowitz said. “We’re spending a lot of money to have everything recorded, indexed and edited so that a kid who’s in school and can’t make the schedule can check [the lesson] later. We’re building a robust education platform.”
And a possible benefit for Eastern Union is finding a new talent pool as it expands. At a time when commercial real estate is contracting, the firm has hired 75 brokers to expand the Multi-Family Group immediately and plans to hire a total of 200 over the next two years. But Zlotowitz was making no promises.
“I’ve been the type who’s always trained people from scratch. I’ll give them the confidence to ask questions and made a difference,” Zlotowitz said. “My life’s mission is to give people a shot.”
