What is a Real Estate Accountant?
A real estate accountant is someone who is in charge of a real estate firm’s ''books'' — these accountants manage every aspect of a firm’s financial accounts and reports. A real estate accountant researches and prepares accounting entries, prepares monthly reports on transactions (such as profitability analyses), researches accounting for complex real estate transactions, and presents financial information to executives. As you can see, this is a lot of responsibility, and as such, real estate firms will only trust qualified individuals to be their accountants.
What Sort of Education Do You Need?
In order to even begin considering a real estate accounting job, you first need to be a CPA, or certified public accountant. In order to be a CPA, you have to first get a relevant degree. Generally, you’ll be looking at a four-year bachelor’s degree in accounting or another field related to finance. These days, though, more and more employers are looking for applicants who have a relevant master’s degree.
An internship in which you can assist a real estate accountant is also a great idea and may very well be required at some point in order for you to earn your master’s degree. Even if it’s not required, an internship is a good idea because it not only looks good on your resume, but it also gives you some on-the-job training that you will never get from sitting in a classroom. Moreover, an internship will not only get you some contacts in the real estate industry, it will also prepare you for a career in real estate accounting and help you figure out what you want to do and who you want to work for.
What Can I Expect to Earn as a Real Estate Accountant?
It all comes down to the bottom line, doesn’t it? Truthfully, the answer to this question really depends upon the amount of experience you have and what firm you end up working for. In general, most recent college graduates with a bachelor’s degree looking for real estate accounting jobs can expect to start at somewhere in the $55,000-$75,000 per year range. Of course, if you have a master’s degree and/or more experience, you can expect much higher salary. In fact, many real estate accountants easily make six figures.
In short, it’s a very lucrative field to be involved in, with much room for advancement. Oftentimes, those who start out with a particular firm as a real estate accountant find themselves promoted to positions of greater authority and responsibility if they have done an exemplary job. What’s more, because real estate accountants are so intimately familiar with their firms’ finances, they often have insights that others do not. These insights can often lead them to ideas that can prove very fruitful to the given firm. Such ideas and consistency in your work can take you all the way to the top.
Conclusion
Let’s face it, no one can deny that there really is a problem in the real estate market right now. Indeed, the economy in general is in bad shape these days. The good news is that despite these problems, there are still people out there every day struggling to make the system work. The jobs that these people do are vital, including real estate accounting jobs. As with any field, when one top dog corporation or firm falls, another rises to replace it. Now is the time for many real estate professionals out there to make a name for themselves. If you can get in with a company right now as their real estate accountant, you can be the one to take your firm to the top.
Real estate accounting jobs are not the easiest jobs to get by any stretch of the imagination, but if you are qualified, there is a good chance that you could find rival firms competing for your services. Real estate firms recognize the intrinsic value of a good accountant and realize what a difference it can make to their long-term growth. If you play your cards right, you could end up in the middle of a bidding war for your services. While this may seem a bit far-fetched, take a look at the current real estate market: no one could have predicted a few short years ago that it would be in the shambles it’s currently in. The phoenix will inevitably rise from the ashes, though, so now is the time to act.
