02 / WHY REAL ESTATE
Getting Into the industry
A visual record
Fall 2024
In high school, I delivered pizza near the University of Miami. I saved about $20,000 after working there for a year and, made an investment in sound hound AI. This investment came before they announced their contract with NIVIDIA soon after the stock shot up 100%+, I was left with about 40k after taxes and with that money and some cash savings I purchased a house on Ramona Avenue in St. Louis for $33,000 in cash. The full project, including repairs, cost about $57,000. To bridge the gap I used zero-percent promotional credit cards and loan terms, got the house rent-ready, and paid off the debt over the next two years. Today, I own it free and clear. That experience became the foundation of my career, it gave me hands on exposure to the operational side of real estate and sparked what's become a real passion for financial engineering within the space.
Fall 2025
About a year after buying the house on Ramona Avenue, I started my first semester at the University of Miami and was accepted to the Real Estate Finance Association as a member. I went to every event I could, came prepared with questions, and made a point of talking to speakers afterward. I started attending outside industry events too, this photo is from a Real Estate Lender Association event at Five Park Residences. Every event was used to build my network and gain literacy on how the operational and financial sides of the business actually work together.
It was also where I first noticed the gap between what school teaches and what is required to get your foot in the door. Breaking into real estate recruiting without guidance is hard, and the support structure most schools offer doesn't close that distance because of timing issues. That disconnect covered above is what eventually led me to build the REFA Analyst Program and other programs to come in the future.
Early Spring 2026
By spring of 2026, I had earned a position on REFA's executive board, where I led the restructuring of the recruiting process to make interviews fairer and more consistent across recruiters. I also launched the REFA Analyst Program this semester, aimed at giving students without prior industry connections a way to break into the industry. Alongside that, I kept building my own understanding of the business, this photo is from a site visit to Moss Construction, where we learned how they support real estate development and what that development means for supply and pricing. Between modeling courses, case competitions, and events like this one, I kept growing both my network and my grasp of how the industry actually fits together.
Late spring 2026: Blackstone Visit
After winning first place in REFA's internal case competition, I was named a Miami Business School Real Estate Advisory Board Scholar and sent on a school trip to New York, along with the other top teams. This photo is right after our visit to Blackstone, where we heard from their real estate debt and equity teams about how they invest and where their edge comes from. Sitting across from senior professionals at the top of the industry refined my interest in the real estate and exposed me to the integration of finance in real estate and what benefits that brings.
Late spring 2026: Fairfield Site Visit
This picture is from our meeting with Jeffrey Goldberg, CEO of Fairstead, one of the world's largest affordable housing development companies. Learning about all these companies that all sit at the top of the market in their respective strategies kept building my sense of how finance integrates at the top of all real estate industries. In addition to this these experiences kept sharpening my idea of what I wanted to specialize in.
Summer 2026: Conferences and work experience
At the Impact Conference at UM, I heard from Blackstone's Nadeem Meghji learning more about what they invest in, and from real estate economist Peter Linneman, who funny enough signed my Real Estate Finance and Investments textbook. It's also where I met the person who'd become my manager at 3650 Capital, and staying in touch with him turned into an interview, and eventually an offer for the summer of 2026.
That summer, I was working primarily on B-piece investing. This experience put me right at the seam between public and private markets in real estate credit. I learned more about the physical side, the due diligence that goes into underwriting a loan or an acquisition, and the finance side, how securitization actually works and what purpose it serves.
Fall 2026: The path forward
That experience at 3650 solidified my niche, and this fall I accepted an offer to join Starwood Property Trust as a summer analyst for 2027. I'm still working part-time at 3650 Capital while holding a leadership position in REFA, where I'm growing the organization's programs and in addition to those things I am preparing to recruit for summer 2028. Between the internship, REFA, and building my network, I'm sharpening the skill set I'll need at the kind of firm I actually want to build a career at.
This journey also pushed me to make it easier for other students to find their way into the industry than I had to.
You can read more about that work, and the programs I built to support it, on the Giving Back / REFA Page.
Where My Refined Interest Lives
After being exposed to so many sides of the industry, I have discovered my interest is in the disconnect between public and private markets within real estate, and the inefficiencies that disconnect creates in each. Real estate credit is where I've chosen to focus that interest, it fits how I think, it's where I see the most opportunity for innovation right now, and in my opinion it offers the best risk adjusted return while also leaving room to be creative in how a deal gets structured. In addition to this, I also think special situations investing is becoming prevalent in the current market, since there is a growing amount of distress, and real estate credit happens to sit right at the center of where that plays out.
Nicolas M. Riveira
Miami, Florida