“My deal teams are dream teams”.

As an investment manager, I am responsible for property acquisitions and sales – with market responsibility for Hesse and Baden-Württemberg. One of my tasks is to identify commercial properties for our funds in the acquisition process, to guide them through the transaction, and to see them through to incorporation into the fund. Or the other way round in sales: if a fund wishes to dispose of a property, I guide the property through a marketing process in collaboration with brokers and an internal deal team until it is finally sold. The deal team is made up of colleagues from Asset Management, Technology, Legal and Tax – and part of my job is to lead this team during the transaction – purchase or sale.

What does it take to do this job? Certainly a good deal of patience, stamina, perseverance, but also flexibility and a good feel for the market, people, and timing. You need to have a good grasp of things, understand connections, be able to assess issues in an interdisciplinary manner, communicate and listen well, adopt different perspectives, form a comprehensive picture, form a well-founded opinion, and find a strategy – but also decide and act quickly at times. Although properties themselves are becoming increasingly digital, for example through smart building control, transactions are a people business. It is important to have sensitivity for people and situations and to hit the right tone.