How One Student Discovered Her Niche Inside Real Estate

Margaux D. believes that everyone who works in real estate has a personal reason for choosing that path. For her, it was the promise of new spaces.

“I’ve moved 23 times in my life – 23 different houses,” says Margaux, a senior at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who is studying finance and real estate with a minor in Russian. “When I was a kid in France, I was always touring places with my parents and they would say, ‘Oh, we can break down that wall and we can repaint that one.’ I grew up in that environment. Becoming a broker touring and selling houses was kind of my dream.”

Then in 2021, she came to Penn, where she discovered the depth and breadth of real estate. “There’s so much more to it than being a broker; it’s very interdisciplinary,” says Margaux, who is also co-president of the Wharton Undergraduate Real Estate Club. “There’s urban planning, architecture, fiscal policies and the finance of real estate.”

Each summer since her freshman year, Margaux worked as an intern in real estate, exposing her to different aspects of the industry, beginning with real estate development in New York City, then on to a French hotel chain opening in the U.S., and last summer landing an internship with Goldman Sachs in New York.

Through these experiences, as well as networking with several key Wharton alumni who served as mentors, Margaux discovered her sweet spot: real estate private equity, a type of real estate investment where investors pool money to buy, renovate and sell properties.

“There are different sides of real estate investing. There’s direct investing, which is working directly and investing in buildings themselves. And then there’s the indirect investing, which is investing in funds that then invest in real estate. I am working in the indirect investing side,” notes Margaux, who has accepted a full-time position as a private equity analyst with Goldman Sachs’s real estate external investing group when she graduates. “Fund managers buy the building that’s already existing, fix it, improve it, and then they resell it. Sometimes you develop the new building from scratch. It depends on the business plan. I always loved math and most of my work is in Excel. Excel is a bit like playing Legos because you build out cells. I loved Legos as a kid.”

Visiting the Burj Khalifa

Margaux’s journey from aspiring broker to real estate financier has been hugely influenced by the Wharton Undergraduate Real Estate Club, where she helped plan “treks” to meet industry experts and tour real estate around the world. While visiting Chicago during a trek, club members met the architects of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the largest building in the world (pictured above in the hero image). The group later traveled to Dubai and met the people who invested in and built the Burj Khalifa.

As a real estate professional charged with analyzing properties and investment opportunities to help guide investment decisions, Margaux has learned to keep on eye on the trends. The market, she says, is deeply affected by macroeconomic factors, like fluctuating interest rates and changing demographics as Baby Boomers and Gen Xers retire. A trending asset class in real estate right now? The explosive interest in artificial intelligence is driving investors toward data centers.

Margaux considers herself lucky to have taken a passion for houses and developed it into a dynamic career that combines many of her interests. And while finance can often seem like a solitary, behind-the-computer-screen job, she has learned that her industry is very much about the people – connecting on calls and discussing projects with brokers. “I love my team at Goldman Sachs,” she says. “And I appreciate that we are investing in something tangible and helping to shape communities. As an investor, you’re choosing how a neighborhood will develop in the future, which I think is very fulfilling.”

Conversation Starters

Margaux’s experiences in college have helped shape her career goals in real estate. What are 3 ways she has explored different aspects of real estate — beyond academics — that have helped her pinpoint her true passion?

When Margaux arrived at Wharton she had what one might call the spark of an interest. She knew she liked houses and real estate, but wasn’t quite sure what that looked like for her. Do you have a spark of an interest (in any business area) that also needs igniting? Share your thoughts in the comment section of this article.

Of her real estate finance work, Margaux says, “I appreciate that we are investing in something tangible and helping to shape communities. As an investor, you’re choosing how a neighborhood will develop in the future, which I think is very fulfilling.” Some might say that private equity investment has a darker side. Research why private equity firms that invest in real estate might not always be so rosy and come up with three related questions to ask Margaux. Post them in the comment section of this article.

Hero photo image of Dubai was shot by Getty Images for Unsplash.