Acquisitions Analyst, Asset Management Services

JLL’s Strategic Value Advisory team delivers data-driven advice to clients through three service pillars—Investor, Credit, and Asset (including Asset Management Services). The Asset Management Services offer combines strategic expertise, optimized analytical processes, and JLL’s “quants-driven” approach to enhance asset-level performance and support confident investment decisions.

About the role

The Acquisitions Analyst, Asset Management Services will support a generalist, regional investment team evaluating opportunities across property types, markets, and investment strategies. The role focuses on underwriting, market analysis, client investment committee materials, due diligence, closing execution, and transaction data governance.

Responsibilities

• Construct, maintain, and audit property-level cash flow models in Argus and Excel.
• Apply discounted cash flow and deal-specific valuation approaches to underwrite acquisition opportunities.
• Model a range of scenarios (base case, downside, upside) and stress-test assumptions such as rent growth, tenant rollover, leasing costs, capital expenditures, financing terms, hold period, and exit pricing.
• Lead independent model reviews, resolving discrepancies to ensure underwriting accuracy.
• Adjust underwriting as due diligence reveals new operating, leasing, market, capital, financing, tax, insurance, or transaction-cost information.
• Ensure closing underwriting aligns with approved deal structure, final capital stack, closing statement, lender budget, and investment records.
• Evaluate market, submarket, and capital-market dynamics affecting each investment.
• Analyze comparable sales and leases, competing properties, replacement cost, and in-place economics to inform property positioning.
• Assess tenant/resident demand, asset functionality, leasing assumptions, competitive positioning, market liquidity, and exit risk.
• Lead assigned diligence workstreams from award through closing, including kickoff, document gathering, third-party reviews, issue tracking, internal sign-off, and checklist completion.
• Maintain the transaction timeline, covering site access, contract execution, deposits, diligence period expirations, approvals, financing, and closing milestones.
• Examine financial and operating diligence items (leases, abstracts, estoppels, operating statements, expense recoveries, receivables, payables, deposits, service contracts, warranties, tenant credit, and third-party reports).
• Coordinate with the client engineering team to assess physical, environmental, development, capital, zoning, and permitting findings, incorporating financial implications into underwriting.
• Review closing statements, prorations, invoices, estoppels, sign-offs, checklists, and paperwork.
• Proactively identify and escalate execution risks.
• Develop investment committee memoranda and presentation materials from established templates, providing clear analysis of key assumptions, risks, and investment recommendations.
• Prepare closing memoranda tying final underwriting to investment committee approvals and highlighting material changes.
• Log outstanding action items and transition matters for handoff to the asset management team.
• Ensure data accuracy, completeness, and consistency across the deal pipeline tool and asset information system.
• Cross-check data across models, investment committee materials, closing memoranda, source documents, pipeline entries, and the asset information system.
• Input closing underwriting figures, capitalization, projected returns, and final costs into the asset information system.
• Maintain organized acquisition records in document-management and workflow platforms.
• Coordinate handoff of models, diligence findings, action items, transition matters, and supporting files to the asset management team and other relevant groups.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen data quality, controls, process consistency, and transaction reporting.
• Collaborate effectively with client senior investment professionals, functional teams, operating partners, brokers, lenders, consultants, service providers, and outside counsel.
• Manage multiple assignments, respond promptly to requests, and deliver models, memos, reports, and updates on schedule.
• Identify and escalate potential issues related to investment, execution, guidelines, compliance, data, or controls.
• Adhere to client risk controls, policies, procedures, and documentation requirements.
• Serve as a final check on analytical accuracy and data quality for assigned deliverables.
• Manage relationships across client and JLL stakeholders, sharing insights to inform JLL’s evolving service model.
• Ensure all activities comply with JLL’s ethical, legal, and operational standards.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• 3–5 years in a transaction-focused role (acquisitions, asset management, investment banking, real estate private equity, or similar analytical capacity).
• Proven track record underwriting commercial real estate deals and constructing property-level cash flow models.
• Proficiency in Argus, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
• Strong understanding of real estate financing structures and standard modeling conventions.
• Familiarity with leasing fundamentals (contractual vs. market rent, escalations, renewal assumptions, tenant improvements, leasing commissions, free rent, expense recoveries, tenant options).
• Ability to assess market evidence, identify critical underwriting variables, and form independent investment views.
• Strong quantitative and analytical skills, paired with excellent writing, presentation, and verbal communication.
• Meticulous attention to data accuracy across models, memos, pipeline systems, and asset information platforms.
• Ability to manage multiple assignments and transaction deadlines with minimal oversight.
• Collaborative approach with internal and external transaction counterparties.

Preferred Qualifications

• End-to-end acquisitions experience (underwriting through investment committee approval, diligence, closing, and handoff to asset management).
• Background across multiple property types, markets, or investment strategies.
• Experience underwriting development or redevelopment deals.
• Exposure to joint ventures, incentive-management structures, promote waterfalls, and transaction document modeling.
• Working knowledge of physical, environmental, lease, title, survey, zoning, tax, insurance, regulatory, financing, and closing considerations.
• Curiosity, resourcefulness, and willingness to challenge unsupported assumptions.

Performance Metrics

• Deliver accurate, error-free, and internally consistent underwriting models and return analyses on schedule.
• Clearly communicate assumptions, sensitivities, risks, and critical variables behind investment recommendations.
• Produce high-quality, consistent, and decision-useful investment committee memoranda, closing memoranda, and transaction updates.
• Accurately reconcile closing underwriting against approved underwriting, documenting variances, action items, and transition matters before closing.
• Maintain complete, current, and consistent acquisition data across pipeline tools, asset information systems, underwriting models, approval materials, and closing records.
• Effectively coordinate diligence workstreams, contributors, open items, and deadlines through closing.
• Proactively identify and escalate material investment, execution, data, and control risks.
• Demonstrate growing independence in underwriting, transaction coordination, data governance, and decision material preparation.
• Receive positive feedback from senior team members and cross-functional partners for accurate, responsive, collaborative, and risk-aware work.
• Consistently adhere to internal controls, procedures, and transaction-documentation requirements.

Benefits

JLL’s Total Rewards program offers competitive benefits and pay, supporting career ambitions, recognizing contributions, and investing in well-being.