Commercial Real Estate
Two leaders can share a title and nothing else. We find the one built for your portfolio.
Same title. Different job.
Multifamily
Head of Asset Management
- Owns
- Renewals, unit turns, and rent growth
- Measured on
- NOI per unit, occupancy, resident retention
- Built through
- Operating platforms and property management
- Works with
- Property managers and residents
Industrial
Head of Asset Management
- Owns
- Tenant credit and lease-up of large-box space
- Measured on
- Mark-to-market rent spreads and lease term
- Built through
- Development and leasing of logistics assets
- Works with
- Corporate occupiers and brokers
The wrong leadership hire costs more than a salary. It costs the deals not done, the assets mismanaged through a cycle, and the team that walks out.
Where we lead searches.
Seats we fill
- Chief Investment Officer
- Vice President of Asset Management
- Director of Portfolio Strategy
- Head of Investor Relations
Inside a search.
Search brief
Chief Financial Officer · Hybrid, Dallas
- First-year outcome
- Close the next fund raise
- Reports to
- President
- Base
- $250,000 to $300,000
- Must have
- Fund accounting depth
Recent results.
All case studiesA role open for months, filled inside a 30-day deadline.
- 3
- days to a first slate
- 4 of 4
- finalists sourced by us
- 30
- days to an accepted offer
A VP of Lease Administration, recruited from outside the usual talent pool.
Read the case study →Leadership hiring is asset-class specific.
Asset class shapes unit economics, tenant dynamics, capital cycles, and the operating disciplines a leader is expected to carry. Strong leadership in one asset class does not automatically transfer to another, and a search that does not anchor on the specifics produces a slate the client cannot use.
Operating-driven, with leadership hires weighted toward regional asset management, multifamily-specific development, and platform finance. Search succeeds when it understands the difference between Class A urban, Class B suburban, and affordable, and the leadership disciplines each demands.
Capital-heavy, build-to-suit and modern logistics development continue to drive senior hiring. Leadership searches concentrate on development, acquisitions, and strategic occupier relationships, with data center development a fast-growing sub-specialty.
The most cyclical asset class right now. Leadership hires weigh heavily on asset management, repositioning expertise, and capital markets experience to handle refinancing and debt restructuring against a difficult occupier market.
Retail leadership is operating-intensive and relationship-driven. Mixed-use platforms add development and entitlement complexity that requires leaders fluent in public-private partnerships and multi-jurisdiction approvals.
Operating discipline is the differentiator. Leadership hires concentrate around asset management, brand management, and capital partnerships that respect the operating side of the business as much as the real estate side.
Long-cycle work with material exposure to entitlements, labor, and capital. Leadership hires must combine technical development judgment with the political and capital relationships the work actually depends on.
The senior seats we know best.
Owners, operators & investors
VP of Acquisitions
Deal-end leadership across owner and operator platforms.
Read the hiring guide →Head of Asset Management
Returns protection across the hold and through cycles.
Read the hiring guide →Chief Investment Officer
Investment thesis, capital allocation, investor relations.
Read the hiring guide →Head of Capital Markets
Debt, equity, and the lender relationships behind them.
Read the hiring guide →Head of Development
Ground-up across asset classes and geographies.
Read the hiring guide →Chief Financial Officer
Fund mechanics, audit, and capital events.
Read the hiring guide →Chief Operating Officer
Operating leadership at the CEO’s right hand.
Read the hiring guide →Service providers
What CRE leaders ask before engaging a search.
When should I engage an executive search firm for a CRE leadership hire?
Engage a search firm when the role is senior enough that hiring the wrong person creates strategic, capital, or reputational risk you cannot easily recover from. That usually means Director-through-C-suite roles in commercial real estate where the seat is specialized enough that an internal recruiter cannot evaluate it confidently, the market has to be mapped rather than advertised to, and the cost of a mishire materially outweighs the cost of the search itself.
What is the difference between retained executive search and contingent recruiting in commercial real estate?
Retained search firms charge an upfront retainer regardless of outcome and run a defined process to a defined conclusion. Contingent recruiting is paid only on placement, which usually incentivizes speed and volume over fit. 24 Hour Search is built differently: we deliver the methodology of retained search (market mapping, direct outreach, deep reference work, accountability for the outcome), and by default you pay when your hire signs. Retained engagements are available when a client prefers one.
Which CRE asset classes does 24 Hour Search cover?
We place leadership across office, industrial and logistics, retail and mixed-use, multifamily including affordable, hospitality, and land and development. Asset-class fluency matters at the leadership level. A Head of Asset Management built inside multifamily is not interchangeable with one built inside industrial, and the search anchors on the specifics of the actual portfolio.
Do you work with owners and operators, service providers, or both?
Both. On the principal side, we place leadership for owners, operators, REITs, funds, and developers. On the service-provider side, we place senior leadership for global and regional CRE service providers and brokerages, including Heads of Transaction Management, Account Leaders, and Market Leaders or Managing Principals.
How long does a typical CRE executive search take?
We work on your timeline. As a rough guide, Director and VP searches often close in 60 to 90 days from engagement to accepted offer, and C-suite searches in 90 to 120. The real pace depends on availability and urgency, yours and the candidates’.
How is 24 Hour Search different from a typical CRE recruiter?
Our methodology is retained-grade: market mapping, direct outreach, deep reference work, and accountability for the outcome. Every search is run personally by an experienced practitioner with a CRE-fluent background, and the mandate is to reduce the risk of the wrong hire, not to fill the seat fastest.
Read the full brief
Why commercial real estate leadership is different.
Commercial real estate is capital-intensive, operationally complex, and performance-driven. Leadership decisions directly impact asset value, investor confidence, and long-term portfolio growth.
24 Hour Search is a commercial real estate executive search firm leading Director-through-C-suite searches across platforms globally. We partner with owners, operators, and service providers to secure leaders aligned with structure, capital strategy, and operational execution.
What commercial real estate executive search actually is.
Commercial real estate executive search is the discipline of hiring senior leadership into roles where the wrong person creates real strategic, capital, or reputational damage. That includes Chief Investment Officers, Heads of Asset Management and Acquisitions, CFOs of fund managers, Heads of Development, and the operating leadership behind vertically integrated platforms. It also includes the service-provider side: senior leadership at the global and regional brokerages that serve corporate occupiers and institutional capital.
It is a different practice from generic executive search, because the work it produces is sector-specific in ways that titles obscure. A Head of Asset Management built inside multifamily is not interchangeable with one built inside industrial. A CFO who has run a public REIT is doing a different job than one who has run a private fund manager. A Managing Principal who built a brokerage office in a Tier 1 market is not automatically the leader for a different market or a different platform. The work of the search is to honor those distinctions, not to flatten them.
24 Hour Search runs Director-through-C-suite executive searches across commercial real estate platforms, with a practice built on market mapping, direct outreach, and reference work that goes well beyond a resume.
Decisions grounded in market reality.
Compensation benchmarking, competitive intelligence, and talent mapping inform every commercial real estate search. Decisions are data-informed, not speculative, grounded in current market reality across asset classes and capital structures.
The case for retained-grade search in CRE.
Internal recruiting works for roles where the candidate pool is active, the role is well understood, and a wrong hire is recoverable. None of those are typical of senior CRE leadership searches. Senior CRE leaders sit in seats with carry, deferred compensation, and long-standing relationships keeping them in place. Reaching them takes a mapped market and a real conversation about a real opportunity, not a job posting or a database blast.
The cost of the wrong leadership hire in commercial real estate is rarely just the salary paid. It is the deals not done, the assets mismanaged through a cycle, the team that walks out, and the investor confidence that takes years to rebuild. An accountable executive search engagement exists to make that risk someone’s explicit job, and to put ownership of the outcome inside the engagement rather than outside it. 24 Hour Search brings retained-search methodology to every engagement, and you pay when your hire signs.
For more on how 24 Hour Search structures engagements, see The 24 Hour Search™ Way.
Your next leader is one conversation away.
You pay when your hire signs.
We reply within one business day.