Accountant Making It Count in Real Estate

0




Usually I get up around 5:30 and I watch the morning news while I do my stretching and sit-ups. Then I log onto my computer and check the financial overnight news. I’ll also read and respond to key e-mail usually work related.


I have a morning cappuccino and a light breakfast. Usually I have an H & H; bagel. I have them shipped from New York. I have two big glasses of water and my vitamins. I comb through the L.A. Times and the Wall Street Journal. I’m an information nut and a voracious reader. I have to be in touch with current events. I read 10 to 15 trade journals a week especially from the real estate world, and a few business journals.


By then my wife and 9-year-old son, Harrison, are awake. I spend some time with my son in the morning before I go to the gym. We’ll play tennis a few days a week. I swim every morning, seven days a week.


I’m the managing principal for the national real estate practice. My job is primarily about serving clients. That means providing accounting and tax-related services to existing clients and bringing in new clients to the firm. My clients are a blue chip roster of institutional real estate companies, opportunity and private equity funds, homebuilders, commercial property owners and managers.


I work on resolving complicated business issues, normally accounting-related and tax-related issues. My staff is generally working for clients in preparing financial statements, auditing financial statements, or working on any number of reports that the clients require.


Normally, I’m at the office around 9 or 9:30. While I’m in transit I respond to messages. When I arrive I usually have meetings with my staff to discuss various client matters. I review and write correspondence to clients and discuss business issues with them. I’ve had one or two conference calls by 11:30.


I’m working until about noon. Most days I have lunch plans with business clients or prospective clients. If not, I’ll take a colleague out to lunch maybe one of the partners. I have a lot of favorite places for lunch. The nature of the meeting determines the type of restaurant I’ll go to. Since the office is in Santa Monica, there are a lot of nice places. I’ll go to the water to Ivy at the Shore, or the Lobster. Sometimes I’ll meet clients coming from downtown in Westwood or Beverly Hills.


It’s the people aspect of it that really makes my job enjoyable. I like breaking through a logjam and coming up with a creative solution. People picture accountants as the guys with green eyeshades in the back room. That’s so far from my personality. I am an outgoing people person.


My afternoons again generally consist of meetings with clients and internal meetings with staff. I work on proposals or client reports that need to be finalized.


I spend a significant amount of time on marketing and public relations issues trying to expand the real estate practice for the firm. I work with the marketing director and our PR firm on speeches for upcoming conferences, articles for publication, and interviews with the press on current real estate trends.


Generally, I leave the office anywhere between 6 and 8 o’clock. I go home and have dinner with my wife and son. I play with my son until he is ready for bed. Then I spend time with my wife.





As told to Sarah Filus


*

Scott Farb



Real Estate Group Managing Principal

Gumbiner Savett Inc.



For Fun:

Dinner dates with his wife, skiing in Utah and Colorado, Hollywood Bowl concerts


Hot Wheels:

He went through a set of tires on his car in less than 25,000 miles. “That’s my New York driving habits one of my leftover characteristics. I still can’t lose a lot of my New York accent.”


Fond Memory:

“I was a lifeguard at the ocean near where I grew up back East. I’m from Oceanside, New York.”

No posts to display