SitusAMC Power Pro: Paul Rahl

Name: Paul Rahl
Location: Hybrid​​​​​​​
Title: Assistant Vice President

Day-to-day: I work in a primary servicing team in the London office, managing transations and working as facility agent on balance sheet loan with various Investment banks and other lenders. We basically act as a “middleman” between lenders and borrowers. We are responsible for all the requests that come from borrowers to lenders: we might run the payment waterfalls, process the funding for the development loan, instruct the valuation of the assets. So, it is quite a spectrum of things for the clients. 

Highlights: I like that there is no real routine to the job. Every single loan is different, so the job is challenging and never boring. You must get to know each one of your clients and how they like to operate. And you deal with a variety of professions on a daily basis: for example, lawyers, notaries, bankers, valuers, and that keeps things interesting. 

Best advice: “When you know better, do better.” This advice is helpful to both my personal and professional life. it was originally attributed to Maya Angelou and cited by Oprah, so that’s how I came across it. Basically, I take it to mean that we are doing the best we can based on the limited information we have and the more we learn and the more we experience the better we can do. 

Essential traits for the job: Creativity, perseverance and patience. As the deals become more complex, you need to be creative and apply your knowledge to ever-changing circumstances. You need perseverance because circumstances can change fast, so you need to be able to follow through to the end. And you need patience when you handle demanding clients. Because the clients are becoming more and more demanding, those three traits are a must in this job. 

First job: My first job was actually already real estate related. I was helping in a family development company; I was selling the apartments off-plan. I think that is when and why I started to be interested in real estate. I liked the people aspect of the job, which involved meeting so many kinds of people and delivering the product that they envisioned. I liked almost everything about the job, except maybe getting up early in the morning to get to the office. 

Childhood home: I was born in Warsaw, Poland, but I was raised in a smaller city of Kielce, where my mum is from. It was probably exactly what you imagine 90s eastern Europe to be like -- quite gloomy and poor. But to be honest, I only have good memories as a child -- running around freely everywhere and just having a good time. I think the sense of community was better, and you knew all the neighbors and spent time together. It was a wonderful place to grow up. But eventually I craved a bigger world. I had a few weeks’ holiday in London, and I fell in love there and decided to move and within a year I was living in London. And I’ve never left! 

Current home: I live in Greenwich, London, and I work in Canary Wharf. I can’t say it is the best city in the world as I haven’t been everywhere, but for me London feels like the best city in the world. Everything that is happening in the world will eventually happen in London. London has so much world-class cuisine, art galleries, and theater. I like the feeling that so many of your fellow Londoners come from elsewhere so you can meet people from all the over the world. For a first-time visitor to London, I recommend taking an Uber boat from one end of the city to the other: you can see the whole city through the river. 

Greatest strength: My greatest strengths are my creativity and open mindedness. And that is something I can use in professional and everyday life. You need to be able to think out of the box to be able to best accommodate clients. And I like people and I like to make people laugh. If I wasn’t working in finance, I’d love to be a stand-up comic. 

Personal motto: “When you can’t find the sunshine be the sunshine.” That line stuck with me, and I really like it. 

Dream destination: I would love to go someday to the Maldives. I think it’s paradise, and I want to experience that paradise-on-earth feeling. Sleep in a little hut, lie on pristine white sand beaches, swim with the turtles, and escape the noise and bustle of the city.