Columbia Creek is a privately held real estate investment firm focused on acquiring and repositioning distressed or mismanaged retail assets throughout the United States. Our specialty is single-floor strip malls and free-standing retail centers — from $3M local properties to $40M redevelopment projects. We operate as a lean, fast-moving team executing high-leverage strategies to unlock value through repositioning and hands-on asset management.

About the Role
We’re hiring an Underwriting Associate to act as the first responder on new property leads. Your job is to quickly (within 1 h) evaluate raw retail opportunities and turn them into investable business cases. You'll assess the potential upside, pressure-test assumptions, and help us make buy decisions — fast.

This is napkin underwriting with real impact: based on your analysis, we decide whether to make an offer. You’ll also support deeper second‑round reviews and follow‑up diligence for deals we pursue.

Responsibilities

Underwrite property leads daily across U.S. markets, with a focus on Washington

Quickly turn around high-level investment analyses: check zoning, pull lease comps, assess value‑add potential

Build and maintain financial models (cash‑flow, sensitivity, DCR, IRR, equity multiple, waterfall)

Call brokers, qualify leads, and clarify assumptions

Conduct market and HBU analysis: rent/sales comps, zoning/FAR, demographic trends, parking requirements

Draft concise IC memos and lender packages that clearly defend the business plan and risk profile

Support deeper diligence for deals that move to the next phase

Requirements





1–3 years of hands‑on underwriting experience (real estate or investment banking) for the U.S. market

Direct exposure to U.S. retail real estate, especially strip malls or value‑add repositioning

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Real Estate, Economics, Engineering, or a related field

Proficient in Excel and Google Sheets (including nested formulas, Power Query or VBA a plus)

Demonstrated ability to model ground‑up or heavy‑value‑add projects (IRR, equity multiple, waterfall)

Comfortable interpreting zoning codes, reading architectural drawings, and discussing site layout plans

Clear written and verbal communication; able to distill a 50‑tab model into a five‑slide pitch

Sharp, fast, and organized — you don’t wait for instruction, you take initiative

Benefits

Full‑time job (8 working hours per day, Monday-Friday). Please note that we will not consider candidates planning to combine several jobs.

Direct Impact – Your underwriting will directly influence multimillion‑ dollar investment decisions. You’ll be a key part of a lean, entrepreneurial team—not a cog in a corporate machine.

Speed & Autonomy – We move fast and value independent thinking.

Salary will be discussed during the interview. Paid in USD.

Quick selection process.

Working Hours
The Managing Partners are based in Seattle (PST), and we need someone who can reliably overlap with our core working hours. Required availability: 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM PST (Monday to Friday). The remaining 2 hours are adaptable. We value responsiveness during working sessions and give you autonomy for deep focus the rest of the time.

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📌 Underwriting Associate (Nezahualcóyotl)
🏢 MissionHires
📍 Nezahualcóyotl