Since I am currently teaching at Georgetown, I have been thinking a lot about how to be a great real estate finance student. Here are some suggestions that came to mind:
1. Read it all, and read it closely. While it may seem overly obvious, do the assigned readings from cover to cover, and read them closely. There is a tremendous amount of nuance in real estate and finance, and identifying and appreciating the fine points, such as how IRR waterfalls work, is critical to being able to operate at the highest levels of the business.
2. Go the extra mile on your case studies. Pulling all-nighters becomes routine for some when they really get into a case study, and the extra effort and hours put into the case show. A student of mine once called the permit office in a small town so that he could better gauge the risk in a construction schedule overrun scenario. I was blown away.
3. Measure thrice and cut once in your financial models. Financial modeling is an inherently error prone activity, even for the most careful and meticulous students. It remains error prone when you do it in your jobs after school, except that the stakes are much higher and the consequences of oversights much more serious. Get in the habit of measuring thrice (not just twice) before you commit to copying and pasting formula across an entire row in your model. You’ll be glad you did.
4. Ask your questions. Isn’t that why you’re in school? By enrolling you have implicitly admitted that there are some things that you don’t know, so why not overcome your shyness so that you can get the knowledge you came for in the first place? If you think it is a “stupid” question now, think just how “stupid” it will sound when you ask it after you have graduated (and how poorly it reflects on your school). (And get over the notion of a “stupid” question… as I tell my students, there is no such thing as a stupid question, just a legitimate question asked at a really bad time.)
5. Present sensitivities that are meaningful. When you run your data tables to model out sensitivities, choose variables and increments of those variables that are meaningful. Don’t use $10.00 annual PSF increments if you are modeling office rents for a development — that’s way too large. All that shows is that you don’t have an idea of the tight band in which your space will likely lease.
What else do you think makes a great real estate finance student? I’m sure I’ve left out many characteristics and habits.
These are great tips Bruce, not just for students but also for real estate finance professionals.
I just want to reiterate the importance of checking your work. It’s easy to make careless mistakes, especially if you’re not fully engaged.
Hi Joe, thanks for the feedback! Mistakes are a fact of life. The more discipline you have to check and recheck your work, the better off you will be.
I have a suggestion for REFM.
How interesting would be for you if you teach here in the REFM website a full course similar to the one you are teaching at Georgetown?, with case studies and all the subjects and nuances. You would not have a lot more of work than today because you could derive the explanations, case studies and examples from the ones you do at the university, and even your teaching activities here at REFM and there could get sinergies.
I know REFM focuses in intense, one or two days workshops, but there are already several places that teach you with lessons structured in similar fashion as the one you receive at the university.
Now come to my mind places like this: http://www.udemy.com
Or the many OCW courses available, stuctured in similar fashion.
So the other model (the classic) is really posible in the web, they do have some reading materials and lectures and assignments scheduled for specific days. Specifically this one:http://www.udemy.com/learn-python-the-hard-way/
Given an interesting monthly or full course fee, many people would be interested.
Thanks,
Alex
Hi Alex, thank you for the great suggestion! This is something that we have been contemplating for a while now. We are going to keep considering it and try to figure out the best way to deliver and price it. Any suggestions on pricing would be appreciated.
Bruce
Thanks for your response.
Well, the only suggestion that I could make is to note that I find the current prices for the on-demand seminars very appropriate, living in Europe with different timing as I am is the only that suits me.
I think this would be incredibly interesting, a more deep course, like the one you must be teaching at the university.
Alex
Bruce,
To add to what Alejandro mentioned, a step further would
be a full certification course. My firm and others like it are in
support of certifications over single courses. I would kill for a
certification program that is essentially a Real Estate CPA or CFA.
There are currently a couple options like the CCIM, Masters of Real
Estate, and/or an Appraiser’s license but none are all inclusive,
interesting, AND affordable (both by time or cost) as a working
professional. If one could marry these fields into a certification that
is affordable, recognized, and all inclusive, while offering the
flexibility of REFM, I know it would become a new standard at my firm
and others alike.
Casey