A Fast and Furious Start

It hasn’t even been a month yet? The atmosphere here has been electric during MBA Orientation Week and the start of classes – not to mention the first Badger football games! Like the other 12 incoming Real Estate MBA students, I began refining my resume and elevator pitch right off the bat for WREAA’s “The Economic Tightrope” Biennial Conference held in Madison on September 13^th and 14^th.  During the conference, we were able to connect with many real estate alumni from around the country, and listen to panel discussions ranging from “Cap Rate Arbitrage versus Income Growth” to “The Multifamily Land Grab.” This was certainly a tremendous opportunity to start out the school year. Additionally, we have already hosted several representatives from several companies, like Prudential and KTR Capital Partners, who presented pitches and are actively recruiting.

Alumni Network

The outstanding and supportive alumni network is one reason that I felt compelled to enroll at Wisconsin. Within the first week, our real estate class was visited by local alumni working in the industry who spoke candidly about their experiences and provided hints and suggestions for future job opportunities. Building on this spirit, each real estate MBA has been paired with an Alumni Mentor. I can speak from my own personal experience in conjunction with that of my fellow classmates in saying that our Mentors have provided us with early benefits in focusing our job searches.

Experiences in Madison

For all you food lovers, Madison has a lot to offer. The Farmer’s Market on Saturday by the State Capitol offers a tremendous variety of local produce and goods. Also, over Labor Day, my fellow incoming real estate MBA Amber House visited “Taste of Madison”, a wide assortment of offerings from local restaurants. Amber’s favorite dish, a creation of Sa Bai Thong Thai Restaurant, was the Shrimp Purse, a delicious shrimp and chicken concoction wrapped in a spring roll skin and served with their signature Green Curry. That same weekend, another classmate Michael Zollner attended the 38^th Annual Wisconsin State Cow Chip Throw & Festival outside Madison in Prairie du Sac. In lieu of a report, he recommends that everyone try out this unique Wisconsin experience to get the full flavor of the event, so to speak.

Upcoming Adventures and Activities

Our Real Estate Club is hosting several upcoming events.  We had our first meeting on September 20 with Prudential as guest, and an October trip is planned to San Francisco.  It will include site and development tours (e.g. Google’s campus, San Antonio Station), and professional presentations by Northwestern Mutual, Principal, Equity Residential, and more. Back in Madison, four of our real estate MBAs, including yours truly, competed against the other specializations in a Golf Outing on September 21 at The Oaks Golf Course in Cottage Grove.

Jonathan Brown comes to Madison from Washington, DC, where he managed downtown Class A office buildings for Tishman Speyer. Jonathan plans to leverage his prior experience with financial and analytic tools gained during the MBA program to develop and invest in urban commercial properties.

Join the Real Estate Club for "fantasy" investment trading

Undergraduate real estate major Stephen Rothstein (BBA '12) has created a team on a "fantasy" investment trading site for Real Estate Club members to challenge each other in the game of REIT trading.

Real estate investors may be the most talented fantasy football players in the world and not even know it. Their inherent understanding of risk/return analysis makes them dangerous opponents in any league. For instance, Aaron Rodgers is a quality core asset. The definition of consistency, he is a class A fully occupied office building with credible tenants signed to long term leases. On the other hand, Michael Vick is a more opportunistic play. His ability to earn rushing and passing yards give him the potential to be the most dynamic player in football--that is, if he stays healthy, and out of trouble.

UW FREIT is a fantasy REIT league that captures the competition of a fantasy football league, while educating students on investment in real estate investment trusts. Rather than holding a position in a quarterback or running back, students must long or short office and retail REITs. A virtual investment platform called Updown has made this contest possible. To win, one will need to employ an opportunistic portfolio strategy, despite the widely considered core nature of REITs.

Students are signing up now for this interesting and fun contest, as they indirectly network with other members of the league. You can join in and match your know-how and talents against Wisconsin's best and brightest. If you’d like to learn more about UW FREIT, leave a comment below and we'll be in touch. The current league will run until May 2012.

Scholarship season

It's scholarship season for current students in the Wisconsin School of Business, and Wisconsin Real Estate will make several awards this spring.

Thanks to the generous support of alumni and friends of the Wisconsin Real Estate tradition, we have a number of fellowships and scholarships available to MBA and undergraduate students in real estate. The Department and the Graaskamp Center are proud to distribute a number of scholarship awards to real estate students every year.

Current students should apply before the deadline on March 1, 2011.

Other scholarships and grants are available from the Wisconsin School of Business. A single application enables you to be considered for a wide variety of scholarships for business students. A great resources for students is the university's Scholarships @ UW-Madison website.

Real Estate and Badgers Football

Excitement on campus is high as the UW Badgers football team prepares for its 2011 appearance at the Rose Bowl. As the semester winds down, alumni, students and fans are busily making plans to watch the game. Tickets may be hard to come by, but that hasn't dampened the enthusiasm. It's the seventh trip to Pasadena in school history, and the team's first time since 2000.

All the talk about Badgers football reminded us of Wisconsin Real Estate's football connection through real estate graduate and current Cleveland Browns tackle Joe Thomas. Thomas graduated in 2007 with a B.S. in Real Estate and Urban Land Economics and was subsequently drafted by the Browns.

We looked back in our news archives to June 2007 for an interview we did with Thomas talking about his interest in real estate, what he got out of the program, and his strong work ethic. Here is an excerpt:

What did you like about real estate?

“I think real estate is more hands-on than a lot of other majors. You’re doing a lot more stuff in the field, not so much sitting in a cubicle or at a desk. And just about everybody is affected by it. Anybody who plans on owning a house, it’s such a big advantage to take a real estate class, and to be able to know about a mortgage, what your best options are when buying a house or looking for property.”

What real estate classes did you take, and were they challenging?

“I took Real Estate Process, with Sharon McCabe; Valuation and Appraisal, also with Sharon; Urban & Land Economics, with Morris Davis; Finance, with François Ortalo-Magné; and Residential Development, with Tom Landgraf.

“To me, the whole real estate program just makes sense. A lot of people who are really good at math say that it makes sense to them, and that’s kind of how real estate is to me. It's like a puzzle; everything fits together. It’s not just memorizing it, you just understand it.”

What else did you like about the real estate program?

“The networking and connections that you make. That’s part of the reason why this is the number 1 program in the country: you are involved with different groups, you do projects with each other, you form great friendships. The people you meet here are the people who are going to help you get a job down the line.”

To read the rest of the interview with Thomas, click through to our News Archive.

The Wisconsin Real Estate Program publishes a monthly newsletter with information on real estate events, activities and more. To receive your copy, add your email address to our mailing list at Constant Contact.

UW team places 1st in NAIOP case competition

Congratulations to the UW-Madison undergraduate real estate team for placing first at the highly competitive NAIOP 2010 University Real Estate Challenge hosted by the Minnesota chapter.

Our passionate team consisting of Andrew Berger, Alissa Kearney, Scott Larson, Katelyn Murray and Nate Ross worked hard on this project--under the supervision of Arif Qureshi, UW lecturer in commercial real estate development--with the determined goal of WOW'ing the judges and 130+ Minnesota NAIOP Chapter members in attendance. Thank you to everyone who helped prepare our team and provide valuable feedback.

Look for more information on the competition in our May newsletter. Click here to join our email list (via Constant Contact).