Update

The Lewis White Real Estate Center has grown to the point that we need to have a full time PhD dedicated to our real estate curriculum to continue our progress. We have started the paperwork necessary to advertise for this position and hope to have found the perfect person in time to start our Fall 2012 courses in both the traditional and executive delivery formats.

Dr. Jim DeLisle from the University of Washington just concluded five solid days of "Market Analysis and Feasibility Studies" that included the lastest technology and methods known to the real estate profession. The students completed demographic and psychographic searches and further developed financial modeling skills.
The executive sessions starting this month will be "Construction Means and Methods" and "Legal Context of Real Estate Decisions".

In our traditional delivery of Market Analysis and Feasibility Studies, we just heard from the head of JC Penny's Research Department who flew in from Dallas to spend three hours with our class about their processes and a live case study they are dealing with currently in the site locations decision process. Next week we will hear from a site location specialist from Walgreen's who personally located over 900 Walgreen sites.

Corporate Real Estate Education at it's finest

Dr. Margaret Latshaw heard four presentations today from our students in regard to specific recommendations to local companies to help them solve a particular real estate dilemma with which they were faced. The local firms of Goodwill Industries, Century Tel, Interstate Bakeries and UMKC took time to meet with their assigned student group and share their coporate situations as it related to real estate decisions. The students took that information and combined it with what they learned in class and made specific recommendation to them in a formal presentation this morning. The student's preparation was outstanding and the representatives of those companies each provided invaluable insight in review and comment about each presentation.
All of this was preceded by yesterdays' session of a corporate relocation expert who flew in from Atlanta to provide her methodology on helping companies with their real estate decisions as an outsourced consultant. She was very insightful.
In addition, Rudy Beese, Attorney from SNR Denton shared a large amount of date in written format with oral explanations about the multitude of tax incentives and view about the "border wars".
Joy Hays and Curt Petersen from the Polsinelli Law firm shared with us some valuable insights about green leases and the clauses to look out for with practical experience woven in.

Truly two of the most intense days of information about Corporate Real Estate practices ever presented in just two days.

Next month is Dr. Jim DeLisle from the University of Washington who will share 5 days of insights from his "work in progress" textbook on the lastest techniques and tools related to Market Analysis and Feasibility Studies in Real Estate.

The REIT Industry

This is our 5th month of our Executive delivery of the Masters in Entrepreneurial Real Estate. Today, Dr. Randy Anderson enlightened the class on what REITS are, how they are structured, their history of returns and most importantly where they are headed in the near future. Opportunities abound in this area of real estate.

Real Estate Industry Predictions for 2012

Real Estate Industry Predictions for 2012

Day one of "Corporate Real Estate"

Dr. Margaret Latshaw, Started the class with introductions to JE Dunn (multi-billion dollar construction company) who shared their process of deciding where they were to put their corporate headquarters. Terry Dunn was accompanied by Greg Nook. They told the candid challenging story of their four year process step by step. They made some valuable observations about the real estate process.
Dr. Latshaw's personal experience working with Sprint, H&R Block and Bank of America has proven valuable in her design of this course. After JE Dunn's presentation, Margaret shared a academic discussion of corporate real estate based on our assigned readings, followed by a visit by Wayne Mathison who ran a 300 person corporate real estate department and is now a private consultant. We continued with a working lunch with Justin Chamberlain head of real estate from H & R Block and their retail portfolio. The challenges of opening up over 100 retail locations per month can be quite daunting. They outsource a large portion of their portfolio to Cassidy Turley and following Justin, we heard from Rich Etzkorn from Cassidy Turley who not only works with H&R Block but also is very involved with Edward Jones 12,000 locations around the country.
We'll close today with a review by me (Walt Clements) on some financial spreadsheets used to measure cost of occupancy that was introduced in our "on-line" sessions and then some presentation tips as the students prepare to make some presentations next month.
Holiday wishes to all.

First day of 'Capital Markets and Real Estate"

The “Capital Markets and Real Estate” course started yesterday under the instruction of Dr. Randy Anderson, the Director of the real estate program at the University of Central Florida. He comes with personal experience as a real estate investor as an individual and as a general partner in a private equity fund. His research in investment properties international and practical experience was evident as he shared his process for evaluating the four basic property types. Which property type should you be invested in and more importantly why? We learned which exogenous shocks to look for and how they impact our real estate investment decisions. We identified the major indicators to track and the free data websites from which to extract meaningful data and what it means. We discussed the possibilities of inflation, when interest rates were going to increase and more importantly. Most importantly he provides the factual data that makes Kansas City a prime location for institutional investment capital right now. He is an advisor to an investment firm who recently bought two large apartment complexes in Olathe, KS. Knowledge truly is Power!

Re = Rd + LR(Rp-Rd)

Another formula to measure leverage and corresponding risk associated with taking on more leverage. Practical insights were discussed concering what to consider when making forecasts of income and future sale price. Practical insights from experience.

That formula coupled with the simple Gordon Growth Model can provide some practical "back of the napkin" assessments when you consider real estate investing.

Dr. Anderson and Dr. Clark offered detailed explanations of how secondary markets work as well as the CMBS markets. How they work, and how we can use them.

Another information packed day.