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SOLD! Preparation, then the Pitch

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Posted on January 4, 2017

Alice Jackson

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Location, location, location! That鈥檚 the historic expression defining property value, but USA business students are learning that investing in real estate isn鈥檛 always that simple.

To close out the fall semester in December, leading business professionals in the Mobile community quizzed students in a real estate finance and investment class at USA鈥檚 Mitchell of College of Business, asking them to defend their buy or sell recommendations on actual properties in the area.

Dr. Reid Cummings, assistant professor of finance and real estate and director of USA鈥檚 Center for Real Estate and Economic Development, divided the students into five teams, then gave each team information on five different properties, along with a set of investor criteria.

鈥淭heir assignment was to analyze each property and make recommendations as to which property, or properties, that they, acting as commercial investment property brokers, would recommend to investors,鈥� said Cummings. 鈥淭he students didn鈥檛 know exactly who the investor team members would be. I only told them they would be market-area professionals whose names they frequently see on signs and in the newspapers.鈥�

Senior finance major Jake Arcuri called the presentation 鈥渁n experience that was both challenging and rewarding.鈥�

鈥淥ur team was forced to become experts on the subject matter in order to convince the experts that we had done our research,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he most surprising part of this project was my team鈥檚 ability to come together in a relativity short and busy period of time and put together a presentation worthy of convincing this group of professionals to pursue our recommended investment. It gave me insight as to what professionals are looking for when considering a potential investment.鈥�

Cummings deliberately designed the final exam to make the students feel like business professionals, including the pressure and stress, 鈥渢o simulate how things really work 鈥榦ut there鈥� beyond the classroom.鈥� He said he wanted them to realize and expect anything can happen, and to be nimble enough to react when it does.

For weeks, Cummings ramped up the challenges by introducing new elements to the simulation, including software glitches, mistakes in the information and interest rate changes, all intended to make the students see how often situations and information changes in the investment world.

鈥淭he real point of the exercise wasn鈥檛 the analysis, although I wanted them to know how to do that,鈥� Cummings said. 鈥淚 wanted them to experience the art that is the presentation and the persuasion of their ideas in a logical, coherent fashion to a group of sophisticated investors whom they have never met.鈥�

The teams were expected to work together, relying on logic as well as their creativity to put together presentations. When the big day arrived, some teams had even prepared customized handouts for the investment professionals.

Those professionals included Bill Barnhill, Shannon Barnes, Gavin Bender, Sr., Tony Brown, Marl Cummings III, Ruffin Graham, Nathan Handmacher, Jeremy Milling, James Saad and Cameron Weavil. The group asked probing questions, including a couple that left some of the student teams without immediate responses. However, the students quickly redeemed themselves by saying they would research the question and provide the answer as quickly as possible, something often heard in professional presentations.

Nathan Handmacher of Stirling Properties in Mobile said he wished there had been a similar opportunity when he was in school.

鈥淭he most interesting thing about the presentation was seeing which investment the students gravitated to and why,鈥� Handmacher said. 鈥淣o two seasoned real estate professionals view deals in the same manner, and the same was true of the students. I enjoyed listening to the justifications for each group鈥檚 recommended investment.鈥�

Gavin Bender, president of the Bender Real Estate Group of Mobile, called the presentation a very encouraging experience.

鈥淚t was very interesting to see the level of analytical sophistication these students had gained through their studies and their ability to present the information in a professional manner,鈥� he said.

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