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Old Posted Dec 24, 2011, 9:08 AM
siunate2324 siunate2324 is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 30
glad to see this thread living on, so since I'm still striving/learning how to better myself I'll share my 2 cents here since I'm closing in on my last semester of college.

@simms3
That was a pretty interesting comment definitely presented alot of new ideas. Also seems like you have a good amount of experience which is obviously the most important thing we lack. I'm taking quite a few finance and accounting courses right now. Recently we've done a lot of work on cash flows, bond valuations, etc. and this is the stuff I've really tried to focus on. Also just got done with an excel project on Markowitz theory so hopefully that helps learning how to build excel models, I have yet to hear of Argus but I will keep an eye out for ways to gain some/more experience with both softwares

@nowhereman
I've taken some of your past posts in this thread and tried to apply as much as I really can at my stage. I just founded a real estate club on campus for students so I'm hoping that will help for grad school/jobs with a good leadership item for my resume. This is should be a good chance for me to maybe land an internship because I'll be dealing with many local brokers, RE law firms, etc. on a personal level. Also planning a trip to STL to hopefully have our group talk to a handful of development companies around there and try and gain as much knowledge from that as possible.

Also have you heard anything about ULI (Urban Land Institute). I think I'm going to join for year and see how that is along with getting my license after I graduate.

@chitowncity
What college are you going to now? I've talked to a few people and if you get a finance degree along with your other plans I believe you'll be standing pretty solidly, not to mention even if you don't get into the field a finance degree is great to have. And if you are around Chicago, and follow the Chicago forums you can tell things are picking up steam. I'm not saying that anything is a given but there is clearly alot of work picking up in local RE. As nowhereman stated most will probably still keep a short staff, but it wouldn't hurt applying for as many possible finance/admin/REIT/development companies as possible for little jobs like being an admin or getting an internship. If you are looking into grad school I've looked at the MRED program alot. They value any job experience in the finance industry equally as much as RE, and this industry is EXPANSIVE so you should be able to find something...but I suggest doing as much RE related things as possible around yourself, luckily I had the opportunity to build my own group and we'll see how big i can grow that.

Also from my grad school research I tended to notice mostly the value of a degree. I really really wanted to get an MRED degree cuz its so real estate related and I'm still looking into applying for a couple even though I need to focus on graduating this year. But also I've heard from credible people that a MBA focusing on RE AND finance would be excellent, and obviously the better the university the greater the value. Plus like I said earlier you walk away with more flexibility as well. I really would prefer DePaul or UW Madison (GPA aint getting me into NW).

One last note if all else fails going into selling homes and brokerage is another legitimate way to get a start in the industry as well. Learn to sell and value what you have, gain personality and knowledge about RE/transactions, and NETWORK. Not where I wanna be but still an option.

This is a good discussion, hopefully it leads to all things best which is good and Responsible development for our great city.
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