Real estate students gain skills and industry certifications

The Center for Real Estate and Finance (CREF) and the Baker Program in Real Estate teamed up in February to provide students with two valuable hands-on learning opportunities. A total of 80 students from the undergraduate real estate minor, MMH program, and Baker Program participated in the special training sessions that were designed to enhance classroom learning and give additional skills for future employment.

In the ARGUS training, held two times a year, students learn how to use the commercial real estate industry’s tool for cash flow projections and investment analysis. During a two-day Hotel Valuation Seminar, also held twice annually, Stephen Rushmore, Jr. ’96, CEO and president of HVS, teaches students to use the HVS Hotel Valuation Tool, the industry’s standard software for determining property values.

“Most firms in our industry require that employees have proficiency in ARGUS as well as the traditional Excel modeling done in the classroom. The three-day ARGUS training provides valuable hands-on experience for students that is further developed in the real estate curriculum. In addition, students who take the ARGUS training are eligible to sit for the ARGUS Certification examination, which certifies their skills. The HVS seminar focuses on the use of the Hotel Valuation Software, an Excel-based modeling environment for lodging market studies, cash flow forecasting, and valuation. It is essential that our students have the opportunity to learn these skills before they graduate, and I am grateful that the CREF Industry Fellows help fund these programs,” said Jan deRoos, HVS International Professor of Finance and Real Estate and executive director of CREF.