Graduate students from UT’s McCombs School of Business organized the bidding last week on an area of land, the destruction of a hotel and the construction of a condominium tower. Upon completing each task, the UT team successfully acquired attractive U.S. land belonging to a Central American company.
Each hypothetical task and land acquisition was part of a scenario created by investment company Goldman Sachs for the 2008 National Real Estate Challenge at which UT’s five-member team took first place. The UT Real Estate Finance and Investment Center and the Graduate Real Estate Society hosted the competition.
The team included Ryan Childs, Scott Humphreys, Bryan Kaminski, Michael Searls and Kevin White. Many of the nation’s top business schools sent teams from their real estate programs. The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania placed second, and Yale University took third.
Searls said the most stressful part of preparing for the competition was anticipating the judges’ questions after the team presented.
“A lot of us have done these competitions in the past,” he said. “Presenting wasn’t a problem, but a lot of real estate professionals have been in the industry a long time. There were a few difficult questions.”
Searls said the team had to utilize its real-world experience and financial knowledge to compensate for a lack of real estate expertise.
Jay Hartzell, a UT associate finance professor, said the team was expected to do well, considering its recent winning streak at similar competitions.
“We had high hopes for them,” Hartzell said. “They had won two previous events, so we thought this might be our best chance in a while. But given the stiff competition and the fact that the field expanded to 20 teams, we had to be realistic.”
Team member Ryan Childs said the team was prepared to continue its winning efforts.
“Honestly, I don’t think a team from McCombs has made it into the finals in five years,” Childs said. “We were confident we could put a good product together.”
Hartzell said the team’s accomplishment is attributable to the members’ collaboration in different areas to propose the best solution.
“They were all good presenters and handled questions well,” he said. “They blended together as a team, with complementary skill sets and expertise. As a group, they also showed an ability to be creative in their solution to the case.”
