Seven students, over 30 hours of research and one innovative approach brought home first place for UNT at the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) Dallas College Case Competition on March 1.

“This is a tremendous win for both UNT and the real estate program,” said competition faculty advisor Dr. John Baen. “The students competed against major North Texas universities and delivered a comprehensive analysis that made me proud to be their advisor.”

The IREM competition serves to involve undergraduate students in practical real estate experiences to help them gain insight into the property management profession. This year, the teams were tasked with solving a real-world real estate challenge currently facing an affluent area of Dallas.

G. Brint Ryan College of Business real estate students Renee Looney, Nicholas Williams, Rene Robles, Logan Gregory, Quinton Pisciotta, Jason Hurd and Jasmine Sellers were among those on the winning team. Together, they were able to develop a way to generate value from an underutilized space with limited funding and problematic financing.

Researching demographics, potential target markets and financing alternatives, the UNT team gathered letters of intent, construction bids from local companies and worked with commercial real estate company CoStar to attain leasing information.

In-depth analysis in hand, the team presented their proposal in front of six professional and independent judges to beat out their competition. The University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Texas at Arlington, Southern Methodist University and Texas Christian University were the four other participating universities.

For winning first place, the team was awarded $5,000 and the opportunity to present their idea in front of hundreds of attendees at the Building Owners and Managers Association membership luncheon on March 7. Special thanks to corporate coaches Amanda Eller and Erik K. Fulkerson who volunteered their time and feedback to help UNT excel.