A Few Marginally Good Reasons to Participate in Student Real Estate Organizations

Written by Matthew Joseph, UCLA School of Law Class of 2013

It’s 8:45 on a Wednesday morning. You’re standing in line at Starbucks (or your other favorite ubiquitous mass coffee producer), papers you need for that big presentation in hand. “This Iced Vanilla Mocha Crème Fraiche Double Latte Expresso is really gonna help me nail this presentation!” you think to yourself. You down your extortionately overpriced coffee like a freshman at his first frat party as you approach Conference Room C. Caffeine and sugar coursing through your veins, you stride into the room with the swagger of a freshman at his second frat party. You wax poetic for half an hour about the rapid growth of Singaporean REIT’s. As you conclude (what you think was) the performance of a lifetime, you scan the half-empty room.

A few people clap, but most just look at you blankly. Someone coughs. You hear the drumming of a woman’s heels on the cold, unforgiving marble floor in the hallway outside. You look back at the projector screen, hoping that your PowerPoint isn’t over yet. Sure enough, all you see is the tiny phrase, “End of Slideshow.” A burning sensation rises up your gut. Sweat beads on your brow as you frantically shuffle your papers to fill the silence.

“Where did I go wrong?” you wonder. It took you weeks to prepare for that presentation. OK, so maybe it only took you part of last weekend and some touching up last night but you worked hard on it, damn it! Your delivery was Obama circa January 2008 even though your confidence just tanked (almost) as fast as his approval ratings since. Your slide design was a gem that you discovered deep in the preset slide design folder. Your suit was pretty cheap, but you looked really good in it and you even accessorized with a watch and those fancy glasses that make you look like an intellectual.

In reality, your inability to land the standing ovation that you expected had nothing to do with your questionable work ethic and fashion decisions. Your failure happened long before your boss (not so) subtly pressured you into doing the presentation in the first place. It happened when you were in graduate school (or shortly thereafter) deciding which extracurricular activities to participate in.

Sure, it might have seemed like a good idea to join the Yacht Club instead of the nationally renowned real estate organization. Who cares that you stopped going in week 3 after realizing that you had neither the sailing knowledge nor the patience to hang with the members? And hey, for the hour a week that you donned your blazer, popped your collar and sipped wine at the harbor, you had a pretty good time!

Meanwhile your classmate Veronica, who had no prior interest or experience in real estate, took a chance on the aforementioned real estate organization. In the blink of an eye her personal and professional network expanded. She met players in the industry and learned how it worked. It didn’t matter that she didn’t know much about real estate at the outset because her role (and indeed all of the other roles in the organization) didn’t require anything more than a basic understanding of real estate. She picked up that knowledge through a little bit of research and a few conversations with the organization’s faculty advisor.

Where is Veronica now? Well she’s working for a Fortune 500 company doing nothing at all with real estate. But she got the job through one of the contacts that she made at a real estate event she helped put on. As your presentation flamed out, Veronica was down the hall in your CEO’s office discussing a lateral move. Yes, that’s right: while you stood awkwardly trying to fill silence, your classmate was becoming your boss.

Now I’m willing to concede that this is an extreme anecdote of the consequences of failing to attend local real estate organization events. But survey results support the anecdotal outcome. Check out this graph:

 

I followed the conventional law school salary reporting method in compiling the survey results (meaning the salaries above are wildly inaccurate). Notice how failing to participate actually puts you over $40,000 in debt while contributing over 70 hours earns you an incalculable salary that approaches ∞. Mark Twain might have something to say about these numbers, but I see only a strongly positive correlation.

For the reader who is no longer in school, I can just as easily doctor compose a study that similarly represents the huge financial disadvantage you face for failing to participate in a real estate organization like the Ziman Center. Take a look:

Why don’t we just ignore the similarities between the two graphs as well as any curious consequences the latter has for the former?

Now let’s quit the small talk and get down to business. Finding extracurricular organizations to devote your time to is often quite simple. The organizations recruit early and often, leaving you with a wide array of options. Although it isn’t always clear at the outset how much of your time the organizations expect or what your role will be, you’re still spoiled for choice more often than not. Nonetheless, these organizations can have a tremendous influence on your employment opportunities, your personal contacts, and your academic experience as a whole.

While it may be simple to find an organization, joining the right organization for you is (or should be) much more difficult. Always keep in mind that time is the most valuable commodity you have as a student and as a professional. The decisions you make about your time will determine not only your grades, but your career options before and after you graduate. And it shouldn’t ever be as simple as sacrificing grades/job performance for extracurriculars or vice versa; both are necessary to distinguish yourself as a job candidate and as a member of the community. In fact, work you conduct on behalf of a real estate organization will complement whatever you learn in the classroom and beyond, serving at least as a strong talking point with friends and clients alike. Additionally, real estate likely has and will continue to comprise a significant portion of your personal portfolio (or at least your expenses). So even if you don’t currently work or plan on working in real estate, it’s helpful to have contacts you can talk to about your real estate decisions. Those are the kinds contacts you make through real estate organizations like the Ziman Center and its affiliates AREA (Anderson Real Estate Association) and RELA (UCLA Law’s Real Estate Law Association).

Finally, I must stress that the message here is not lost on recent graduates or even on those many years removed from school. The easy path in choosing a professional organization is to participate in whatever your coworkers participate in. That’s a decent strategy if you share the same hobbies and interests, but it might land you right back at the Yacht Club for another enjoyable, but fatally brief stint. You’re better off blazing your own trail, as it will set you apart to your business partners and your coworkers. Attending real estate events could earn you a client you didn’t expect or enable you to speak coherently on a topic that comes up at a pivotal time. At a bare minimum you’ll broaden your horizons. So take a chance next time you hear about a real estate event. It could really change your life – probably in a positive way.

Comments

[Hendri Prastio Kurniawan]

In fact, work you conduct on behalf of a real estate organization will complement whatever you learn in the classroom and beyond, serving at least as a strong talking point with friends and clients alike. Additionally, real estate likely has and will continue to comprise a significant portion of your personal portfolio (or at least your expenses). So even if you don’t currently work or plan on working in real estate, it’s helpful to have contacts you can talk to about your real estate decisions. Those are the kinds contacts you make through real estate organizations like the Ziman Center and its affiliates AREA (Anderson Real Estate Association) and RELA (UCLA Law’s Real Estate Law Association).
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