How are real estate brokers portrayed in reality-TV shows, and how can such portrayals be used as material for classroom discussion in real estate education? This article uses a multimodal social semiotic approach to examine representations of residential real estate brokers in four popular TV shows: A Place in the Sun, Selling Sunset, Million Dollar Listing New York, and Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles. Drawing on selected episodes from recent seasons, the study identifies three overarching themes and nine sub-themes that capture how brokers are portrayed as informing stakeholders, establishing trust, and driving business growth. The analysis suggests that the shows foreground high-end listings, intense competition, deal-making, personal branding, and personalized client service, while downplaying routine administrative tasks, regulatory complexity, income uncertainty, and less glamorous brokerage contexts. The article does not test whether reality TV causes students to pursue real estate education. Instead, it argues that these portrayals form part of a wider media environment that students may encounter and that can be critically examined in real estate education. The article contributes by showing how selective media portrayals of brokerage can be discussed in relation to person–job fit, professional identity, regulatory and ethical practice, and career sustainability.
We examine the impact of Costco Wholesale’s intra-city relocation on house prices in the Fresno-Clovis area, California, in 2019. Using a spatial Difference-in-Differences method, we analyze housing transactions within 2 miles of Costco’s old and new locations before and after the relocation, relative to a control area unaffected by the move. To capture the effects of sequential information releases on real estate prices, we divide the event timeline into assessment, construction, and post-relocation periods. We find that Costco’s relocation has had a significant impact on house prices. We document an 8%–9% increase in house prices located near the old Costco location, while no significant price impact is observed for properties near the new Costco location. Our findings suggest that house prices increased progressively during the assessment, construction, and post-relocation periods, indicating that real estate markets incorporate information as it becomes publicly available.
This study investigates herding behavior in the U.S. housing market from 1975 to 2023. The results show that the degree of herding varies across time, market regimes, and regions. Herding behavior appears with greater intensity in the post-2013 period and in the two years following the 2000 technology bubble and the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis in West North Central, West South Central, East North Central, and New England regions. We find clear evidence of regime-dependent herding during periods of extreme housing market turbulence, down markets, weak economic conditions, and low transaction volume. Declining house prices and tightened financial conditions are associated with stronger reductions in housing return dispersion in almost all regions. Regional housing markets in the West North Central and West South Central divisions are particularly responsive to adverse shocks and display a high propensity to herd, whereas the Mid-Atlantic region appears to be the most efficient, with no evidence of herding in any environment. Finally, we document that herding behavior in several regions provides predictive information about future housing bubble formations at both the regional and national levels and exerts a destabilizing effect on the overall U.S. housing and stock markets.
This study was conducted to examine the role information plays in property tax administration at Mzuzu City Council (MCC). Utilizing a case study design, this mixed methods study collected data from key informants at Mzuzu City Council using interviews and property owners resident within the CBD using survey questionnaire. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis while quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS. Findings revealed that MCC collects information on personal, land and building features which it uses for property valuation and billing. Findings indicated that use of information and communication technologies has had a positive impact in property tax administration at MCC evidenced by increased numbers of registered property owners and revenue collection. Findings further showed that MCC has made strides in valuation, billing and tax education campaigns. The study also discovered that administrative issues were a challenge that was militating against effective management of property taxation at MCC. This study makes interesting findings on how traditional and inexpensive methods of disseminating information can be used to good effect in resource poor settings. Use of PA System, town hall meetings, ward meetings and religious gatherings for conducting property tax education campaigns coupled with use of individuals to deliver bills do not only show innovativeness but also agility and pragmatism on the part of the council to use methods that work in a particular context. More importantly, findings of the study show that property taxation can perform well in least developed countries if tax information is well managed.
Natural disasters increasingly disrupt real estate markets, yet traditional appraisal education focuses primarily on stable market conditions, leaving students underprepared for valuation challenges in disrupted contexts. The paper addresses this gap by proposing a structured instructional framework to prepare appraisal students for post-disaster valuation assignments. The framework identifies six core dimensions through which disaster impacts appraisal practice: (1) value, (2) risk perception, (3) spillover effects, (4) FEMA’s 50% Rule, (5) Risk Rating 2.0, and (6) distorted comparables. Drawing on pedagogical theory, regulatory standards, hazard data, and prior research, each dimension is paired with applied tools, including decision frameworks, case scenarios, and in-class activities that emphasize applied judgment and USPAP-compliant reasoning. To assess initial effectiveness, the framework was evaluated using practitioner survey data and pre-/post-session student self-evaluations. Findings provide exploratory support for the framework’s relevance to practice and its potential to improve students’ applied appraisal understanding. While grounded in the U.S. regulatory environment, the modular framework can be adapted to international contexts through substitution of local standards and insurance regimes. This study offers a replicable pedagogical structure for integrating climate risk and post-disaster valuation challenges into real estate education.
This study examined whether a feed-forward learning intervention and assessment activity improved student self-efficacy in undergraduate and postgraduate real estate development subjects. Self-efficacy is pivotal when learners must integrate quantitative analysis with judgment under uncertainty, yet little is known about how pre-task guidance cultivates this confidence in real estate education and other data-rich programs. Given the complexity of development feasibility analysis, students—especially those without industry experience—often feel overwhelmed. Because no instrument specifically measured self-efficacy in real estate development, we adapted and piloted an existing tool with 36 students, yielding a two-construct measure. We then implemented a pre–post design with 47 students to test the effect of the assessment design and feed-forward on specific and general self-efficacy. Results indicated significant gains, with effect sizes ranging from d = 1.19 for postgraduate students to d = 1.73 for undergraduate students. Students with limited professional experience benefited most, with significant gains among those with two or fewer years of experience. The findings underscore the importance of targeted interventions for complex academic tasks and position real estate classrooms as productive laboratories for advancing feed-forward research.
This article presents a simple, cost-free how-to guide for creating a multiperspective housing affordability report for any U.S. metropolitan area. It provides direct data sources, detailed calculations, and illustrative examples and demonstrates how the analysis can be repeated over time and/or across regions to provide temporal and spatial context. Intended for individual researchers and real estate centers alike, this article is a practical resource for producing a data-driven report that can help foster informed discussions and guide policy decisions on this critical issue.
Sustainability competencies are increasingly essential for real estate professionals, yet Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) remains underrepresented in real estate curricula, particularly in emerging economies. This study examines how sustainability knowledge and skills are integrated in real estate programs in Botswana. Employing a qualitative design, data were collected through an archival review of seven accredited programs across three universities and semi-structured interviews with nine academics involved in teaching and curriculum development. Results indicate that sustainability is minimally embedded, with only two programs containing dedicated modules (2.6%–16.6% of total coursework) and assessments predominantly relying on written examinations, limiting opportunities for applied and reflective learning. Drawing on the Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO) framework, constructive alignment, and cumulative learning principles, a theoretical model is proposed to embed sustainability across program levels systematically. This framework supports the development of graduates’ cognitive understanding and practical competencies for sustainable real estate practice. While focused on Botswana, the findings offer transferable insights for curriculum reform in other emerging and developed contexts, aligning real estate education with national and global sustainability imperatives.
This paper proposes an experiential pedagogical exercise that allows finance and real estate students to assess the financial viability of a net-leased, single tenant standalone retail property located in a major metropolitan area. This exercise provides students with the opportunity to complement their classroom/textbook instruction with a real-life practical application of the concepts and mathematical skills they have acquired. To complete the case study, students receive an investment prospectus and an assignment protocol that lays out the data and supporting information necessary to value the property and produce an investment thesis. The successful completion of this assignment ensures student competence in valuing commercial real estate using qualitative and quantitative methods which are analytical skills that are readily transferable to the workplace.
Eligibility for participation in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) requires communities to enter into an agreement with the federal government to adopt and enforce a floodplain management program to reduce the risk of future flood damage in Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHAs). A key component of these agreements is the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) “50 Percent Rule,” which limits the amount that property owners can spend on repairs or renovations of existing properties in SFHAs to 50 percent of the depreciated value of the improvements without triggering the requirement to bring the existing improvements into full compliance with current building codes. The purpose of this teaching note is to provide a format for helping students understand how the regulation alters the incentives of the different constituencies associated with the renovation, repair and replacement of residential property improvements in SFHAs. The 50 Percent Rule effectively caps the dollar amount of upgrades and repairs allowed on existing structures to avoid triggering the requirement to bring the existing structure into compliance with the current building code. A numerical example of the FEMA 50 Percent Rule and a Concept Application exercise are provided .
As conflict is inevitable in the property management industry, communication and conflict resolution are essential skills for students to possess in order to have a successful career trajectory. However, existing research shows that students struggle with these soft skills thereby creating a gap between expected soft skills and observed soft skills of recent graduates. The purpose of this paper is to share details of a self‑compassion intervention that is used in a property management operations course and provide student insights into the exercise to illuminate self‑compassion as a concept that can be used to aid in communication and conflict resolution within the property management industry.
The process of terminating a condominium is subject to regulations that vary from state to state. The termination of a condominium has significant negative implications for unit owners that utilize the units as a principal place of abode. On the other hand, condominium terminations provide a substantial investment opportunity for real estate professionals interested in potential redevelopment of condominium properties. This article provides an overview of the condominium termination process noting some of the challenges likely to be encountered along the way.
We examine rental landlords’ decisions to buy and sell investment properties. We use the results of a new survey of owners of rental properties in nine major US cities, focusing on a subset of rental investors who own properties themselves, where we ask questions about their demographic and economic backgrounds, rental portfolios, and business management practices, and questions about their interest in acquiring new investments and plans to sell properties currently in their portfolio. We use these data to specify a series of regressions examining the factors that shape owners’ decisions to grow or shrink their businesses. First, we examine whether financial factors affect acquisition and disposition decisions. In this category, we include a variety of measures, including rents, external shocks, the owner’s reliance on rental income, debt, and portfolio characteristics. Second, we examine the impact of the owner’s personal characteristics—including age, gender, race, and ownership length—on investment behavior. Finally, we examine the influence of operating experience on future investment decisions, including interactions, vacancies, evictions, property investment, and business impacts from COVID-19 and other external events. Our analysis contributes to a growing body of research on the businesses of small landlords and their impact on the housing system.
This study examined the similarities and differences among university-level real estate education programs in the United States, emphasizing how diverse academic disciplines prepared students to meet industry demands. Semi-structured interviews with academic leaders highlighted both the unique characteristics of different disciplines and their convergence on core competencies. Regardless of whether programs were housed in business, architecture, or urban planning schools, all programs emphasized the importance of financial analysis, market assessment, and communication skills. Additionally, industry feedback played a key role in shaping curricula, ensuring that graduates possessed the technical and interpersonal skills necessary for a rapidly evolving market. The integration of experiential learning opportunities, such as internships, case competitions, and project-based learning, further enhanced students’ preparedness for professional practice. The findings suggested that, despite differences in program focus, there was growing alignment across disciplines to meet the evolving needs of the real estate industry.
The value of experiential learning is well established, and student-managed investment funds have been a popular tool to provide students with real-world investment opportunities in a classroom setting. In the last decade, there has been rapid growth of a new type of experiential learning tool—the real estate student managed investment fund. As of this writing, there are now 18 operational real estate student managed investment funds, a 15 fund increase over a 10-year period. Using our experience in launching a real estate student managed investment fund at Florida State University, we discuss the launch process, the operations, and the investment management involved. We also provide an overview of the student real estate investment fund landscape.
The Dream Team Approach is a time-tested training and teaching tool for teaching advanced commercial real estate finance and investment analysis. Instructors can implement the Dream Team Approach immediately by applying its included curriculum design. It also offers crucial guidance for incorporating the Dream Team Event, a unique, engaging, and potentially highly visible industry interactive learning experience, as a capstone project. Detailed guidance is provided for organizing, preparing, and delivering the Dream Team Event. The Dream Team Approach has been delivering outstanding student learning outcomes since 2008. It is now offered in the hope that its adoption and use will motivate, encourage, and educate the next generation of commercial real estate professionals.
This case is designed to provide students with real property appraisal experience, specifically in the determination of the impact on valuation due to a change in the flood zone maps by the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) in Lee County, FL. It is designed in a modular format, so that instructors may assign individual valuation assignments requiring alternative appraisal techniques both before and after changes in federal land regulations that alter the indicated market value of existing commercial properties.
This paper presents a chronology, beginning in the early 1900s, of the regulatory environment faced by residential real estate appraisers in the United States. The presentation informs the reader about two financial crises, the savings and loan crisis and the Subprime mortgage crisis. The conditions that led to each crisis, the response of Congress to address each crisis, and the effect of both on residential real estate appraisers are included in the presentation. Prior to these crises, appraisers were basically self-regulated, but today because of concern that inflated appraisals were a contributing cause of the crises they are subject to rules and regulations imposed by both federal, and state authorities. The regulatory measures instituted to address the savings and loan crisis failed to prevent the subsequent Subprime mortgage crisis, and measures instituted to end the Subprime mortgage crisis had unintended negative effects. This begs the question, will the regulations in place now prevent the occurrence of a future crisis.
This paper presents a structured property investment evaluation project for real estate finance courses utilizing CoStar database. Grounded in cognitive load theory, collaborative learning, and Hattie and Timperley’s feedback model, the project employs a scaffolded approach to manage cognitive load, foster peer engagement, and incorporate iterative feedback to deepen learning. Students begin with a comparative market analysis and progress through multiple stages, ultimately selecting a property, conducting submarket analysis, and applying financial analysis techniques such as DCF and IRR based on their findings. Student survey results indicate that the project enhances hands-on experience with CoStar, connects theory with application, strengthens understanding of real estate market analysis, builds skills in DCF and financial analysis, and develops competency in data interpretation for informed investment decisions. The scaffolded design also supports the effective incorporation of instructor feedback, as evidenced by student responses.
Real Estate statistical courses provide foundational content for students in business programs to be proficient in data analytics and management science skills. Not only are these skills essential for future real estate finance and investment analysis courses, but also they are highly demanded by real estate employers. However, students seem to have low motivation to learn real estate statistics, despite the clear need for the skills. We redesigned an entry-level real estate statistics course in an R1 higher education institution in the United States to integrate digital badges into the curriculum to test their influence on student motivation. We adopted a convergent parallel mixed methods research design using a finite population sampling survey and individual semi-structured interviews to evaluate our research questions. After surveying over eighty students and conducting interviews with thirty students, students reported positive sentiments towards digital badges and stated that the integration of digital badges in this real estate course improved their learning through enhanced motivation. We posit that digital badging may improve student outcomes across all quantitative real estate courses through enhanced student motivation.
