FIN4571 Real Estate Finance and Advanced Modeling

4 Advanced Management Credits

This course will address the practical and theoretical issues involved in estimating cash flows and values of a wide variety real property, financial interests, investment interests and deal structures using discounted cash flow (DCF) techniques and sensitivity analyses. Students will solve real estate cash flow and DCF problems using models for property, portfolio, debt and equity interests for a variety of commercial real estate property types. Students will learn and apply the detailed modeling applications necessary to estimate both cash flows and values in the world of real estate finance and capital markets. Students will use and learn both Excel and industry standard ARGUS software applications in the process of modeling lease by lease cash flows at the property level, portfolio cash flow consolidations, related debt structures, including first mortgage and mezzanine debt, and equity waterfall structures. ARGUS is a widely accepted unique and complex modeling software that is very frequently required by employers in real estate finance. This course includes explanations of the theoretical issues and concepts involved in these practical applications. This course is intended for students who have an interest in real estate or who desire to expand their knowledge of finance to include real estate.

Prerequisites: SME2021

FIN3555 Real Estate Investment
4 General Elective CreditsThis course is designed for students interested in learning to evaluate real estate investment opportunities. The focus is on commercial property, not single-family homes, and on U.S. real estate. Using readings and case studies, students examine real estate as an asset class and explore its similarities and differences from other investment types. The foundation for this course involves understanding the industry terminology, legal rights and restrictions, and basic techniques for financial projections and analysis.

Expanding from this base, students explore the use of debt and the implications of taxes on real estate investment returns.

Prerequisites: SME2021

FIN3512 Real Estate Transactions and Law

4 General Elective CreditsReal-estate is a transaction-based business. To successfully execute any business strategy in real estate, it is essential to understand the relevant legal structures and transaction documentation. This introductory and practical course will provide students with an understanding of the fundamentals of commercial real estate transactions from a legal and managerial perspective. The course is designed to familiarize students with the various "life stages" of commercial real estate transactions: negotiating the term sheet, conducting "due diligence" property investigations, structuring ownership interests, financing the project, closing and acquiring title, developing the property, managing and leasing the project, and ultimately, selling the asset or ownership interests. By integrating business strategy and legal structure throughout the course, students will explore how legal considerations impact decision-making in valuing real estate assets, selecting effective ownership structure and control, managing financial risk, allocating financial returns, and developing exit strategies for real estate investments.

Prerequisites: SME2021 or FIN2000

SEN1301 Reel VS. Real: How Fictional Media Influences Reality(Senior Instructor: Celeste Campbell) This course will analyze movies, TV shows, and book excerpts that are fictional but marketed as _based on a true story. We will determine the facts behind each story and examine how our expectation that the media is based in reality affects our perceptions. We will explore the growth of this genre over the past 50 years, focusing on themes such as crime, politics, and romance; potential texts include Argo, Pocahontas, Law & Order, and Pride and Prejudice. This is a discussion-based class supplemented with short readings, articles, and viewings.

Course Schedule: Fridays: January 31, February 7, February 14, February 21, February 28 and March 7 (Showcase of all Senior-Led Seminars)

WRT2000 Research Writing
4 Foundation Liberal Arts redits

This course prompts students to put their theory of writing into practice through writing and composing in research-based genres for audiences in academic discourse communities. Students learn to recognize and adhere to the discursive and procedural conventions of particular communities of scholarly practice, and they examine and participate in modes of scholarly inquiry while learning about and engaging in best practices for finding, evaluating, and incorporating sources. Students produce scholarly arguments in essay form while exploring the roles that other textual forms can and do play in scholarship, and they continually reflect on how this work informs their theory and understanding of writing more generally.

Prerequisites: WRT1001

FIN3511 Residential Real Estate
4 General Elective CreditsThis course is designed to introduce students to the residential real estate housing market in the U.S. and equip them with the knowledge to efficiently and effectively navigate that marketplace. Through a practical application of the course topics and examination of current industry examples, we will explore the process of buying, selling, financing and leasing residential real estate, with a focus on single-family homes, condominiums, townhomes, duplexes, triplexes and multi-family apartments of four units or less. We will examine the major issues and considerations that impact the valuation, financing, acquisition, disposition, and leasing of residential real estate.

Prerequisites: FME1001

MKT3540 Retailing Management
4 CreditsRetailers lie at the end of the supply chain. They interface with the ultimate consumer as well as with suppliers. Retailers make investments in real estate and solicit funds from the investment community. Importantly, most of the major retailers in the United States are involved in multichannel strategies that involve selling over the Internet. As a result, this course should appeal to students with varied interests: retailing management, suppliers to retailers (or any business selling inventory), entrepreneurs, retail services, real estate, IT e-commerce, and finance. The objective of the course is to familiarize students with all of the major decisions retailers make, e.g., developing strategies, buying, financing, locating stores. The course is designed around experiential learning exercises-We get out and do it!

Prerequisites: SME2011 or MKT2000

FIN4507 Risk Management
4 Advanced Management Credits

Risk management has risen to a new pre-eminence with firms being exposed to an ever increasing range of risks. The reasons for this rise, and the techniques and instruments used by risk managers, are the subjects of this course. The course will first cover the concept of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and then analyze the key financial tools used in risk management, such as futures and options. Students will then use their knowledge to manage risk optimally and alter the risk/return characteristics of corporations. The course will apply these tools to risk management cases to cover a whole set of different sectors (airlines, automobiles, IT, etc.). The course will also go into some of the most pressing risks of our time, namely: climate change; diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I); and cybersecurity, as well as risks related to Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) and executive compensation.

Prerequisites: SME2021

HUM4612 Rome: Origins of Democracy, Imperialism and Human Rights

4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

At a moment when democracy is contested around the globe, why not return to the source?

This course invites students to revisit the origins of democracy through interdisciplinary study-philosophy, political theory, history, literature-in Rome, one of the places where it all started (at least for the western world). Significantly, this city/state was also one of the first empires, meaning that the Romans explored, conquered or colonized, and ruled and exploited other geographic territories. This course studies the original principles, processes, and representations of democracy from 1st century Rome, while also considering its role as an empire and linking both to human rights in their modern form.

If democracy aspires to equality and freedom, imperialism is its foil, a centuries-long program of conquest, racial and cultural superiority, and ongoing economic exploitation. Some might argue that the tension between them is precisely responsible for current global social, political, and economic challenges. Paradoxically-or not?-the two are deeply intertwined, and both inform the language and practice of contemporary human rights (for the better and for the worse, alas). Examining their earliest aspirations and most significant historical failures where they actually happened will help us to address the current problem of migration and asylum seeking in Europe as a limit to the "human" envisioned by human rights.

Consider this: We'll climb the Palatine Hill, site of the founding of Rome, while reading Virgil's account of that event in The Aeneid; study Shakespeare's Julius Caesar while visiting the Curia of Pompey, site of the Roman Senate (and, so they say, of Caesar's death); and experience the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica while learning about how the Catholic Church fueled the Roman Empire-and vice versa. We will visit ancient ruins and markers of cultures meditating on what they meant to those who made them, and to us, now, and we will relax along the banks of the Tiber listening to music in the evenings.

All along, we will address the profound questions of power, ideology, law, freedom, obligation, hospitality, cultural contact, and human rights that arise with our journeying. Perhaps most significantly, we will visit sites devoted to the lives and futures of migrants and refugees in Rome, one of Europe's key points of entry, as well as meeting members of non-governmental organizations working on human rights issues stemming from migration and other crises.

While experiencing the city and understanding its shifting identity as historical/tourist site and migration center, we will negotiate its spaces as ones where we can most powerfully witness and test ideas of democracy and rights for ourselves.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

MKT4520 Sales in Action
4 Advanced Management CreditsA key challenge for any sales professional is the ability to communicate value to current and potential customers. While the sales knowledge gained in the traditional sales classroom is fundamental for learning about what needs to be communicated, the traditional classroom stops short of helping students to achieve the "ability" to communicate value. Through this course, students will engage in the practice of selling, receive exposure to how hard salespeople work, and become excited about professional selling as a career (or, alternatively, decide that professional selling is not the best career choice). Thus, this experiential course, Sales in Action, will allow students to observe and participate in sales processes.

Prerequisites: none