Add a specialization in Real Estate.

The Flexible MBA real estate specialization is designed to teach students at an introductory level how to conduct due diligence and value the five main property types: residential, office, industrial, retail, and hotel/hospitality. Students will also learn about the main investment strategies used in real estate: core, core+, value-add, and opportunistic. As they progress through the specialization with elective classes, the focus will shift away from the five main property types to infrastructure, including social infrastructure, transportation assets, and public-private partnerships. 

*The real estate specialization courses can only be completed in our synchronous online format.

Real estate curriculum highlights

Required courses to earn the specialization

Fundamentals of Real Estate Valuation and Investment Analysis  (2 Credits)

This course is designed to level the playing field among students of all levels of real estate knowledge. It will also provide an introduction for students across the university that are interested in learning how to value different types of real estate investments. The course explores the investment characteristics, risks, and proforma building blocks of the five main property types (residential, office, industrial, retail, and hotels). Students will be introduced to foundational concepts, including the mechanics of fixed rate mortgages, back-of-the-envelope analysis, and multi-year proforma modeling for income producing properties and ground-up developments. Additionally, students will be introduced to indirect real estate investments such as syndications, pooled and commingled funds, commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS), and real estate investment trusts (REITs).

Real Estate Products and Emerging Trends (2 Credits)

This course will provide an in-depth examination of the main value determinants, investment characteristics, principal risks, and most likely investors for traditional property types (office, apartment, industrial) and non-traditional property types (self-storage, data center, medical office). Students will learn how to build a valuation model for different property types, and will come away with an understanding of the nuances (quantitative and qualitative) that an investor must consider when determining the present worth of a particular property. The course will also cover emerging trends for financing real estate, such as crowdsourcing and tokenization.

Electives (must take at least three to earn the Real estate specialization)

City Lab Catalyst: Business Innovation for Social Impact (2 Credits) and City Lab Practicum: Social Impact Project (2 Credits)

For the first time in history, humans are an urban species; the livability of cities now determines the future of humanity and the planet. CityLab is an urban innovation platform engaging students in a global experiment of reinventing cities by revitalizing urban neighborhoods from within. The CityLab toolkit immerses you in the concrete context of people and places dealing with the disruptive uncertainty and frustration of livability challenges that threaten the environment, human health, social cohesion, civic order, and prosperity of cities. It introduces strategies, tools, and practices for tackling these challenges as opportunities to co-create value for the flourishing of humanity and the planet. This course is a hands-on, active learning experience requiring a high degree of individual commitment, initiative, self-discipline, adaptability, and collaboration. Learn more

Global Perspectives in Real Estate (2 Credits)

This course focuses on real estate and infrastructure investment and financing issues around the globe. Using a case approach supplemented by assigned articles and textbook readings, the course examines the global nature of the real estate asset class; the market players and the issues they encounter when identifying opportunities; and executing real estate strategies in various global markets. Topics covered include risks and returns of international real estate investment; challenges in international real estate development; identification of opportunities and execution of real estate strategies around the world; REITs around the globe; and global real estate portfolio considerations.

Project Finance and Public-Private Infrastructure Delivery (2 Credits)

Project financing, as an alternative to conventional direct financing, is a well-established technique for large capital-intensive projects. It grew in importance in the 1990s as a means of financing projects designed to help meet the tremendous infrastructure needs existing in both developed and developing countries. Whether project financing is suitable for such a purpose will depend, ultimately, on if this financing method offers the most cost-effective means of accomplishing the project after all social and private benefits and costs are considered. This course will discuss the basic project financing framework; the rationale for using project financing as opposed to direct conventional financing; the identification and management of risks associated with a large scale project; evaluating a project’s viability using analytical tools; sources of project funds; using public-private partnerships as a mode of project financing; and the crafting of contractual arrangements to allocate a project’s risk and economic rewards among the parties involved.

Real Estate Capital Market Analysis (2 Credits)

This course examines selected topics and issues related to real estate capital markets. Special emphasis will be placed on mortgage-backed securities (MBSs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs). This class will be conducted using a lecture format. While lectures will follow the table of contents of the textbook rather closely, quite often supplemental readings are required. Students are assumed to have some knowledge of real estate finance. Before taking this class, it is important that students have a clear understanding of the design of mortgages and knowledge of how to use spreadsheets to solve mortgage related problems. Knowing how to use a calculator to solve present value problems is not sufficient for tackling the course materials of this class.

Real Estate Investments and Development (2 Credits)

This course provides an overview of the real estate development and investment processes, as well as introduces students to various disciplines, professionals, and industry sectors, and how they interact and participate in these processes. Students learn to apply direct capitalization models and discounted cash flow models to estimate real estate values by converting future income expectations into present values. These values are compared to current costs and prices to determine the financial feasibility of proposed projects and existing properties. The concept of highest and best use is also introduced and discussed. The use of Excel software is introduced along with the CoStar database.

Selected Topics in the Real Estate Industry (2 Credits)

This course will cover key “of the moment” issues that are affecting the real estate industry. Among many questions to be considered are: What is the future of office properties? How will decarbonization and other environmental, social, governance (ESG) regulations affect real estate? How is big data (tokenization) being used in real estate investing? This is a team-taught course that will bring together recognized industry leaders and a Carey faculty. The class includes a broad set of guest lecturers, including asset managers, real estate technology specialists, entrepreneurs, policy makers. Topics will be discussed in a relatively non-technical way, and the course will include a mix of case study, academic readings, and interactions with guest lecturers who handle these “of the moment” topics daily.

Smart Growth, Infrastructure, and Real Estate (2 Credits)

For the past twenty years smart growth has had an increasingly significant impact on the built environment. Smart growth results in better cost-benefit outcomes for both developers and the public sector, more efficient and appealing land use in prime locations, and new financing tools. This course provides an understanding of historic development patterns of cities and towns, the emergence of the American suburb, and the countervailing smart growth approach. Examined are the principles behind smart growth, the demographic and economic forces furthering the widespread adoptions of these principles—urban revitalization, smaller households, a more transient workforce and racial and ethnic diversity. The growing strength of the Baby Boomers and the Millennials on the market is discussed. Attention is given to the increasingly important impacts of climate change, sustainability, changing tools of economic development competitiveness, health and equity of communities. The main tools of smart growth, such as higher density, mix of land uses, transportation and housing choices, transit-oriented development, walkable neighborhoods, and form-based zoning are examined. Collectively many of these tools are parts of Complete Streets policies. The impacts of public policies and private demand are discussed.

The Evolution of Housing, Property, and Public Finance (2 Credits)

The Evolution of Housing Policy and Community Development is a course surveying the programs and politics surrounding the evolution of housing, real estate, and urban policy in the United States.  Topics will include low-income housing programs, community development, urban renewal, homeownership, and mortgage financing programs.  Special attention will be given to the practical and ideological implications of the historic interplay between the public and private sectors in formulating policy.  Students will select a city to investigate for a final project that explores contemporary governance and development challenges by utilizing themes from the class.