Recently, the Program in Real Estate held its REAL Career Event, a bi-annual career fair that allows students to network with real estate industry professionals to find summer internships and career opportunities for graduates. For this year’s event, the Program in Real Estate partnered with CoStar, one of the largest commercial real estate information and analytics providers in the U.S.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the CoStar REAL Career Event was held virtually on Wednesday, Sept. 30. Over 100 students participated to discuss potential internship and career opportunities with over a dozen real estate company representatives. This allowed the company representatives to interview qualified Real Estate majors and double majors from across the university.

CoStar, and their relationship with the Program in Real Estate, goes much further than their sponsorship of the REAL Career Event. According to Kevin Boyle, the Willis Blackwood Real Estate Director, CoStar, and the services it provides, is integrated into the core of the academic program.

“The Program in Real Estate has been interacting with CoStar since they located their research offices to Richmond in 2016,” Boyle explained. “CoStar provides its product to our students to use in real estate classes, and our students have had internships with CoStar and have been hired by them upon graduation.”

Boyle continues, “In addition, Vice President of Research at CoStar Brad McGetrick serves on our Industry Advisory Board and teaches students how to effectively use CoStar products.”

Jonathan Everett, assistant professor of practice for the Program in Real Estate, explained the importance of CoStar allowing students to utilize its proprietary products.

“CoStar is a leading provider in commercial real estate data, data which is not publicly available,” Everett said. “So, it is truly remarkable that they allow our students the opportunity to work with that data.”

According to Everett, CoStar’s proprietary data is incorporated into market analysis courses as well as the senior capstone course. This information provides real estate students hands-on, practical learning experiences.

“Students receive experience using CoStar products that they will use during their career in real estate,” he explained.

CoStar representatives also make themselves available to speak with Virginia Tech students and classes.

Boyle added that, due to recent funding from CoStar, students will benefit from the partnership even more in the future. “We are going to enhance student experiential learning for market analysis, which supports students’ education and is one of CoStar’s corporate missions,” he said.

It's clear that the partnership between the Program in Real Estate and CoStar is a win-win relationship for both real estate students and CoStar.

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