The National Real Estate Challenge Rules

screen should be checked frequently for changes and updates.  Last Updated: 07/20/2005

1. The National Real Estate Challenge is hosted each year by the University of Texas at Austin's U.T. Real Estate Finance & Investment Center in the McCombs School of Business in Austin, Texas. The event starts with a kick-off "Icebreaker" dinner and reception on the Thursday night of the competition week and is followed by the case competition on Friday.  Each team must register their team members and faculty advisor no later than 6 weeks prior to the competition. There is no registration fee to compete in this competition; however, all teams/schools are responsible for their own travel & hotel expenses.

2. Each school may enter only ONE team of at least four members and no more than six members. Team members must be currently enrolled students at your school.

3. During the Challenge competition week, the Case will be distributed at 9:00 a.m. (CST) Tuesday morning via email to each team.  To allow time for dissemination to all team members and to provide every team roughly the same amount of time to work on the case given the travel distances involved, The University of Texas at Austin’s team will not receive the case until 3:00 p.m. (CST) on that same Tuesday. A copy of the rules and logistics will be provided with the case materials with any questions to be answered at that time via phone call or email. 

4. Each participating team is required to have a faculty advisor/sponsor. The role of the faculty advisor is two-fold:

• to formally acknowledge and approve of the team's participation in this competition on behalf of the university and to confirm that all team members are currently enrolled as students at the specified school; and
   
•  to provide general advice and guidance to the student team in preparation prior to receipt of the case (but not during the case analysis).  Please note that the faculty sponsor is not allowed to discuss the actual details and merits of the case with the team, nor should they provide or facilitate outside assistance to the team from others.  The desire of the challenge, understandably so, is to judge how the team, (and not its faculty, alumni or friends) have approached the questions and issues involved;

*** We encourage all faculty advisors to attend the competition with the team as an observer and to consider requesting financial support from their universities/departments to support the team's travel expenses.

5. Once the Case is distributed, outside assistance is NOT acceptable. Invariably, some students will try and find out which actual asset the case is about and then contact principals and agents associated with the transaction to gain an advantage. Not only is this behavior prohibited but is easy to discover (the real estate community is a small world) and may very likely result in the team being disqualified from this and future competitions.

6. Questions that arise after the case has been distributed should be submitted by email and will only be answered via email to all teams IF the judges deem the answer as being critical to a team's ability to solve the case AND the case does not contain enough information for the team to solve the issue themselves.  When in doubt, make an assumption, state it, and move on with your presentation.

7. Each team should select a name which provides no reference to their school, mascots, etc.  No logos nor any other school references are to be included on the team’s presentation materials. This includes PowerPoint presentations, slides, posters, clothing and documents. No verbal references of school affiliation are to be made to the Judges during a team’s presentation.

8. It’s important to note that the purpose of the challenge is not only educational but is also meant to provide students and industry professionals the opportunity to network with each other, with several judges selected not only on their expertise but also due to their firm’s historical active recruiting of real estate MBA’s.  As a result, an Icebreaker Dinner is being hosted with judges and select members of the U.T. Real Estate Finance & Investment Center's Council on Thursday night of competition week.   Students and judges will each be provided with resume books outlining all of the participants to better help everyone identify each other and facilitate follow up interaction.

9. To ensure good representation at the dinner, we are requiring that the final case be submitted in person no later than 7:00 p.m. (CST) on Thursday evening by at least one representative from each team so that students can enjoy the dinner without the pressure of needing to complete last minute alterations to the presentation.  Materials to be turned in should include seven (7) black & white paper copies of the presentation and a CD-rom, Zip100, or floppy disk (pc-compatible) with their presentation stored on it. Each presentation must be in the MS PowerPoint slide format, and we recommend that each team should come prepared with a "plan B" format (i.e. overhead transparencies) to be used only in the event of computer failure (and not as a method of submitting last minute presentation alterations).  On Friday morning, room assignments, times and team presentation order will be determined. The first presentation will begin at 8:45 a.m. (CST). Each presentation room has two full size projection screens that allow for simultaneous use of computer projection and overhead projectors (if needed). Each room will contain a laptop with Microsoft PowerPoint, and the designated Room Host will have your presentation disk inserted in the laptop and ready to run at the start of your presentation. If you would like to view the presentation rooms, you may do so at anytime prior to 8:45 a.m. Friday morning. The classrooms will be open.

10. Each presentation will be strictly limited to 20 minutes in length followed by five minutes of questions.  These guidelines will be administered closely.  Students must compete in their original teams unless express permission otherwise is given by the Challenge event coordinator prior to the competition. We would strongly encourage every team member to participate with a speaking part in the presentation to the judges; the lack of full participation will be noted by the judges.

11. Business dress is required on presentation day - Friday.  Business casual is requested at the Icebreaker Dinner on Thursday night prior to the competition.

12. Teams will not be allowed to attend the other presentations during the preliminary round; however, all participants may attend the finals round presentations except those finalists who still have to present.

13. All travel expenses including hotel, airline, and ground transportation are the sole responsibility of each team and/or sponsoring school, with the exception of the shuttle transfers provided during the Challenge from the hotel.

14. There will be a final round of presentations between the top teams from each of the three flights in the preliminaries.  The decision of the judges is final.  Cash awards to the winning teams will be distributed via U.S. Mail after the competition to the team members. Cash awards are considered taxable income.

15. At the conclusion of the final round of presentations, all students, judges and faculty are invited to attend the Challenge Awards Ceremony, where the winning team and prizes will be announced.  The Awards Ceremony is open to all Challenge participants, guests, family and faculty, which will include a presentation from the Goldman Sachs professionals that actually prepared the case discussion.  Informal feedback on presentations will also be available from the judges.

16. Failure to comply with these regulations may result in team penalties or disqualification from this and future competitions.

17. The actual members of the Team may not change after Friday, 2 weeks prior to the Challenge event.  Team members may be removed after this date, so long as the minimum number of 4 is present for the competition, but new members may not be added.

Hotel Rooms - Teams are responsible for payment of their hotel accommodations.  For your convenience, we have reserved a block of guest rooms at the Hampton Inn in downtown Austin for a discounted rate of $99/per night plus tax, double-occupancy.  You must call by October 15th, to submit your credit card information in order to confirm your room reservation. The block is held under the group name "UT Real Estate Challenge" for the nights of Wednesday through Saturday of the Challenge competition week.  This group name must be given to the reservations representative at the time of your call to confirm your room and group rate. The hotel is a 15-minute ride from the ABIA Airport, and is walking distance to many restaurants as well as the famous Sixth Street strip. The hotel is located approximately 18 blocks south of the UT campus. Shuttle service will be provided to the competition event Friday, as well as the Icebreaker Dinner on Thursday night if necessary. BOOK YOUR ROOM RESERVATIONS AT LEAST ONE MONTH PRIOR TO THE CHALLENGE WEEK.

Hampton Inn & Suites 200 San Jacinto Austin, TX 78701 (512) 472-1500 http://www.hamptoninn.com/en/hp/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=AUSDTHX Discount Rate: $99.00 per night (double occupancy) Room Block Name: UT Real Estate Challenge Block Dates Available: WED - SAT of competition week Parking: Valet only, $12 per car ** Shuttle service from Hampton Inn to the UT Campus will be provided.

Click on map to see overview of hotel & UT locations.

 In addition to the team registration form, every participant in the National Real Estate Challenge is required to submit a resume, which will be included in the competition’s Resume Book given to corporate sponsors, accredited real estate professionals, and faculty.   Resumes must be emailed to Todd McCulloch at todd.mcculloch@mba05.mccombs.utexas.edu at least one month in advance of the Challenge event to be included in the Challenge Resume Book. Microsoft Word documents are preferred to all other formats.