Press Releases

Top Universities to Gain Real-world Experience Using Commercial Real Estate Financial Software

HOUSTON, TX, February 17, 2009 –ARGUS Software is pleased to announce the first annual ARGUS Software University Challenge. This unique challenge gives students the opportunity to utilize their knowledge of commercial real estate by solving for real-world investment analysis scenarios. The competition provides valuable experience to aspiring real estate professionals as well as advances skills with commonly used industry tools like ARGUS Valuation - DCF, the industry standard commercial real estate cash flow projection, transaction analysis and asset valuation solution.

“ARGUS Software has long been committed to working with universities and students worldwide to ensure the real estate industry is well served by savvy and top-notch industry professionals,” states Mark Kingston, CEO of ARGUS Software. “Through the University Challenge, we hope to inspire students to apply  skills learned in the classroom to real-world situations, thereby giving them the experience they will need when entering this challenging real estate market.”

An elite group of highly ranked universities are participating in the challenge and include: Arizona State University, Baruch University, Brigham Young University, DePaul University, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Texas A&M University, UC – Berkeley, University of Colorado, University of Florida – Florida Tycoons, University of Michigan, University of North Carolina, and University of San Diego.

Each university has entered one team of three to five currently registered students.  Teams will simulate a real-life investment analysis of a commercial real estate property by modeling the provided assumptions in ARGUS Valuation - DCF. The University Challenge then asks teams to submit a paper explaining the results of the analysis. 

Teams will compete for cash prizes totaling $13,000. A panel of seven judges including three from the academic community, three industry professionals, and ARGUS Software’s CEO, Mark Kingston, will participate in reviewing the case studies and nominating the winners.  Winners will be announced April 30, 2009.