The Seton Hall Real Estate Club, which is in the process of launching this fall semester, seeks to teach students about pursuing real estate as a career and making investments in the real estate industry.
Marcelo Espana, a senior finance and marketing major, said he came up with the idea for the student organization last semester. Espana said he had interned at a real estate investment firm, which was where he was exposed to real estate’s abounding amount of opportunities in the real world. However, he said there was not much at Seton Hall catered towards the market, except for a real estate class offered over the summer.
"We just want to teach students about real estate, different career opportunities, personal investments and the process of being able to invest your own money once you’re buying a home,” Espana said.
Anders Opitz, a senior finance and economics major and vice president of treasury, said, “We saw a void in the curriculum and in the academic clubs that we thought we’d address. We’re hoping to provide all students with career opportunities in the industry and the platform to learn about ways of generating passive income using real estate assets.”
Hailey Arteaga, a senior marketing and international business major, described her duties as the vice president of marketing. She has created various advertisements on social media, has reached out to other clubs and developed the club’s logo.
“Being a first-year, first-semester club, we had nothing,” Arteaga said. “We had to create our own brand for our own club.”
Mannaser Marshall, a junior finance major, completes the executive board as the vice president of content. He said his main responsibilities including providing educational and applicable subject matter as it pertains to real estate.
Marshall said his expertise is in private equity commercial real estate, so he will be providing insights into the structuring of real estate finance deals and other basic-level real estate concepts.
As for his goals for the club, Marshall said, “I see the club representing Stillman and Seton Hall well through academic education and applicable skills to implement into future jobs and careers. I strive to know that all members understand entry-level Real Estate concepts.”
Espana discussed their plans for club meetings. “One is going to be student-led informational sessions,” he said. “We’ll go over concepts and things that are going on in the industry. We’re also going to have speaker sessions, so we’ll bring in someone from our alumni list to come in and talk about different areas that they cover. So that will also create networking opportunities.”
Espana said he wants to be able to take the club off the ground and leave it in a place where it can continue to thrive in the years to come.
“Since most of us are seniors, we’re really focusing on documenting everything and making sure we have a little database with all these different files and all the people we’ve contacted just so that we have all this information in place,” he said. “That’s our plan moving forward: to start it and see it grow in the future once we’re gone.”
Opitz, the vice president of treasury, said, “As the club develops, we’d like to have teams of students compete in real estate case competitions. Additionally, it’s our hopes that this club gives indication of interest to administrators to offer real estate-oriented courses during the regular school year.”
“This was stuff that normally wouldn’t be offered,” Arteaga said. “It’s like real-life advice. I don’t know how to buy a home; I don’t know what the process is like. So, it’s like a real-life club that can help people out of college.”
Kristel Domingo can be reached at Kristel.domingo@student.shu. edu.
