Commercial Investment Real Estate is the magazine of the CCIM Institute, the leading provider of commercial real estate education. CIRE covers market trends, current developments, and business strategies within the commercial real estate field.
Issue link: http://cire.epubxp.com/i/897832
What's the secret? In its 50 years, how did the CCIM Institute grow into a 13,000-member-strong organization and become the leader in commercial real estate education? It takes seasoned professionals who are dedicated to teaching the courses and working to develop new content, as well as continually bringing the courses up-to-date. It takes an openness to embracing new technology and new techniques. It takes the ability to adapt to an ever-changing market. Hundreds of thousands of students have taken CCIM courses, which prepared them to be successful in their business. "CCIM training has educated all types of commercial real estate professionals, includ- ing brokers, developers, investors, attorneys, institu- tional reps, lenders, and appraisers, during our first 50 years," says Ralph Varnum, CCIM, 1985 Institute president and founding principal of Varnum Arm- strong Deeter LLC, in Overland Park, Kan. "This training advanced the entire industry together by using a common language and common ways to look at commercial real estate as an investment." Walmart, Ernst & Young, PwC, Bank of Amer- ica, NAI Global, Transwestern, and the U.S. Navy are among the large organizations that have sent commercial real estate professionals to CCIM courses. CCIMs work at TIAA, the U.S. Depart- ment of State, and United Technologies Corp. Adapting to Change While the commercial real estate industry has embraced the versatility of roles for its practitio- ners, adaptability to changing business environ- ments is critical. The profession is fairly new. "In the first 25 years after World War II, the U.S. experienced a tremendous expansion in its popula- tion and the need for all types of real estate to meet the pent-up demand," Varnum says. "By the end of the 1960s, tremendous new opportunities to develop and own real estate were created, and more and more "IN THE FIRST 25 YEARS AFTER WORLD WAR II, THE U.S. EXPERIENCED A TREMENDOUS EXPANSION IN ITS POPULATION AND THE NEED FOR ALL TYPES OF REAL ESTATE TO MEET THE PENT-UP DEMAND." — Ralph Varnum, CCIM investors were taking advantage of the chance to own commercial and residential investment real estate." Those new opportunities brought a need for education. "In the late 1960s, a commercial real estate affiliate of the National Association of Real- tors — then called the Commercial Division of the Realtors National Marketing Institute — decided to address the opportunities and the confusion in the commercial real estate field," Varnum says. Those f irst courses, says Jim H. Dunn, CCIM, CPM, president of Keystone Realty Services in Nashville, Tenn., "brought us out of the dark ages into the current time when we were teaching topics such as the gross rent multiplier. CCIM courses taught how to analyze a property and what information you needed, and where and how to get it. Our consultant from the educational field, Steve Messner at the University of Connecti- cut, Bob Ward, CCIM, and Vic Lyon, CCIM, and some others were instrumental in applying the internal rate of return and the time value of money to real estate analysis." With universities offering their own real estate education, why CCIM? "Although I had a CPA certificate and had good financial and technical knowledge, I wanted to bet- ter understand the language of the real estate bro- kerage side, which I had heard the CCIM program had the capability to do," says Ronald L. Myles, CCIM, CPA, GRI, a broker in Denver, a former CCIM instructor, and 1986 Institute president. COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE / NOV.17 19 CCIM.COM