Who better to comment on current realities of real estate investment than practitioners immersed in the business at the highest level? Moderated by prominent real estate economist Ray Torto, this panel includes five senior executives with well over a century of collective experience at major development and investment firms and an industry information organization. Kicking off the discussion from the audience, Jacques Gordon of LaSalle Investment Management asks about the stark contrast in previous panels between views of academics espousing the “complexity” of markets, historical data and prognostications, and the “simplicity” of the perspective of renowned developer Gerald Hines. The consensus is that quantitative analysis and technical skills are dazzling, but it is essential to streamline and make a case that real estate investors can easily comprehend. Joseph Azrack tells his staff, “You’ve got to be able to figure it out on a piece of paper. Don’t give me all the spreadsheets.” Lynn Thurber acknowledges that complexity is inevitable but you have “to focus, to make a decision and course correct when the information later on tells you that you’re going the wrong way.” Torto invites the panelists to nominate one key term to epitomize what students must learn for real estate careers. Tom Garbutt offers “global” — adding, “Get experience outside the US See how decisions are made in other cultures.” Thurber’s mantra is “risk management”; investment success comes from “being able to understand that risk and price that risk correctly.” Brad Case stresses discipline. Firms must have mechanisms in place to “minimize the opportunities to destroy value.” Azrack, citing renegade musician Frank Zappa, believes in being contrarian. He advises departing from conventional wisdom to identify fruitful investment opportunities in out-of-favor assets and markets. On the critical topic of the impending trillion dollar debt rollover, Doug Linde refutes doomsayers, foreca...