What career path has the highest rate of millionaire financial success?

Medical specialties, law, engineering or IT might come to mind.

But Greg Herder ’95, a real estate-focused lecturer, developer, inspirational speaker, consultant and incoming director of the Center for Real Estate, notes that real estate is the most common and accessible path for Americans to achieve high incomes.

Herder looks forward to equipping Cal State Fullerton College of Business and Economics students with the skills, network and support they need to hit the ground running in careers such as real estate sales, brokerage, escrow, appraisal and property management.

For nearly 30 years, Herder led Hobbs/Herder Advertising, an agency focused on preparing residential real estate agents in the U.S. and Canada with marketing skills.

“Real estate offers many opportunities with good careers that students don’t often think about, such as property management and appraisal, and corporate America careers dealing with real estate,” he says. “I want to expose our students to these opportunities and bring companies in to introduce students to these paths.”

Under Herder, the Center for Real Estate will focus on connecting students with companies that will hire them, utilizing the Real Estate Association club and outside organizations such as the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA).

“The more students can focus on developing themselves and becoming a better leader and a better person, the better overall experience they will have in life,” says Herder. “Real estate offers a path to build wealth faster and more flexibly than most careers. If you’re strategic, wealth that takes many decades in other fields can be achieved in a couple of years.”

Overall leadership education – whether it is expressed in the real estate field or some other avenue – is also a focus for Herder, noting that real estate companies often hire graduates in accounting, information systems or marketing, and vice versa.

To incoming students at Cal State Fullerton, Herder has this advice:

• Get involved in student clubs and extracurricular activities
• Overcome your fears and anxieties.
• Be willing to stand up and let your voice, experience and interests be heard
• Learn how to do presentations
• Be willing to ask questions of your professors, guest speakers and peers

“If you’re going to become a leader, you’ll have to be able to present yourself and convince people,” says Herder. “This is the most practical skill you can develop. Someday, you’ll want to convince someone to marry you. You’d better be a good communicator. The more effective you are, the more effective you’ll be at getting the right person. These are great skills for leadership and relationships of all kinds. Learn to think like a salesperson and everything you’ll do will be more effective.”

Co-directing the Center for Real Estate is Associate Professor of Finance Jia Xie, one of the most prolific real estate-focused faculty members at Cal State Fullerton.

Focused on the academic side of the Center for Real Estate, including solidifying the college as the West Coast nexus of real estate thought leadership, Xie is focused on promoting the newly-launched real estate concentration, connecting faculty with industry and facilitate access to data to make research possible, and promoting faculty research to make an impact on the industry.

According to the Journal of Real Estate Literature, CSUF is ranked eighth globally in number of publications in top real estate journals in the Real Estate Academic Leadership (REAL) Rankings for 2018-2022.

“Our center is committed to fostering a culture of research excellence and promoting the impact of our faculty’s work on the real estate industry,” explains Xie. “We actively disseminate research findings through publications, conferences and industry events, ensuring our insights are accessible to both academic and professional audiences. We aim to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and the development of innovative solutions within the real estate sector.”

For industry professionals, Herder and Xie encourage them to recognize the Center for Real Estate as a venue to give back while helping their own firms develop at the same time.

“By donating a little bit of time and money, you can have a huge impact on people who will be thanking you for the rest of their lives,” says Herder. “You’ll create a legacy that will long outlive you, setting an example for giving back and setting the course of the real estate profession.”

If you think a real estate career is the path for you or want to explore more to find out, reach out to the Center for Real Estate and Real Estate Association club. Or read more of our articles on real estate education and research.