Fisher Real Estate Society: StepStone Fund Presentation

As a new Ohio State University student, just starting my first semester on campus, I went last week to my first organization meeting. I have always had an interest in real estate whether it was through the entrepreneurship course I took, working with local real estate firms, or starting a real estate club. Listening to Micah Bloom , Senior Analyst of Real Estate at StepStone Group , taught me a lot of new lessons that I believe should be applied throughout our education and work experience. As a current The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business student, it was great to network and learn from a graduate.

StepStone Group is a global investment firm that actively manages over $169b in assets. I had the opportunity to listen to Micah Bloom who manages the Cleveland real estate branch for StepStone and actively invests and allocates hundreds of millions of dollars of client capital through his extensive research and expertise in the market. The real estate arm of StepStone manages assets across various property types such as office buildings, retail properties, residential, and even student housing projects. The firm focuses on real estate investments mainly through primary fund investing which we learned shows the best ROI as REITs often are traded more as a security and follow the stock market more closely than the current return of the real estate market. Being able to hear from someone who has this much experience in the industry is valuable, and I would encourage everyone to take full advantage when they have the opportunity to learn from an expert.

Besides the technical terms of real estate advising such as discretionary and advisory based clients and the multitude of sectors of investable properties from residential to commercial and the many subcategories, I think the main emphasis falls on the fact that learning through experience is the best way to gain an education. I recently read an article by Tyler Dunagin , on LinkedIn, who runs a platform that people in the real estate industry use to source B2B services, that explains the importance of gaining experience by doing something (Take a look here ). The main premise was that you can learn a lot about hiring, but until you gain the experience and actually do it, you cannot fully learn the ins-and-outs of said task. Through listening and learning from Micah Bloom, I quickly realized that I was learning a lot from him but until I actually take action and do it myself, there is a limit; only so much can be learned without actually doing it.

As a college student, we have ample opportunities to learn but the importance of being here is not just learning, although that is important, what should be focused on are the connections and people you can meet to “do it yourself”. That is where real learning stems from and every opportunity to learn and meet an expert can open a door in the future to “do it yourself” and truly learn at a much deeper level than can be taught. I want to thank Micah Bloom for taking the time to come and talk to motivated students and teach us what he has learned from his experience. Learning from others’ experiences is incredibly valuable, and I really appreciate the time and effort that was put in to give us the deepest possible understanding of the industry without being there to experience it for ourselves. Lastly, I wanted to thank Ben Esser , President of Fisher Real Estate Society , and all the other current members for creating these opportunities that typically would not be available to first-year students who have only been on campus for a few weeks.