January 25, 2002 UNT Inhouse publication: Texas Apartment Association chooses UNT to launch new management program

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Texas Apartment Association chooses UNT to launch new management program

The Texas Apartment Association has selected UNT's College of Business Administration to launch a new and innovative residential property management program for students working on degrees in real estate.

The program — to be offered through UNT's Department of Finance, Insurance, Real Estate and Law in the Fall 2002 semester — aims to educate, train and develop qualified professionals for Texas' multifamily rental housing industry.

TAA has created the TAA Educational Foundation to raise funds from the multifamily rental housing industry to support the new UNT program. To get the program started, TAA President Ron Shelton and the association's RPM program task force chair, Pamela Smallwood, presented UNT with $25,000 to begin incorporating program changes within existing real estate courses and to develop new courses specifically geared to residential property management.

According to John Baen, UNT professor of real estate, this RPM program will be the first of its kind in the nation.

"Texas is home to more large owners, developers and management companies of apartments than any other state in the country," Shelton says. He adds that a graduate from the UNT program will have the background and skills needed to advance in the state's fast-paced, growing multifamily rental housing industry.

"TAA acknowledges the importance and challenges associated with professionally managed multifamily rental housing and pledges its long-term financial support to UNT as its university partner," Shelton says.

The new program also will include internships, scholarships, special class projects and computer programs related to multifamily property management for junior and senior real estate majors at the university.

TAA's long-term financial support goals include the funding of an industry-supported, permanently endowed $500,000 property management professorship along with scholarships, research and program support for residential property management education at UNT that benefit the citizens and communities of Texas.

Nearly 40 percent of Texans currently live in rental housing. TAA's 9,600 members own or manage nearly 1.5 million rental housing units, employ 75,000 people and house more than 3.5 million Texans.