Media Backgrounder

About The Counselors of Real Estate®

Established in 1953, The Counselors of Real Estate is an international membership organization of approximately 1,000 credentialed real estate problem solvers who provide intelligent, unbiased, and trusted real estate advice on the toughest real estate issues facing their employers and clients. Each has earned the prestigious CRE® designation.

CRE designees have resolved the dispute between the developer of the World Trade Center and its insurers post September 11, 2001, led the privatization of U.S. Army Housing, valued both the Grand Canyon and Yale University, introduced the concept of parking garages to China, and created and endowed the MIT Center for Real Estate.

Real Estate Counseling

Real Estate Counseling is the act of providing advice or guidance which significantly affects real estate decisions, without personal bias and/or conflict of interest. Counselors come from a wide array of professional backgrounds—from valuation, consulting, law, brokerage, and asset management to development, investment, lending, and corporate real estate. They are service providers, owners, capital sources, fiduciaries, academics and public servants.

Counselors are renowned for applying rigorous, independent, and informed analysis to a wide range of complex real estate decisions facing a full range of market participants.

No matter the property type, geography, or type of business, Counselors are called upon to advise their companies and clients on many different issues encountered in the broad field of real estate. Areas of expertise include, but are not limited to:

• investment analysis and strategy
• capital formation and syndication
• public/private partnerships
• economic and fiscal impact studies
• financing
• development
• site location, relocation, lease/purchase evaluation
• corporate real estate strategy
• acquisitions and dispositions market research and demand/supply analysis
• land use/master planning
• pension fund consulting
• arbitration and mediation
• expert witness testimony and litigation support
• valuation counseling
• transaction structuring

Membership

Members are admitted into the organization by invitation only and carry the credential of Counselor of Real Estate (CRE®). To be invited, prospective members must be recognized by peers, employers, and/or clients, for outstanding professional achievement, judgment, leadership, integrity, and commitment to providing objective, knowledgeable, and trusted advice on important real estate decisions. Qualified individuals may self apply. Counselors reside in 22 countries and U. S. territories and offer expertise in more than 60 real estate disciplines across all asset types and classes.

Purpose

The purpose of The Counselors of Real Estate organization is to be a community of expertise, talent, collegiality and camaraderie among practitioners. CRE members are recognized as leaders in real estate or real estate-related businesses or advisory services. We are a leading source of real estate expertise. Counselors serve as an indispensable resource to each other, their employers, clients, the industry, and their respective communities, while providing a platform for professional relationships. Members are offered opportunities for professional development, knowledge sharing, and collaboration, all of which are grounded in a culture of friendship and trust. The organization produces educational programs and publications for members and the real estate community at large, as well as the annual Top Ten Issues Affecting Real Estate®. Click to find out more about the Top Ten Issues.

Giving Back

The organization’s CRE Consulting Corps is a public service initiative that provides municipalities, not-for-profit organizations, educational institutions, government entities, public/private developers and owners of real property with real estate analysis and action plans. The CRE Consulting Corps is designed to provide access to the highest level of expertise in designing effective strategies for sound real estate solutions. Each Consulting Corps project is conducted by a team of volunteer members of The Counselors of Real Estate. The team is comprised of CREs who are selected because their experience and skill sets meet the specific needs of the client. The CRE Consulting Corps specializes in understanding the organization’s specific situation and creating a realistic, feasible, and achievable road map for solving virtually any complicated or sensitive real estate problem that may be faced.

Representative assignments can be reviewed here.

The Counselors of Real Estate Foundation underwrites worthwhile projects of social, community or international significance that benefit the needs of society, the commercial real estate industry, and the membership of The Counselors of Real Estate.

Representative initiatives can be reviewed here.

Headquarters
The Counselors of Real Estate
430 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: 312-329-8427; Fax: 312/329-8881
info@cre.org

Contact
R. J. Sirois
The Counselors of Real Estate
430 N. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: 312-329-8430; Fax: 312-329-8881
E-mail: rsirois@cre.org