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2019 Summer Internship Guest Blog Post #25 by Qiqi Chen

Sydney Everett (Staff)
July 31, 2019
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Throughout the summer, Skandalaris Center Summer Internship Program participants will be writing guest blog posts about their internship experience. Following is one such post. 

Getting Real with Real Estate

By Qiqi Chen (LA ’21)

My name is Qiqi Chen, I’m a rising junior double majoring in Mathematics and Music at Washington University. This summer marked the start of the sixth year since I first stepped onto this country, a whole Pacific away from my hometown on the east coast of China. What I wanted and decided six years ago was a long journey of exploring the full potential within myself, seeking opportunities to stretch arms and legs into areas of unfamiliarity. This has not changed since the very beginning and is reflected by how I’ve decided to spend my time at WashU and the breaks connecting semesters. Each summer I try to do something different from what I’ve done in the past, and my experience this year had been no exception.

This summer, I have the privilege of participating in the Skandalaris Summer Internship Program and to work alongside Linda Arnold, the founder of the Arnold Group, a real estate agency that Linda has built to guide inexperienced home possessors, buyers, as well as families with homes owned by recently deceased members through real estate transactions. The real estate industry is rather foreign to me, but it interests me greatly, for it deals with the largest investment most families have to make in their lifetime, and heavily influences the society on a macroeconomic level.

Until this summer, the closest that I have come to the industry was just being a spectator of the real estate stage from afar. This opportunity opened the door for me, welcoming me into the realm of property regulations, pricing negotiations, sale procedures and much more. One of the projects that I worked on was excavating property tax information from databases to put together arguments in the format of a spreadsheet for clients. To elaborate on this, these clients believe that the value of their homes are being over-assessed by the county home-value assessors, which is often reflected in an unfair surge in their annual property tax. For everyone who has reached out to us, I created a spreadsheet comparing physical features of their property against comparable properties in the same district that have persuasively lower percent increases in their tax records, and calculate a reasonable home value for them, based on the compared price per square foot values and land values. Finally, armed with arguments for a lowered home value, we show up at the county assessor office, and present what we have.

At the end of the day, this type of free service is just Linda’s way of personal branding. A major advantage of being new and small is the freedom to make personal connections with your market. Aside from providing free analysis and consulting services, we’ve co-sponsored concerts in Chesterfield, setting up tents and passing out hand-fans that are branded with our logo and contact information. We’ve shot and edited a tour guide video for the city with the hope that when people relocate to St. Louis and come across this video online, they will think of us. And I am currently putting together an informational seminar for first time home buyers and sellers, hoping to create some face to face communication opportunity with potential clients. “Each encounter could be turned into an opportunity,” Linda said to me once.

When we talk about entrepreneurs today, we like to talk about their novelty, advancement, and creativity. But after a grueling five-weeks, I realized that their endeavor and the flame burning from within are the things that amaze me the most. They do not take opportunities for granted, and are eager to attempt at new grounds. The enthusiasm fills up the office space and inspirations bounce about the walls, motivating me each day to proactively seek and try. This, I believe, is the true spirit of entrepreneurship. I am very blessed to be working with such an amazing energy this summer.