A real estate broker and investor, tax attorney, business professor – Mark Levine currently serves as the director of the Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management at DU.

He is entering his 30th year as a professor at DU, having been appointed in 1977 and has been director of the real estate program since 1995.

He also runs an active law practice and real estate investment company. He says his mixed background of real estate, law and teaching has facilitated both his personal success and academic accomplishments.

“Education is really a lifelong process,” he said. “You learn, or you fade out.”

When he became the director of the real estate school, Levine began stressing real-world experience in the coursework. He believes the school offers valuable practicum and integration of all business disciplines in its program. However, he credits synergy for the school’s success.

“The school has grown tremendously as a result of the whole team,” he said. The school has expanded from 75 majors in 1995 to 530 today.”

Levine believes real estate knowledge is essential to management because it is most firms’ second largest expense. He said most managers assume they can hire someone to handle their real estate needs, but studying business without studying real estate is “like a dentist who’s not studying how to clean teeth.”

When asked about his goals for the school, he said he hopes to “continue to stay on our current path of real world application, but do it better and more.”

“I don’t think people should go into the ivory tower then get out and find out the world doesn’t work that way,” he said. “Our entire faculty believes in real-world practicum. DU is known for real-world application.”

Most Burns School faculty members are not only professors, but also business professionals and teaching at the school is a sought-after position.

“I now have professors calling me from all over the country to say, ‘if you have an opening, I want you to call me,'” he said.

Levine said most Burns School students do not join the program for the good money they can earn in the real estate and construction sectors. Instead, he believes they want to lead their organizations by showing that continuing education is essential.

One of Levine’s goals is to raise the real estate school’s profile in the local, regional, and international community.

“The school is not a secret, but not everyone knows about it,” he said. “We need to do things that allow others to know that this is the program for real estate and construction management.”

Levine earned his real estate license when he was an undergraduate. At that time, new real estate brokers needed sponsorship and guidance from an experienced broker.

“I begged for a broker to sponsor me,” he said.

At DU, Levine encourages students to become licensed in real estate and construction while they are still students.

Levine is optimistic about the real estate market in the DU community, which has not experienced the same recent downturn as elsewhere in Colorado. He said one year ago there was a land grab and construction frenzy in the DU neighborhood.

He predicted a problem then because, “the writing was on the wall,” he said.

He describes himself as a realist who has seen enough real estate cycles to identify a problem.

Levine thinks one year from now residential real estate demand will increase around DU.

“Yes, there will be some foreclosures, but this is a good area that will hold up well,” he said.