Washington Journal of Real Estate - January 2025 Issue
Instructor Highlight
2025-01-04 06:06:21
Mark S. Ruff
MBA MRED PDCM
Real Estate Broker, State of California
Mark Ruff has been working in the real estate industry for 34 years. His experience is vast and extends across financial and market analysis, project and property management, investment and residential real estate brokerage, development, affordable housing, teaching at the university level, consulting, and third-party review.
Without hesitation, Mark shared his favorite parts about working in real estate:
“Aside from the opportunity to teach, it’s the money and freedom for me. I like working in an industry where I’m in control of my life and my income. Your results are based on the effort you put in.”
Mark began his real estate career in 1988 as a Financial Analyst for a Glendale, CA, real estate brokerage and development firm whose primary focus was the development and sale of multi-family ownership product (condominiums and townhomes). After graduate school, Mark was recruited to become part of Arthur Andersen’s newly formed Real Estate Capital Markets Group. He was a Finance Analyst and worked on the Wells Fargo/First Interstate Bank merger, the securitization of Santa Anita Race Track, the purchase of several golf communities in the Palm Desert area by a “deep pocket” investor, and provided due diligence services to a major New York money-center bank in connection with the purchase of a multi-billion dollar portfolio of performing and non-performing real estate owned.
After working at Arthur Andersen, Mark started his own real estate brokerage and property management company in the Tri-Cities area which focused on representing buyers and sellers of multi-family investments. Subsequently, Mark was recruited to AMCAL Multi-Housing as its Director of Acquisitions and then promoted to Vice President, Investments after proving his abilities in the director role. From there, Mark continued to excel in every step of his real estate career.
In January 2010, Mark decided to add teaching to his repertoire after being recruited by the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate. He taught real estate courses at UCLA Extension from 2007-2014 and returned in 2022. Mark wrote and taught the first course in Affordable Housing Development offered at UCLA.
“You can always see the moment the lightbulb goes off in a student’s eyes. And then the smile afterward with contentment that they understand… that’s one of my favorite parts about teaching.”
Mark was also an Adjunct Professor in the USC Price School of Public Policy. He began teaching real estate pre-licensing courses with Colibri Real Estate nearly a year and a half ago.
“There’s also something about knowing you are teaching something that people will carry with them for the rest of their lives. Maybe they don’t carry every detail, but pieces of it, and knowing I was part of their journey… it’s very rewarding.”
Mark is a former Director of Housing Rights Center, a 501(c)(3) organization focused on preventing, litigating, and eradicating cases of housing discrimination, was a member of the Development and Audit Committees for The Trevor Project, and is an avid cyclist training for the 7-day, 545-mile AIDS Life Cycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles to benefit the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the L.A. LGBT Center.
In his free time, Mark enjoys going to the beach, watching movies, and cooking and cycling with his partner of 16 years.
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