Transwestern broker Tony Strauss, who credits a series of "fortunate events" for his entry into commercial real estate, benefited again from unexpected developments in winning the second round of Ten-X's Battle of the Bids competition.

Strauss, who works in the Minneapolis area, beat out all others last week to win a $100,000 cash prize, leaving him "still in disbelief a little, but grateful and hugely appreciative," he said in an email.

Battle of the Bids is a six-round competition in which players place bets each round on the final sale prices of 10 properties to be auctioned on Ten-X, the online commercial real estate exchange owned by CoStar Group, publisher of CoStar News. Ten-X will award prizes totaling up to $3 million, including a $1 million grand prize to the player who accumulates the most points throughout the competition that Ten-X said is the biggest of its kind in commercial real estate.

Marcianne Foster, a senior client services specialist at Colliers in Tampa, Florida, was the first $100,000 winner in the competition. Betting for the third round of Battle of the Bids began Friday. That round ends Oct. 18.

As for Strauss, he said he took advantage of the ability to change bids during the betting. That helped him win, along with a straightforward strategy, he said. "I tried to stick with properties that seemed likely to attract multiple bidders to increase the odds of reaching the minimum reserve and selling," Strauss said.

His road into commercial real estate started with a lucky string of events that started with him bringing something to write with when he left for a job interview after graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in economics.

"Out of college, I answered an ad for leasing apartments that I thought would just be a temporary, summer job," Strauss said. "I got hired right away because I was the only one who brought a pen to the interview. Turned out the ownership was also the largest property owner in our Uptown retail district and they were about to start a commercial brokerage."

Strauss said he "hung in there" working on the apartment side of the business until a position opened as a real estate runner who helps principals and brokers in deals.

Winning the $100,000 came at a good time, Strauss said, given that overall transaction volume, and therefore commissions, are down this year.

"Market forces have been really disruptive on deals this year so I’ll be splurging on paying bills," he said.