When Colliers broker Josh Randolph finished just outside the Top 5 finishers weeks ago in the Battle of the Bids competition, he decided to take the contest more seriously and see if he could win a round. It worked.
"I felt like my tactics were working pretty well," Randolph said in an interview. "Finishing sixth gave me confidence. You start putting little tidbits together and you start noticing trends."
Randolph's victory in the fourth round brought with it a $100,000 prize for finishing first. In Battle of the Bids, 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 is giving away prizes totaling up to $3 million, including a $1 million grand prize to the player who accumulates the most points in the six-round competition that Ten-X said is the biggest of its kind in commercial real estate.
The fifth round of Battle of the Bids is underway. Betting closes on Monday, and the round ends Nov. 15.
Randolph, based in Birmingham, Alabama, focuses on the buying and selling of investment properties and typically specializes in healthcare real estate. While wagering on selling prices of properties in Battle of the Bids, however, he placed bets on properties in several sectors. "I've been all over the board," he said. "It just really comes down to what's on the table that week."
Randolph is the second Colliers employee to win a Battle of the Bids round this season. Marcianne Foster, a senior client services specialist at Colliers in Tampa, Florida, won round one and became the first $100,000 winner in this season's competition. Transwestern broker Tony Strauss, who works in the Minneapolis area, won the second round while Bob Elliott, CEO of Bethesda, Maryland-based Lantian Development, won the third round.
Round four winner Randolph said he has taken properties to auction on the Ten-X platform in the past, and that the experience is paying off as he plays. He said a Ten-X auction is "like eBay on steroids."
He started his career trading stocks and bonds as an institutional investment analyst at Merrill Lynch in New York City. A family friend got him interested in commercial real estate, and he went on to earn a master's degree in real estate finance and development. Randolph started his commercial real estate career in 2002 at CBRE in Atlanta and then worked for commercial property brokerage TSCG, formerly known as The Shopping Center Group.
He joined Colliers in 2012 in Birmingham and has been there since.
Randolph said he still is considering what to do with his $100,000. "I'll give some back to charity for sure," he said, and take a trip with his wife and their child. He also plans to put some in the bank.
"I'm fortunate that I won this year," Randolph said. "It's been tough. It's a trying market this year."