ST. JOSEPH — Southwestern Michigan Association of Realtors were recently invited by Amanda Veldman, a teacher at Bridgman High School to judge her advanced geometry class presentations. Robert Kaufman, president of Southwestern Michigan Association of Realtors and Alan Jeffries, an associate executive with the company served as judges.

While some might doubt whether they use geometry after high school, the four competing teams made presentations that proved this assumption wrong. The students used their geometry skills to “renovate” a home in southwestern Michigan. They calculated materials needed for flooring, paint, etc. and created visuals of each room renovated in their theoretical house.

Just like HGTV’s Fixer Upper and other shows, the students prepared renderings showing products, paint colors and window and door changes to update the interior and exteriors of the homes.  The material cost was calculated for each room and a total renovation cost presented.

The teams also had to review “comps” in the area to determine the range of house values that their theoretical house would compete in and thus determine their selling price.

Kaufman and Jeffries asked “real life” questions of each team before arriving at their selection of the winning team. Both judges were impressed by all four groups for their thorough work at looking at all details both small and large and their research of the marketing details involved in the real estate industry. The judges said they were also impressed that the students completed their work in five to six class periods.

Presenting the winner award, Kaufman congratulated students on their success.

“Your use of math was astonishing,” Kaufman said. “Numbers only tell half the story. Every one of you did very well showing us how to use math in an everyday life example.”

Lily Badger, Madalena Degner, and Natalee McNeil were the overall winners of their thoroughness in presenting the market component of renovations for a particular marketing buyer target and the design details to attract that buyer target group.

The Southwestern Michigan Association of Realtors, Inc. is a professional trade association for real estate licensees who are members of the National Association of Realtors and ancillary service providers for the real estate industry in Van Buren, Berrien and Cass Counties.  The Association can be contacted at (269) 983-6375 or through their website at swmar.com