Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service establishes scholarship for real estate, urban and regional planning honors students

Matt Consalvo, CEO of Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service, wonders how living in Arizona will change as the population grows and technology advances.

Will autonomous vehicles become common modes of transportation? Will people no longer have use for homes with garages? How will cities manage parking, community design, revitalization and neighborhood development?

Consalvo said he hopes students in Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University who receive the ARMLS Honors Fund scholarship will address these sorts of questions as they pursue degrees, research and theses in urban planning and other fields that focus on the future use of real estate.

The ARMLS Honors Fund was established last December with a gift of nearly $30,000. Funding for the scholarship came from the ARMLS endowment fund.

ARMLS was founded in 1982 to centralize and aggregate data on properties that are being offered for sale or lease and provide that data to thousands of real estate agents throughout the state. ARMLS also offers professional training for Realtors.

“We believe good data and customer service are integral to our success,” Consalvo said, but sometimes subscribers who have provided information with serious errors are fined. Those fines go into the organization’s endowment fund.

According to Consalvo, ARMLS will contribute to the Honors Fund each year to grow the endowment to the honors college.

“Our plan is to continue contributing to Barrett. I hope it is a partnership that will remain for years to come. Our focus will continue to be education. It is not our intent for this to be a one-time donation. It is our intent to make this a long-term relationship,” he said.

Under the endowment agreement, Barrett will handle the process for selecting students for scholarships, as well as the amount, number and term of the awards.

“The Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service Honors Fund will support Barrett honors students in a new way: to further the success of motivated undergraduates in the understanding and study of the real estate industry. It will help honors students doing research, pursing degrees or writing a thesis in real estate or urban/regional planning do so here in a region that in many ways leads the nation in real estate innovation,” said Mark Jacobs, vice provost and dean of Barrett, The Honors College.  

Consalvo, the father of three sons — two of whom are in Barrett — said he feels honors students are a worthy investment.

“I believe students at Barrett, The Honors College are great students who intend to do great things for society," Consalvo said. "Barrett not only focuses on academics, but on critical thinking. My sons have been challenged to think about the future of society and their contributions to it, and that’s an important part of their development into successful adults.” 

Information about criteria and applications will soon be listed at the Barrett scholarships site.