Textbooks
I have taught real estate at Clemson since 2016, in person and online, and started the university's first hands-on AI courses in finance and real estate in 2018. I coauthor two of the standard textbooks in the field and wrote the assessment materials for both books in their entirety. For Commercial Real Estate Analysis I was responsible for the chapters on mortgages and the secondary mortgage market, and for Real Estate Finance and Investments I wrote the new chapter on artificial intelligence in real estate finance and investment.
Commercial Real Estate Analysis for Investment, Finance and Development, 4th edition
David M. Geltner, Norman G. Miller, Alex van de Minne, Piet Eichholtz, Thies Lindenthal, Lily Shen · Routledge, 2026
The standard advanced text in commercial real estate. Lily Shen is a coauthor of the fourth edition, responsible for the chapters on mortgages and the secondary mortgage market, and wrote the end-of-chapter questions, exercises, and assessment materials for the entire book. The book's website, CREBook.net, carries chapter overviews, slides, exercises, and spreadsheet models; the podcast CRE Explained walks through it chapter by chapter.
Book website
Real Estate Finance and Investments, 2027 edition
Jeffrey D. Fisher, Jacob Sagi, Stephanie R. Yates, Lily Shen · McGraw Hill, 2027
The widely adopted foundational text in real estate finance, developed by William Brueggeman and Jeffrey Fisher. For the 2027 edition Lily Shen wrote the new chapter, Artificial Intelligence in Real Estate Finance and Investment, the first AI chapter in the book's history, and the assessment materials for the entire book.
CREBook.net is the website for Commercial Real Estate Analysis: chapter overviews, slides, exercises, spreadsheet models (DCF, development, mortgage and finance, portfolio, valuation), a glossary, and career resources. The podcast below is its audio companion.
Podcast: Commercial Real Estate Explained
The companion podcast to Commercial Real Estate Analysis for Investment, Finance and Development (4th edition, Routledge, 2026). Each episode introduces one chapter of the book in plain language: what the chapter covers, why it matters to investors and lenders, and the one idea to take away. Hosted by Lily Shen and produced with her Clemson Creative Inquiry student team. Free, no sign-up, on Spotify.
Listen on Spotify
Episodes
Courses
| Course | Institution | Years | Notes |
|---|
| AI in Finance (graduate, M.S. in Finance) | Clemson University | new course, Spring 2027 | Large language models as analytical tools for finance and real estate. |
| FIN 4170 Real Estate Finance | Clemson University | 2016–present | Sections of 45–80; semester-long home-financing project on a real property; industry speaker series. |
| FIN 3070 Real Estate Principles | Clemson University | 2016–present | In person and online; the online course is certified by Quality Matters (2024). |
| FIN 4980 Creative Inquiry: Machine Learning and AI in Finance | Clemson University | 2018–present | Clemson's first hands-on AI courses in finance and real estate; an undergraduate research lab whose work has been published and featured in The Economist. Lab site |
| Contemporary Issues in Real Estate; Real Estate Finance | The Pennsylvania State University | 2012–2015 | Instructor and teaching assistant. |
How I teach
- More than 1,700 students taught since 2016; Spring 2026 Real Estate Finance sections above university, college, and department benchmarks on every evaluation item.
- Clemson College of Business Dean's Award for Student Engagement, 2019–20 (single annual recipient).
- Founded Clemson's undergraduate real estate speaker series (2021): bank executives, brokerage CEOs, and Federal Reserve economists in the classroom.
- Former faculty adviser, Clemson Real Estate Club; mentees have gone to Amazon, Deloitte, Truist, and Cisco.
- Program building: recruiting and curriculum committees for Clemson's M.S. in Finance; proposals for a real estate study-abroad program in London and Cambridge and a signature experiential-learning program in real estate.
- Host of CRE Explained, the companion podcast to Commercial Real Estate Analysis; free teaching materials at CREBook.net.
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