7 minute read
Off the Bench
MTSU fan favorite Chase Miller is a rising star in commercial real estate
by Carol Stuart
Chase Miller was the ultimate bench player during his days at MTSU. A non-scholarship student-athlete who gritted out hours of practices but rarely saw action, Miller became a Murphy Center fan favorite on an MTSU basketball team that upset second-seeded Michigan State and Minnesota in back-to- back NCAA tournaments in 2016 and ’17.
All the while, he was juggling studies in MTSU’s unique undergraduate Real Estate program, a concentration under the B.B.A. in Finance. Now Miller is turning the hard lessons he learned on the hardwood and in the classroom into a starring role in the commercial real estate market in his native Dallas.
“As a walk-on, nothing was ever given,” Miller said of his status as a preferred walk-on— guaranteed a spot but not receiving an athletic scholarship. “You had to earn everything. You had to work the hardest.
“And by no means was I ever the most talented and by no means am I the most talented in real estate, but you’re going to be hard pressed to outwork me, and I think being a walk-on instilled that.”
A 2019 graduate, Miller has been named to D CEO business magazine’s Power Brokers list of top revenue-producers in Dallas twice since joining NAI Robert Lynn. He also was promoted to vice president last year, became the company’s youngest executive vice president ever this year, and had the highest production volume for any broker’s first two years in the firm’s 60-year history.
Chase Miller (B.B.A., ’19)
Executive vice president and broker, NAI Robert Lynn
CONNECTING ON AND OFF COURT
Having grown up with a father in the real estate business, Miller said he got lucky when then-Blue Raiders head coach Kermit Davis and assistant Ronnie Hamilton showed him around campus on a recruiting visit and he learned about MTSU’s program.
“I had no idea . . . but it was one of the few schools, not only in Tennessee but maybe even in the country, that had a Real Estate major,” he said.
Miller was taking an extra year before college to work on his basketball skills at a Florida prep school, ELEV8. His dream was to play Division I basketball, but after high school, he’d only had offers from Division II and III colleges and walk-on opportunities at smaller DI schools in Texas.
At the prep school, he grew up quickly, living with several roommates in close quarters that he calls “not glamorous.” About half of his 50 talented teammates ended up playing at DI programs such as St. John’s, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, and Rhode Island. Miller decided attending MTSU was the perfect path for him.
“I always wanted to be in the South, and I always envisioned myself at an SEC type of school,” he said. “And to me, Middle is an SEC school without some of the bells and whistles. It all just . . . kind of aligned. The basketball opportunity made sense, the business school being in the top 1½ percent in the world made sense, and geographically it made a lot of sense.”
Chase Miller (r) learned lessons for business from his backup role.
Photo by Nathan Wallach
Davis, a former walk-on himself and now at Ole Miss, sat Miller down and leveled with him. “Being a walk-on, it’s not necessarily about you. It’s not about even your college experience,” Miller recalls the conversation. “I think a lot of it is how it pays off for you.
“I remember thinking, ‘Okay, whatever,’ but it’s crazy now looking back on it, I mean all of it—being selfless, being a hard worker, trying to set an example.”
MAKING NET PROFITS
Off the court, Miller took advantage of opportunities through the Real Estate program, led by Philip Seagraves and featuring its own student-staffed Raider Realty firm. Miller worked one semester with Richard Lewis at Exit Realty Bob Lamb and Associates in Murfreesboro, interned at OakPoint real estate investment firm in Nashville, and was active in the Blue Raider Real Estate Club.
“More than anything, it was the connections and how networking always leads to more networking,” Miller said.
In Dallas, Miller focuses on two of the more popular areas in the nation’s second-hottest real estate market.
“The Design District, if you looked at an aerial, is probably the next place to go vertical for developments. I’ve been fortunate to sell two parcels that are going to be developed into office buildings. . . . Brookhollow would be the closest industrial park to downtown Dallas, so a super infill location. Obviously, with the increased demand for warehousing space—I think not only in Dallas but, you know, the whole nation—we’ve kind of been fortunate to be riding a high tide.”
Miller’s first 3-pointer fired up fans
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Out of college, one of Miller’s better job offers was from Colliers Nashville, and like many others, he could see three years ago that the Music City market “was going to blow up.” He also interviewed with former Vanderbilt basketball player Jason Holwerda, partner and market leader for Foundry Commercial in Nashville.
“One thing he said that stuck with me: You can take your everyday life being a student-athlete and you can translate that into the work world. Good things will happen. So I tried doing that. I always try to be in the office before 5:30 or 6—always the first one in, last one out.” At MTSU, especially when the Blue Raiders were winning big, the student section would chant “Miller Time” as the clock wound down, urging the coach to put Miller into the game. No. 14 played only 51 minutes and scored nine points in his career, hitting 3-pointers against Rice and in a National Invitation Tournament win over Vermont as a junior and opening with another trey as a Senior Night starter versus the University of Texas–El Paso.
He’ll also always remember cutting down the nets after clinching a conference championship against Western Kentucky University on national TV—and, of course, the bracket-busting NCAA shocker against Michigan State.
“There’s actually a guy in our office that went to Michigan State, and there’s not a day goes by that that is not brought up in some capacity,” Miller said with a laugh. “It’s funny, even six years later, how much it’s always brought up. If I’m ever wearing gear around town or wearing a Middle Tennessee shirt, people always bring it up. It’s always a fun story like, ‘Yeah, I was on that team.’ ”
He embraced his energetic role on the team, and now it’s paying big dividends.
“Being a walk-on, nothing is ever given to you. You have to earn every single bit of it, and that’s the same with real estate being commissioned-based.”
Lessons he learned well on and off the court at MTSU.
