Exam 1 Grades Posted to BlackBoard

Please check your BlackBoard account for your Exam 1 grade.

FIN 181 Valuation Blog Post Extra Credit Option

This is entirely at your option but I will give all FIN 181 students an opportunity to score 0, 1, 2 or 3 (the max being reserved for very high quality research pieces) percentage points on your final class grade.  The extra credit assignment is to research a real estate valuation topic and author an original post on our class blog www.fin181.blogspot.com.

This optional assignment is a research paper, not an opinion or thought piece, and you must cite all your work (and, of course, absolutely no plagiarism).  The number of points you receive will depend upon the quality of your blog post (including the amount of research, organization, writing, and, yes, spelling and grammar).   [I have given 0 points for half hearted attempts.  Don't attempt this option unless you are serious about posting good work on the Internet.  Anyone will be able to access your post including fellow students, faculty, family, and prospective employers!]

This option is open to individuals (no groups for this one).  For samples of past student blog posts, please visit www.gazarian.info.  Examples of appropriate topics include the follow:

• valuation of water rights
• valuation of special use properties
• valuation issues in agricultural land
• valuation of 'green' features
• valuation ethics
• valuation based indexes (such as NCREIF, IPD)
  
• valuation and issue in the secondary mortgage market
• mass valuation techniques
  
• and many, many others...

You are welcome to discuss your general topic idea with me before/after class or via e-mail.  I will also grant you posting rights to the class blog.  Exceptional posts will also be posted to www.gazarian.info.

DEADLINE FOR ALL POSTS: December 6th, but ideally I would like to have the posts spread out over the course of the semester.  For any credit consideration, the post must be made on or before December 6, 2009.

Appraisal Exam 1 this Tuesday

Exam 1 is this Tuesday.  The exam will cover chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, and part of 11.  The exam format is multiple-choice and short answer/essay style questions.

Quiz 1 Score Posted on BlackBoard

Quiz 1 scores (in %) have been posted to BlackBoard.  Let me know tomorrow in class if you have any trouble accessing your grade.

Quizzes

Don't forget about the quizzes. If we will get 5 or 6 quizzes in during this semester, we will need to have an unannounced quiz soon.

Books Should be at Bookstore

A couple students mentioned last week that the textbook and workbook were available at the campus bookstore.