Extra TVM problem...

Anyone one want to take a shot at this question? If so, please comment to this post.

True story: Last night, I was helping my wife's 24 year old brother set-up his first retirement account, a Roth IRA (Individual Retirement Account). We estimated that he will retire when he is age 67 and he will invest his first contribution of $5,000 in one year (we just set-up the account and did the paper work). He will make annual contributes of $5,000 per year until retirement (note: $5,000 is currently the maximum you can contribute to an IRA). We selected an account that is a mix of stocks and bonds (but primarily stocks). The long-term average return on this account is 9%, which we thought was an appropriate return or rate for our analysis.

How much will my wife's brother have at age 67? Of this amount, how much is interest on principle? How much is compound interest? How much did he actually deposit into this account?

TVM Quesion

Student Question: I was reviewing the syllabus and would like to turn in the TVM tutorial for extra credit on the first exam. Since this is a distance learning class, will you accept the tutorial if I turn it in on the day of the exam? Or would you rather I drop by during your office hours and turn it in then? Also, I am concurrently enrolled in FINA 3313 and I must complete the tutorial for that class as well. I have talked to Dr. Yong and she told me it was acceptable to turn the tutorial in to you and have you sign the prior completion sheet. Is that acceptable to you as well? Or must I go through the Department of Finance and Real Estate?

Answer: For bonus points on the first exam, I will accept TVM up to and including the day of the first exam. However, if the TVM Tutorial is not complete and you do not pass, you will not receive any bonus. (You will need to resubmit the TVM Tutorial until you pass.)

I will keep of list of TVM Tutorial completion on our course home page. If anyone wants to see if you completed the TVM Tutorial, you can just refer them to our web page. I will update this list shortly after each exam.

Having Calculator Troubles?

Anyone having problems with the calculator? If so, come to my REAE 3325 class this Wednesday and Friday (8 AM to 8:50 AM) in room 241 (this also happens to be our examination room for the four Saturday exams). This week we are doing a lot of practice calculator problems.

Announcements, Pictures, and Chapter 13 Questions?

Announcements
One thing nice about this on-line section is that you don't need to worry about the weather. In the place of weather worries, I guess we have the occasional technical (usually a server) problems.

As a reminder, you are not required to participate in this blog but you do need to keep up with announcement on both the website and blog.

Thank you to those who have commented to the prior post about your level of real estate related experience. We have some interesting real estate and even more interesting non-real estate related experiences in this class.

Pictures
If you checked the course website recently, you will notice I posted two pictures. The first picture is of myself at my desk (a very bad web cam shot) and the second picture is my dog (Riley). Although we are primarily on-line, I thought it would be nice to put a face with the site and also have a class mascot (that's Riley, not me).

This is NOT a requirement, but if you would like to send me a picture of yourself and one additional picture of anything you find interesting (must be legal and tasteful), I will add these pictures to our course website. It would be nice for me to put some faces with names. Also, we can try to have a little fun on-line (we do have a little fun the regular in-class). Please send the pictures by February 1st and I will post them on February 2nd.

Chapter 13
How are you doing with Chapter 13? This is an important chapter. Any questions?

I call next week, TVM boot camp. We will cover chapter 14 and the pdf download "Review Materials for Real Estate." I am in the process of recording video clips for the "Review Materials..." and posting these clips on the website (right before the Chapter 14 course materials). If this is your first look at TVM, you will need to spend a good amount of time on this next week (just a friendly heads-up).

Have a good weekend.

Calculator question...

"I have a question regarding the calculator we are allowed to use on the tests. Is the use of a Texas Instruments TI-83 graphing calculator permitted? Or must I go buy a financial calculator?"

I know that graphing calculators are very expensive, but you really need a (basic) financial calculator for this course and probably many other business courses (especially in finance and real estate). Now, I know a few higher-end graphing calculator models have a "time-value-of-money" menu, but the basic graphing calculators do not. Check your calculator carefully but you definitely need the TVM functions.

TVM tutorial question...

Let me share an answer to a recent question regarding the TVM tutorial. You need to complete all 13 sections of the TVM tutorial and print-out hard copies of each section. You will turn-in the print-out of each section (please staple each section) and the TVM certificate page. The TVM tutorials are graded pass/fail.

Still Missing 0!!!

Four registered students have not checked in this week. If you know any of these students, please help me get the word out to them to contact reae3325d@gmail.com and visit the course website www.uta.edu/faculty/hansz/3325/distance/main.htm right away.

UNLESS WE HAVE SOME LATE ADDs, EVERYONE HAS CHECKED-IN AND SENT ME THEIR E-MAIL. THANKS YOU! DR. HANSZ (LATE ADDS DO NEED TO E-MAIL ME IMMEDIATELY!)

Thanks!

What is your real estate experience? 4 questions

Normally, I don't require or ask anyone to comment or post to this blog. However, I would like everyone (all 35 students) to respond to this posting.

Chapter 1 discusses the market for real estate knowledge. It would be useful to me and possibly the rest of the class to get a feel for the level of real estate experience in this section.

Please comment to this posting by answering the following four (4) questions:

(1) Are you currently employed in the real estate industry? If so, what is your background (brokerage, appraisal, property management, investing, etc.).

(2) Have you done the following:
a) rented an apartment
b) purchased a house
c) sold a house
d) made an investment in real estate

(3) Is anyone in your family in the real estate business or had an interesting real estate related experience?

(4) Finally, please give us one interesting fact about yourself that is non-real estate related.

I might mention that real estate experience is not a course prerequisite and I have found no relationship between prior real estate experience and success in this course (students with no prior real estate experience have worked hard and done very well). Success typically depends on the amount of time and effort you put into the course this semester.

Please ues the "comments" function below to reply to this post (will keep everyone's reply organized with this posting).

Cheers,

Students Who Have Not Checked-In

Below is the list of student who have registered for the course but who have not check-in by sending me their preferred e-mail address (send to reae3325d@gmail.com). If your name is on this list and you have already sent me your e-mail address, I do apologize (a couple names sound familar and you may have contacted me earlier). Please do send (or resend) me your preferred e-mail address.

Al-Qasem,Sari Kerim
Calderwood,Nathan Marcus
Funk,Kyle Lewis
James,Jade K
Jeane,Christopher
Poprawa,Wojciech Iwo
Searles,Holly Helene
Syed,Mohsin
Terry,Amanda Faye
Torres-Patek,Cora A
Urrahman,Muhammad Faisal
Vazquez,Raquel

If you know any of these students, please tell them to e-mail me and check the course website immediately www.uta.edu/faculty/hansz/3325/distance/main.htm

Also, I would like to post an Excel spreadsheet on our course website with names and e-mail addresses. The purpose of this spreadsheet will be to faciliate student-to-student interaction by e-mail (at least let you see who is registered for this section) and we will also keep tract of TVM tutorial completions. If anyone has an objection to this posting, please let me know and I will not include your name and/or e-mail address.

Thank you,

Sign In This Week

Thank you to those of you who have sent me your e-mail. If you are enrolled in the course please send me your preferred e-mail address and go to www.uta.edu/faculty/hansz/3325/distance/main.htm for this week's assignments.

Our first exam is early in February so you need to get started with the course this week!

Dr. Hansz
reae3325d@gmail.com

Website Up and Working!

Finally, the technical problem has been fixed and the class website is up and running. Please go to http://www.uta.edu/faculty/hansz/3325/distance/main.htm

Please review the website carefully. Also, you can download the course syllabus. I am also working on an Orientation video clip which should be up by Wednesday night.

Don't forget, if you haven't sent me your preferred e-mail address, please contact me at reae3325d@gmail.com this week!

Website Problem Update

Just to let you guys know, I intend to use WebCT only for posting grades. In fact, I am trying not to populate the WebCT roster before the Census date at the end of this month. Please, never contact me through WebCT e-mail because I only check WebCT when posting grades. Please use the following e-mail address reae3325d@gmail.com.

For you tech Geeks (I am sure many of you know more about this than I do), I found out what the problem is with our course website. The University recently switched the "dav" server (which is home to my faculty website and many other faculty websites and there are probably many others with this problem) from a "http" server to a secure "https" server. We should be able to update my access to reflect the new https server, but we are still having difficulties. Hang tight!

PS Please note that you guys can access and use the course Website at www.uta.edu/faculty/hansz (scroll down to "Current Courses" and click on the link for REAE 3325 Real Estate Fundamentals DISTANCE LEARNING). Just remember that this information was posted last Fall and I need to make updates.

REAE 3325 Distance Education Section

Real Estate Fundamentals Students,

I am currently working on updating the course website at www.uta.edu/faculty/hansz/ (scroll down to "Current Courses" and please make sure you click on REAE 3325 Distance Education section). There is a technical problem with publishing updates and I am working with the HelpDesk to solve the problem.

In the meantime, please send me your e-mail address. Send to reae3325d@gmail.com. If we can't post the syllabus on the website very soon, I will make a distribution list and e-mail the syllabus to you.

The first assignment for this week is to read chapters 1 and 13. Also, please view the video clips that I prepared for chapters 1 and 13 found on my website (remember, you must use Internet Explorer (version 5 or higher) to view the video clips).

I am looking forward to getting started with you.