Fastest Growing Area

a news article that recently came out says the DFW metroplex is the fastest growing in the US.

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/tv/stories/wfaa080327_ac_census.59a6e06.html

CREW Network Scholarship Opportunity

Check out this link for a scholarship opportunity:

http://realestateprogram.blogspot.com/2008/03/crew-scholarship.html

Real Estate Axioms

Every industry has its axioms and real estate is no exception.  If you choose a career in real estate, you will run across the following three adages.

“Location, location, location”

“It’s a people business”

“Gut-feeling”

Although axioms can sometimes be a little annoying, they survive the test of time because they contain important nuggets of wisdom.  We will examine each one in subsequent posts.

VA Loans

I wanted to post a question I have recently encountered. We purchased our current home under a VA Loan and are about to purchase a second home with another VA Loan. What restrictions might come up when trying to do this?

Exam 2 Grades Posted on WebCT

Exam 2 grades have been upload to WebCT. www.uta.edu/webct (login with your UTA username and password).

Exam 2 Video/Audio Clip Posted on Website

The exam 2 video/audio clip review has been posted on our website. Please review the exam at your convenience. I will post grades on WebCT by Monday evening.

The class average was 78% and the highest grade was 100% and the lowest 40%. There was a one question curve (to calculate the grades I took the number of questions correct divided by 44- instead of 45, the total number of questions).

Overall a good job. Thanks once again for arriving promptly and bringing your Scan-trons, pencils, calculators, and photo IDs.

Exam 2 10 AM on Saturday March 8th

Just a friendly reminder that Exam 2 will start at 10 AM and end at 11 AM on Saturday, March 8th. We will be in the same classroom, room 241 Business Building. Saturday's weather looks clear and sunny. See you tomorrow!

Fidelity Investments Job Open House

Fidelity Investments is hosting a Networking Mixer for students on Wednesday, March 19th and want to invite UTA’s business students to attend. The information below spells out the details and allows students (does not specify if they are looking for undergraduate, graduate, or both) to attend via an RSVP mailbox. The Open House falls during spring break however Fidelity is hopeful that there will be plenty of students staying in town that week who may be searching for a career opportunity. Both the Personal & Workplace Investing business and the Pricing & Cash Management Services business want to hire UTA May graduates.

Have you recently graduated, or will you be graduating in 2008?Join Fidelity Investments for a networking mixer on March 19. Come meet our talented employees and managers and learn about our Personal Workplace & Investing and Pricing & Cash Management Services businesses in the southwest region.

Our beautiful Westlake campus is not to be missed!
Location: One Destiny Way, Westlake, TX
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Come dressed professionally and bring a resume to share.

► Reserve your spot today. Email WestlakeOpenHouse@FMR.com by March 15th

Texas Standard Sales Agreement

Good question Crystal in the post below this one.

My eyes are older than most, but I did not see a home sale contingency in the text book example (pleases post a comment if anyone else sees it). Let's find another example. One of the links on our class homepage is to the Texas Real Estate Commission or TREC. TREC produces standardized contracts for licenses brokers to use in Texas. The TREC contract is most standard single family residential transactions. Download the contract at http://www.trec.state.tx.us/pdf/contracts/24-7.pdf. This contract has a good example of a "mortgage contingency" clause (Item 4) which is a contingency that the buyer puts in to make sure they can obtain a mortgage before buying the property (if the buyer cannot obtain the mortgage then the contract is voidable by the buyer). However, I do not see a seller an "Other Home Sale" clause in this contract either.

TREC has a separate addendum for the "Sale of Other Property by Buyer" which you can download here: http://www.trec.state.tx.us/pdf/contracts/10-5.pdf. If this is included in the sales agreement, the seller is asking for the right to sell their existing home at a specified price as a contingency. Many times the seller needs to sell their existing house before they can buy a new house because they cannot afford the mortgages and upkeep on two houses. When the real estate market is active with many sales, this contingency might not be a problem. However, when the market is slow, this could be a problem.

As a potential seller would you like a finance and sale of other property contingency in your offer? No. This is risk to the seller. Therefore, if you have two contracts for the same amount (or close to it) except that one contract has contingencies and the other does not, which one are you going to take. Yes, the offer without the contingencies is a stronger offer to the seller, all else equal.

Contingency Sale?

When we bought our second house, we did a contingency sale. Meaning we had to sell our first house then would be free to buy the second. This was done courtesy of our realtor (for a fee of course). Does anyone know where, on the sales contract, that you would put that in? I didn't see it in those words, but would like to know where to look for it in the event we sell this one. I also want to know just in case we look at a contract from a buyer that might put it in their contract. You know, the whole knowledge is power thing... Hope you are all well. Good luck Saturday.

What is the best to study?

I was hoping to get some student recommendations. I studied for the last test and even felt prepared, but I still came up short. I think there are is so much to remember (I knew nothing coming into this) that I am struggling.

So the question is, what did you find most effective to focus on in your studying? The question answer sheets? Lecture outline? Terms?

Please reply especially if you got a good grade!

Exam 2, Saturday, March 8th at 10 AM Room 241

We have our second exam next Saturday. Exam 2 will cover chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. The format will be 50 or fewer multiple choice questions. Please bring your photo ID, pencils, calculator, and Scan-tron answer sheet. See you live one week from today!