Finance 341    Fall 2005

Professor Joseph A. Petry

Office: 435 Wohlers Hall

Phone: 333-4260

Lecture Time: 8:30 - 9:50 (Section L; 45320), 10:00-11:20 (Section N; 45321) 

Lecture Days: Tuesday & Thursday

Lecture Room: 215 DKH

Lecture Office Hours: T/Th 4:00-4:50 

Course Website:  http://www.business.uiuc.edu/jpetry/Fin341

Required Texts:  

    Petry,  Finance 341 Course Packet. Fall 2005.

    Corgel, Ling, Smith, Real Estate Perspectives. Fourth Edition. 

In addition to the Course Packet, occasional outside readings may be required.

Required Materials: Financial or statistical calculator. Students who are not proficient at using basic financial calculator functions should plan on becoming so during the course. You should always have your calculator with you in class as we will do as many examples as possible as we cover the material. While not specifically required, I would recommend the Texas Instruments BA II Plus. We will illustrate the various functions of this calculator (and only this calculator) in class.

Course Description: This course is designed to be an overview of the real estate market. As such it will introduce topics including real estate finance, appraisal, investment brokerage and management.     

Course Objective: The principal objective of this course is to acquaint students with the fundamental concepts, principles, and analytical techniques related to the understanding of real estate. 

The overview aspects of the course should help students: 1) who are considering further studies and/or careers in the Real Estate field to decide whether their aptitudes and interests lie in that direction; 2) be more intelligent consumers of real estate related services, including law, mortgage financing, appraisal and brokerage.

The financial focus of the course should allow students whom have done well in the course to conduct basic financial analysis on real estate opportunities either for themselves or in a professional capacity.

Course Outline: The progression of the course will follow the outline as it is given in the course-packet. Thus, the course will be divided into the following topic areas:

We will cover most but not all of the material in the course-packet. In the chapters that we do cover, there may be sections that we skip. You will be advised of those sections as we go through the material. We will cover nearly a chapter each lecture, so please allot a sufficient amount of time to stay current on your work.

Course Grade:The grade you earn in this course will be determined by your performance on the following items:

Grades will be posted in Illinois Compass throughout the course of the semester.

Grading Scale: The scale used to assign letter grades in the course will be established by the instructor at the end of the semester. A +/- scale will be used. The cut-offs for +/- will also be established by the instructor at the end of the semester. 

Exams: You will have a total of three examinations during the semester; two midterms and a final. As the material builds on itself throughout the semester, the exams will all be cumulative. The final exam will be given during the last day of class. All examinations will be multiple-choice format.

Homework: You will be assigned homework after most lectures. We will use Mallard for this purpose. You are encouraged to do the work in groups, but each student must submit their own homework by the deadline—Monday evening after the relevant lecture, no later than 11:59pm. It takes Mallard some time to record your scores, so you should turn things in at least 30 minutes early to assure full credit. Late assignments are heavily penalized.  The link to the homework is on the Course Outline page on the course website.  

On occasion, our class web-site will be down with server problems. If this is the case, you can still get to the homework assignment by going directly to Mallard at:  https://mallard2.cites.uiuc.edu/.  Even if our website is down, you will still be held accountable for the homework as long as the Mallard site is available.  

Project: Each group will do a project during the course of the semester. This project will involve identifying an attractive income producing property in the Champaign-Urbana area. Each team will prepare a powerpoint presentation which will serve as your project write-up, as well as the basis for your in-class presentation near the end of the semester. (See "Project" webpage for additional details)

Completed projects are due no later than Thursday, November 17th. Teams should meet at least once with the Professor well before the project is due to insure that progress is satisfactory. Scheduling this appointment is up to your group, but this meeting is a requirement of the project.   

Group Work:  I encourage as much group work as possible (with the exception of exams of course!). You will be asked to form your own groups of 3 students. Group work will be required when you are doing your projects and is encouraged when you are doing your homework. You are encouraged to form your groups as early as possible. Prior to beginning the project, group members may adjust their groups as they see fit. Once established for the project however, the groups must remain intact for the duration of the project. When turning in the project, the names of all of those who contributed to completion of the work should be included. Those that did not contribute, should not be included and will not be given any credit for that item. It is therefore strongly suggested that you work well with your other group members!

WebBoard: WebBoard will be used extensively in this course. You are responsible for anything that is posted on WebBoard and should check it before each class period.  Any announcements relating to the class or assignments will be posted there, and any homework, project, exam queries will be answered there. Unfortunately, it is impossible to monitor WebBoard constantly, but I will make best efforts to answer all questions as frequently as possible. I’ll do my best on this—but please be patient. 

If there are confidential matters you need to discuss with me, please do so in person or via e-mail.

On occasion, our class website will be down with server problems. If this is the case, you can still get to WebBoard by going directly to: http://webboard.cites.uiuc.edu/.

Students who consistently provide assistance to their classmates on webboard will be given credit for an extra homework assignment at the end of the semester.

Guest Speakers: We will be having a number of guest speakers during the semester. The speakers are experts in the area of brokerage, finance, and development. My objective in bringing in these guests is to broaden your exposure to each of these areas, and give you a feel for the day-to-day issues and challenges that each face. To accommodate the needs of these speakers, it may be necessary to schedule some of these sessions in the evening, or have the visit during one of the two lecture times (I teach two sections of this class). In these instances, regular class time will be cancelled to insure you have the time to attend these special lectures. If the guest lectures can only be provided during one of the two regular class periods, every effort will be made to rotate the guest lectures between sections so that as many students as possible get a chance to attend at least one guest lecture. 

Important Dates: 

Academic Integrity: Violations of academic integrity as given in the Code on Campus Affairs will be taken extremely seriously. Students found cheating in the course (or helping others to cheat) will be penalized according to the Code's guidelines.