COURSE SYLLABUS REAL ESTATE PRINCIPLES - RELE 1301 42898
HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM
Rele1301_42898@hotmail.com
INSTRUCTOR: Joe Irwin
Summer 2006
OFFICE PHONE: (713)718-5139
HOME NUMBER: (713)460-9856 (before 10 PM)
This course gives three semester hours of college credit and forty-five classroom hours of credit as a core real estate course toward licensure.
TEXT: Texas Real Estate Principles and Practices 2nd Edition by Samuel P. DeRobertis and Joseph N. Irwin, Prentice Hall, Publishers
AUDIENCE: Individuals who need hours as part of the requirements to acquire a Real Estate license, or need hours toward a degree or a certificate of achievement, or to understand the basics of the real estate profession.
BASIC OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE:
1. The student shall exhibit a knowledge of the real estate profession by answering multiple choice questions covering reading material from the text.
2. The student will demonstrate an understanding of one controversial topic by writing a three-page paper on that topic.
3. The student will demonstrate a knowledge of five particular topics by summarizing articles.
EVALUATING STUDENTS: Two tests 25% each = 50%
Research Project 25%
Article Summaries 25%
(60%-69% D) (70%-79% C) (80%-89% B) (90%-100% A)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT:
1. Choose a controversial topic about real estate. Cover both sides of the issue, choose the side you most agree with, and write a "persuasion or argument" paper.
The paper should be 3-pages, typewritten, double-spaced, 12 point font with one-inch margins. Use at least two sources not including the text. Include a list of the sources. Use the MLA format.
Suggested topics could include but are not limited to the following:
a. Should the Homestead Law (protection from creditors) be abolished?
b. Should the City of Houston have zoning?
c. Should the Federal Government adopt a consumption or flat tax and eliminate the tax deductions for real estate/home ownership?
d. Will the Multiple Listing Service be replaced by the Internet?
e. Should local governments be allowed to use eminent domain to acquire poor people’s houses. They then provide the land to developers of higher priced properties just to increase property tax revenue.
Suggested Outline
I.What the proponents believe
II.What the opponents believe
III.What you personally believe (convince me to believe what you believe)
http://www.chron.com/ - Houston Chronicle
See "Search Archives"
http://recenter.tamu.edu/ - Real Estate Center
http://findarticles.com - Find articles
http://inman.com- Today’s Real Estate News
http://www.hccs.edu/system/library/library.html - HCC Library
(MLA format) See the HCC library link to MLA guidelines. http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c08_s2.html
2. Find five long (2500+ words) articles from magazines (Newspaper articles are usually too short.) or the Internet. You can access the extensive HCCS library database of magazines and journals online from your own Internet service provider with an HCCS library card number. Stop by the library to get a card or apply online at http://librus.hccs.edu/screens/gmb.html
Write fifty to one hundred words about each article. Write the chapter number from the book that relates to each article. Find no more than one article per chapter.
Include a photocopy of each article or a source list. (MLA format)
Bring your papers to the review sessions, mail them to me at the 3100 Main campus or email them to me at the email address at the top of this syllabus.
Do not turn in your assignments at the testing site or leave them at any other campus. They will probably be lost. The WebCt email does not handle attachments well so you should use the hotmail address if you want to email assignments.
Emails should have you name in the subject line and in the filename of the attachment. Your name should appear on every page of each of your assignments.
Distance Education/RELE 1301
attn. Joe Irwin mc 1740
3100 Main
Houston, TX 77002
There are special incentives for turning projects in early in the semester. Papers and article summaries turned in on or before June 19 need not be typed.
Handwritten term papers must be four pages long.
Include a list of your sources or photo-copies of your sources.
Failure to follow the "Written Assignment Guidelines" in you WebCT material will result in a letter grade deduction. Make sure you send only two documents to me as attachments. (One for the term paper and one containing all five article summaries)
If you are taking more than one course make sure you do original written assignments in each course.
Important Deadlines:
June 19 Early papers - lesser standards
July 3 Deadline for all written assignments (after this date 10 points will be deducted)
July 10 Absolute deadline for late work
TESTS:
There will be two multiple choice tests. The mid-term will be online and the final will be at the one of three campuses listed in your online calendar.
Test One Chapters 1-9
Test Two Chapters 10-19
MAKE-UPS AND MISSING ASSIGNMENTS
Make up exams are by appointment only. If you miss an exam, plan to see me by appointment at my office or plan to take the missed exam during the review session for the final exam.
You are responsible for withdrawing from the course if you wish to get a "W".
If you have taken a test or turned in an assignment I will not give you a W".
Review Sessions are an hour long and they are interactive. Students are expected to talk about each topic on the review sheet. We will have online review sessions at 6:00 PM on June 19 and July 3. The online reviews work best if you have speakers and a microphone on your computer, but they aren’t necessary. You will need the chatterbox software which downloads automatically when you click on the online review session icon in WebCT.
Tests are the weekend of June 23 and July 7. The midterm exam is online only (not on-campus) between June 23 and June 25. Arrive on time at the final exam test location no later than 7 PM on Fri. and 1 PM on Sat. and Sun. Friday tests are at the Central College campus, Saturday at Westgate and Sunday at Eastside. Do not erase on your scantron form. The grading machine will often see two answers and will mark your answer wrong.