Frequently Asked Questions - Course Issues

UBC Real Estate Division programs are accredited university programs sufficient in rigour to receive undergraduate degree credit. As such, they are intended to be challenging, based on the belief that being challenged leads students to more meaningful learning, which in the end leads to quality graduates. Our programs are widely recognized as high quality and of high calibre, and as a graduate you will benefit from this reputation. The motto of UBC is “Tuum Est” meaning “it is up to you”. Our courses follow this creed, in that we expect students to be resourceful and self-directing, meaning that students in our courses are not “spoon fed” and are required to work through any adversity or uncertainty they encounter. You can expect some frustration and some difficult times along the way, as these are common byproducts on the path to personal growth and development. The satisfying end result is what will make it all worthwhile.

The rate of success varies in each course, but the overall course grade is typically 70-75% and the passing rate in most courses is above 90%.

Our courses aim at more than just transfer of content. The overarching intent of the program is to foster growth in higher level skills: analysis, evaluation, and synthesis. The courses attempt to build critical thinking abilities and communications skills. Every experience in your education will help contribute to building these skills, even if the content itself is not completely applicable in your future occupation.

In our programs, you will definitely learn many hand's-on skills that are immediately useful in the workplace. However, beyond these skills our programs emphasize education rather than training, with the difference being the courses focuses not on "how to" but "why to" or "what else". Training is most effective in a static environment, where detailed steps can be taught and then applied; on the other hand, education is more effective in a dynamic environment, where things are changing rapidly. In this environment, you need to start with foundational knowledge and develop your ability to think on your feet and adapt with the times. Our courses focus on principles and foundations that will be effective in changing circumstances and in many contexts.

All Real Estate Division courses are designed to be stand-alone distance education offerings - the examination is always based solely on the course materials which were sent to you. Select courses offer webinars, or live online classroom presentations. See your Course Resources webpage to see if these are offered in your course. If so, you will find registration and orientation details there.

The Real Estate Division tutorial service is a messaging service: students send email or leave a phone message, and a tutor responds as soon as possible. For tutorial questions, we generally prefer email, as we find that you can get more information across in more detail. This allows the tutor to better prepare before calling you back, improving the response and not wasting time on the phone. Also, if we have trouble reaching you, we can leave a detailed message that may solve the problem (rather than playing telephone tag). When you send us an email or leave a phone message, clearly state your name, area code and phone number, student and course number, and a brief description of the material you are having difficulty with. Please indicate an approximate time that you would prefer the tutors to return your call and the tutors will do their best to accommodate your needs. More information on policies and procedures for the tutorial line can be found in the Real Estate Division Student Handbook.

The Real Estate Division provides a telephone and email tutorial service, but does not arrange personal tutoring. Some suggestions for finding additional assistance:

• Contact other students on the student contact list. You can sign up and access the student contact list from your course resources web page in the "course tools" section. Alternatively, you could use the discussion forums found on your course resources webpage. Studying in groups can be beneficial, both to help each other with the material and as reassurance that other students are also finding the material challenging.
• Post a call for assistance to the online Student Café. A recent graduate of this course may be able and willing to help you out.
• Try to arrange a private tutorial yourself. To find a tutor, you could post an ad at your local college or university business school asking to hire a senior student (or even a teacher) as a tutor; or you could look in the classified ads of your local newspaper.
• Continue using the Real Estate Division telephone and email tutorial service. Most students find the tutorial line a very helpful resource - if there is any specific reason why you are unable to connect with the tutors, let us know, and possibly we can modify the service to suit your needs.

The time needed will vary by course. Weekly multiple choice questions may only take 2 or 3 hours, while completing a project or studying for your exam might take 60 hours or more. Overall, the time requirements should average to 10-20 hours per week over the 13 week term. This time requirement is roughly based on the time needed for a typical college/university course: three hours per week in class and two hours of homework for each of these hours, to a total of 10 hours per week. If you are taking significantly more time than this per week, you are probably getting a very in-depth understanding of the materials, but may be spending more time on any given subject than is optimal. If you are taking significantly less time than this, you might be a fast worker who is able to take in a lot of information quickly, or you could be missing areas of the material that may be tested later, and should exercise caution!

The multiple choice questions are intended to be "challenging but fair". These "quizzes" have three main intents:

1. To motivate students to read the course materials closely;
2. To motivate students to proceed through the course on schedule – by following established due dates, we try to minimize procrastination; and
3. To help students prepare for the final exam.

To reflect this, they are given quite minimal weight assigned in terms of final grade: roughly 0.1% per question. Each individual question has virtually no effect on a student's final grade.

You need to read the questions closely, as the specific language can often make a real difference to the meaning of the options. However, be careful to avoid over-analyzing questions and making them harder than intended. A good rule in answering multiple choice questions (especially on exams) is to stay with your initial "gut instinct" and not change your answer unless you have a specific reason to do so: e.g., missed something in the question, made a mistake in the calculation, misread something obvious. If you are tempted to change your answer upon reflection, quite often you are reading things into it that aren't there, tying yourself up in "what if" type theoretical knots.

If you find you are spending hours on individual questions, then you are likely going well beyond what is necessary or intended. You should contact the course tutor for clarification, as they can usually work through the problem with you quite quickly. Your time is much better spent working on your projects and in studying for the exam, as these have much more impact on your final grade in the course.

Written assignments and projects are submitted on the Real Estate Division’s website, through an online service called TurnItIn. Tutors will grade the project in TurnItIn, provide marking comments, and students can quickly and easily review the results. Note that TurnItIn also confirms content originality, to ensure there is no plagiarism. Please review the link “Submit Written Assignments and Projects” on your Course Resources webpage for detailed instructions – this is particularly important if you need to submit Excel spreadsheets or other additional files.

There is a fee for late assignments/projects as a motivator for students to stay on schedule – falling behind in a distance education course is very problematic, in that as a student begins to fall behind, the risk of them not completing the course grows and grows. Most university courses do not allow late assignments at all or deduct marks for lateness. We recognize that our students have busy lives, and believe that charging a fee is sufficient motivation and is preferable to having late assignments or projects impact the student's final grade. However, we also waive the first four late assignments/projects in a course, to allow for some flexibility.

The Real Estate Division has a policy that you are not charged any late fees for the first four late assignments. This gives students adequate time to adjust for the time it takes to get their assignments to the Real Estate Division. Also, if you registered late, this should give you enough time to catch up to the rest of the class.

The Real Estate Division doesn't provide extensions on due dates, but has a very flexible late assignment/project policy. If you are late on assignments or projects, there is a $15 fee for each late submission, although the first four late fees are waived. As such, you may submit your project according to Course Regulations, subject to these late fees. However, there are deadlines towards the end of term as to being eligible to write the regular exam or the supplemental (deferred) exam. You are strongly recommended to review the "Important Dates and Deadlines: Course Schedule" document on your Course Resources webpage, to ensure you will be eligible for the scheduled exam.

If you do fall behind on your assignments, it is important to catch up as quickly as possible:

• Doing all the assignments at the end may not give you adequate time to really get an in-depth understanding of the material and to reflect on any feedback from the marker.
• All assignments must be submitted before you can write the exam, in accordance with Course Regulations. If you're late getting them in, you may not get them back to study before your exam.
• Students that fall more than 5 assignments behind schedule may be withdrawn from the course.

If you find you are having trouble getting caught up, you should contact your course representative to discuss your situation.

The Real Estate Division’s credit courses are scheduled in order to help students progressing through the course at a pace that will allow them to complete all necessary work during the term. If you have fallen behind significantly and are unable to submit all of your course assignments by the Course End Date, you have 3 options;

1. You can transfer into a future offering of the same course (two transfer options are available to you within one year of your original course registration), or
2. You can defer your examination which will extend the deadline for assignment submission from the Course End Date to your current term’s scheduled examination date.
3. You can withdraw from the course (withdrawing will cause a “W” (withdrawn) or a “F” (Fail) status to be applied (see your Important Dates and Deadlines course schedule on your course resources web page for details).

You do not necessarily need to be alarmed if you do not pass one or more assignments. Your grade will be calculated as an average of all work, according to the percentages noted in your course workbook. Multiple choice assignments count for a small percentage of overall grade (less than 1% per assignment in most courses). However, if you find you are consistently doing poorly, then this should be cause for concern - if you are not successfully meeting the learning objectives, then you will need to change your study methods before the course exam.

Please contact your course representative. Depending on the circumstances, they may remark your assignment with the correct entries.

The Real Estate Division has a policy of regularly reviewing assignment marking to ensure it is comprehensive, fair, and consistent for all students. We are open to receiving feedback on our markers, positive or negative, since this helps us to know if we are being effective or less-than-effective (and therefore allows us to improve). If you think there is a problem for any specific assignment, we will review the marking if you send the assignment back to us with a letter explaining the problem. However, we will only change the mark if there are obvious mistakes such as marks totalled incorrectly, sections that the marker missed, etc. We absolutely will not change marks in areas which are subjective or matters of opinion. The marker has the benefit of seeing many papers which answer the same question, and is therefore in a much better position to judge the quality of an answer in relation to that provided by other students. For multiple choice questions, please keep in mind that these assignments make up only a small proportion of your final grade, and one or two marks are insignificant in the course as a whole (in a typical course, one mark on an assignment is worth approximately 0.07% towards your final grade).

If you are writing to appeal a program regulation or a decision made regarding your course or program there are several guidelines you may want to follow to help create an effective appeal.

• What is your goal? - The first step in writing an effective appeal is to state specifically what you are appealing and the outcome you are hoping to achieve.  If your appeal relates to certain program regulations, be sure to state specifically which regulation you are appealing.  Also be sure to state why you feel the regulation should not apply in your situation, or how you feel the regulation was applied unfairly.
• Communicate the details - Effectively communicate the circumstances surrounding your appeal, and include how the situation arose, what events took place, and how those events lead to the current situation.  Appeals should be brief, succinct and to the point, while at the same time accurately reflect the actual events and include facts that are verifiable.
• Appeals and emotions - Appeals can sometimes raise strong emotions, but these are better left off any written appeal.  It can be helpful to wait a day or two before beginning to put your appeal down in writing.
• Be reasonable in your expectations - Appeals are normally only granted in extraordinary situations, or on medical or compassionate grounds where circumstances are well beyond the control of the student.  Appeals are not typically granted when they relate to common situations within the control of the student such as performance on projects or examinations. 

The Real Estate Division appreciates hearing about any errors that students find in the course materials. Through this valuable feedback, we are able to keep our courses as correct and problem-free as possible. You can do a number of things, depending on the nature of the problem:

• If it is a significant problem that affects your understanding of the materials for the assignments or for the exam, please contact the course tutor as soon as possible. We will do what we can to alleviate the problem for you and for the entire class.
• If it is a small problem such as a typo or a simple numerical error, you might want to make a note of it and let us know at the end of the course by a letter or by phone, or in the course evaluation you will receive with your exam results.

There is no particular type of calculator required for Real Estate Division courses. The only requirement is that for the exam your calculator must be silent, cordless, hand-held, and cannot be both alphanumeric and programmable. We recommend the Hewlett Packard (HP) 10bII+ calculator. The steps shown in the course materials are based on this calculator. You may use another calculator if you wish, as long as it meets the exam requirements, but you will be required to learn its steps on your own. The Texas Instruments BAII Plus is a popular alternative calculator. Students can refer to the financial illustrations and statistical illustrations for further information.

The Real Estate Division tutorial line gets many calls from students who are getting the calculations wrong and believe their calculator is broken. Calculators rarely break down, so before concluding this, please contact the course tutor – he/she will work through common causes of problems with you (some of which are described below). You may also wish to review the "Introduction to the HP10BII calculator and review of mortgage finance techniques" which is found under "online readings" on your course resources webpage.

Why your calculator may be giving you the wrong answers:

• Data entry error: a common mistake is in entering one number incorrectly, or in forgetting a step such as entering 0 in FV or PMT for certain calculations (which means that whatever number is in the key from the previous calculation will remain in the key's memory). You can always check what is stored in any particular key by pressing RCL and then the key. For example, to check what is in the PV key, you can press RCL PV If you get a number that doesn't make sense or is wrong, you can simply change this one number rather than starting again from the beginning. RCL can be used to figure out where a data entry problem occurred.
• BEGIN appears on your calculator screen: if your calculator shows BEGIN on the bottom of the screen, you will get the wrong answers in most financial calculations. Mortgage payments are made in arrears or "not in advance" (i.e., you pay interest at the end of each month), compared to lease payments which are made in advance (i.e., you pay on the 1st of each month for the month ahead). You should set your calculator to "end-of-period" mode by pressing shift (the yellow key) BEG/END. This will remove BEGIN from your screen.
• Decimal places: the HP 10bII/10bII+ calculator will display 0-10 decimal places. If you have the calculator set to show, say, 2 decimal places, it will automatically round off answers to the nearest cent. You don't want this setting because some calculations require a lot more accuracy and in others you need to be able to decide rounding for yourself. You should put your calculator in "floating decimal" mode which shows the most significant decimals possible – press shift DISP .(period)
• Batteries: if the batteries are dying, your calculator screen will dim and eventually a little battery symbol will show in the bottom right corner. However, your calculator won't start to give wrong answers as the batteries run out! See your HP 10bII/10bII+ owner's manual for instructions on how to replace the batteries.
• Self-test: if none of the above solves the problem, you can test the calculator using its self-test feature. See your HP 10bII/10bII+ owner's manual for instructions on running a self-test. If your calculator fails the self-test, before concluding it is defective, try running the self-test several times. It should come up with the same error message consistently – if it does not, then it is unlikely to be malfunctioning.

If you have a problem with the HP 10bII/10bII+ calculator that you purchased from the Real Estate Division AND you are within one year of the date you purchased their calculator from us, please contact tutor@realestate.sauder.ubc.ca. We may replace their calculator if it is faulty, but we will not offer a refund. Our Real Estate Assistants will double check on the phone to confirm if the calculator is indeed faulty or if you have pressed some keys incorrectly, etc. If the calculator is deemed to be faulty, you will be directed by the Real Estate Assistants to send the calculator back to our office to:

ATTN: Real Estate Assistant
UBC Real Estate Division
Calculator Returns
247- 2053 Main Mall (Henry Angus Building)
Vancouver BC V6T 1Z2

A final check will then be made by the Real Estate Assistants to make sure the calculator is indeed faulty, and if so, we will send you a new calculator. If not, we will return your calculator to you.

Should you wish to contact Hewlett-Packard directly, their customer service number is 1.800.268.1221.

The main intent of the multiple choice assignments is to ensure that students are reviewing the course materials in-depth and are maintaining a good pace towards completing the course. They are marked so that students can have feedback on their level of understanding and sometimes to help students think about the materials in new ways. If you are doing well on the assignments, it is a good sign that you are understanding the topics -- if you keep up this level of studying, you should do fine on the rest of the course. In most Real Estate Division courses the final examination is the main test of your competence and mastery of the course material. One of main reasons for this is a security issue. Because the Real Estate Division's courses are offered by distance, there is a concern that the person writing the assignments may not be the person who registered. At the exam, we check this by asking for picture identification. These courses qualify students for licensing and accreditation, and it is crucial for us to be able to assure these professional organizations that all of our graduates really do have this education.

The projects are intended to be a challenging and creative application of course concepts. They generally go beyond the course materials requiring students to do outside research and critical analysis, in many cases applying concepts to a practical setting. Although it requires more effort, simulating what real estate practitioners do in practice is a much more effective learning exercise than just reading about it. You will not be expected to get everything right the first time, but you will learn more than just reading about the subject. Hopefully, you can achieve a rewarding balance by both reading and doing. The overarching intent of these projects is to help develop research skills, writing skills, and critical thinking. These projects have been built into our courses largely in response to student feedback. In past Real Estate Division courses, the exam counted for 85-100% of the course grade, meaning that a term’s work was decided in a single three hour exam. The projects have been implemented to take some weight off of the final exam, allowing students to demonstrate their competencies in other ways. We hope that this varied work will give students more options and more input into their own success, effectively allowing students more control over their educational destiny.

First, contact your tutor, and he/she can guide you in your information gathering. You may wish to establish a relationship with a knowledgeable industry practitioner (e.g., appraiser, analyst, broker, or developer). Such relationships may lend valuable assistance in completing the project (and may also lead to future networking benefits in your career!). For sales information, brokers are usually happy to help, as you may be a source of future business for them. Appraisers and property managers have typically gone through an educational program like this, and are usually happy to help out those aspiring to join the profession. However, these are busy people, so organize your questions in advance and don’t waste their time. Another source of helpful information may be professional organizations in the area, such as the Real Estate Institute of BC, Appraisal Institute of Canada, or the Institute of Real Estate Management.

Keep in mind that this is a learning experience - no one expects your work to be perfect, and it is ok to make some mistakes along the way. You are learning new material and you will not get everything exactly right the first time. You should do the best job you can.

This is a university credit course and you are marked according to university guidelines. It is not a “competency-based” course where satisfactory completion of assigned tasks automatically results in a 100% grade. UBC guidelines describe the letter grades and percentages for student performance. A paper that is of good quality, meets expectations, but is not exceptional relative to peers might receive an A- or 80%. There is nothing wrong with the paper in particular, which is why it got an A-, but it is not work that is distinguished. Only a paper that is exceptional would receive an A+, or a grade of 90% or higher. A paper that is flawed minimally would receive a grade less than 80%, and significantly flawed a grade lower than 70%. Further explanation can be found in the following resources:

• The Real Estate Division Student Handbook explains grading policies.
• The University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management provides similar guidelines which may help explain grading policies.

No. Assignments and projects cannot be resubmitted for additional marks and there is no appeal of these grades allowable [Regulation 2.06(3)]. You only get one chance, so you have to put in a good effort the first time through. One option you do have available to you is to redo and resubmit your project in order to receive additional marker feedback. This costs $35. Note that this will not change your mark though - it is only to receive clarification that you are now on the right track. This can be critical in courses where the assignments or projects build in complexity and you need a solid foundation before you can move on.

[Note: an exception to the above is courses where the final assignment or project is equivalent to a final exam (444, 451, 499). If grade of less than 60% is received, you can resubmit for a $175 fee. See your course workbook for details]

If you submitted your project on time, the Real Estate Division will attempt to have your project marked and returned before the exam date. However, in order to give you as much time as possible to complete your projects, the due date is late in the term, and thus it may not always be possible to get you your project back on time. In general, the projects are a practical application of course concepts and because of this, they do not generally cover new testable materials, and are usually not particularly necessary as a studying aid.

The course end date falls one week after the final assignment/project due date in most courses, and 2-3 weeks prior to the exam. This is a very important academic deadline, because it is the last day where students can either: (a) submit all assignments/projects and be eligible to write the regularly scheduled final exam; or (b) apply to defer their exam; OR (c) apply to transfer to a future offering of the same course. Students that do not pursue one of these three actions by the course end date are mandatorily withdrawn from the course, have a grade of fail recorded on their course history, and are required to register once again for the course, paying full tuition fees.

There are a number of reasons that the textbooks are not included as a part of the course materials in some courses (e.g., BUSI 100, 101, 330, 400, 401, 433, and 460) and why we felt it was reasonable to do so. First, it is standard policy in university courses for textbooks to not be included as a part of tuition. This reflects the large retail cost of these books. Students may purchase these books from the Real Estate Division online bookstore, but are encouraged to shop online for eBook alternatives or talk to prior students, as used versions may be available. The Appraisal of Real Estate, Third Canadian Edition is an AIC and Appraisal Institute US publication (although published on their behalf by UBC). Most of the cost of this book is royalties to these two organizations (in other words, it is an expensive book for us to distribute). This book is required reading in 330, and recommended or suggested reading for 331, 442, 452, and 499, so it is used in not just one course, but in five. As well, The Appraisal of Real Estate is the central book endorsed by the AIC and is expected to be the main reference source for appraisers across Canada, which will help you beyond the course in any area of real estate professional practice. There are many copies of these book out there in appraisal firms and in general circulation and we encourage students to attempt to borrow these textbooks and save this cost.

No. Assignment 4 in 398/497/499 involves selecting and registering a subject property, so you do not need one before starting the course. This is a critical decision in this course, and you will be given guidance on this decision from the workbook and from your tutor. If you want to begin looking for a property before starting the course, you can view the “registering a subject property” link on your BUSI 398/497/499 curse resources webpage.

The guided case study courses help students prepare a detailed appraisal report. For many appraisers, this is the largest and most comprehensive report they will complete in their career. This report is the closest thing in the AIC program to a thesis or graduating paper – and similar to these, providing a sample or template would hamper the originality and creativity that is an important part of this exercise. That being said, for every section of the report the workbook has an exceptionally detailed set of instructions as to what is expected. Working with these explicit instructions, together with advice from your tutor, should provide adequate guidance to succeed in this course.

The guided case study courses are intended to be completed as one of the final steps before pursuing an AIC (or other) professional designation. AIC students will ideally already be a candidate member working in a real estate valuation-related field towards fulfilling AIC’s applied experience requirements. Through this work, students will gain access to data and documents that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to source. Working in real estate is not a requirement, but it is an asset in successfully completing this exceptionally challenging course.

The guided case study is a real-world, practical valuation exercise, which requires considerable independent research. UBC’s tutors offer guidance, but students must find all necessary data and documents on their own. This may incur additional fees, potentially up to several hundred dollars, for documents such as: title searches for the subject property and comparables, corporate registry searches, costing reports, surveys and maps, and so on.

BUSI 121 has a fair amount of algebra in it. While the end result is that you can do 90% of the calculations required using your calculator, the course spends a fair amount of time working with the algebraic formulas underlying what the calculator is doing. The hope is that by illustrating how the formulas operate, you will have a better understanding of how mortgage finance works. Math 11 would probably suffice as a pre-requisite, although Math 12 would certainly be of benefit, in terms of being comfortable with algebra.

BUSI 300 is a math-focused course, requiring students to work with many formulas. Being comfortable with algebra is quite important in this course. The content doesn't focus on finance (i.e., present value analysis) or statistics, so the content in 121 isn't a requirement in order to understand what is going on. However, being comfortable with math is a requirement, so completing 121 first might be a good starting point.

BUSI 330 outlines the foundations of real estate appraisal. Economics shows how markets form and their influence on prices, which provides the fundamental basis for real estate value. So, studying economics (100, 101) before completing this appraisal course will give students an appreciation for the underlying influences on value and make for a better course experience in BUSI 330. Similarly, appraisal is a math-based process, so a more in-depth understanding of financial math is also helpful to have before attempting BUSI 330 (provided in BUSI 121). However, note that BUSI 330 is designed to be a stand-alone course that can be completed without these prior studies in 100, 101, or 121 – meaning 100, 101, 121 are recommended to be completed prior to BUSI 330, but not required. For example, the Appraisal Institute of Canada requires BUSI 330 to be completed prior to becoming a candidate – students who need candidacy to begin their career in valuation may wish to complete BUSI 330 as soon as possible, and may choose to skip the 100, 101, 121 recommended courses, instead completing them later.

Economic principles are the foundation for real property valuation, because it is micro and macroeconomics that drive real estate markets. Similarly, to understand the value of real estate as an investment, one needs to understand how real estate fits into other sectors of the economy, locally, regionally, provincially, nationally, and internationally. Macroeconomic factors such as GDP, imports/exports, inflation, and interest rates have a direct impact on real estate values -- most noticeable when there is a substantial change in any of them -- and appraisers must be able to interpret how these factors impact value.

The BUSI 100 and 101 courses provide this basic economic education. Most of the material is general to all areas of business, although the workbook provides some supplementary real estate specific information.

UBC's Diploma in Urban Land Economics specifies these as foundation courses, necessary before more in-depth real estate economics applications can be studied. The Appraisal Institute of Canada has specified these courses as requirements for their accreditation.

BUSI 460 reflects the increasing emphasis that professional organizations (such as AIC) are placing on preparing the next generation of property consultants and appraisers to develop the skill sets that are critical in successfully meeting the business needs of their clients.

Put one way, it is about thinking for a living. The course emphasizes the importance of and need for creative, critical thinking in problem solving. Such skills are learned and developed through constant effort, but they are difficult to examine (you will note that there is a major project required for the course but not an examination). You will be expected to demonstrate creative, critical thinking in all assignments.

You will find that the course is built within the framework of creative problem solving. The course introduces you to a variety of 'tools' that you can apply within a creative problem solving framework - i.e., decision analysis and forecasting techniques. You will not become a professional forecaster as a result of completing this course. But you will have a better understanding of decision-making processes and an ability to critically analyze forecasts - whether you or someone else prepares them.

BUSI 460 is less about providing "job ready" skills and more about facilitating critical thinking and making more effective decisions. An analogy for BUSI 460 is studying introductory macroeconomics. In this subject there is very little studied that will be directly applied in one's work, but there is no question the subject matter is effective in terms of better understanding how the market operates, the basis for value, and the "big picture". BUSI 460 focuses on similar big picture issues: not specific applications such as step-by-step how to forecast a cap rate for a hotel, but questioning the basis for why you might want to, what you should perhaps be doing differently, and then some basic resources for carrying out such a forecast should it be necessary. Rather than application specifics, it provides a grounding and then an informed starting point for further study on your own.

You will learn about solving the RIGHT problem, and then about solving that problem in the right WAY - all without losing sight of your client's business context. You will find that the client's perspective is emphasized throughout the course.

BUSI 112 is aimed cross-Canada at people interested in real estate in general. The majority of the examples used in this course are still based on sales transactions and brokers, as this is the most common legal transaction in real estate. However, the course is also balanced with discussion of appraisal and other areas of practice. One comparative drawback of BUSI 112 is that it is less specific and definitive than BUSI 111: because most real estate legislation is provincial, in order to make BUSI 112 applicable across Canada we have had to generalize on many legal issues (e.g., "In many provinces, the law is...."). Because of this, the BCFSA does not recognize this course towards real estate licenses in BC. However, AIC does recognize the course for its designations.

BUSI 111 is the course aimed specifically at BC students only. It uses the Trading Services (Salesperson's) licensing course as its reading materials, with very similar assignments and projects. The law topics are largely the same as BUSI 112, but they are aimed specifically at people wanting to be licensed. The course focuses detailed attention on BC's real estate legislation, and the BCFSA recognizes it for credit towards licensing. For students possibly interested in real estate sales in BC, this may be an attractive option.

In summary, both courses cover largely the same content. 111 is more specific, but with a sales flavour. 112 is more general, but more focused on real estate practice overall, not just sales. AIC recognizes both, and both are applicable to UBC's Diploma in Urban Land Economics. Only 111 is recognized by BCFSA as partial credit towards licensing.

BUSI 344/444 require a statistical software program. The workbook instructions are written for the IBM SPSS program see the statistical software page for information on purchasing the required software for your course. For BUSI 460, SPSS is used to illustrate statistical forecasting applications, but the use of SPSS will not be required for the projects, assignments, or exam. BUSI 460 students may purchase SPSS if they wish to follow along with the steps illustrated in the course manual Addenda (optional only).

Yes and no. The BUSI 445/446 courses present a broad overview of the development process, from inception to completion, so that a student is familiar with all aspects. However, the course does not go into great detail on any specific aspect, so as to be considered 'job training'. As well, keep in mind that property development is an entrepreneurial pursuit much of what it takes to be a developer is creativity and a willingness to undertake risk, both of which cannot be taught. However, BUSI 445/446 do offer a good starting point in terms of understanding the basics and beginning work in the field.