Customer Reviews

How to Prepare for the Real Estate Exams: Salesperson, Broker, Appraiser

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

One example of this book's superiority is its section on mortgages, financing residential properties, and on possible forms of ownership. I have been in the real estate industry in one capacity or another since the early 70's and this is the best book presentation I've seen. It is concise, easily understood, but contains a lot of information. My only frustration with the book was that as it was not state specific, I had to rely on a local publication for that which was full of errors and inadequacies so I had to constantly also go to my law dictionary and business law book and text books from my paralegal courses to refresh my memory on details specific to my state. Granted, I may not be 'usual' as I am also a paralegal etc. but on the other hand, I only reviewed for parts of 2 1/2 days, so was relatively satisfied with my exam scores.

I bought this book to study for the Illinois exam, which is administered by AMP. I am a licensed attorney with a background in real estate law, so I figured the exam would be a breeze as long as I read this book carefully. While I passed the exam, I was not happy to see the breadth of topics that turned up on the exam that were not even mentioned in this book, and also chapters of this book that were irrelevant. A lot of the uncovered material was general Real Estate law, and was totally ignored by this book. I would spend your money on something that focuses on your specific exam, Borders had several books that focus specifically on the AMP test and looked much more in line with what I saw on the exam. Also note these books don't cover state law at all, you have to buy another book for that, or try printing out all the statutes and using them.

I had a hard time using this book to study for the appraisal exam and didn't find it useful to me. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

i USED A real estate calculations book for the Hewlett packard HP-12C calculator authored by a real estate instructor/author by the name of John A. Tirone. John's book is called Professional Real Estate Problem Solving Using the HP-12C and amazon carries the book.
The most treacherous part of the appraisal exams is the calculations and no book other than the Tirone book does the field in a manne rthat you can easily understand. The Tirone book lays things out truly in a step by step manner. and, add to it that Tirone can be called with questions on the calculations in the book, etc, it is pretty much a must for all of us who are taking the appraisal and brokers exams.

Recognizing that this review serves only those who are researching older books on this topic, perhaps in preparation to buy them used, I'm writing it anyway so that people like me don't waste their time with this book instead of getting one more appropriate to your needs.

Pros:
1. The textbook portion of the book is well organized and easy to read.
2. Multiple choice, True/False, and Fill-In style chapter questions to ensure chapter comprehension.


Cons:
1. It's designed to be non-state specific, so in order to ensure that you've studied _everything_ you need to know, you need access to other sources of information (ie. State-specific study guides, non-user friendly printouts of Real Estate Law from your DOS website, etc).
2. I live in a state where all of the questions on our state exam are multiple choice, so I didn't need the T/F and Fill-In questions. In fact, I kind of felt "throw off" by them after plowing through
3. If you're using this to study for the Salesperson's course, the majority of the textbook portion of the book is for you, but only 3 of the 9 full-length practice exams is for you (the other 6 being for the Broker and Appraisal exams)
4. It is a little cumbersome to flip back and forth to the exam answers, which are all grouped together rather than directly following the exams themselves. Also, the math explanations are in their own section and not with the other answers... more flipping back and forth.

Overall, this book served my needs, in terms of helping me study for my exam, but it wasn't the most ideal choice. I got this book from the library, along with several others, but if I had been shopping to buy one, I would have definitely gone with something else.