The Current Body of Knowledge Paradigms Used in Real Estate Education and Issues in Need of Further Research

The ARES Body of Knowledge Committee surveyed its members in order to uncover the current state of the art in the practice of the body of knowledge (BOK) and skills that generated a series of conclusions and recommendations. One important conclusion was that the questions and issues surrounding the BOK are too large for one individual or group to address effectively and that ARES should continue to sponsor the BOK committee, BOK presentations at its annual meeting, publication of articles in the Journal of Real Estate Literature, periodic surveys, and coordination with BOK committees of other allied organizations. The BOK needs continual research and discussion before it can evolve into a final paradigm that is acceptable to all users.

New Ranking of Decision-Making Subject Areas for Corporate Real Estate Executives

This study is among the first to uncover specific concepts and skills critical to the general corporate real estate executive. The research targeted a broad range of U.S. and international corporate real estate executives in positions to know the requirements for their assignment. The results rank the three most important current subject areas critical to corporate real estate decision making as real estate market interpretation, general tools of analysis as opposed to specific tools and relationships with other personnel and the public. An additional area, lease analysis, was also found to be a part of the required concepts and skills.

A Note on the Optimal Selection and Weighting of Comparable Properties

This paper reexamines the recommendation by Vandell (1991), Gau, Lai and Wang (1992, 1994) and Green (1994) for the use of the minimum variance and coefficient of variation criteria in the optimum selection of comparables. These authors under-emphasize the typical valuation scenario that involves extremely small samples. The analyst must rank the few available comparable properties and select the "best" to carry the most weight in the final estimate of value. Rank transformation regression is suggested as one approach that can be used to extract the buying trend. The commonly taught paired-sale analysis will remain as the industry tool until more accurate estimates of value are developed with small samples.

US Real Estate Agent Income and Commercial/Investment Activities

This article uses canonical correlation analysis to investigate the income characteristics of active real estate agents in the United States who elected to participate in commercial and investment transactions. The model is unique in that it included activity areas to determine the specialties where agents generated the income and the type of clients who paid for the service. Future studies should consider the multiple dependent variable approach with activity areas to capture the relationship between income and the type of work involved.

Structural Analysis of U.S. Appraiser Income

This study represents the first investigation of appraiser income at the national level. It is especially timely because it addresses the value of Appraisal Institute designations in a post-FIRREA world, in addition to investigating the impact of gender on appraiser income. The study employs a worker-productivity, human-capital model and finds that appraiser income is positively and significantly impacted by the amount of work effort expended, the level of appraisal experience, and the formal education and professional training attained by an appraiser. Appraisal Institute designations are found to have a significant and positive impact on income, even in a post-FIRREA world of required appraiser licensing and certification. Gender does not appear to impact appraiser income. However, questions do arise regarding the status of female (and minority) appraisers.

Cancerphobia: Electromagnetic Fields and Their Impact on Residential Loan Values

This article provides a matrix representation of the adjustment grid estimator. From this representation, one can invoke the Gauss-Mrkov theorem to examine the efficiency of ordinary least squares (OLS) and the grid estimator that uses OLS estimates of the adjustments (the "plug-in" grid method). In addition, this matrix representation suggests a generalized least squares version of the grid method, labeled herin as the total grid estimator. Based on the empirical experiments, the total grid estimator outperformed the plug-in grid estimator, which in turn outperformed the OLS.

A critical appraisal of “The Effect of Corrective Splinting on Flexion Contracture of Rheumatoid Fingers”

Chronic conditions are becoming more prevalent with our aging population increasingly becoming the majority and the growing use of technology. To answer the clinical question surrounding the effectiveness of splinting for contractures, the article “The Effect of Corrective Splinting on Flexion Contracture of Rheumatoid Fingers” was appraised for strengths and weaknesses and assessed for credibility. The introduction provides the background and importance of this critical appraisal surrounding the interest in the effectiveness of splinting in treating contractures associated with chronic conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. The methods detail the process of literature review including database selection, key words, limitations, inclusions/exclusions, and initial hit count. The results appraise each section of the article for strengths and weaknesses in order to assess usefulness or possible application of the treatment methods discussed. Overall, this article did not present enough credible evidence to definitively prove splinting is a safe and effective treatment for contractures associated with chronic conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. However, this article does provide insight and encouragement for further studies to investigate splinting as a promising treatment

Analysis of the Response of a Bromeliad, Vriesea gigantea, Subjected to Drought

Drought can quickly alter physiological processes in plants not adapted to such conditions. Epiphytic plants, however, have been noted to have some tolerance to drought, which is evident in their water-holding tanks. Several physiological components were measured to determine if Vriesea gigantea, an epiphytic bromeliad, has drought tolerance. Water content, maximum quantum yield, protein concentration, and protein content were measured and compared between three control plants and three experimental plants, which were subjected to two weeks of no water. Water content showed a significant difference, indicating that the plants were being stressed compared to the control plants. The average maximum quantum yield was nearly identical (0.8), demonstrating the same likelihood of an electron being passed to photosynthesis and therefore photosynthetic processes are continuing at the same rate. Protein content resulted with a higher amount in the drought samples, as was also noticed in the darker bands of both Coomassie stained and Western blot gels compared to the control. The data obtained renders this species to be sufficiently drought tolerant at a two week, drought period

Federal and State Regulation of Activities Affecting Water Quality

54 pages