MEMORANDUM (AKA SYLLABUS)
TO: Students
From: Prof. Nancy J. White, J.D.
RE: Syllabus for BLR 330, Real Estate Law
DATE: Fall 2013
***************
Professor: Nancy J. White, J.D.
Office: Sloan 329. Sloan in 2 buildings east of Grawn – the one beside at the big student parking lot near the graduate
dorms.
Office Hours: Tues: 2pm-5pm, Wed: 11:30am – 1:30pm. The best way to contact me out of class is by email and I
respond to student’s emails unless you ask me what we did in class. I expect professional, business-looking emails.
Do NOT address me with “Hey”. Please use complete words and sentences; this is the College of Business not
the local chat room. Email Address: nancy.white@cmich.edu. Phone: 774-1842.
Course description: The fundamentals of the law relating to land ownership and use, including possessory and nonpossessory rights and interests in land.
Texting in class, electronics, cell phone courtesy: Each time I catch you texting in class, I will reduce a quiz
grade to 0. If all of your quiz grades become zero because of this, I will begin reducing homework grades and
then exam grades to 0. Please give me the courtesy of your attention in class and if you cannot, then please
leave. I do not take attendance; you can leave at any time. I do not allow any electronic devices in class. Turn off cell
phones. If you are expecting a call, turn cellphone to vibrate and leave the room when the call arrives.
Course website: www.blackboard.cmich.edu Your CMU global ID is your login name and your CMU email password is
the password. I cannot change your password and if you are having trouble logging on please call 774-3662.
Attending class: I expect you to attend every class unless an emergency arises. To encourage attendance I will have a
QUIZ or EXAM EVERY THURSDAY. All students should be aware of what occurs in every class. If you are absent and
miss instructions or information, please get it from a class member who was present. It is not always your fault when you
miss class, but it is never mine. Do not ask me, "I was absent, did I miss anything?" The answer to this question is always,
“Yes.” If I could convey the material to you in a few minutes, I would not have spent an entire class period on it. I do not
respond to emails asking me what we did in class as we go through the packet in order.
Required materials: (1) Text: Text is: Aalberts, Real Estate Law, 8th ed, ISBN 13: 978-0-8400-5359-6 or
Aalberts & Siedel. Real Estate Law, 7th ed. ISBN 13: 978-0-324-65520-9. (2) Packet to be purchased at the bookstore.
BRING PACKET TO CLASS!!!!
Suggested materials: This class has a lot of paper; I suggest you dedicate a three-ring binder to this class. You should
put the course packet into the binder and you can add homework etc. to the same binder.
Writing assignments: You may have, or have had, classes in which the professor says something like, “This is not an
English class and the way you write is not important, only the content.” MY CLASS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE CLASSES.
Learning to communicate through writing is one of the most important skills needed by business people and one
of the skills most college students need to work on. You will have some writing assignments and YOUR WRITING
ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE GRADED FOR GRAMMAR AND ORGANIZATION. I also expect posts and emails to be
professionally written with proper grammar.
Homework – see specific instructions on Blackboard for each assignment.
It is your responsibility to check the upcoming assignments on Blackboard! You will have assignments each week.
I may not go over the assignment in class and remind you there is an assignment due; there is ALWAYS an assignment
due, check Blackboard for complete instructions.
1. Online quizzes due Tuesday at noon BEFORE CLASS. Written assignments are due at the beginning of class
Tuesday. Discussion board assignments due noon on Wednesday and responsive posts midnight on Saturday.
In-class quiz/exam every Wednesday.
2. More on homework: Homework is due at the beginning of class and if not brought with you to class it is late and
the late penalties apply, see below. I require this because often we review the homework in class at the beginning
of class. If you do not bring the completed assignment with you to class, for any reason or no reason, the
assignment is considered late. See “Late Homework Policy” below.
3. DO NOT SEND ME YOUR HOMEWORK BY EMAIL unless specifically instructed to do so. Bring your homework
to class. If an emergency arises I will accept homework by email EARLY without penalty. Otherwise, see “Late
Homework Policy” below.
4. You must pick up graded homework; I take off 10% for homework that is not picked up.
5. Homework sent by email will have 10% taken off unless it is sent early with an explanation.
Turning in assignments early: If you ill or have a conflict with another event on the date an assignment is due, you can
turn in the assignment early, by email, without penalty, if you include an explanation of why you are sending me the
material by email. I DO NOT LIKE GETTING HOMEWORK BY EMAIL, IT IS HARD FOR ME TO INTEGRATE INTO MY
SYSTEM.
Late homework policy
My homework assignments are related to the material being covered and I go over the assignment in class on the day
it is due. For this reason, you need to do the homework and bring it to class. If you are unable to bring the homework
to class on the day it is due, I will accept the homework late but I will take off 10% per day, including the day the
homework is due. This penalty will apply even in the case of extreme illness or death in the family. I am sorry for this, but
I have too many assignments to try and keep track of all of the excuses students can come up with for not turning in
homework when it is due. Remember, you do not need 100% to get an A in this class and turning in one or two
assignments late because of an emergency will not cause you to get a poor grade in this class.
Electronics and Recording
Please turn off all cell phones, ipods, computers, etc. in the class room. I do not allow video recording or audio recording
in my classrooms. I do not allow laptops. I do not allow earphones. NO TEXTING IN CLASS.
In order to protect the intellectual property interests of the instructor, the privacy interests of student members of the class,
and to encourage an open and fair exposition of all student views in the classroom without fear that student views
expressed will be recorded and possibly posted in another forum, recording of classroom lectures and conversations is
not permissible without the express, prior written consent of the instructor. Unauthorized recording of classroom activity
shall be considered a violation of the CMU Student Code of Rights, Responsibilities, and Disciplinary Procedures as
disruptive of a student’s right to learn under 3.2.3 Disruption of Learning.
Exam make ups: It is your responsibility to schedule an exam make up with me. Failure to schedule a make up exam
within 72 hours of the date of the exam will result in an automatic 0.
What to Expect On Exams
1. 3 exams, one is the final exam. My philosophy is that you must read/review/study this material 4-6 times in order
to get it into your long term memory. Therefore, I try to force you to look at the material several times in order to
do well in this class. This will get more information into your long term memory. THEREFORE, ALL MY EXAMS
ARE PARTIALY CUMULATIVE. I review the results of the exam, point out the areas where the class was weak.
You should study that material again for the next exam.
2. Exams consist of multiple choice questions. However, the questions are usually long as they involve problems,
not definitions.
3. I allow you to take in a page of notes to all exams. You may handwrite or use a computer, both sides of
the paper, any font.
Student evaluation: Each semester I have between 3,000 and 4,000 grades to enter between all of the assignments in
my 3 classes. I will make mistakes. One of your responsibilities in this class is to make sure I have YOUR
grades entered correctly. Check to make sure I have entered all grades correctly. I will not change a written
assignment grade based on an email. YOU MUST SHOW ME THE PAPER.
Points in this class are weighted – that is one point earned on a quiz is not the same as one point
earned on an exam.
Exams
Weekly online and in-class quizzes/assignments/discussion boards – this category
consists of one on-line quiz and a weekly in-class quiz/assignment. The 5 lowest scores are
DROPPED AUTOMATICALLY ALL SEMESTER BY THE COMPUTER. YOUR GRADE
ALWAYS REFLECTS THE FIVE LOWEST QUIZZES DROPPED. You will always see all of
your scores, but the computer drops the lowest ones from the calculation each time it
calculates the overall score.
40%
30%
30%
Homework assignments. Note: I do not drop any written assignments. I expect you to do all
of the assignments in this class. Assignments are posted fairly early and are on Blackboard so
you can plan ahead. You will have a written assignment due almost EVERY Tuesday.
TOTAL
100%
Overall Grading Scale: Remember, grades are weighted per above schedule. This means a point on an exam is worth
more than a point on a quiz, etc.
59.99 60%
63%
67%
70%
73%
77%
80%
83%
87%
90%
93%
100%
and
below
E
DD
D+
CC
C+
BB
B+
AA
A
Special Consideration:
CMU provides students with disabilities reasonable accommodation to participate in educational programs, activities or
services. Students with disabilities requiring accommodation to participate in class activities or meet course requirements
should first register with the office of student disability services in the Park Library. They will give you complete
instructions on what to do.
Classroom Civility:
See the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Disciplinary Procedures.
Electronics
Please turn off all cell phones, ipods, computers, etc. in the class room. I do not allow video recording or audio recording
in my classrooms. I do not allow laptops. I do not allow earphones. NO TEXTING IN CLASS.
Plagiarism and Working Together: For complete information on the Academic Integrity Policy see link under ‘External
Links’ on Blackboard. STUDENTS MUST WRITE THEIR OWN ASSIGNMENTS. The primary purpose of a written
assignment (in this class) is for you to practice writing. The content is secondary – I can test your knowledge of content
with multiple choice exams. I can only test your ability to communicate through writing by grading writing assignments. As
such, you are not to collaborate on the writing assignments except you may talk about what you think the correct answer
is, but NO COLLABORATION ON THE WRITING. I cannot emphasize this enough. Evidence of collaboration or
academic dishonesty will result in automatic failing of this course. Evidence of cut and paste, particularly from the internet,
will result in reduction of course grade – YOU MUST PRACTICE WRITING. The following are all examples of what you
CANNOT do:
 Copy another student’s paper. DO NOT EVEN LOOK AT ANOTHER STUDENT’S PAPER.
 Copy from the internet – you can summarize ideas you get from the internet, but you cannot cut and paste. When
you summarize or quote something from ANY source, including the internet, you MUST give credit to that source in a
‘References’ or ‘Works Cited’ page.
 Sit down at the computer and start typing AND say what you are typing out loud so the students next to you can type
what you are saying. (I actually had a student claim this was not cheating).
 I recommend you not even read another student’s paper. The problem is (and I know this because I remember)
students will read something and think: “This is the only way to say this. I have to copy since there is only one way to
say this”. THIS IS INCORRECT. I frequently read 80-100 papers on the same topic; each is slightly different. I have
been able to tell two students collaborated on a paper because they had ONE word (a very odd one admittedly) the
same.
The following type of CONVERSATION between students is acceptable:
Student A: Gee, do you think the state court has jurisdiction over this matter?
Student B: Yes, I think there are minimum contacts because the business has an office in the state.
I do not mind if you TALK to each other about the problems – that is a good idea. But, you MUST DO YOUR OWN
WRITING and TYPING.
See the Academic Integrity Policy at http://academicsenate.cmich.edu/noncurric.htm
Topics covered in this class:
Legal process, sources or types of law,
operation of the court system.
Land, water, and air rights
Fixtures
How to brief a case, how to prepare a simple
legal argument
Estates in land
Easements
Contract law
Agency law
Real estate closings
Liens and deeds
Real estate closings
Title and insurance
Adverse possession
Landlord/tenant relationship
Rights and duties of landowners