MAI Exam Prep

[Michael S]

Congrats on finishing the courses and good luck on the test!

As you know, the difficulty in using an existing property for the demo is ensuring it has all the required elements that need to be demonstrated.
The advantage of the Capstone is that it has all the required elements that need to be demonstrated.
If you are fortunate enough to have an existing report that has all the elements necessary to meet the demonstration requirements, then I would agree with your strategy; it may just require some minor tweaking.

My Capstone assignment was data rich and obviously designed to be able to meet the demonstration requirements. The trade-off of the Capstone (IMO) is this: You pay a fee to get an assignment and the data that meets the demonstration requirements. You are put on a time-line and this assists keeping your focus on completing the assignment within the due date. If your first submission is inadequate you can complete a second submission. The disadvantage is this: If you fail to meet the deadline, you are out the fee.
While I believe there is still a timeline and hard deadlines for a self-directed demonstration report, all the responsibility for ensuring that the necessary demonstration elements are met are on the shoulders of the appraiser. Obviously), this is the way it was traditionally completed and it can be done this way. The advantage (IMO) is if one has a sufficiently diverse practice, one likely has done or knows of a property that can meet all the required demonstration elements. And, rather than paying to get a demonstration-eligible property/assignment, one has already been paid to do that assignment and one can hopefully just tweak it as needed.

In evaluating the choices, I think the biggest challenge will be to ensure that there is sufficient data available to do the Fundamental Market Analysis to the level/degree that is expected. My Capstone property was located in an urban area where there was plenty of information (included in the package). If I am in a more remote market, I might not have the data available that the graders of the demonstration reports might expect or require.

Good luck, Michael!

Data is always scarce here in New Mexico, especially with the non-disclosure element thrown in. There's a certain percentage of sales that you'll just never be able to use as comps since nobody can confirm the sales price or other details due to confidentiality/non-disclosure agreements or just plain not wanting to talk.

I've done an FMA on an apartment property (a superfluous request from a client but a decent learning experience as I had just taken the market analysis course a month or two earlier) but I think I might consider an industrial property and go the functional or external obsolescence route rather than an FMA. There's a decent sized industrial park here that I've done some work in and it's mostly owned by the original developer. If I offered to provide a free appraisal of one of his properties he would probably be willing to provide with information on the other properties including construction costs, expenses, rents, etc.

I'm not too worried about the cost of the capstone course but the time involved. The cost is a factor though since I'll be out another $1,000 or so for travel and lodging on top of the cost of the course. Since I'll be starting from scratch it would probably take longer than if I use a property here locally that I'm somewhat familiar with and have a lot of the data on already.

 

[reviewbe]

Play with the data you know to see if you have enough. You need land sales, costs/breakdown method, iirc,improved sales and rents. You can find something that will be functional obsolescence. Make sure you got leased fee sales, not just fee simple. See if you can support a few adjustments in each approach. Scout it out, then decide demo v. capstone. Demo was a great (but expensive) experience, especially for learning what to include, what not to.

One key for me was getting cooperation from the broker who handled most of the sales and leases in my industrial park. Turned out he golfed with the father of a friend on mine!! I had great data. If you have someone like that, makes life way easier. Plus my landlord was a contractor, put together the cost estimate for me.

That said, if they'd had capstone I probably would have gone that route. I was rural, and so had to travel to an industrial market area about 5 hours away, and spent boocoo $$$$ and time (no $$$$ coming in) to get it done.

You gotta want it.

 

[GWC]

[QUOTE="I'm not too worried about the cost of the capstone course but the time involved. The cost is a factor though since I'll be out another $1,000 or so for travel and lodging on top of the cost of the course. Since I'll be starting from scratch it would probably take longer than if I use a property here locally that I'm somewhat familiar with and have a lot of the data on already.[/QUOTE]

Try to do the online (Synchronous) Capstone program. Yes, it is pricey, but it really forces you to get it out of the way. I have friends who had been working on their demo for years. Capstone makes you get it done and out of the way fast. And if you do the online one, you don't have to travel at all. But just a heads up, it will take about 200 hours.

 

[Michael S]

[QUOTE="I'm not too worried about the cost of the capstone course but the time involved. The cost is a factor though since I'll be out another $1,000 or so for travel and lodging on top of the cost of the course. Since I'll be starting from scratch it would probably take longer than if I use a property here locally that I'm somewhat familiar with and have a lot of the data on already.

Try to do the online (Synchronous) Capstone program. Yes, it is pricey, but it really forces you to get it out of the way. I have friends who had been working on their demo for years. Capstone makes you get it done and out of the way fast. And if you do the online one, you don't have to travel at all. But just a heads up, it will take about 200 hours.[/QUOTE]

I might consider that since the general consensus has been travelling for the capstone is a waste as you just sit in your hotel room and work on the report. I didn't realize there was a synchronous option.

If I do choose a local property I would at least have the benefit of being able to reuse some of that work determining adjustments or depreciation. But, I run the risk of choosing a property with insufficient data and wasting that time. Also, I tend to get bogged down searching for that last piece of data that will make everything come together. Sometimes I get lucky and find a great comp but a lot of times I end up spending several hours or an extra day going from a 90% solution to a 95% solution. With all the data provided in the capstone it might keep me from falling into that trap.

 

[Ken B]

The advantage of traveling for Capstone is that you can, in fact, lock yourself in your hotel room for the week and get it done without distractions. That can be hard to do at home.

I used Whitmer's materials for the Comp Exam, but found that it did not adequately prepare me for the Income Cap module. While the other three modules were no problem, I knew 15 minutes into the first try at the Income Cap module I wasn't going to pass it. And I am a good test taker.

I passed the income cap module by pulling out my old Advanced Income Cap coursebook (glad I kept it!) and working the problems in it forwards and backwards until I was literally doing them in my dreams. I would imagine one could use their coursebooks to do the same thing for the other modules.

Do not underestimate the Comp Exam. Despite having no problems with all the MAI courses and also having taken formal graduate-level courses in real estate development and analysis, the Comp Exam is, by orders of magnitude, the hardest exam I have ever taken.

 

[Michael S]

The advantage of traveling for Capstone is that you can, in fact, lock yourself in your hotel room for the week and get it done without distractions. That can be hard to do at home.

I used Whitmer's materials for the Comp Exam, but found that it did not adequately prepare me for the Income Cap module. While the other three modules were no problem, I knew 15 minutes into the first try at the Income Cap module I wasn't going to pass it. And I am a good test taker.

I passed the income cap module by pulling out my old Advanced Income Cap coursebook (glad I kept it!) and working the problems in it forwards and backwards until I was literally doing them in my dreams. I would imagine one could use their coursebooks to do the same thing for the other modules.

Do not underestimate the Comp Exam. Despite having no problems with all the MAI courses and also having taken formal graduate-level courses in real estate development and analysis, the Comp Exam is, by orders of magnitude, the hardest exam I have ever taken.

Good point. With five kids getting anything done at home is pretty much impossible unless it's between 9PM and 6AM.

I'm a good test taker as well and have never had much problem with exams. Unfortunately I have 3 of the 4 tests scheduled for the beginning of November down in El Paso as the Albuquerque testing center was already full. I scheduled the Sales Comparison class last for midway through the month as I've heard that one is the hard. So I have two weeks to study for the first three and then two more weeks to study for the last one. I also have 4 reports to complete by the end of the month, one of which requires a full day of travel for the inspection.

 

[Ken B]

Good point. With five kids getting anything done at home is pretty much impossible unless it's between 9PM and 6AM.

I'm a good test taker as well and have never had much problem with exams. Unfortunately I have 3 of the 4 tests scheduled for the beginning of November down in El Paso as the Albuquerque testing center was already full. I scheduled the Sales Comparison class last for midway through the month as I've heard that one is the hard. So I have two weeks to study for the first three and then two more weeks to study for the last one. I also have 4 reports to complete by the end of the month, one of which requires a full day of travel for the inspection.

Slacker.

 

[Red Flint]

Day 90. Outline 14th edition. Outline USPAP. Resolve to go through course problems and notes.

Day 60. Outline 14th edition more. Outline USPAP more. Resolve, again, to go through course problems and notes.

Day 30. Read thru 14th, USPAP, course notes. Resolve to do more. Get sleepy faster but worry. Find white papers on Institute site, spend too much time goofing with that.

Day 14. Arrange all crap on table, plug through courses for all modules.

Day 7. Worry a lot. Make the HP sing. Back through a feasible market rent to do an inverse income approach within the market analysis section. Crank through a yield cap with either begin or end payment times, or ½ year return rates. Risks are rates, and the risk of lower than a 75% rate is high. Go through all course homework three times, repeatedly through tough problems, all sections of exam, do not forget latest USPAP class.

Day 6,5,4,3,2 . 12-14 hour per day cram.



Exams. Favorite candy in left pocket, unwrapped. Favorite chocolate candy in right pocket, for the last push. Accurate mental sprinting required, go through all questions, total number of what answers feel good, hammer at unknowns including incorporating other clues found in other test portions. It is multiple choice, one or two choices are usually obviously wrong which could be deduced using faulty math or reasoning, there is a best answer among the final two. Check and recheck, then more chocolate.



Expect a membership bill soon, prorated for your acceptance time within the billing year.

 

[Deleted member 126639]

I passed the comp exam on the first try. Just make sure you can do all of the problems in the blue sheets from all the classes. If you can do that, you're set.

 

[Gobears81]

I passed the comp exam on the first try. Just make sure you can do all of the problems in the blue sheets from all the classes. If you can do that, you're set.

Surprised that both you and Ken found the course books to be highly beneficial. I was a candidate for designation adviser to someone that had failed the income approach module multiple times by only studying the course books. I know I would have failed at least one and probably more of the modules if I only studied the course books. If I could have done it over again, I would have studied the course books less and put more emphasis on Whitmer's book or a Urubek/DeWesse seminar.