Assignment #3

For today's lecture, Sam Harrison and Mike Gentry were here to give us some insight into the real estate world. Mr. Harrison owns a piece of property, while Mr. Gentry is a lawyer who is assisting him with the development of the land. The lecture was very intriguing, in that it revealed to me how extensive and exhausting the process of owning, developing, and selling land is. I had a misunderstanding that developing land, while not easy, would run relatively smoothly. I had no idea that it could be such a headache. Mr. Harrison's land was built upon an old oil pipeline, and soon led to multiple aggravations. An example that stuck in my mind is that the soil was tested before being built upon, and a small trace of oil was found, leading the developers to believe that there was an oil leak. Therefore, the hotel that was supposed to built, could not be built until the soil was proved to be safe to build upon. Mr. Harrison and Mr. Gentry were able to obtain an agriculture exemption from the state, in order to lower the taxes on the land. Because, as Mr. Harrison said, his land was not gaining any income, but had lots of cash outflows in the form of taxes. What I took from this lecture, is that it pays to know real estate law, and government regulations to a T. Knowing what you can and can't do can save you thousands of dollars.