Edited by RICHARD T. ELY, LL.D. Professor of Economics in the University of Wisconsin, Director of the Institute for Research in Land Economics and Public Utilities PRINCIPLES OF REAL ESTATE PRACTICE VOLUME I in the STANDARD COURSE IN REAL ESTATE Outlined by the JOINT COMMISSION Representing The National Association of Real Estate Boards, The United Y. M. C. A. Schools and The Institute for Research in Land Economics and Practice BY ERNEST MCKINLEY FISHER, M.A. ASSISTANT EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIA- OF THE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN LAND WITH A PREFACE By RICHARD T. ELY New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY All rights reserved PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 421375 COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1923. EDITOR'S PREFACE This volume on the Principles of Real Estate Practice begins what the present writer believes to be one of the most significant movements in education and research of the present century. This may strike the reader as a grossly exaggerated statement until he gives careful attention to that group of questions of the day which are included in the term, "land problems." They are the most fundamental of our economic problems and yet surprisingly neglected, as seen in all those quack remedies for the evils of our present economic situation, which deal with superficial phenomena instead of going back to underlying policies. All our economic problems are not land problems; yet it is true they cannot be understood unless we discuss those concerned with the land as an economic institution. The motto of the Institute for Research in Land Economics and Public Utilities, "Under all the Land," is therefore appropriate. Illustrations of the significance of the branch of knowledge which is now designated as Land Economics is found in contrasting sound land policies with proposals of impossible solutions such as price fixing and governmental purchase of agricultural surpluses which would inevitably plunge the farmer and others now in distress into still deeper misfortune. The real estate man is a broker in landed property. He is engaged in merchandising operations besides being generally an owner and builder. His operations concern a 529214 |