Real estate—from the purchase and sale of real property to its ownership, maintenance, management, financing, use, development, and redevelopment—is governed by an at-times complex and even obscure regulatory structure. Yet this regulatory structure is critically important to how every person lives, works in, and experiences the built and natural environment, every day. This course will introduce students to a variety of legal concepts relating to real estate, including the nature of various types of real property interests, the procedural and substantive elements of real estate transactions, real estate financing mechanisms, landlord-tenant interactions, and land use controls. Although the course will cover legal topics, it will not train students to be lawyers. Instead, it will train students to recognize legal issues, understand the purpose and function of various legal aspects of real estate, and to know when and how to engage with the various participants—especially lawyers—in conducting the business of real estate.
