Property Law and Real Estate Books

Alexander's book reads like a standard history of property law turned upside down; it is as if the footnotes and text had been reversed. He glorifies obscure, minor, and in many cases simply bizarre theorists of American property law. Conventional wisdom holds that the winners write the history; in this case Alexander not only writes the losers' version of history but argues that they haven't even lost. To understand the thrust of the book, consider that although it contains 386 pages of text and another 82 pages of endnotes, it presents no substantive discussion of the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment, despite (or perhaps because of) that clause's seemingly unambiguous constitutional affirmation of the "property as commodity" view (Richard A. Epstein, Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain). John Locke gets only a handful of passing mentions. By contrast, the views of many obscure and long-forgotten theorists receive extended discussion.

In many cases when Alexander actually does discuss major historical figures, his interpretations of their views are incorrect. For instance, Alexander reprises the old story that Thomas Jefferson was actually a "civic republican," rather than a believer in the liberal theory of property (chap. 1). He rejects the contrary opinion of the historian Joyce Appleby ("What Is Still American in Jefferson's Political Philosophy?" in her Liberalism and Republicanism in the Historical Imagination) because--you guessed it--she does not think dialectically: "I view Jefferson's writing as consistently preoccupied with the same basic dialectic, a dialectic of stability and dynamism. Professor Appleby's commitment to a linear framework prevents her from seeing it dialectically" (p. 392 n. 12). Subsequent historical research has tended to confirm Appleby's understanding of Jefferson and to cast further doubt on Alexander's characterization of Jefferson as a civic republican (see John Majewski, A House Dividing: Economic Development in Pennsylvania and Virginia before the Civil War).

In the end, Alexander's attempt to construct a dialectic between his two visions of property fails. He has written a book describing the views of some dissenters from the dominant American view of property as commodity. A dialectic requires two evenly balanced and coherent positions. The thinkers described by Alexander are an incoherent grab-bag of minor and uninfluential thinkers of varying quality who do not constitute a coherent philosophical or legal tradition, but rather a desire to justify governmental incursions on liberty and private property rights. Some actually may have been sincere civic republicans; most simply mouthed republican jargon as a cover for private rent-seeking. Few of them added anything valuable to the historical and contemporary debate over property. Send these guys back to the footnotes, where they belong.

There isn't another supplement available, so I guess you can only be so critical of this book.

The reader must be aware that the book is very out of date and in some instances is just flat wrong.

The book is replete with errors. For example, Connecticut municipalities revalue real property for local tax purposes every four years according to a speccific schedule. The book says every 12 years and fails to mention the schedule.

The Landlord-Tenant section has so many Summary process eviction error that I don't know where to start. For example, every single one of the time constraints in respect to a Notice to Quit is wrong.

The list goes on.

I give this book a qualified recommendation because there is no other Connecticut Supplement out there.

I'll have to write my own.

I edited this thing as part of a pro bono venture by the new york state bar association in 1980 or thereabouts. I ended up writing most of it. It was timely when written, but took over a year to get it into print, by which time changes in law and practice rendered it obsolescent. by now, it is so antiquated as to be wholly useless. read it as history--who knows, history might repeat itself.

This novel is a hundred-or-so pages of fluffed-up filler. Common sense is repackaged as 'Auction Secrets' that purport to enable sellers to obtain more money than they would be able to through a real-estate agent. The big question of WHY people would pay more at your auction than they would through a regular sale is left completely unanswered. Annoyingly, the authors have seen fit to arbitrarily replace the letter 'S' in their book with the dollar sign '$', making it much more difficult to read.

I was really hoping for a book that I could use as a new board member on a homeowners association. I found this book disappointing in that some of the sections of the book were so basic, that it was somewhat a slap in the face of the reader, while others used such significant legal rhetoric that I hadn't a clue what they were referring to. The inconsistant nature of the book made me want to return in since I was getting increasingly frustrated with the Author.

I will look elsewhere for a more appropriate bookl

I HAD to purchase this book for college. The entire class complained that the terms were not straight forward. For example, the definitions for Real Property (PG.238) and Real Estate (PG.4) are unclear. The teacher had to give back points for errors on test questions (stemming from the book)regarding remainder interest vs. reversionary right and gross lease vs. percentage lease. The class (and the instructor)found that many end-chapter Questions could have more than one answer. The book has value only for purposes of general information. But, I suggest that you do not take any tests based on this book. The correct answers are subject to interpretation. The Instructor contacted the publisher about the problems, to no avail. If you want to take the Real Estate exam, get a better book. If you need this book for a class, speak to your Dean and make sure that the Board of Education audits the contents of this book for accuracy or provides other teaching tools. As for me, I would like a refund!

The title given for this book is Small's VOLUME THREE. The images are of the second edition of his VOLUME ONE. I'd ordered a copy thru amazon of vol 3, and received volume one. Beware!

Nowhere in the listing did it say this book was for England. I live in the U.S. and need something dealing with problems here in the states. I returned the book, it was useless to me.

This book lacks any real organization to make it informative or useful. At best it is entertaining to see how carried away the author gets bashing "sleazy" real estate agents...but really it is not that entertaining. You can save yourself some money with this summary:
1. 83% of real estate agents are part-timers which can lead to shoddy work.
2. Real estate agents routinely cut corners to screw people, especially honest discount brokers like the author.
3. Sellers should consider using discount brokers because a 6% commission for other brokers is absurd...the author only charges 3%...and does a good job--something he confirms a couple times per chapter.