Introduction – Our Approach
Research shows that the majority of all math problems that real estate professionals may face in
their career boils down to three areas:
1. The math necessary to pass the licensing exam;
2. The math necessary to understand a closing statement;
3. The math used when handling commissions, payments etc. in practice.
In order to master all three of these different areas, it is important that you first understand the
most recurring situations, and how to approach the calculations individually, before you tackle
an entire closing statement. Accordingly, we will begin by introducing to you the most common
math situations in real estate, which will both introduce the methodology of handling answers,
as well as give you some easy problems to tackle that will get you “warmed up.” In many cases,
just by knowing where something goes (as a credit to the buyer or seller, or as a debit to the
buyer or seller) you will have the answer.
With the confidence that those most common questions give you, we’ll then have you move to
the more typical situations where there may be multiple calculations necessary to answer a
question. These situational exercises that come in the latter section most approximate the way
most testing providers today present the Closing Statement on the licensing exam.
We recommend that you try to work the problem out on your own before you advance to the
explanation on the succeeding page.
So let’s begin with a couple of “helping” documents that will serve us down the line when we
tackle closing statements and similar real world cases.