This is the text book that was assigned to my class, and I am taking an at-home course. I don't know if these guys are covering everything or not, but I can tell you this: they sure don't know how to write clearly. Sentences are long-winded and convoluted. I read each sentence over and over just trying to figure it out. I am taking notes by re-writing every paragraph. Appraisal school is difficult enough without having to decipher and translate the textbook into plain English. Today's example:

"The amount of the expected annual 'effective gross income' from the property, estimated by subtracting aniticipated vacancy and collection losses from potential gross income".

I translated that to:

"Effective Gross income equals potential gross income minus (anticipated vacancy + collection losses)."

It makes for very tedious studying.

I have been working as an appraisal apprentice for 3 months. I have read 3 different books and this is the most concise and clear.

I enjoyed this real estate appraisal book. However like just about every real estate appraisal book I have seen, the Williams and Ventolo book could use better supplementation on the HP financial calculators so I used a book recommended by one of my classmates, "Professional Real Estate Problem Solving Using the HP12C" financial calculator. This book is written by a Mr. John Tirone, a real estate instructor and attorney from Michigan. I heard that Mr. Tirone supports his books but I was skeptical until we called him with questions on using the hp12C in some of the real estate appraisal problems experienced in our class that used the Williams book.
If your appraisal course requires the William and Ventolo book, try to get a used copy from amazon since theer are lots of these books in the system. If you want to have extra help with the hp calculator, consider the Tirone book on the HP12C. amazon carries the book; this book is worth the money and if you need help Mr. Tirone will help you. His book is a win-win for the student of appraisal or real estate in general.

This book was required reading for two different course-series I completed last year: real estate appraisal, and real estate broker. Of all the books I had to read (10 total) this was by far the best. Very well written, and it covered the subject matter very well (I wish I could say the same for the broker courses I took -- will have to re-take the state exam a second time because of that...).

One major flaw in the book though: the index is pathetic. I'm currently preparing for the state exam, and when looking to review particular words/phrases/concepts, the index is nearly useless. Was the index computer-generated by some software with a lousy algorithm?

Anyway, it's a great book for the student. But I worry that the lousy index will greatly reduce its usefulness as a reference text when I start work.