Karlan is the BEST professor I have ever had at UCLA. I have never been in a class where the professor cares so deeply about his students or puts so much effort into a class. He has custom made resources for each class (imagine how much time that would have taken). His lectures are engaging, he is a genuinely nice person and has a huge wealth of experience. He is a highly successful real estate investor himself with an incredibly impressive resume and weaves real world examples from his career into his lectures.
His lectures themselves are better than anything on Netflix. They’re clear, practical and are something to look forward to. There aren’t any assignments in this class, only a midterm and exam which are both fair and don’t contain anything that wasn’t covered during class. They’re open book and mostly excel based. The textbook isn’t required to do well in this class.
Karlan says that you need experience with Excel and a good foundation of finance to succeed in this class. I don’t think you need any background in Excel at all because he creates all the spreadsheets you’ll need. All you need in terms of finance is a conceptual understanding of discounting and annuities and very very basic interest theory (ie compounding).
The one criticism I have is that he sometimes speaks very fast (he speeds up as the class went on) and it would be nice if he slowed down a bit.
This is a GREAT CLASS!

This class is soooo interesting. I loved Prof. Karlan’s lectures. And I learned a huge amount of information that’s actually useful in real life! That’s definitely a first. One thing that really surprised me (in a good way) was how doable the excel problems were. At the beginning of the quarter, he warned that only people familiar with financial calculations in excel should stay in the class. I decided to stay but it really freaked me out tbh. Don’t listen to him! The calculations are not difficult at all and he literally teaches you how to do them all and gives you spreadsheets for all of them. I don’t know why he discourages people from taking the class. It’s not difficult to learn at all.
The workload is pretty small. No mandatory homework (you should still do the homework though to study for the exams). Only participation and the exams counted towards your final grade. The whole iclicker thing was a tad annoying though because he’d often ask questions at the very beginning of class so you could miss the points if you’re literally a couple minutes late.
Also, I see some reviews saying the curve is very generous. Maybe it is generous on the lower end but personally my grade was barely different from what it would have been on the straight scale. Or maybe my class just performed really well overall so our average was high? I just don’t really think I benefited largely from the curve.
But overall this is a very useful and interesting class and I’m glad I took it. I’d definitely recommend it!

Do not go into the exam with a Mac, unless you can use mental math to calculate the principal portion of the monthly payment in the first year of an adjusted rate loan.

My favorite class in the Econ department. Only econ class I've taken with real life applications and not just theories. You learn a tremendous amount about real estate. The textbook isn't necessary, youre only tested on what's gone over in class. Karlan is a commercial real estate legend and an engaging lecturer. He tries to get half the class in the A-,A,A+ range with the curve. It is a generous curve especially on the lower end. To get an A you have to understand small details and make sure you know how to complete all the excel problems. The TAs are very helpful in that regard and Karlan himself shows you how to do many problems during the lecture so you should pay attention to that. You do have to show up, it's a clicker class. Overall wonderful class.

I think this is one of the few econ electives at UCLA where you learn something useful that you can use in the real world. With that being said, it is A TON of material. The professor speaks very quickly and the lectures are bruincasted, so I never went to class and instead watched the lectures and took notes on my own time. Do not leave all the lectures until the day or two before the midterm or final or you will definitely be hurting. It is important that you watch them and take good notes because the majority of the questions on his exams are conceptual and based on small anecdotes or details he provides during lecture. About 25% of the material on his exams are calculations that you need to do in Excel, so try to get access to the spreadsheet with all the formulas that circles around every quarter. I had a good spreadsheet and watched all the lectures and ended up with an A.

This was a pretty informative class. Besides the class having a generous grading curve, the professor is super knowledgeable about real estate and tells us personal tips for us to use in the future. By far the most valuable class that I have taken at UCLA thus far.

Some do complain that Karlan emphasizes that you drop the course if you don't know how to do certain calculations on the spreadsheet. Even though he says this, don't drop the course. I managed to get through most of the financial calculations with the Excel spreadsheets that Karlan and the TA provided. In hindsight, I am glad that I didn't drop the class.

Could I have gotten the A? Probably. But I was feeling pretty lazy this spring quarter and didn't have the effort in me to go for that extra mile. An A- is very doable; the difference between the A- and A is understanding every single detail that Karlan provides during his lectures (not just written notes, but verbal notes as well). Most of the problems involving financial calculations on the exams need to be fully understood for you to even have a chance at an A.

Your grade is based on 99% exams and 1% participation. I received an 86% on a raw scale, which translated to an A- in the class. Lectures are also bruincasted, so I never went to class. This was my first time podcasting every single lecture, but I think it turned out alright.

Overrated

Let me begin by saying that everyone recommends this class but I feel like nobody adequately explains that you will not be taught at all about 1/3 of the midterm and final. These are calculations that you are expected to know how to do on excel. Karlan does say in the first two weeks that if you're not good in finance, don't take this class, because he does not want to teach anyone how to do the calculations because that's not what this class is about. I think this is unfair because most students in the class are taking it as an econ elective or just want to learn about real estate and have never taken finance before. But, if you have a really good Excel spreadsheet that knows how to calculate mortgage payments, balances, incremental cost of borrowing, effect annual rate, APR, things like that, you will do really well. Because other than those calculations, his exams are straight forward. He spent literally no joke 2 minutes on the 2 chapters that teach all the math concepts which was messed up. Overall, he is a really cool guy, super successful in real estate, but puts a lot of information on his exams that he does not at all go over in class even for one hour which in my opinion is wrong. Anyway, I have a really good spreadsheet, studied the key concepts he posts on ccle, and I ended up with an A in the class. TIP: don't do the textbook homework problems (they're optional but recommended but they are so tedious and not at all necessary for the exam), instead, go over the chapter based on what he has in his key concepts that he posts ccle and read the textbook for more detail on those specific concepts.

took this class with Karlan the last time he taught it.. its no longer enjoyable and easy. He's changed his grading scheme so that class was much harder for us. The above grade distribution is over a year old.. so don't be fooled. Definitely wouldn't recommend this class, you'll have to work your a** off for a B