A real estate investor has the opportunity to purchase land currently zoned as residential. If the county board approves a request to rezone the property as commercial within the next

year, the investor will be able to lease the land to a large discount firm that wants to open a new store on the property. However, if the zoning change is not approved, the investor will

have to sell the property at a loss. Profits $($in thousands of dollars$)$ are shown in the following payoff table:

$($a$)$ If the probability that the rezoning will be approved is $0\mathrm{.}5,$ what decision is recommended?

Recommended Decision:

What is the expected profit? Enter your answer in dollars. For example, an answer of $$200$ thousands should be entered as $200,000.$