Property Law

Community Property Explained

Community Property Explained

Community property is a legal principle regarding marriage and its disposition between the married parties. It is implemented only in nine states in America, which are Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Texas, Wisconsin, California, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Washington. Community property essentially refers to the idea that any property which the parties within a marriage might gain while being married to one another is community property. 
This means that neither party involved in the marriage actually owns these community properties, while both can lay some claim to the community properties. If, for example, a husband and wife were to buy a house together after they got married, then under the rules of community property as they might exist in the state where the husband and wife were married, the house would be owned half by the husband and half by the wife, even if the vast majority of the money for the house were to come from one or the other, as opposed to both together. 
This is of particular importance for divorce cases, as all the properties which are considered community properties would then have to be divided among the different parties in the marriage, such that they were given an absolutely equal share of the community properties.
Each of the states that use the basic notion of community property has its own specific rules and regulations regarding the enforcement of the concept of community property. This is significant as community properties in one state will not be treated the same as community properties in another state.

What are Historic Properties

What are Historic Properties

Historic properties are those properties and buildings which are considered historic, whether it is because they have been in existence for a very long time, or because they hold some particular kind of historical relevance for the area. Historic properties are, in general, owned, sold, and bought in the same fashion as any other kind of property, as historic properties are ultimately still just properties.
Exceptions to the basic nature of historic properties would likely only arise when these historic properties are particularly historic, and they are in some capacity protected by the City Council or some other form of government within the city, or even the state. 
Council properties, then, might be secured by the government that wants to protect those properties; this would then give that government full title to those properties, thereby disallowing anyone else from attempting to make changes which might alter the historic properties to their detriment.
Many major cities also have some form of Council on Historic Preservation, as well. Such a council might be linked to the government in some capacity, but it might also be entirely independent. 
Regardless, such councils often have rights to a number of different council properties which they own because they wanted to protect those historic properties. Most often, such council properties will not be sold or exchanged with any given individual, as the historic properties may simply reside in the control of the council, so that the historic properties might best be preserved, or they might be sold to individuals whom the historic council was sure would treat the properties appropriately.

General Growth Properties

General Growth Properties

General Growth Properties is a company that deals primarily in real estate investment and income property, meaning property used by General Growth Properties for the sake of generating income. General Growth Properties focuses on income property such as shopping malls, primarily, and it has some interest within over 200 shopping malls spread throughout America. 
General Growth properties does focus on other forms of income property as well, such as master planned communities, of which there are several which General Growth Properties has some significant interest in. 
General Growth Properties often attempts to create shopping malls as developments for lands which it might own as income property, with these shopping malls being designed for a specific purpose within the area. For example, General Growth Properties has an income property which is the largest open-air shopping mall anywhere in the world, oriented for its environment in Hawaii.
As of the current time, however, General Growth Properties is in the process of being bought by Simon Property Group, or potentially by other companies interested in income property. This is because General Growth Properties encountered significant bankruptcy issues in 2009, and it is now attempting to have itself sold in order to help solve these issues. 
In such a case, the income property owned by General Growth Properties would go to whoever buys the company. In general, however, General Growth Properties is significant to the average American for how much income property it holds all across the country, and how integrated that income property may be within the lives of those individuals in those areas.

What are Luxury Properties

What are Luxury Properties

Luxury properties are not definitively separated from non-luxury properties, but in general, luxury properties are those properties which are considered tremendously more valuable and oriented for luxury than average properties. Luxury properties include what are traditionally conceived of as mansions, as well as exorbitant beach houses and other forms of vacation property. 
Indeed, in some of the more prominent vacation spots throughout the world, almost all vacation property is luxury property, as a result of the sheer costs associated with owning vacation property in such a location. Luxury properties can often cost a million dollars or more, depending upon the exact nature of the luxury properties in question. 
As mentioned above with regard to vacation property, one of the most important elements to the cost of such luxury properties is their location, as the same house located in two different locations might cost two entirely different amounts. A vacation property in a particularly desirable location would likely be all the more considered a luxury property if that area had higher prices in general.
Luxury properties are generally outside of the means of the vast majority of American families. Vacation property, in a more basic form, is not unreasonable, as many families may have a vacation home in some other location than the primary home of the family, but these vacation properties may not be luxury properties. Luxury properties are defined by the cost, the location, and the amenities and features, including size, of those properties, meaning that a vacation property is by no means necessarily a luxury property.

Understanding Loan Against Property

Understanding Loan Against Property

A loan against property is a form of secured loan. A secured loan is a loan which is supported or secured by the addition of some amount of collateral into the loan. The idea behind secured loans like a loan against property is that if the borrower defaults on the loan, then the collateral property involved in the loan would be available to the creditor for seizure to pay off the loan. 
A loan against property and other forms of secured loan might sometimes assist an individual in obtaining a loan where otherwise he or she might have been unable to obtain a loan, as the lender would have assurance of some form of payment, regardless of whether or not the borrower actually made a direct payment to the lender.
A loan against property specifically involves a loan against the title of a real estate property, such that if the borrower defaults on the loan, the lender will be able to seize the property and thus all, or at least a significant number, of property rights of the property. 
A loan against property might be made against a rented property, a house, or even an empty piece of land owned by the borrower. A loan against property will also often involve interest rates, meaning that the borrower will have to pay interest on the loan or else the lender will have the right to seize the collateral property involved in the loan.

Find Information Through Property Listings

Find Information Through Property Listings

Property listings are listings of real estate properties available for purchase. A buyer might search through property listings in order to find an appropriate property listing that fits the criteria that the buyer is using, and a seller would certainly want to ensure that his or her property is listed in property listings, so that a buyer might be able to find it.
 
 
 A property listing in the modern world can often be found on a website, as there is any number of different websites that would allow the owner of a given property to put up a listing on his or her own, thereby facilitating sale of a property by its owner, without the use of a realty agent. But a property listing might also be found on the website of a particular realty agency, as well, as many larger realty agencies have property listings for the properties that they are serving readily available to prospective buyers. 
 
 
Property listings can also often be found in magazines and even in newspapers. In some instances, a seller might choose to put a property listing into the classified ads section of the newspaper.
 
 
A property listing is likely to include the most pertinent information about a given property. Such information would obviously include a short description of the location, the address of the location, and any physical characteristics of the property. 
 
 
For example, a property listing would tell prospective buyers how many bedrooms and how many bathrooms a given property might have, and how many square feet the property encompasses. Property listings would also likely cover the price of the property, and the year in which the property was built.

What are Property Solicitors

What are Property Solicitors

Property solicitors are those individuals who help to convey properties from one owner to the next owner. As such, property solicitors are often known as conveyances. The purpose of property solicitors is to help smooth over the actual transfer of ownership in terms of the legalities and necessities of that process. 
Property solicitors are thus somewhat similar to realty agents, but very often property solicitors are property lawyers whose legal expertise is crucial in conducting the overall conveyance of the property. Property solicitors are not absolutely necessary for the process of transferring property from one owner to the next, as it is theoretically possible for a property owner him or herself to conduct the process without any aid from property solicitors. 
But sometimes, for an individual who has no knowledge of the process in question, property solicitors are a good idea to ensure avoidance of any possible problems in the transfer of that property.
Property solicitors often function as agents acting on behalf of their clients. This means that property solicitors might be the individuals who actually draw up the contracts involved in the transfer of property. Property solicitors might also assist property owners with the registration of elements of the property transfer that must be registered with a local government office. 
The cost of property solicitors, particularly property lawyers, is likely to be similar to the costs of lawyers in general. Depending upon the property solicitors in question, the cost might be fixed at the start of the service, or it might be dependent upon hours spent on the project.

Be Savy and Know the Real Estate Values

Be Savy and Know the Real Estate Values

Real estate values are the amounts for which given properties can be expected to go during a sale. The real estate value of a given house is determined by a number of different factors involved in that house, including the exact physical characteristics of the house, the quality of the house, the size of the house, and any special additions which the house might have. 
Furthermore, the exact location of the house would have a significant effect on the house’s property value. This is true even for land property which does not have any building upon it, as the location of that land property will likely ultimately be the source of any determination of the land property’s real estate value.
Property values are also likely determined in large part as a result of property valuation conducted by professional appraisers, often hired by local government for the purposes of determining taxes. These appraisers will be able to determine, based on the aforementioned factors and several more concerned primarily with the market surrounding the property under examination, the fair market value of the piece of property. 
This fair market value, then, is the most basic, fundamental determination of real estate value available for any given piece of real estate. Real estate values might be inflated, however, when encountered in terms of the asking price of a seller for a given property, because the seller might either be hoping to get more, or the seller might be expecting to be haggled down from the high price, and thus wants to set the original real property value of the house as advertised at higher than he or she would like to receive.

Change Your Property with a Property Exchange

Change Your Property with a Property Exchange

A property exchange is a service which enables those interested primarily in obtaining another, new property with minimal hassle while also selling and getting rid of an older property to take care of both desires easily. A property exchange would allow a property owner to exchange a property with another individual, instead of needing to go through the full process of both buying and selling properties. 
Obviously, a property exchange would not be possible in instances when the buyer wanted to purchase a property which was not held by an individual interested in purchasing the buyer’s own property, as in such a case, the buyer would first have to sell his or her property before he or she could attempt to obtain the seller’s property.
But when a property exchange is possible, it is often simpler for all involved, as it might avoid any problems with attempting to make sure all parties involved are getting the best prices, and it might be a simpler exchange of titles, instead of a multi-part transfer of titles. A property exchange is often of particular interest to buyers and sellers as it can avoid certain taxes involved in buying and selling properties.
A property exchange service, as described above, is specifically oriented to facilitate such exchanges of property, such that an individual might be able to search at a property exchange website in order to find another property that actually interests the individual looking for an exchange. 
A property exchange website might have any number of different kinds of properties listed, in locations all over America and even the world. Some properties listed on a property exchange might be full apartment buildings, while others might be individual houses.

What are Property Records

What are Property Records

Property records are those records which contain information concerning different properties and their owners. Property records might be publicly available, depending upon their exact nature. As such, numerous tools exist to assist individuals in conducting a property records search through the publicly available property records. 
A property records search tool might allow a searcher to look for a particular address, for example, in order to find property records concerning that address including the owner of the title for that property, the owner’s contact information, any mortgage records there might be involving that property, the purchase price of the property, the current fair market value of the property, and potentially even more. 
A property records search tool might be designed to search within particular sets of public records, or particular areas, although most property records search tools are designed to be open to a number of different possible search sources, such that a searcher would be able to use the property records search tool no matter where he or she was looking.
Some property records tools are oriented to allow individuals to browse and peruse property records, instead of allowing them to conduct a property records search. The difference between a property records search and such a browsing or perusal of property records is that a browsing would be designed to allow an individual to examine sets of property records without having any particular property record in mind, such that he or she might be able to eventually find a property he or she is more interested in.