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.

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.

A rural area is an area which is characterized primarily by a lack of urban characteristics and by the presence of wide open spaces and a very low population density. Finding rural property for sale, then, may have a certain appeal for individuals who are interested in these features and traits of rural areas. 

Rural areas are also significant because farm real estate is generally considered rural property, meaning that any individual interested in farm real estate would also likely, in turn, be interested in rural property for sale. To find such rural property for sale, there are a number of different tools which one might use.

Finding a good piece of rural property for sale will very much depend upon the exact characteristics and traits of the piece of rural property one is searching for. For example, if someone wants a piece of rural property or farm real estate within a reasonable distance from one’s actual job, then the rural property available for that individual will likely be significantly limited, particularly because other individuals with a similar constraint would desire the same kind of rural property. 

Rural property for sale around a city, then, is likely to be both less common and more costly when it is available, primarily because of the increased interest and demand surrounding the real estate near a city. If one is interested in rural property that is entirely distanced from any particular site of interest, however, then one might find it easier to find at least raw land, though actual buildings and houses may be rare. 

The issues regarding the exact disposition of any unclaimed property will depend upon the specific nature of that unclaimed property. Abandoned property of a personal nature, for example, follows an entirely different set of rules than unclaimed property of a real estate nature. In general, unclaimed property of a personal nature may be in some capacity granted to the finder of that unclaimed or abandoned property, while in real estate, this is generally not the case.

In real estate law, a concept called escheatment exists. The idea of escheatment is that unclaimed or abandoned property can revert to government control and ownership in certain circumstances, particularly so as to avoid issues with such property being held by no particular individual. 

Because real estate is a constant type of property, and because if it were unclaimed property there might arise any number of issues regarding how exactly to claim it, the legal system is set up to deal with these problems primarily by simply granting this unclaimed or abandoned property into government custody, where an individual might be able to obtain it. 

Of course, normally, the rules regarding such abandoned or unclaimed property allow for the real property owner to come forward and reclaim the property within a certain time frame and a particular set of circumstances, as ultimately, much of the law regarding unclaimed or abandoned property in America is designed to ensure that the original owner will eventually be able to reclaim that property.

A foreclosed property is a property which has been foreclosed on, meaning that the property has been sold in order to pay off a debt taken on by the property’s owner. This is not an absolutely correct or technical definition of property foreclosure, but it is functional for the vast majority of cases in which a foreclosure property is discussed. 

If an individual takes out a mortgage on his or her house, he or she is essentially taking a loan with the house as collateral. If the individual then does not pay the loan appropriately, as per the terms of the original deal, then it may be possible for the lender to foreclose on the property, thereby allowing that lender to auction away the property and take the proceeds to help pay off the loan.

Foreclosure properties, then, may often be obtained by potential buyers at lower costs than the property might have gone for had it been sold regularly, as a result of the nature of foreclosure properties and auctions. As such, numerous individuals interested in foreclosed property may use some form of search tool designed to look for instances of property foreclosure and thereby help searchers to become involved in any auctions of that foreclosure property. 

Many websites performing this function exist, allowing individuals to easily find any recently foreclosed property in the area, based on public records. From the perspective of a property owner, however, it is likely desirable to do everything in one’s power to avoid going through property foreclosure, as foreclosure property can leave an individual in dire straits.

A foreclosed property might become a bank owned property through the normal course of procedure for dealing with foreclosed property. A foreclosed property might be put up for auction, in order to provide money to pay off the debts which were the initial cause of foreclosure. 

But in most instances, this auction is unlikely to generate any actual sale, as the auction prices will be dependent upon the size of those debts, and if the property were easily sold to pay off the debts then it might never have been foreclosed on in the first place. 

As such, a foreclosure auction is relatively unlikely to result in a sale and the property in question will revert to being a bank owned property after the unsuccessful auction. Bank owned properties are also sometimes called REOs, or Real Estate Owned properties.

Bank owned properties are owned wholly by the bank, and the bank thus has all responsibilities towards those properties. This means that a bank is responsible for evicting any current tenants from a bank owned property, and a bank is also theoretically responsible for maintenance of the property in question. 

An individual interested in buying a bank owned property should then be able to go to the owning bank and negotiate a deal. Bank owned properties may sometimes go for less than they might have on the original market, but this is not always the case, as banks are still trying to ultimately profit from selling bank owned 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 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.

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.

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.