Property Law

The Hard Facts on Foreclosure Property

The Hard Facts on Foreclosure 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.

Buying a Bank Owned Property

Buying a Bank Owned Property

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.

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.

Using Property Marketing to Sell Property

Using Property Marketing to Sell Property

When one is attempting to sell a given property, then he or she may have to undertake a property marketing project in order to best sell the property. Property marketing is often the province of a realty agent involved in the property sale, which is part of the reason why many attempting to sell a property might choose to secure the services of such an agent, because they do not have time to run the property marketing themselves. 
But for those attempting to conduct a sale by owner, and even for those who are using a realty agent, some degree of property marketing must likely still be performed. Property marketing covers both spreading information regarding the property to a number of different sources, such that potential buyers will be made aware of the property’s status on the market, as well as making the property as attractive for potential buyers as possible.
An example of the first type of property marketing is that an individual might have to put up a listing for his or her home for sale on a number of different websites such as Zillow.com. Another such example of this type of property marketing would be an open house staged so that buyers could come and see the property for sale in the best possible light. 
The second type of property marketing might involve performing numerous tasks of basic maintenance, in order to ensure that the house does not appear ramshackle, as well as repainting the house in order to avoid any problems with the buyer being turned off by the house’s colors.
 

A Quick Guide to Property Prices

A Quick Guide to Property Prices

Property prices are general numbers assigned to given pieces of property in order to help both buyers and sellers understand how valuable a given piece of property is. Property prices, as assigned by some kind of service or tool, might not be the actual property prices for which the property is either bought or sold, as the arrangements of the actual exchange might vary depending upon the deal made by the buyer and seller. 
Property prices depend upon a number of different factors with regard to a given property, which is part of the difficulty in talking about property prices in a generalized sense. The more bedrooms and bathrooms properties might have the higher property prices likely will be. Similarly, the number of additional features properties might have, such as full kitchens or patios, the likelier it is that the property prices for those properties will be greater.
Additionally, property prices depend very much upon location, both from the perspective of any taxes that might be involved in those property prices, and from the perspective that some locations are more desirable than others. One might be able to secure a beautiful, spacious house in a rural area, for example, for a significantly lower price than one might be able to secure a small, cramped apartment directly in New York City. 
Thus, property prices are definitively variable from location to location, although in general, the property prices for the market as a whole ebb and flow with the amount of money within that market. In other words, if people on the market have less money with which to purchase houses and properties, then it is likely that property prices will fall.

The Importance of Property Site Inspection

The Importance of Property Site Inspection

Property site inspection, in a very general sense, refers to an inspection of a given land property in order to determine its particular qualities and whether those qualities fit certain standards for a particular purpose. In many instances, the term property site inspection is used with reference to a property site inspection to determine if the property is safe or inhabitable. 
Such a property site inspection is likely the most serious form of property site inspection, as a land property which is judged as not meeting the requirements of the property site inspection will likely be deemed uninhabitable or unsafe, and will thus not be permitted to house individuals until another property site inspection of the land property is conducted and the issues are found to have been corrected. 
A property site inspection of this sort might also be conducted at a construction site, for example, or simply at a renovation site, to ensure that the construction or renovation on the land property is being conducted in accordance with the safety requirements of the area. Similarly, if the property site inspection were to result in a discovery of improper safety standards on the construction of the land property, then no further construction would be permissible unless the safety standards were met in a later property site inspection.
In a less serious sense, a property site inspection might simply refer to an inspection of a given property, firsthand, in order to determine for certain that the property is adequate and appropriate for one’s needs. For example, a group might stage a property site inspection of a given land property in order to determine if it is appropriate for holding a particular meeting or event.

Watch Out for Property Damage

Watch Out for Property Damage

Property damage is damage incurred upon property which somehow reduces the overall quality of that property. Property damage might not, of necessity, lead to a decrease in the functionality of that property, but it would still lead to some decrease in the overall value of the property with all likelihood. For example, a house might suffer property damage in the form of scratches along the walls of the house, either inside or out. 
This property damage might not prevent the house from offering up the benefits of a house, being specifically shelter and security, but the house would be less attractive and therefore less valuable thanks to the property damage. Property damage to a house might also include more serious damage, however, such as property damage to a door or window. Property damage might be caused by natural events, or by an outside actor.
Property damage is generally not the term used when that damage is incurred purposefully by the property’s owner, as technically the property’s owner does have the right to change and affect his or her own property. Instead, property damage is the term applied for those instances when a property is damaged such that the owner might be able to obtain some form of restitution for the property damage incurred, depending on the particular situation. 
For example, if an individual caused the property damage, then the owner might be able to obtain compensation from that individual. If the property damage were caused by a storm, then the owner might be able to obtain compensation from some form of storm insurance.

What You Should Know About Property Preservation

What You Should Know About Property Preservation

Property preservation is the practice of preparing a property that has been foreclosed upon, or that has defaulted or entered into the possession of a bank. This is because for such properties, the quality of the property itself is often quite low as a result of poor handling by the prior homeowners. 
Once an owner of a piece of land and the buildings on that land knows that he or she will be losing the property to foreclosure, for example, he or she is unlikely to spend a great deal of time or effort in attempting to fix that piece of property and maintain it appropriately. As a result, property preservation is often necessary in order to restore that property to a sales-worthy state.
Property preservation also involves securing the land and the property in order to ensure that the land is not damaged any further, be it by the prior owners or by others. Changing the locks on a foreclosed house, for example, would perform the function of property preservation with regard to preventing the previous owners from coming back and causing any damage to the house. 
If the land has a swimming pool, then those performing the property preservation will need to secure that swimming pool according to the proper guidelines for the state and city or town in which the land lies. Any trash or debris on the land must be removed as part of property preservation, and the property must be made both safe from any squatters or thieves, as well as safe from the elements. 
This means that property preservation often involves boarding up the windows, and also emptying the water pipes of a given property, as well as taking further action in order to winterize the property.

What are the Benefits of Renting Property

What are the Benefits of Renting Property

Somebody who owns a given piece of property has the option of renting property as a way of dealing with that property. Putting up properties for rent might allow a given property owner to make money off of those properties which he or she might otherwise not have been making, while also retaining the properties in question instead of simply selling them. Renting property out comes with a number of additional concerns and problems, of course, which is why in some cases it may be better to sell the property in question than to rent out the property, thereby avoiding any of those problems associated with renting property out. 
Some of the advantages of putting up one’s properties for rent include the necessity to continue paying out some form of taxes on the properties, along with attempting to ensure that the properties for rent are going to go to appropriate tenants, and are going to be well maintained. Someone who is renting property out to tenants is known as a landlord, and a landlord is generally expected to keep the property fully functioning in a basic fashion, and to conduct the actual business of renting property.
Furthermore, for those on the other side of the relationship, choosing to rent property as opposed to buying property comes with several of its own advantages and disadvantages. When one does rent property, then one is technically receiving nothing for one’s money besides the right to live in a particular location for a particular amount of time. This is significant because, though buying a house might be more costly, ultimately paying for a house will involve getting a significant return on one’s monetary investment, as a house will actually provide an individual with valuable property.