photo credit: desi.italy

Most home purchases are not entirely straight forward with a dollar amount being the end all of the negotiations. Most people add some contingencies to secure they are getting exactly what they bargained for. Some home sale contracts require inspections or repairs within a set number of days or the deal will not be finalized.

Another common contingency is related to finances. Your deal will typically not go through if your final loan amount is not approved. This contingency is meant to protect both the seller and the buyer. Your seller obviously cannot sell a home if you can’t afford to buy it and you don’t want to get yourself in a financial bind with a home you can’t afford.

The counter offer can also be full of clauses, if the seller doesn’t like your price, you can raise the amount but then ask them to do something in return. You could have them include some repairs you were going to do, ask if they’ll throw in the piano, you can ask just about anything as long as its reasonable and the seller is likely to comply.

The key is to remember that the offer to purchase a home is just a starting point and you have a lot of flexibility between that first offer and the final sales contract.

photo credit: Apollo-Jack

People who are interested in snapping up homes that have hit the market after foreclosures will want to start looking in the Southwestern part of the United States. New foreclosure data reveals that Nevada, California and Arizona are the three highest-ranking states for 2008 foreclosures.

The data is a review of the foreclosure activity that has taken place across the nation in the first three months of the year. It shows that six of the ten cities in the nation which have the highest foreclosure rates are located in California. The leading city with the most foreclosures was Stockton, a city in Northern California located not too far from the state’s capital, an area where foreclosures are running rampant. Other California cities which ranked included Los Angeles, Orange County and Riverside-San Bernardino. The state’s foreclosure activity increased over thirty percent since the preceding quarter.

In spite of these high numbers, California was not the highest-ranked state for total foreclosures in the first quarter. That dubious honor goes to Nevada. The city of Las Vegas is mostly to blame for the high foreclosure rates there.

Of course, the foreclosure problem isn’t something that’s only affecting the Southwest. This just happens to be the area hit hardest at the beginning of this year. The trend towards low housing costs and foreclosure problems does continue throughout the nation with seventeen out of twenty metropolitan areas reporting a decline. People interested in investing in property that is in one of the few areas that doesn’t have this problem will want to look first at Charlotte, North Carolina. That’s one of the few cities to actually see a rise in home values this year.

credit: Saad.Akhtar

If you have a tenant who has filed for bankruptcy, is still residing in your property and not paying rent or violates your lease in some other manner, you may not be able to evict them, or even send them a notice of termination of the lease. However, there are steps you can take to remedy the situation. Bankruptcy is not a free pass for your tenant.

The new bankruptcy law of 2005 gives both the landlord and tenant some new rights and responsibilities. Tenants that file bankruptcy are granted an automatic stay, which means they do have the right to stay where they are living and you will have to take your complaints to the federal bankruptcy court. Usually, you will get authorization to proceed with your eviction process within a few days.

If your tenant has broken the lease by using illegal drugs, or dealing them, or performing some other activity that clearly endangers your property, then you do not have to ask the federal bankruptcy court to lift the automatic stay. You can proceed with your eviction process, but make sure you document their violations. The lesson here, do your tenant background searches thoroughly and avoid renting to credit risks in the first place.