DEAR BOB: I know a person who owns his home and owns another residence he rents to his daughter. But he insists the money he gets from his daughter is not rental income. He says it's just enough to pay the mortgage so he doesn't report it on his IRS tax return. But he claims the property taxes and mortgage interest on his personal tax return, Schedule A. Is this correct? --Jose C.  more...

In early 2004, Hotels Nevada owned the Alexis Park Hotel and the American Inn Apartments in Las Vegas. Louis Habash owns and controls Hotels Nevada, and he agreed to sell Hotels Nevada to L.A. Pacific Center Inc. for $75 million.

Richard Alter and Eddie Chan were L.A. Pacific's authorized agents. At their request, Habash agreed to a $5 million holdback from the purchase price for 12 months after the sale.

Purchase Bob Bruss reports online.  more...

Dear Barry,

We are currently selling our home and have a question about seller disclosure. Beside our house, there is a large Dutch elm tree. It is diseased and will probably die in a couple of years. Our buyers have not raised any question about the tree, and the symptoms of the disease are not readily noticeable. Should we tell them about the tree or just let them enjoy it until it needs to come down? --Jim

Dear Jim,  more...

If you are adverse to new ways of thinking about your mortgage and building wealth, don't read "Untapped Riches" by Susan and Anthony Cutaia. This new book will challenge your thinking about mortgages.

Instead of making extra mortgage principal payments to own your home and investment properties free and clear as fast as possible, the mortgage broker authors advise never paying off your mortgage and building wealth instead.

Purchase Bob Bruss reports online.  more...

DEAR BOB: I bought a land parcel at a government auction. I won over another bidder who owns a neighboring property. He is angry at me because I outbid him. His fence encroaches onto my land. Six months ago, I wrote to him, requiring he remove his fence. Can I remove the fence myself? --Tatyana B.

DEAR TATYANA: If you are 100 percent absolutely, positively certain the fence is on your side of the correct boundary line, as shown by a recent survey, it is your fence.  more...

Missing out on a home you'd like to own can be heartbreaking. But, not all home sale transactions close, so you might have a second chance. Or, you could consider making a backup offer.

A backup offer is an offer that is negotiated like any other offer until the buyers and sellers reach a price and terms that are mutually acceptable. A unique term of the agreement is that it is accepted as a backup offer subject to the collapse of a previously accepted offer that is in primary position.  more...

DEAR BOB: My mother, now divorced, owned a house with her former husband. But before the divorce papers were finalized, without my mother's knowledge he changed his title to the house from joint tenancy with right of survivorship to tenants in common. He passed away recently. Now his nephew is claiming the house under his will. My mother is still on the title and loan papers. Can a joint tenancy title be changed without permission of the other joint tenant, and is my mother entitled to all or half of the property? --Leslie LeB.  more...

"Use common sense to make sense."

It sounds like Ben Franklin, but the speaker in this case is David Johnston, a green-building consultant in Boulder, Colo. His Ben Franklin-sounding aphorism, he said in a recent interview, has proved to be a useful, shorthand way of explaining sustainable green-building principles and practices.  more...

(This is Part 3 of an eight-part series.  more...