Articles by Bob Miles on ArticleSnatch.com

Yew Git Off My Property! The Law Of Trespassing

Tue, 29 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

CYA Disclaimer: The following is intended for reference purposes only and not as legal advice. What is trespassing, anyway? Most of us think we know. But the more you think about it, the more complex it can get. For example, could you be sued for trespassing on property that you are the owner of? Of course you could! If you rent it to someone else, you might have only a limited right to enter the property (for inspection or repairs, for example). If you enter the property for any other reason (or without proper notice) you might find yourself being told Yew git off your property! The point is that the concept of trespassing protects possession, and not necessarily ownership. Another unique point of trespassing law is that liability is absolute. If you take an umbrella from a restaurant when you leave believing it is yours (because it looks just like yours), you have not legally stolen anything even if the umbrella belongs to someone else, as long as you can established that you reasonably believed it was yours. **End Summary** Topics: real property law]]> real estate law]]> trespassing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Real Estate Law in Plain English explains real estate law without the legalese.

Real Property Law: Fixtures

Tue, 29 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

CYA Disclaimer: The following is intended for reference purposes only and not as legal advice. What is a fixture, anyway? Odds are you own one. The formal definition is a tangible object that was once personal property but has become so connected with real property that it has become a part of it. There, does that clear things up? I didn't think so. Let me try again: fixtures means stuff like a commode (once it's been bolted to the floor of your bathroom, and not a moment before). A desk is not a fixture (no matter how heavy it is) simply because it is physically separate from your house. So who cares? It matters in several circumstances. If your father wills his house to your sister and his personal property to you, it's gonna matter whether or not that solid gold toilet is classified as a fixture or not, because fixtures are not considered personal property. So get out your bolt cutters. **End Summary** Topics: real estate law]]> fixtures]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Real Estate Law in Plain English explains real estate law without the legalese.

Real Estate Law: Underground Water

Tue, 29 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

CYA Disclaimer: The following is intended for reference purposes only and not as legal advice. Do you own the water running under your property? If you're not the kind of person who would care one way or another, then read no further (although it is beyond me how anyone could fail to be fascinated by this topic!). Internationally, water law is of more critical importance than most people realize, because it is water rather than oil that causes the most political tension in the arid Arabian Peninsula. The law concerning underground water is quite fractured in the United States, with several competing legal theories, this one or that one dominating depending on where you live and how much water they have here. Note that I am not talking about underground streams here but diffuse water, the stuff that percolates up to the surface or remains still. This matters more and more the dryer the climate you live in. Following is a very simplified summary of the four major legal doctrines: 1. Absolute Ownership Finders, keepers. **End Summary** Topics: real estate law]]> water law]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Real Estate Law in Plain English explains real estate law without the legalese.

Real Property Law: Nuisances

Tue, 29 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

CYA Disclaimer: The following is intended for reference purposes only and not as legal advice. He's such a nuisance, constantly drumming his fingers on the table like that! Just what is a nuisance, anyway? Well, it has one meaning in common parlance and another more specific meaning in law, although the meanings are somewhat similar. A nuisance is legally defined as an unreasonable interference with the use and enjoyment of property. By the way, lawyers just LOVE that deliciously ambiguous word reasonable, because they can bill hour after billable hour arguing endlessly over what is reasonable under a given set of circumstances. In fact, you could probably boil all of law down to that one word if it's reasonable then you can do it, but if it's not, then you can't. Unlike trespass law, nuisance is only actionable if you can show that the offending condition caused you actual harm. Note that harm is a quite flexible concept and commonly includes things like noise pollution (the loud rock 'n roll blaring out of the apartment next door at all hours, for example). Smoke from a nearby factory can be a nuisance. **End Summary** Topics: real estate law]]> real property law]]> nuisance law]]> nuisance]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Real Estate Law in Plain English explains real estate law without the legalese.

Airspace Over Your Property How Much Of It Do You Own?

Tue, 29 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

CYA Disclaimer: The following is intended for reference purposes only and not as legal advice. The short answer is, as much of it as you can use. No, you cannot float a No Trespassing blimp and shoot down passing airliners for trespassing. But believe it or not, you can build a tall building on your property and the airlines can't make you take it down even if it interferes with air traffic - unless you can find a law (such as building codes) that expressly prohibits you from doing so. By federal law, upper airspace is considered navigable, meaning the public has the right to use it. But what exactly is upper airspace? In the foregoing example, if you built a tall building on your land and the airline were overflying your property at altitudes lower than the height of your building (and in the same vicinity), it would be possible for you to sue them for trespassing. It would also be possible for you to sue for nuisance even if the planes didn't even overfly your airspace, if the planes were making enough noise to interfere with your quiet enjoyment of your property. **End Summary** Topics: real estate law]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Real Estate Law in Plain English explains real estate law without the legalese.

How Mortgages Work

Mon, 28 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

A mortgage is created when someone uses real estate to secure a promise to repay a debt. For example, if you borrow money from a bank and give the bank permission to sell your house to pay off the debt if you don't pay it back yourself, then you have created a mortgage on your house. Since most people can't afford to pay cash for a house, most people create what is known as a purchase money mortgage on their house (at least their first house anyway). This means that the bank uses the house as security for your promise to repay the money they loaned you to buy the house in the first place. The mortgage is the document used to create this security interest. The one who borrowed the money is called the mortgager, and the one who loaned the money (the bank in this case) is called the mortgagee. The main advantage of a mortgage for the mortgagee is that if you don't pay back the loan, they don't have to worry whether they can find you or not or if you have enough money to pay the debt. **End Summary** Topics: real estate law]]> mortgages]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Real Estate Law in Plain English explains real estate law without the legalese.

Risks That Real Estate Title Insurance Policies Usually Won't Cover

Sun, 27 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

When you purchase real estate, you will almost certainly need to take out a title insurance policy covering you against the risk of unrecorded defects in your title. Following is a list of some of the risks that almost no title insurance company will cover: 1. There is a defect in the title to the property that you purchase, and although it is unrecorded (and thus would normally be covered), you knew about it before the closing of the sale. 2. The property was given to you as a gift. 3. Problems that are not likely to be recorded but can be discovered by inspection of the property Examples include boundary disputes and unrecorded title claims made by someone other than the owner who is in actual possession of the property. A title insurance company may be willing to insure you against such risks, but if so it will certainly charge you a higher premium because it will have to send someone out there to inspect the property. In this case, unless the property is far away from where you are, you might as well do it yourself and save the extra expense. 4. **End Summary** Topics: real estate law]]> title insurance]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Real Estate Law in Plain English explains real estate law without the legalese.

Psychedelic Trance Music

Sun, 27 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Electronic music became popular as a result of advances in technology (particularly the development of Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI), and has since blossomed into a bewildering variety of genres including house, techno, trance, breakbeat, hardcore, and ambient. These genres, most of them quite danceable (ambient is a notable exception), can be further divided into sub-genres and spin-offs including trip-hop, garage, jungle, progressive house, etc. Now the scene is starting to break into sub-sub-genres such as speed garage and so on. Trance is one of the most popular of the major electronic music genres, and in the early 1990s it spawned a sub-genre known as Goa trance, so known because it was developed by Western expatriates living in beach communities in the former Portuguese colony of Goa, India. Returning expatriates spread this new form of music throughout the world, and although it has arguably achieved mainstream status in Israel, Japan, and parts of Western Europe (most notably Berlin), it became more of a cult phenomenon elsewhere, including the United States. Goa trance later evolved into today's sound, known as psychedelic trance. Psytrance, as it is often abbreviated, is classified as underground music and gets very little radio airplay. **End Summary** Topics: trance music]]> goa trance]]> MIDI]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> The MIDI Music Guide blog offers comprehensive information about MIDI technology and turning your computer into a home recording studio .

Registering The Purchase Of Your Real Estate

Sun, 27 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

As soon as you buy real estate, it's a must to register it at the recording office or wherever real estate transactions are registered in your particular jurisdiction. If you don't, you could end up losing title to your real estate due to the misconduct of the previous owner or even due to a mistake. If you have bought property (as opposed to leasing it or accepting a mortgage on it, both of which can also be recorded), you will need a properly executed, acknowledged, and delivered deed to your property. In some states, a mere contract for the sale of real estate may be recordable, but since you're going to end up with the deed anyway at the closing of the transaction, recording your deed is usually the best idea. You will have to have your deed notarized. 1. Filing The clerk at the recoding office will not check to see if your deed is valid, or even whether you actually own the property. that would only be investigated during legal proceedings in case a dispute arose as to who owned the property, etc. **End Summary** Topics: recording office]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Real Estate Law in Plain English explains real estate law without the legalese.

Real Estate Law: Damages For Breach Of Warranty Covenants By A Seller

Sun, 27 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

If you own real estate and sell it to a buyer under a general warranty deed, you can be liable to the buyer years later for some defect in the title that you didn't even know about at the time you sold him the real estate, and you could end up having to pay the buyer up to the amount that he originally paid for the real estate, or in some cases the value of the land if it is more than what the buyer actually paid. Here's how it could happen: (1) If you breach the Covenant of Seisen or the covenant of the Right to Convey: You can breach these by not having a freehold estate at the time you sold the real estate (you were only renting the property, for example), or by having a freehold estate that was illegal and didn't give you the right to sell it to anyone. You can't easily breach the first covenant accidentally, but it is possible to accidentally breach the second covenant. Damages will amount to the price the buyer paid for the property or whatever portion of it you failed to legally transfer to him. **End Summary** Topics: title defects]]> warranty deeds]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Real Estate Law in Plain English explains real estate law without the legalese.

Deeds For The Transfer Of Real Estate What You Need To Know

Sun, 27 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

The transfer of real estate involves particular dangers that are far more pronounced that the dangers involved in buying, say, a car or a hair dryer and not just because real estate is more expensive either! One of the primary dangers is that the person who's selling you the real estate doesn't actually own it. This is more complex than you might think. Imagine shelling out a couple of hundred dollars for a prime parcel of beachside real estate only to have Paul Plaintiff sue you five years later claiming that Joe Grantor sold that property in 1895 to his great-great grandfather first as a passive investment, and then Mr. Grantor turned around and sold the same property in 1896 to the guy that sold it to the guy who sold it to the guy who sold it you. In that case a court might just award the property to Paul Plaintiff and you'd be sleeping on the beach digging for buried change with your metal detector. Of course you could always go after the guy who sold it to you in the first place, demanding a load of money from him. **End Summary** Topics: deeds]]> warrantiy deeds]]> statutory deeds]]> quitclaim deeds]]> title defects]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Real Estate Law in Plain English explains real estate law without the legalese.

How To Enforce An Oral Real Estate Contract

Sun, 27 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

The Statue of Frauds, enacted in similar form in every state, prohibits the enforcement of a sale of real estate supported only by an oral contract. Many people don't realize that there are many transactions that can indeed be legally binding based on an oral contract, but the sale of real estate isn't one of them. Or is it? If you screwed up on this one (didn't sign a contract at all, or lost your only copy), a good lawyer might be able to help you get around the Statute of Frauds. The purpose of the Statute of Frauds is, as the name indicates, to prevent fraud. The idea is that since it's unlikely that anyone would sell something as important as real estate without even bothering with a written contract, then an oral contract doesn't provide enough evidence for the court to conclude that a sale was intended, no matter what the plaintiff might say. So if there is some other evidence that an actual agreement to sell real estate did exist, then you might be able to enforce the sale (known as specific performance) or collect damages (based on something called estoppel) for the failure of the sale. **End Summary** Topics: real estate sales contracts]]> statute of frauds]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Real Estate Law in Plain English explains real estate law without the legalese.

Musical Instrument Digital Interface - The MIDI Trinity

Sun, 27 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Officially, MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, and it was invented in 1982. These days, it refers to three components: 1. A physical connector between electronic instruments and between electronic instruments and a MIDI controller, usually a keyboard. The connector takes the form of MIDI IN and MIDI OUT jacks form which MIDI cables can bet plugged into any electronic instruments (and you'd be surprised at how much music hardware out there today is MIDI-capable almost every detachable keyboard is!) 2. A message format this message format is the heart of MIDI. This format is made up not of the sounds themselves, but simply the commands that are issued by the MIDI keyboard to the electronic instruments telling them how to play a given song (play the violin turn down the volume to XX, adjust the pitch to YY, etc.) With the above two components, a musician was able to control a string of musical instruments from a single keyboard, giving him a one-man band effect. 3. A storage format in other words, MIDI files. **End Summary** Topics: MIDI]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> The MIDI Music Guide blog offers comprehensive information about MIDI technology and turning your computer into a home recording studio .

How To Download Music From Your Brain (or The Next Best Thing!)

Sat, 26 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

For many years I have occasionally experienced the following phenomenon: just when I would wake up in the morning, right at the state midway between dreaming and waking, I would gain lucidity but still be able to hear the tail end of my dream. A song would be playing, a very complex one, perfectly produced in every detail. And listening to it, I would be absolutely sure that I had never heard that song before. So where did it come from. After some thought I was left with the conclusion that the song came from my own mind. It was amazing to think that my unconscious mind could create and produce an entire song without me being consciously aware of it. But it seemed there was little I could do about it. Sure, I could learn to play the guitar, but by the time I learned to play it, I would have forgotten the song. I could learn to read and write music, but that would take a long time too and my song was very complex only a guitar wouldn't begin to do the trick. **End Summary** Topics: MIDI]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> The MIDI Music Guide blog offers comprehensive information about MIDI technology and turning your computer into a home recording studio .

Standardization Of Midi Technology Under The General Midi (gm) Standard

Thu, 24 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

The problems that electronic musicians faced with playing their compositions on equipment made by different manufacturers was a serious one in the 1980s. Hook up a MIDI Controller made by one manufacturer to a sound module made by another manufacturer, and your flute solo could come out as a drum solo. You could try adjusting the volume and end up changing the pitch instead. This is because MIDI commands, which are used to control every aspect of the composition from notes played, instrument used, volume, pitch, and many other parameters, are numerical, and once upon a time (meaning the 1980s) different manufacturers used different functions to correspond with different MIDI Command numbers. For example, the number corresponding to a trumpet sound on one brand of equipment might correspond to a harmonica sound on another brand of equipment. There were many other problems as well, most of them arising from a lack of standardization of the correspondence between MIDI Command numbers and the actual parameters that they adjusted. **End Summary** Topics: MIDI]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> The MIDI Music Guide blog offers comprehensive information about MIDI technology and turning your computer into a home recording studio .

The History Of Midi Electronic Home Studio Recording

Thu, 24 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

For electronic musicians, 1982 was the Year Zero that was the year that MIDI first came on the market. It was designed as freeware it was not patented, and was intended as a universal standard usable by any brand, so that MIDI could be used in a studio incorporating components or devices from many different manufacturers. The first of these was called MIDI 1.0, of course. Soon after that, musical instruments with MIDI jacks started appearing. One of the early problems was that the MIDI messages that instructed the different instruments which sounds to play identified these sounds only by number (play patch #16), and patch #16 might refer to different sounds on instruments made by different manufacturers. Since a MIDI studio is composed of different electronic instruments strung together in a line over cables, if the instruments and devices were made by different manufacturers, a musician might have gotten a drum sound when he intended a flute sound. What the electro-universe needed was a patch-mapping standard a standardized correlation between patch numbers and the sounds that these numbers represented. Keep in mind also the problem that the musician would have when recording a song. **End Summary** Topics: MIDI]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> The MIDI Software Guide blog offers comprehensive information about MIDI software and turning your computer into a home recording studio .

Midi Interfaces

Thu, 24 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

So you've heard about MIDI and are eager to set up your own MIDI home studio? Actually you can do that for a few hundred dollars assuming you already own a decent computer. Actually a home studio can cost a LOT more than that, but a few hundred dollars should take care of the basics for you. But be warned, if you catch MIDI fever as so many have, you're likely going to be spending a LOT more money, even to the point selling your refrigerator (or your kidney) to get money to buy more MIDI equipment! In order to set up your MIDI home studio, you're going to need hardware that allows MIDI input and output in other words, hardware that facilitates the transfer of MIDI data to and from a computer and a MIDI Interface or some similar MIDI unit. You can recognize such a unit by the MIDI IN and MIDI OUT jacks, which will be labeled as such on the outside of the unit itself. Some of these interfaces are barely external at all they're nothing more than cards that you plug into your computer. **End Summary** Topics: MIDI]]> MIDI interfaces]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> The MIDI Music Guide blog offers comprehensive information about MIDI technology and turning your computer into a home recording studio .

The General Midi Standard For The Budding Electro-musician

Thu, 24 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

One of the problems once faced by wanna-be MIDI musicians was that humans read musical notes differently than MIDI sound modules. To oversimplify, we use letters to represent each note (C sharp in the fourth octave, for example), and MIDI sound modules use numbers. Since most MIDI sound modules can play up to 128 notes, a MIDI sound module will number them from 0 to 127. The problems arose when different manufacturers started using different numbers to correspond with different notes. A C sharp in the sixth octave might correspond to number 61 on sound modules made by one manufacturer, and to a 49 on one made by another. We're talking serious chaos here imagine what it would do to your composition if you made it on a Roland and tried to play it on another manufacturer's sound module. Even worse, some very disorganized manufacturers assigned different numbers to different notes even in the same sound module depending on which instrument you played. In other words, you just about needed a degree in computer science to figure it all out, and composing a song meant about 3 times as much grunt work as actual composing. **End Summary** Topics: MIDI]]> General MIDI]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> The MIDI Music Guide blog offers comprehensive information about MIDI technology and turning your computer into a home recording studio .

Modifying Your Midi Composition Using A Sequencer

Tue, 22 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Once you have recorded your musical composition onto a MIDI sequencer, what next? Well, you may have noticed some mistakes in your playing that you want to correct. Or you may want to change the composition to make it sound better. Or you may want to copy your composition into another file and gradually modify it until it becomes a whole new song and you have two compositions instead on just one. Whatever the reason, there are two ways that you can modify your original recording real time or step-entering. Real time modification is just what it sounds like you have the sequencer play back the composition and then fiddle with the controls to modify it as you please. When you get it the way you want it, you can overdub your original track or record the latest version of your Magnum Opus in another file. The advantage of this method is that well, it's just more fun that way, and you can get immediate real-time feedback on how various changes to the composition will make it sound. **End Summary** Topics: MIDI sequencers]]> MIDI]]> home recording]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> The MIDI Software Guide blog offers comprehensive information about MIDI software and turning your computer into a home recording studio .

Midi Sequencers: The Brain Of Your Home Recording Studio

Tue, 22 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

A MIDI sequencer is a device that records a song that you play on a MIDI instrument (or series of instruments) and uses the recorded data to play these instruments the same way that you did when you recorded them. It is more than just a glorified tape recorder, though. What gets recorded is not the sounds themselves, but the commands that you gave the MIDI electronic instruments that told them to play this or that note in this or that sequence with a particular tone, volume, pitch, timbre, etc. The recording takes the form of a series of numbers that, when translated into electronic form, cause the sequencer to send out electrical pulses that play back the composition just as you played it. Once these commands are recorded in digital form they can be modified in just about any way you like, so that you can keep adjusting your song any way you please without having to play the entire composition again every time you want to make a change. **End Summary** Topics: MIDI]]> MIDI sequencers]]> home recording]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> The MIDI Software Guide blog offers comprehensive information about MIDI software and turning your computer into a home recording studio .

What's So Great About Midi Home Recording?

Tue, 22 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

In a previous article on my website, I explained how to set up several MIDI instruments in a daisy chain that will allow you to play several electronic instruments at once from your MIDI keyboard. I then explained how you can use MIDI channels to allow each instrument in the chain to play different notes and sequences by setting them up to respond to and ignore messages on particular MIDI channels that you transmit from your MIDI keyboard. Setting things up this way allows you to have independent control of several different instruments at once by simply playing your MIDI keyboard, giving you a one man band effect. MIDI technology is in the process of revolutionizing the process of composing and recording music. It's a democratic revolution too, because it allows anyone with average intelligence and a few hundred dollars to compose and record their own music, And with 16 MIDI channels, this music can get quite complex there's a lot more to MIDI than the one-man band effect of being able to play a bunch of instruments at once with independent control over each one. **End Summary** Topics: MIDI]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> The MIDI Software Guide blog offers comprehensive information about MIDI software and turning your computer into a home recording studio .

Real Estate Law In Plain English: What Is Marketable TitleÃ¢â¬Â?

Sun, 20 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Marketable title (sometimes called merchantable title) is of much greater concern for the sale of real estate than with the same of personal property, mainly because of the complex and sometimes arcane rules applicable to real property. Property law recognizes a myriad of interests and procedures in real estate including easements, future interests, leaseholds, mortgages, and adverse possession, among others. For this reason it is quite likely that the interests in a given parcel of land will be in dispute the bank claims a mortgage over the real estate that was taken out by the previous owner, the city claims the right to build a road across your land (an easement), etc. Even if these claims are in fact invalid, the very fact that there is enough credibility to them to force them into court to resolve them could make your land quite difficult to sell. The absence of credible or serious claims against your full possession and quiet enjoyment of the land (that you can then sell to a potential buyer) is what is known as marketable title. **End Summary** Topics: marketable title]]> real estate law]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Real Estate Law in Plain English explains real estate law without the legalese.

Can You Enforce An Oral Contract For The Sale Of Real Estate?

Sun, 20 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

The simple answer is No, you can't, because every state has enacted a Statute of Frauds requiring contracts for an interest in the sale of an interest in land. But hey, it's never that simple with the law, which is why we've got so many lawyers running around. So if you've concluded an oral contract for the sale of real estate and the other party is pretending that the contract never existed because it wasn't written down, don't despair (at least until you've read this article), because there are certain exceptions to this rule. Most states still recognize two different justice systems law and equity. Both are administered largely by the courts. If you are aggrieved under an oral contract for the sale of real estate, then sue in equity, not law (although legal remedies are sometimes available). You can avoid the Statute of Frauds if you have actually performed a portion of the contract that is sufficient to justify awarding you an equitable remedy in other words, a court order demanding the completion of the transaction. **End Summary** Topics: statute of frauds]]> real estate]]> oral contracts]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Real Estate Law in Plain English explains real estate law without the legalese.

Buyer Beware! The Truth About Real Estate Brokers And Multiple Listing Services

Sun, 20 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Most people believe that if they hire a real estate broker, then only that broker will help them find a buyer. In many cases, however, this is not true. Most brokers have access to multiple listing services, which allow a broker to list the concerned real estate with many brokers with the understanding that if another broker locates a suitable buyer for the first broker's client, then the two brokers will share the commission. This is good for brokers because they can earn money from buyers who may not be looking for the type of property their own clients are selling; it is good for sellers because for the same price they can take advantage of the efforts of many brokers instead of just one; and it is good for buyers because many brokers representing many different sellers will be looking for them. Brokers perform two different functions the listing broker represents the seller, and the showing broker shows the real estate to potential buyers. Although most people assume that these two functions are carried out by the same person with respect to a particular piece of real estate, with multiple listing services this isn't necessarily the case. **End Summary** Topics: real estate brokers]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Real Estate Law in Plain English explains real estate law without the legalese.

The Incredible Legal Liability Of Real Estate Brokers

Sun, 20 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

One of the disadvantages of seeking a career as a real estate broker is that your chances of getting sued are quite high, due to the various forms of legal liability to which you will be exposed. Among these are: (1) Contract Liability The listing agreement between a real estate broker and a seller of real estate typically requires the broker to exercise her best efforts to find a ready, willing and able buyer for the seller. However, the term best efforts is notoriously ambiguous, and if the seller believes that a busy broker has not actually exercised her best efforts to locate a suitable buyer, she may be looking at a lawsuit seeking damages for the delay in selling the real estate that is attributable to her failure to exercise her best efforts. Even if she wins the lawsuit she may end up having to pay legal fees, and the time and worry investment alone could distract her from using her best efforts on deals with other clients. (2) Licensing Regulations As is the case with attorneys, real estate brokers are subject to certain professional standards of conduct, breach of which could subject the broker to liability. **End Summary** Topics: real estate brokers]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> Real Estate Law in Plain English explains real estate law without the legalese.

Articles by Bob Miles on ArticleSnatch.com

Yew Git Off My Property! The Law Of Trespassing

Real Property Law: Fixtures

Real Estate Law: Underground Water

Real Property Law: Nuisances

Airspace Over Your Property How Much Of It Do You Own?

How Mortgages Work

Risks That Real Estate Title Insurance Policies Usually Won't Cover

Psychedelic Trance Music

Registering The Purchase Of Your Real Estate

Real Estate Law: Damages For Breach Of Warranty Covenants By A Seller

Deeds For The Transfer Of Real Estate What You Need To Know

How To Enforce An Oral Real Estate Contract

Musical Instrument Digital Interface - The MIDI Trinity

How To Download Music From Your Brain (or The Next Best Thing!)

Standardization Of Midi Technology Under The General Midi (gm) Standard

The History Of Midi Electronic Home Studio Recording

Midi Interfaces

The General Midi Standard For The Budding Electro-musician

Modifying Your Midi Composition Using A Sequencer

Midi Sequencers: The Brain Of Your Home Recording Studio

What's So Great About Midi Home Recording?

Real Estate Law In Plain English: What Is Marketable TitleÃ¢â¬Â?

Can You Enforce An Oral Contract For The Sale Of Real Estate?

Buyer Beware! The Truth About Real Estate Brokers And Multiple Listing Services

The Incredible Legal Liability Of Real Estate Brokers

Real Estate Law In Plain English: What Is Marketable TitleÃ¢â¬Â?