What stays with the home, what can the seller remove? What if something is missing after the sale has closed? What about the second refrigerator in the garage? Can that generator change owners as part of the real estate sale? As the technology we love becomes more deeply integrated in our homes, new questions arise about what might be considered fixtures. Read the rest of this entry »

In real estate, property rights and value have been established through documentation of title. The derivatives that caused the current financial crisis lack most any documentation and thus, can't be valued. (Hernando de Soto: March 25, 2009, The Wall Street Journal. The Mystery of Capital, Basic Books 2000.) Read the rest of this entry »