Reams of regulations, building codes, and ordinances from all levels of government cast a confusing net of governing law over your home.

Legislation to draft still more laws, court cases to help decipher laws already on the books, court hearings, mediation, and arbitration to settle disputes over legal interpretations of those laws, add to the confusing morass.

If you can't find a good real estate attorney when you need one, or if that consulting fee is a little too steep, quickly boning up on realty nolo can be a daunting task.

Until now.

A highly acclaimed web site for legal eagle students, professionals, and corporations -- as well as anyone with a question about law, recently added a real estate law information area that takes off the blindfold when legal matters hit home.

From building defects and disclosures, to landlord and tenant issues and tax shelters FindLaw.com's Real Estate Center is a plain text gem of an online guide to real estate law.

Easier to navigate than flipping the pages of a book, the web site uses basic information technology to provide non-linear, intuitive access to the information, much in the way information is often sought.

The pro bono materials are beacons of insight that cut through the legalese, to shed light on an otherwise esoteric subject that can be difficult to decipher.

FindLaw's premise is that knowledge is power and knowing your legal rights can help head off, or resolve problems that shift the focus from your house to the courthouse.

There's much power in FindLaw's Real Estate Center.

Home owners, renters, and landlords can find information on a host of subjects divided into four main sections, "Overview," "Homeownership," "Tenants Rights," and "Landlords," each of which are further divided into sub sections with topic areas and even more detailed sub topics.

• The Overview includes home owners rights, home owner restrictions, home as a tax shelter, legal forms of home ownership, understanding joint ownership and understanding shared ownership.

• The Homeownership section, for example delves into the legal issues of home buying, home selling, construction and improvements, health and safety, neighbors and land use, and zoning.

  To give an example of the breadth and depth of the subsections, the home buying subsection (one of seven subsections under Homeownership) alone comes with topics that include the need for an attorney when buying or selling, home buying FAQs, working with a real estate agent, offers and contracts, closing tips, financing (qualifying, mortgage basics, and mortgage FAQs), transferring property, deeds, title insurance, home owners insurance, tax issues, homeowner associations and HOA law, and condo and co-op information. Many topics are further sub divided.

• The Tenants Rights section offers legal information on leases and rental agreements, fair housing, rent and security deposits, repairs and maintenance, eviction and lease termination, roommates, privacy, crime, and lead.

• The Landlord section provides information similar to that in the Tenants Rights section but from the perspective of the landlord.

Each section also includes a "Get Help Now" button for referrals to real estate attorneys, and related information; a "Resources" button with links to state law details and related information, and dictionaries to help you understand the legal meaning of many issues.

FindLaw's Real Estate Center won't transform you into an attorney any more than a word processor will make you a writer, or tax software will sprout an accountant, but it will help you better understand the laws that touch every aspect of what's likely to be your most valuable and most emotionally trying transaction ever.

When it comes to the legal angle on your home, FindLaw should be your first stop. Once there, you could find out that it's the only stop you'll ever need for real estate legal information.

"Site To See" reviews are occasional critiques of content-heavy real estate web sites deemed unique, consumer-friendly, informative and easy to use.

Published: March 11, 2005

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.