Question: My mother bought a condo few months ago and the deed and title are under her name alone. I am trying to add my name to the deed as well. Is there anyway I can add my name to the deed without having an attorney? What forms should I buy or need and how can I do so?

Answer: It just isn't a good idea to change a deed without proper legal advice. The potential for problems is substantial and it can cost thousands of dollars to untangle title glitches.

Typically a lender can demand repayment when title to a property changes -- however there may be exceptions. For instance, under the Garn-St. Germain Act a lender cannot enforce a due-on-sale clause when there is "a transfer where the spouse or children of the borrower become an owner of the property" or "a transfer to a relative resulting from the death of a borrower." There are other exceptions as well.

However, there are also complexities. What if your name is added to the title and you're sued? What are the estate and gift tax implications? What if a potential heir argues that Mom is senile (or a drunk or insane, etc.) and incapable of transferring title?

Before going further, get a local real estate attorney to properly advise you.

Question: Prior to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, I entered into an agreement to purchase a property. Although the house was not located in the disaster area, the bank that was financing the mortgage was located in New Orleans. Thus, the contract expired before the paperwork could be completed. Although the attorney of the seller has notified me that my contract has expired, he has not returned my deposit. What can I do?

Answer: As this is written, access to New Orleans is largely prohibited. Straightening out real estate transactions is far down the list of necessities when people lack such things as homes, food, water, electricity and transportation.

Contact the attorney and ask where the deposit is now located. The betting here is that the attorney -- having contacted you in the first place -- is working to get back the deposit. Given the tremendous disruptions to the local economy, the hold-up may be that the financial institution where the money is being held is not now operating.

Question: Our seller defaulted on a home sale because he "didn't arrange for movers!" Nearly two weeks have now passed since we were supposed to close. What can we do?

Answer: If you do not complain about this it could be said that you have effectively agreed to the seller's delay. Have your attorney contact the seller and the seller's broker and demand an immediately closing. A mention of "damages" and "specific performance" might be helpful.

Question: We signed a listing contract to sell our home three weeks ago and have now decided not too sell. The listing is for six months. What are our rights?

Answer: Broker policies on this issue differ. Some will simply end the listing, others will end the listing if you will pay their costs to date for ads and other hard costs and a very few will demand to continue the listing.

The best approach is to contact the broker -- most will be reasonable because you're a member of the local community and brokers greatly value good will.

Question: I have been trying to buy a used HUD manufactured home for several months now. Finding a lender has been impossible. No one wants to touch this home and I can't believe that they would want this home to sit empty and lose money on it every month. I really love this house.

I have been at my present job for nine years this December and I have an excellent credit rating. My debt-to-income is too high for FHA and now I'm getting all kinds of excuses that the lenders will not lend on this house on property.

All I want is to purchase this home and get out of paying rent in my apartment. If I can pay $850 a month in rent, why can't I buy this home. It is so beyond me why lenders are being so selective.

Answer: Lenders should be selective to limit risk. As you point out, your debt-to-income ratio is too high for FHA financing -- and FHA financing has very liberal qualification standards.

As well, lenders are not losing money on the empty house. They are not the owners. Instead they provide financing for qualified buyers.

Try this: Contact the nearest HUD counseling office in your state. This can be done by going to hudhcc.org or by calling 1-800-569-4287. Also, see if state mortgage assistance is available.

Question: My husband and I have been in our home for approximately 18 months and would like to sell. We purchased the home for $340,000 and might be able to sell for between $450,000 and $460,000. The profit after closing costs would be anywhere from $30,000 to $40,000?

Answer: Let's say that you put the home up for sale today and that it took a month to sell and a month to close -- a total of two months. Why not just wait a few months and not pay any capital gains tax?

Question: My upstairs neighbors are making my life completely unbearable with the noise coming from their apartment. I am bombarded by shaking noises from their walking, slamming cabinet doors/closet doors, dropping things directly to the floor, the list goes on and on.

I've dealt with this from their first night, when I was jarred out of sleep. Since then, my life has been hell, and the problem is getting consistently worse -- to the point of my hating to go home and cringing when their car pulls up.

After eight months, I had no choice but to call management -- who wanted my complaint in writing (which I submitted).

I'm now having to sleep on an air mattress in my living room instead of my bedroom because of the noise. I've basically become a prisoner in my own apartment -- living entirely in my living room to avoid the noise. When they get up, I have to get up -- because there is no peace (she vacuums before 8 AM on the weekends, they stomp through the house, slam doors and cabinets, let things fall to the floor, etc.).

I know that the stress of this is having an affect on my health due to lack of sleep. I've resorted to wearing ear plugs, leaving on the CD player and TV. They have made my life hell, and it will cost me to get out of my lease.

Answer: Move. Even if you have to pay a lease penalty, move -- moving will be cheaper than pills, therapy, stress and anxiety. Perhaps a single-family home in the country would work best.

Question: We wish to purchase a home and wonder about renting our existing home to help us with the new mortgage. If we rent and later decide to sell it, how does that work with capital gains?

Answer: In general terms, to get the capital gains write-off of up to $500,000 you need to reside in the property for two of the past five years. This means you could rent the current home for two years, sell it, and still get the capital gains write-off.

Why not rent for three years and then sell? Because you might lose the write-off if you do not have two full years of occupancy in the past five years. Please see a tax pro for specifics.

Question: I recently had my home appraised and was shocked that it has only increased in value from $176,000 at the time of purchase in February of 2003 to $180,000 now. After the expenses in landscaping (added sod, trees, etc) it's really increased zero value. It's a very nice home in a premier neighborhood.

With reports of homes increasing in value from 5 to 7 percent, and even the rock bottom lowest areas increasing at a rate of more than 2 percent annually, what's up? (Well, not my home value for one!)

Answer: Here's the deal: While enormous attention has been paid to soaring home values nationwide, the reality is that values have not risen everywhere -- in fact there are a number of areas where they have actually fallen.

For instance, according to the National Association of Realtors , "The national median existing single-family home price was $208,500 in the second quarter, up 13.6 percent from the second quarter of 2004 when the median price was $183,500." NAR also reports that while most metro areas saw price increases in the second quarter, prices did not increase everywhere. For instance, prices actually fell in such metro areas as Cedar Rapids (-0.2 percent), Chattanooga (-1.0 percent), Dayton (-0.3 percent), Indianapolis (-1.0 percent), Kalamazoo-Portage (-3.5 percent), Topeka (-0.6 percent) and Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA (-2.7 percent).

In effect, real estate is a commodity -- home prices can both rise and fall, something to consider when financing with no money down, interest-only loans, ARMs and option mortgages.

This column is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is made available with the understanding that neither the author nor the publisher is engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If legal services or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.