So when the new roof/furnace, or other calamity occurs down the road, they will convince themselves that this is a "one-off" and in their own mind will not record a 'subtraction' from the return they are getting.

You can postpone reporting crop insurance proceeds as income until the year following the year the damage occurred if you meet all the following conditions.

If its not obvious, the might accept an adjustment.If damage occurs after you have an accepted offer, you'll have to go back through the process if you want an adjustment.

Govt needs to be in markets to ensure theft, fraud, and other gross mismanagement does not occur.7.

If a republican does win, or Obama stays in office, it could take years for any proposed program to occur like what you are talking about.

What presentations will be occurring at the same time?

One caveat is that the current owners (the defaulted borrowers) may have already exhausted most of the "stalling tactics" that occur in pre-foreclosure, to the point where the lender / servicer is going to foreclose on a certain date regardless of whether a short sale attempt is in progress.

A buyer can not buy a house and pay more than 20% more than the previous sale price if the previous sale has occurred within 90 days.

I was purchasing a duplex for $12,100 and everything was running smooth until the day of closing.Closing occurs, everyone gets their check and leaves.I get a phone call from the closing company 10 minutes later saying they discovered a $20,000 lien on the property from the electric company, and that they have stopped payment on the seller's check, and they are "undoing" the closing.The seller did not reply to the closing company until he found out his check was no good.

This is what typically occurs.