Im looking into buying expired domain names, if i say buy a PR5 expired domain with it maintain its PR after the whole process goes through? or does the PR take a dive? How about with transfers, if a domain is transfered to you will it take a PR dive?
If the backlinks/content/etc... is still the same then you should not have to suffer. The only way I see that you might suffer is if Google does a scan of a site when there is nothing there (when it expired)... however with saying that it will be a lot easier to bring that site back to a PR 5 (assuming it was a 'real' PR5 to begin with) then a site that is brand new.
Its not always necessary that it will maintain its PR.Have a look on its backlinks and see if these are good ones or not .Also , start building links if you happen to purchase the expired domain . Make sure you the check the domain history / archieve before buying the domain.Also , we all are expecting a PR update !!