Speeding up development is always nice (following DRY philosophy), therefore you can use this Extension (.net 3.5) to get property values without the need for checking if the property is null before getting the actual value. See the sample below.

It also shows how easy it is to Extend the umbraco Node.

[code]//The extension (Extensions.cs)
namespace CPalm.Umbraco
{
public static class Extensions
{
static string GetPropertyValue(this Node node, string alias)
{
Property property = node.GetProperty(alias);
return property == null ? string.Empty : property.Value;
}
}
}[/code]

[code]//The sample
// Remember to include the using to the namespace where you Extensions is located
using CPalm.Umbraco;
namespace CPalm.masterpages
{
public partial class Test : System.Web.UI.MasterPage
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// The problem.
// Can possible give null reference System.NullReferenceException
string str3 = Node.GetCurrent().GetProperty("propertyMaybyExist").Value;

// safe way without the Extension
Property property = Node.GetCurrent().GetProperty("propertyMaybyExist");
string str1 = (property == null) ? string.Empty : property.Value;

// With the extension.
// Will never give a System.NullReferenceException
string str2 = Node.GetCurrent().GetPropertyValue("propertyMaybyExist")
}
}
}[/code]

Enjoy :-)