Introduction to real estate and ownership interest Flashcards
Real estate
Land and attatchments
Type of property that can generally be moved from one location to abother, (i.e., it is not attached to real property or land), touched or felt. It is not real estate.
Personal Property.
Examples include items such as furniture, clothing, jewelry, art, writings, or household goods.
All things attached to the land and all rights inherent with that land. As a general rule it relates to things that are immovable.
Real Property
Why is real estate considered a commodity?
Because it has utility and it is marketable in its own specialized area. “location, location, location.”
List the Bundle of Rights
- Possess
- dispose
- use
- exclude others
Physical concept of land
Solid surface of the earth. (i.e.”dirt”, improvements, in most cases bricks and sticks)
What are some examples of Improvements to the land
land development, utilities
Relates to the intention of the party making the annexation, whether the item can be removed without substantial damage to the realty, and whether the item can be removed without substantial damage to the item itself.
Fixture requirements
Items of property that a tenant uses in the conduct of its business and that remain personal property, even though they have the other characteristics of fixtures.
Trade fixture
How does personal property become a fixture?
M - Method of attatchment
A - Adadptability
R - Relationship of the party
I - Intention of party when iten was attatched
A - Agreement between the parties.
Examples of fixtures
- Refrigeration systems.
- Presses of a newspaper business.
- Garage.
- Pump on concrete foundation.
- Sewer line embedded in soil and not removable without serous damage to the entire sewer line.
- Computer hardware.
- Drapes and wall to wall carpeting.
What ate the 3 legal rights obtained when owning land?
- Surface rights
- Mineral (subsurface) rights - beneath land.
- Air rights - limits are no more than 20,000 feet below ground and 1500 feet above ground.
Rights that go from the surface of the land into space. It is possible to purchase land that has limited air rights. An example would be not owning the rights above 50 feet. This would stop you from building anything higher than 50 feet. A previous owner may have retained the air rights higher than 50 feet to keep the view from being blocked.
Air rights
What we typically think of as land ownership. The owner has the right to use the surface, build on it, farm it, or use the land for any legal purpose.
Surface rights
Ownership of anything below the surface. Includes gravel, oil, gas, gold, etc,. Includes the right to use the surface as necessary to access the minerals.
Mineral (subsurface rights)
The rights of property owners who own land abutting rivers and streams. owners of property that abuts a river or stream have a right to use the water, but they don’t have any right to contaminate the water or interrupt or change the flow of the water.
Riparian rights
The rights commonly granted to owners of property that border a bay, a large lake, the ocean, or a sea. Owners of property abutting such bodies of water have an unrestricted right to use the water and ownership of the land up to the average or mean high water mark.
Littoral rights
Financial rights
- Right to make money off of the property - (i.e. rent property).
- Right to mortgage the property - (i.e. borrow money against it).
An estate in which ownership is for an undefined length of time. Must include ownership of real estate and last for an indefinite period of time.
Freehold estate
What are the two main types of freehold estates?
Fee estates and life estates
The most complete form of ownership without limitations on rights of ownership, except for public and private restrictions on what can be done with the property.
Fee simple estates
What is the main difference between a fee simple estate and a life estate?
Fee simple estate has no time limit and a life estate does.
Ownership that lasts only as long as the owener is alive. The property transfers back to the original owner at deather through “reversion”. The designated future owner has a “remainder” interest and will eventually own the property fee simple.
Life estate
Which right, of the bundle of rights, does a life estate not have?
The right to dispose of the property.
If no restrictions are placed on an owener that owns his estate fee simple, does this mean they can do anything they want to the land?
No, government restrictions such as zoning prevent a fee simple owner from doing whatever they want with the land.
Right of a spouse, entitling him or her to one half interest in real property that was acquired during a marriage.
Community property
The right of a husband to a portion of real property that is owned by his wife — after she dies and even if she leaves it to someone else in her will.
Curtesy
The right of a wife to a portion of real property that is owned by her husband — after he dies and even if he leaves it to someone else in his will.
Dower
Grants the family home a certain level of protection from creditors during the owner’s lifetime
Homestead
Interest in real estate that gives some rights to the tenant, such as a right to exclusive possession and use of all or some portion of the property, while the owner retains ownership rights, the right to collect rents, and the right to sell the property. The estate is for a definite duration.
Leasehold Estates
The ownership of real property in which several owners each own a stated portion or share of the entire property. Each owner can owne a different percentage, can take title at any time, and can sell interest at any time.
Owner A - 50%
Owner B - 30%
Owner C - 20%
If B dies his percentage owenership goes to his heirs not to A or C.
Tennancy in common
Means that you share ownership of property. when you die, the other co-owner receives your share of the property by right of survivorship.
Joint Tennancy
In order for one spouse to modify his or her interest in the property in any way, the consent of both spouses is required by tenants by entirety. It also provides that when one spouse passes away, the surviving spouse gains full ownership of the property. (e.g. Dower, Curtesy)
Tennancy by the entirety
May hold an owner liable for the unpaid operating expenses of other owners.
Cooperative
Form of group ownership that involves actually getting a deed to your individual ownership interest. The deed describes the airspace you own, which you own as a tenant in severalty, and your share as a tenant in common of the land under and around your unit. A homeowners association usually collects set monthly fees, which pay for maintenance of the condominium building and complex.
Condominium
Timeshare
A person has either a fractional ownership in a property or the right to use a property for a limited period of time each year or both.