Real Estate Terms Flashcards
Trust Deed
The trust deed, also called deed of trust is used when property serves as security for a debt. The debt typically is the loan used to purchase the property as collateral to guarantee payment of the amount borrowed.
Zoning
Zoning is an act of city or county government. Zoning laws or ordinance specify the possible uses of property in a defined area. Zoning is a 20th-century invention intended to promote the public health or general public welfare. It has been the subject of many legal battles involving the extent to which public interest can take priority over private ones.
Boot
Property received in an exchange has the same cost basis for the recipient as the property transferred, provided that no money or other additional consideration accompanies the transfer. Additional consideration, or boot, is reportable gain for tax purposes in the amount of the cash value of the boot received.
Homestead Exemption
California and other states provide homeowners with special protection from creditors. Some of all of the value of the owners equity in the homestead is exempt from the claims of unsecured creditors.
Accession Accretion
Accession refers to an increase in the property owned. Manmade or natural additions to property may extend the owner’s tittle to include those additions - by the construction of improvements.
Land area can be increase by forces of nature. Accretion is the process by which land adjacent to a flowing body of water accumulates new soil.
Unilateral Contract
When only one party has an obligation under the contract, a unilateral contract is formed.
License
One more way to transfer a right to use land is by a license, the permission given to another to com onto ones land. A license is a nonexclusive right, which means that the person to whom it is given has no right to exclude others from the owner’s land. A license is personal property rather than real property and temporary than permanent. A license may be terminated at any time without prior notice.
Intestate
A person who dies without having made a will.
Testate
A person who dies testate leave a will
Adverse Possession
The concept of taking over someone else’s property and occupying it long enough to acquire ownership of it can be appealing, but the reality s much more complex and rarely accomplished. You can acquire title to real estate by Adverse Possession if you follow these five steps.
1. open 2. notorious 3. continuous 4. hostile 5. adverse to the interest of the real owner for five years (ONCHA).
Section of Land
A township is composed of 36 sections. One standard section is one square mile, which contains 640 acres. A section may be further divided.
Base lines
Imaginary lines that run east-west and intersect meridians that run north-south to form the starting point for land measurement using the rectangular survey system of land description.
Meridians
Imaginary lines that run north to south and intersect base lines that run east to west to form the starting point for land measurement using the rectangular survey system of land description.
Metes/Bounds
Method of legal description of land using distances (called metes) measured from a point of beginning and using natural or artificial boundaries (called bounds), as well as single objects (called monuments or markers) as points of reference.
Lot and Block system
Subdivision system; method of legal description of land using parcel maps identified by track, block, and lot number
Community Property
All property acquired by husband and wife during marriage except that qualifying as separate property.
Right of Appropriation
Right of government to take, impound, or divert water flowing on the public domain from its natural course for some beneficial purpose.
Section and township system; U.S. government survey system; method of legal description of land using areas called town-ship measured from meridians and base lines.
Rectangular Survey System
Latin phrase meaning “Let the buyer beware.”
Caveat Emptor
Right to use of water from a lake or other body of still water by adjoining property owners.
Littoral Rights
An installment payment on a promissory note - usually the final payment - that is significantly larger than the other installment payments.
Balloon Payment
Creditor’s right in identified property of the debtor.
Specific Lien
The right of a landowner whose property borders a lake, river, or stream to the use and enjoyment of the water adjacent to or flowing over the property, provided the use does not injure other riparian landowners.
Riparian Rights
Right to use of water found at surface of land and underground.
Water Rights
Acquiring a specific use of or the right to travel over the land of another by statutory requirements similar to those for adverse possession.
Easement by Prescription
An agreement or a promise to do or not to do a particular act, usually imposed by deed.
Covenant
A real estate salesperson or broker who works as the employee of a real estate broker
Associate Licensee
The transferring of property to another; an involuntary transfer of title
Alienation
A listing agreement that gives the listing broker the right to purchase the listed property; because of the potential for the appearance of impropriety, if the option is exercised the principal should be informed of the broker’s profit in the transaction and agree to it in writing.
Option Listing
A bar against future conduct. By acting as if an agency relationship exists, a principal is prevented by estoppel from denying it in future.
Example: Person S tells Person J that Broker B is selling the Person S home. Person J brings an offer to Broker B, who prepares a written offer to purchase, listing Broker B as the broker and stipulating a commission rate. Person S can accept the offer by signing it. If Person S does so, will an agency be created?
Yes, if Person S accepts the offer, which lists Broker B as the selling agent entitled to the sales commission. Person S’s acceptance by signing the agreement would satisfy the requirement for a writing.
Estoppel
Real estate license on which one or more conditions are imposed by the Real Estate Commissioner as the result of a disciplinary action.
Restricted License
An involuntary lien that arises from a taxpayer’s obligation to pay real property taxes, state income and estate taxes, or federal income, gift, and estate taxes.
Tax lien
Deed given to the purchaser at a court-ordered sale to satisfy a judgment, without warranties.
Sheriff’s deed
Any transfer of a substantial part of the materials, supplies, merchandise, equipment, or other inventory of a business that is not in the ordinary course of the business’s activities
Bulk transfer of goods
Anything that benifits an agent’s self-interest or that of someone related to the agent, which would interfere with the objective fulfillment of an agent’s obligation to a principal.
Conflict of interest
A listing agreement providing that the agent may retain as compensation for her services all sums received over and above a net price to the owner. The broker’s compensation is whatever amount the property sells for over a previously agreed (net) amount.
Net listing
An easement in gross is a personal right to use land. The right belongs to an individual (a person or business corporation) and is not appurtenant to any ownership interest in land. The instrument creating the easement in gross can be made binding on future owners of land, in which case it will “run with the land.” Sometimes, a railroad right-of-way is an easement in gross. the railroad does not own any adjacent land but has the right to travel over the land on which the easement lies. Pipeline and power line easements are other examples.
An easement right with no accompanying property ownership right.
Easement gross
Is used to help secure payment for any labor, service, equipment, or materials used in the construction of improvements to real estate.
A statutory lien against real property in favor of persons who have performed work or furnished materials for the improvement of the property
Mechanics’s lien
An agent who has been granted a power of attorney by a principal.
Attorney-in-fact
An open listing, also called a nonexclusive listing, provides for a commission to the broker if the broker is the procuring cause of sale. It provides no compensation if another broker fulfills that task or if the owner does. To be the procuring cause of a sale, the agent must be the one who brings the parties together or at least must initiate the contact that leads to a sale
Open listing
In a dual agency, the same agent represents two principals in the same transaction. A dual agency thus places the agent in the precarious position of carrying out agency responsibilities to two principals whose interest are in opposition.this can occur when a listing broker finds a buyer for the listed property. A dual agency can also occur when two associate licensees in the same brokerage work on behalf of the employing broker to represent both buyer and seller. A real estate broker in a dual agency relationship must make sure that both clients know of and consent to the dual representation.
Dual agency
A voluntary lien is one agreed to by the property owner. A mortgage or deed of trust that an owner of real estate gives to obtain financing is an example of a voluntary lien
Voluntary lien
The cause originating a series of events that lead directly to the intended objective; in a real estate transaction the procuring cause is the real estate agent who first procures a ready, willing, and able buyer.
Procuring cause
A quitclaim deed conveys any interest the grantor may have in the property at the time the deed is executed. No implied warranties are made by a quitclaim deed, and there is no express or implied warranty that the grantor owns any interest at all in the property. A quitclaim deed should never be used when a grant deed can be used.
Ex; Person K bought Whiteacre after marrying Person L, but Person K used money from the sale of Persons K’s separate property to do so. When Person K sold Whiteacre, Person K signed the deed as Person K, a married person. Person K’s spouse did not sign the deed. The grantee of Whiteacre questioned the validity of that conveyance when years later a would-be purchaser was unable to acquire title insurance.
The cloud on the title of the present owner of Whiteacre was cleared by having Person L sign a quitclaim deed, relinquishing whatever claim Person L might have in the property.
Quitclaim deed
A will written entirely by hand, signed, and dated by the testator. It does not need to be witnessed, but it must be entirely handwritten. There can be no printed or typewritten parts of a holographic will
Holographic will
Any form of restriction is a limitation on the use of land. The most common private restriction are the “covenants, conditions, and restrictions” found in a deed. The most common public (government) restriction is the zoning ordinance.
Restrictions
Water of any moving body of water may permanently recede, uncovering new land that was once under the water. This process, called reliction, increases the adjacent owner’s property.
Reliction
Cultivated crops are called emblements. They are considered part of the land until they are harvested. Then, they become personal property. If grown by a tenant on leased land, however, they are considered personal property both while growing and after harvest. The sale of growing crops is governed by the provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code.
Crops produced by human labor (lettuce, cotton, grapes, and so on) are also referred to by the legal term, fructus industriales. They are distinguished from naturally occurring plant growth (such as grasses), which are termed fructus naturales.
Emblements
A multiple listing service (MLS) is an organization of real estate agents that receives information from individual members on their property listings and make that information available to participating members. MLS members agree to abide y the rules of the MLS. the MLS benefits sellers by making more agents aware of the availability of their property. Buyers benefit from a wide choice of properties from which an agent can present those that meet the buyers’ needs.
Multiple listing service (MLS)
California law presumes that every person who dies has an heir who could take title to the decedents property. Sometimes, however, it is impossible to locate an heir. The attorney general acts on behalf of the state to bring a claim against the estate and, if no claimant comes forward within five years, title two the property vests in the state. This process is called escheat.
Escheat
A legal action brought by the owner of land when government puts nearby land to a use that diminishes that value of the owner’s property.
Inverse condemnation
The assets of an existing business enterprise, including its goodwill.
Business opportunity
When properly drawn, a will names an executor to act as the decedent’s representative in ensuring that the terms of the will are carried out. Probate is the name of the courts process that determine the decedent’s heirs and creditors, pays debts owed by the estate, and transfers title to any remaining property from the decedents to the decedent’s heirs.
If theres a will, the decedent’s representative presents the will to the probate court and receives permission to carry out its provisions. Sometimes, the deceased leaves no will or fails to name a representative, or the named representative refuses to serve in that capacity. In any of those cases, the court may appoint an administrator to handle the estate.
Probate
Sharing of the compensation (usually, a commission) received by the listing brokers with the broker who brings the buyer to the transactions.
Cooperating split
A listing agreement employing a broker as agent for a seller of real property under the terms of which the broker is entitled to compensation if the listed property is sold during the duration of the listing, whether by the listing agent, another agent, or the owner acting without the services of an agent.
Exclusive authorization and right-to-sell listing
A person employed by another who has almost complete freedom to accomplish the purpose of the employment.
Independent contractor
Agreement in which both parties make a promise to do something or to refrain from doing something and both are obligated to fulfill the promise.
Bilateral contract
Compensation in any form received by a real estate licensee without the knowledge of the licensee’s client.
Secret profit
The tearing or washing away of land along the bank of body of water by natural forces.
Avulsion
Person who is hired by someone else to perform work; for purposes of the Real Estate Law, a real estate salesperson is always considered an employee under the supervision of the employing broker; for tax purposes, a real estate salesperson working for a real estate broker can be hired as an employee or an independent contractor, if the requirements of the Internal Revenue Service are met.
Employee
Person who hires someone else to perform work.
Employer
The history of the conveyances and encumbrances affecting the present owner’s title to property, as far back as records are available.
Chain of title