Real Estate Principles And Practices - Chapter 2

Front 1

Immobility, Indestructibility, Nonhomogeneity, Nonfungible

Back 1

Physical characteristics of Land

Front 2

Nonhomogenous

Back 2

Uniqueness, no two parcels of land are the same

Front 3

Land patent

Back 3

The document that transferred land ownership under the 1862 Homestead Act.

Front 4

Scarcity, Situs, and Durability

Back 4

Economic characteristics of land

Front 5

Situs

Back 5

The fancy word for "location."

Front 6

Land

Back 6

The Earth's surface, including the soil going down to the Earth's core

Front 7

Real Estate

Back 7

The land, plus its improvements (buildings and fences, etc.)

Front 8

Real Property

Back 8

The land and real estate, plus the rights and privileges the owner possesses.

Front 9

Profit a prendre

Back 9

The right to use and extract from the land of another. (E.g. the right to drill for oil or mine metals on private land owned by another party.)

Front 10

Riparian rights

Back 10

If an owner's land borders a moving body of water, under these rights, the landowner is entitled to a share in the use of the water.

Front 11

Littoral rights

Back 11

If a land owner's property borders a non-moving body of water, under these rights the land owner may use and enjoy the water bordering their land, but cannot divert the water.

Front 12

Doctrine of Prior Appropriation

Back 12

In some states, especially dry western states, this doctrine allows the first user of the water source to channel it for his use, to the deprivation of others.

Front 13

Groundwater

Back 13

Water in the earth BENEATH the saturation point. Does not flow in an undeground stream.

Front 14

Percolating water

Back 14

Water found underground and tapped for a well.

Front 15

Floodwaters

Back 15

Water that overflows the channel or stream of the water.

Front 16

Tidelands

Back 16

Shorelines affected by tides.

Front 17

Accretion

Back 17

Gaining land by soil buildup

Front 18

Erosion

Back 18

Gradual loss of land

Front 19

Avulsion

Back 19

Rapid loss of land.

Front 20

Reliction (or deriliction)

Back 20

When a body of water recedes, exposing dry land.

Front 21

Police powers, Eminent domain, Taxation, Escheat

Back 21

The rights of government in regard to real estate

Front 22

Eminent domain

Back 22

The right of government to take private property for public use with just compensation

Front 23

Condemnation Proceedings

Back 23

The process by which property is taken, especially in regard to eminent domain

Front 24

Special assessments

Back 24

Special taxes to pay for the cost of improvements such as pavement, sidewalks, street lights, etc.

Front 25

Escheat

Back 25

The lapsing of property to the state, such as when a person dies with no will ("intestate") and with no heirs.

Front 26

Intestate

Back 26

Having no legal will

Front 27

Chattel, or personalty

Back 27

Fancy word for personal property

Front 28

The guidelines for determining personal property versus real property

Back 28

MARIA

Front 29

MARIA

Back 29

Manner of attachment

Appropriateness of use intended

Relationship of the parties

Intent of parties

Agreement to the contrary

Front 30

Fixture

Back 30

Items of personal property that become real property when attached to real estate. E.g. cabinets and ceiling fans.

Front 31

Trade fixtures

Back 31

Fixtures in real estate that are specific to the seller's trade, which are thus personal property, despite being affixed. E.g. a barber's chair

Front 32

Emblements

Back 32

Annual crops (are personal property, not real property)

Front 33

Voluntary alienation

Back 33

Selling land to a purchaser (fancy way of saying it).

Front 34

By purchase, by will, by descent

Back 34

Three ways to acquire ownership

Front 35

Devise

Back 35

Estate that has been willed to someone.

Front 36

Devisee

Back 36

One who receives willed estate.

Front 37

Testator

Back 37

One who wills estate to another. (The person who makes the will.)

Front 38

Probate

Back 38

The legal process to determine the exact assets of a deceased person.

Front 39

Codicil

Back 39

An amendment to an existing will.

Front 40

Involuntary alientation

Back 40

When property is take from the rightful owner by some legal process.

Front 41

Police Powers

Back 41

The right of government to make laws, ordinance, regulations, etc. regarding the use of land. E.g. zoning laws, building codes

Front 42

Adverse possession

Back 42

Losing property because someone else has occupied your land in a hostile, continuous, visible and actual way for a period of time (different time state to state).

Front 43

quiet title action suit

Back 43

The legal process by which someone claims a title of land through adverse possession.

Front 44

Color of title

Back 44

The appearance of ownership (such as paying property tax on a parcel)

Front 45

easement by prescription

Back 45

An easement one acquires on the land of another through continuous use for a statutory period.

E.g. a trail through the property used by kids walking to school for many years.

Front 46

Types of involuntary alienation

Back 46

Adverse possession, foreclosure, condemnation under right of eminent domain

Front 47

Allodial system

Back 47

Gov't permits citizens to own private land (as opposed to feudal system where ownership remained with king)