Real Estate Terms

English → English · 96 words

English	English
Associate licensee	A licensed real estate sales person who is employed by or associated with the broker to perform brokerage activities on behalf of or for the broker
Appreciation	An increase in the worth or value of a property due to economic or related causes, which may prove to be either temporary or permanent; opposite of depreciation
Broker	One who acts as an intermediary on behalf of others for a fee or commission
Capital gain	Profit earned from the sale of an asset.
Depreciation	(1) In appraisal, a loss of value in property due to any cause, including physical deterioration, functional obsolescence, and external obsolescence; (2) In real estate investment, a deduction for tax purposes taken over the period of ownership of income property, based on the property’s acquisition cost.
Equity buildup	The portion of the loan payment directed toward the principle rather than the interest, plus any gain in property value due to appreciation.
Exchanges	A transaction in which all or part of the consideration is the transfer of like-kind property (e.g., real estate for real estate).
Fair housing	The federal law that prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, and national origin.
Leverage	The use of borrowed money to finance an investment.
Liquidity	The ability to sell an asset and convert it into cash, at a price close to its true value, in a short period of time.
Market	A place where goods can be bought and sold and a price established.
Real estate licensee	In real estate practice, a person who has the skills and knowledge to be licensed as a real estate broker or salesperson.
Sales associate	A person who performs real estate activities while employed by a licensed real estate broker.
Salesperson	See sales associate. A person who performs real estate activities while employed by a licensed real estate broker.
Supply and demand	The appraisal principle that follows the interrelationship of the supply of and demand for real estate. Because appraising is based on economic concepts, this principle recognizes that real property is subject to the influences of the marketplace as with any other commodity.
Fiscal policy =	governmental control
Accession	Acquiring title to additions or improvements to real property as a result of the annexation of fixtures or the accretion of alluvial deposits along the banks of streams.
Accretion	The increase or addition of land by the deposit of sand or soil washed up naturally from a river, lake, or sea.
Air rights	The right to use the open space above a property, usually allowing the surface to be used for another purpose.
Annexation	Process of converting personal property into real property.
Appurtenance	A right, privilege, or improvement belonging to, and passing with, the land; “runs with the land.”. Like a driveway or a right of way
Area preference	People’s desire for one area over another, based on a number of factors such as history, reputation, convenience, scenic beauty, and location.
Avulsion	The sudden tearing away of land, as by earthquake, flood, volcanic action, or the sudden change in the course of a stream.
Bundle of legal rights	The concept of land ownership that includes ownership of all legal rights to the land – possession, control within the law, enjoyment, exclusion, and disposition.
Chattel	See personal property. Items, called chattels, that do not fit into the definition of real property; movable objects
Emblements	Growing crops, such as corn, that are produced annually through labor and industry; also called fructus industrials. Considered Personal Property.
Erosion	The gradual and sometimes imperceptible wearing away of the land by natural forces, such as wind, rain, and flowing water.
Fixture	An item of personal property that has been converted to real property by being permanently affixed to the realty.
Improvement	(1) Any structure, usually privately owned, erected on a site to enhance the value of the property (e.g. a building, fence, or driveway). (2) A publicly owned structure added to or benefitting land (e.g. a curb, sidewalk, street, or sewer).
Land	The earth’s surface, extending downward to the center of the earth and upward infinitely into space, including things permanently attached by nature, such as trees.
Littoral Rights	Lakes and Oceans. A landowner’s claim to use water in large navigable lakes and oceans adjacent to her property. (2) The ownership rights to land bordering these bodies of water up to the high-water mark.
Manufactured housing	Dwellings that are built off site and trucked to a building lot where they are installed or assembled.
Nonhomogeneity	A lack of uniformity; dissimilarity. Because no two parcels of land are exactly alike, real estate is said to be nonhomogeneous.
Personal property	MOOVABLE! Items, called chattels, that do not fit into the definition of real property; movable objects.
Prior Appropriation	A concept of water ownership in which the landowner’s right to use available water is based on a government-administered permit system.
Real Estate	Land; a portion of the earth’s surface extending downward to the center of the earth and upward infinitely into space, including all things permanently attached to it, whether naturally or artificially.
Real Property	The interests, benefits, and rights inherent in real estate ownership; often used as a synonym for real estate.
Riparian rights	Rivers and Streams. An owner’s rights in land that borders on or includes a stream, river, or lake. These rights include access to and use of the water.
Situs	The location of land for legal purposes; the jurisdiction in which land is located.
Severance	Changing an item of real estate to personal property by detaching it from the land (e.g. cutting down a tree.)
Subsurface rights	Ownership rights in a parcel of real estate to the water, minerals, gas, oil, and so forth that lie beneath the surface of the property.
Surface rights	Ownership rights in a parcel of real estate that are limited to the surface of the property and do not include the space above it (air rights) or the substances below the surface (subsurface rights).
Trade fixture	An article installed by a tenant under the terms of a lease that is removable by the tenant before the lease expires.
Water rights	Common law rights held by owners of land adjacent to rivers, lakes, or oceans; includes restrictions on those rights and land ownership.
Condemnation	A judicial or administrative proceeding to exercise the power of eminent domain, through which a government agency takes private property for public use and compensates the owner.
Covenants, conditions, and restrictions	Private agreements that affect land use. They may be enforced by an owner of real estate that benefits from them and can be included in the seller’s deed to the buyer.
Deed restrictions	Clauses in a deed limiting the future uses of the property. Deed restrictions may impose a vast variety of limitations and conditions – for example, they may limit the density of buildings, dictate the types of structures that can be erected, or prevent buildings from being used for specific purposes or even from being used at all.
Easement	A right to use the land of another for a specific purpose, such as for a right-a-way or utilities; an incorporeal interest in land because it does not include a right of possession.
Easement appurtenant	An easement that is annexed to the ownership of one parcel and allows the owner the use of the neighbor’s land.
Easement by necessity	An easement allowed by law as necessary for the full enjoyment of a parcel of real estate (e.g a right of ingress and egress over a grantor’s land)
Easement by prescription	An easement acquired by open, notorious, continuous, hostile, and adverse use of the property for the period of time prescribed by state law.
Easement in gross	An easement that is not created for the benefit of any land owned by the owner of the easement but that attaches personally to the easement owner. For example, a right granted by a property owner to a friend to use a portion of the property for the rest of the friend’s life would be an easement in gross.
Eminent domain	The right of a government or municipal quasi-public body to acquire property for public use through a court action called condemnation, in which the court decides that the use is a public use and determines the compensation to be paid to the owner.
Encumbrance	Anything – such as a mortgage, tax, or judgment lien; an easement; a restriction on the use of the land; or an outstanding dower right – that may diminish the value or use and enjoyment of the property.
Escheat	The reversion of property to the state or county, as provided by state law, in cases in which a decedent dies interstate without heirs capable of inheriting, or when the property is abandoned.
Estate in land	The degree, quantity, nature, and extent of interest a person has in real property.
Fee simple	The highest interest in real estate recognized by the law; the holder is entitled to all rights to the property.
Fee simple absolute	The maximum possible estate or right of ownership of real property, continuing forever.
Fee simple defeasible	An estate in which the holder has a fee simple title that may be divested upon the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a specified event. There are two categories of defeasible fee estates; fee simple on condition precedent (fee simple determinable) and fee simple on condition subsequent.
Fee simple determinable	A fee simple estate qualified by a special limitation. Language used to describe the limitation includes the words so long as, while, or during.
Fee simple subject to a condition subsequent	An estate carrying the limitation that, if it is no longer used for the purpose conveyed, it reverts to the original grantor by the right of reentry.
Freehold estate	An estate in land in which ownership is for an indeterminate length of time, in contrast to a leasehold estate.
Future interest	A person’s present right to an interest in real property that will not result in possession or enjoyment until sometime in the future, such as a reversion or right of reentry.
Homestead	Land that is owned and occupied as the family home. In many states, a portion of the area or value of this land is protected or exempt from judgements for debts other than those secured by the property.
Inverse condemnation	An action brought by a property owner seeking just compensation for diminished use and value of land because of an adjacent property’s public use.
Legal life estate	A form of life estate established by state law, rather than created voluntarily by an owner. It becomes effective when certain events occur. See dower, curtesy, and homestead for legal life estates used in some states.
License	In real estate practice, the privilege or right granted to a person by a state to operate as a real estate broker or salesperson. Two, the revocable permission for a temporary use of land – a personal right that cannot be sold.
Lien	A right given by law to certain creditors to have their debts paid out of the property of a defaulting debtor, usually by means of a court sale.
Life estate	An interest in real or personal property that is limited in duration to the lifetime of its owner or some other designated person or persons.
Police power	The government’s right to impose laws, statutes, and ordinances, including zoning ordinances and building codes, to protect the public health, safety, and welfare.
Pur autre vie	“For the life of another.” A life estate pur autre vie is a life estate that is measured by the life of a person or persons other than the grantee.
Remainder interest	The remnant of an estate that has been conveyed to take effect and be enjoyed after the termination of a prior estate, such as when an owner conveys a life estate to one party and the remainder to another.
Reversionary interest	The remnant of an estate that the grantor holds after granting a life estate to another person.
Taking	Process of land being taken from a property owner for public use through eminent domain with the requirement that the owner by compensated fairly.
Taxation	The process by which a government body raises monies to fund its operation.
Common Elements	Parts of a property that are necessary or convenient to the existence, maintenance, and safety of a condominium or are normally in common use by all the condominium residents. Each condominium owner has an undivided ownership interest in the common elements.
Community Property	A system of property ownership based on the theory that each has an equal interest in the property acquired by the efforts of either spouse during marriage. A hold over of Spanish law found predominantly in the western U.S. states; the system was unknown under English common law.
Condominium	The absolute ownership of a unit in a multiunit building based on a legal description of the airspace the unit actually occupies, or a separate dwelling unit in a multiunit development, plus an undivided interest in the ownership of the common elements in the building or development, which are owned jointly with the other condominium owners.
Cooperative	A residential multiunit building whose title is held by a trust or corporation that is owned by and operated for the benefit of people living within the building who are the beneficial owners of the trust or shareholders of the corporation, each possessing a proprietary lease to a property unit.
Co-Ownership	Title ownership held by two or more persons.
Corporation	An entity or organization, created by operation of law, whose rights of doing business are essentially the same as those of an individual. The entity has continuous existence until it is dissolved according to legal procedures.
General Partnership	A typical form of joint venture in which each general partner shares in the administration, profits, and losses of the operation.
Joint Tenancy	Ownership of real estate between two or more parties who have been named in one conveyance as joint tenants. Upon the death of a joint tenant, the decedent’s interest usually passes to the surviving joint tenant or tenants by the right of survivorship.
Limited Liability Company	A form of business organization that combines the most attractive features of limited partnerships and corporations.
Limited Partnership	A business arrangement whereby the operation is administered by one or more general partners and funded, by and large, by limited or silent partners, who are by law responsible for losses only to the extent of their investments.
Partition	The division of cotenant’s interests in real property when the parties do not all voluntarily agree to terminate the co-ownership; takes place through a court procedure.
Partnership	An association of two or more individuals who carry on a continuing business for profit as co-owners.
PITT	The four unities of tenants in a joint tenancy; Possession, interest, time, and title
Right of survivorship	Upon the death of a joint tenant, the decedent’s interest usually passes to the surviving joint tenant or tenants by the right of survivorship.
Separate Property	Under community property law, property owned solely by either spouse before the marriage, acquired by gift or inheritance during the marriage, or purchased with separate funds after the marriage.
Severalty	Ownership of real property by one person only; also called sole ownership.
Tenancy by entirety	The joint ownership, recognized in some states, of property acquired by husband and wife during marriage. Upon the death of one spouse, the survivor becomes the owner of the property.
Tenancy in common (TIC)	A form of co-ownership by which each owner holds an undivided interest in real property as if each were sole owner. Each individual owner has the right to partition. Unlike joint tenants, tenants in common have the right of inheritance.
Time-Share	A form of ownership interest that may include an estate interest in property and that allows use of the property for a fixed or variable time period.
Town House	A type of residential dwelling with two floors that is connected to one or more dwellings by common wall or walls. Title to the unit and lot vest in the owner who shares a fractional interest with other owners in any common areas.
Trust	A fiduciary arrangement whereby property is conveyed to a person or an institution, called a trustee, to be held and administered on behalf of another person, called a beneficiary. The one who conveys the trust is called the trustor.