1. Nature and Description of Real Estate; Rights and Interests in Land
BA 365
January 20, 2005

2. Daily Trivia
Q: What is the most-visited historic home in the United States?
A: More than 600,000 visitors a year visit Graceland in Memphis, TN, home of Elvis Presley

3. Nature and Description of Real Estate
What is property and what kind of rights can someone hold?
What relationships exist between buyers and sellers of real estate?
Water Rights
Land Descriptions
Physical descriptions of land

4. What and How Real estate is land and the improvements made to land
A person may hold rights to land of the surface, subsurface, and air

5. Improvements
Anything a person does to property that is permanent is carried with the property at time of transfer unless otherwise specified
Intention of permanence:
The manner of attachment
The adaptation of the object
The existence of an agreement
The relationship of the parties involved

6. Plants, Trees, and Crops
Permanent plants and landscaping stay with the property
Crops that are to be harvested are defined legally as emblements, they are personal property

7. Water Rights Riparian – share use of a single watercourse
Doctrine of prior appropriation – the first to divert can keep it
Littoral doctrine of capture – first user of water has rights to keep it
Percolating water – water not confined to an underground waterway
Water table – upper limit of percolating water

8. Where is it? Describing Land
Six methods for describing locations:
Informal reference
Metes and bounds
Rectangular survey system
Recorded plat
Assessor’s parcel number
Reference to documents other than maps

9. Lot Types
Cul de Sac – a street closed at one end with a circular turnaround
Flag lot – shaped like a flag or flagpole – used to create a buildable lot out of the land at the back of a larger lot
Corner lot – on a corner, usually worth more because of light and access

10. Lot Types, Cont. Inside lot – a lot with only one street border
Key lot – adjoins the side or rear property line of a corner lot
T lot – at the end of a T intersection

11. Characteristics of Land
Physical:
Land can’t move
Land is a durable product, difficult if not impossible to destroy
All land is different – one piece can’t be substituted for another
Economic:
Scarcity of land increases its value
Changing land impacts its value and the value of land surrounding it
Real estate is a long-term investment
Location is important to economic success

12. Part II – Rights and Interests in Land
History
Government
Encumbrances
Estates

13. History of Land Interests
Feudal System – All land ownership rested with the monarchy who awarded small tracts in exchange for crops and military service
Allodial System – individuals get to own land and pass it down

14. Government Rights to Land
Property taxes – land used to be the primary source of wealth, its hard to hide
Eminent domain – government can take control of land for public projects
Police power – zoning, planning, codes, rent control
Escheat – government takes control of property in the absence of any heirs

15. Ownership Why have land if you have no safe way of keeping it?
Fee simple – rights of the individual property holder
Estate – one’s legal interest or rights in land

16. Encumbrances
Anything that interferes with a person’s rights to their property
Easement – one person can use someone else’s land for a special purpose
Encroachment – crossing onto another’s property without right

17. More Encumbrances
Deed restriction – private agreements governing the use of land
Liens – somebody has a claim to somebody else’s property as collateral

18. Estates
Qualified fee estate – subject to limitations by the person creating the estate
Fee simple determinable estate – the duration can be determined from the deed itself
Fee simple subject to condition subsequent – the grantor has the right to terminate the estate
Fee simple upon condition precedent – title will not take effect until a condition is performed

19. More Estates
Life estate – conveys an estate for the duration of someone’s life
Statutory estates – created by state law
Dower – both husband and wife must sign over property rights
Curtesy – the husband gets rights on the wife’s death, but she may defeat them
Community property – each spouse has equal rights to property

20. Estates, Cont.
Homestead Protection – protect homesteaders and their widows or widowers, from losing their property
Freehold Estates – tried under real property laws
Leasehold Estates – tried under personal property laws