Real Estate: Ownership

Real property consists of three possible components

1. land, including everything above and below it 2. improvements and 3. plants, trees and crops.

Situs

: Every parcel of land occupies a specific location. Location has value primarily in terms of its accessibility and its desirability as an object of human demand. This is is location as a determinant of the land's economic value. What makes one site or location preferable to another is largely a matter of personal choice. Positive factors may include safety, low traffic volume, accessibility, schools, stores, etc.

Mineral Rights

An owner's rights to things below the surface of his property

Modification

Improvements modify or affect not only the properties they're built on, but also other surrounding properties. The construction of an airport, for example, can have a variety of effects on the value and usefulness of adjacent land. Residential values are likely to fall, but commercial land values, are likely to rise. Therefore, the value of land and its usefulness for certain purposes are increased or decreased, depending upon the nature of the improvements that affect it.

FIXITY OF INVESTMENT

Improvements on the land represent capital invested in the land. A building, for example, is capital immobilized, or fixed to a specific site. It is capital invested with little likelihood of an immediate profit. Improvements to land are generally long-range investments.

DOCTRINE OF PRIOR APPROPRIATION

In states where water is scarce, ownership and use of water are often determined by this doctrine. It states that the right to use any water, with the exception of limited domestic use, is controlled by the state rather than by the landowner adjacent to the water. To secure water rights in these states, a landowner must demonstrate that he plans a beneficial use for the water, such as crop irrigation. The landowner must obtain a permit from the state to use a specified amount of water for a specific purpose. Issuance of the permit does not grant access to the water. Access must be negotiated as an easement with the owner of the property which adjoins the water source. The water rights may be sold by the permit holder to another.

5 categories of Real Property

Residential Commercial Agricultural Special Purpose Industrial

Air Rights

The rights that attach to the space above the surface of an owner's property are known as ___ rights. These rights protect the owner against unreasonable obstruction of his property from above. For example, one owner can not construct a protruding roof or some other addition to his house that would violate another owner's air space. An owner may sell or lease his air rights to another person. Before the development of aviation, air rights were considered unlimited. However, federal and local aviation ordinances impose limits on a property owner's enjoyment of his air space. Air rights may protect against a neighbor's intrusions, but can not, in most cases, prevent planes from flying over one's property.

LITTORAL RIGHTS

apply to ocean front property or property on some large lakes. For the littoral owner, ownership usually extends to the point of high tide. These rights are similar to riparian rights for navigable waterways. Owners may not stop or alter the free movement of the water or infringe upon public rights of use.

RIPARIAN RIGHTS

are rights that apply to land adjacent to running water. These rights allow an owner to use and enjoy, within reasonable limits, the water that borders or runs through his property. Reasonable rights usually include the right to fish, swim, build a pier or boat house, or divert water for irrigation. Riparian rights do not include the right to dam a stream or alter its natural course. rights only apply when more than one property adjoins the same body of water. A body of water completely enclosed by a single property, such as a pond or small lake, is considered to be a natural part of that property.

non-navigable waterways

does not stop at the water's edge. Here the riparian owner will often hold title to the waterway up to its midpoint, or from bank to bank if the waterway runs through the owner's property.

PERCOLATING WATERS

include underground water resources such as springs, geysers, and streams. Rights to these waters are similar to mineral rights. An owner may tap such waters by drilling a well, for example, and may use them for his owner purposes.

Land

is defined as the surface of the earth, but the definition does not stop there. In defining land we must include the soil and anything that is permanently attached to the earth's surface, such as trees and water. We also include in this definition the air space above the land and substances below the earth's surface, in theory, to the center of the earth itself. The definition of land includes both corporeal, or tangible, and incorporeal, or intangible things.

SCARCITY

is dependent upon human demand and the uses of the land. An acre of land in New York City, for example, will generally be more valuable than an acre of land in rural Kansas. How land is used also affects scarcity. For example, if a sprawling market place is compressed into a skyscraper, the scarcity of land is diminished. Less land is used for doing the same amount of things. Similarly, if the per-acre yield of farm land is increased, the relative scarcity of such land decreases. In general, intensification of use makes land scarcity less.

Permanence

or indestructibility of land we mean that it will always be there, it is durable. The face of the land may change, trees may be planted on it or cut down, layers of topsoil added or removed, homes built on it, but the nature of it, the fact that land is always there, never changes. It is because of this permanence that people see real estate as an excellent long term investment. The definition of immobility of land refers to the fact that land is fixed in location, or rigid. Its geographical location is never changed, but remains constant. Land can not be moved from one place to another. To use his land, an owner must travel to it; the opposite is never true.

Economic characteristics that influence the value of land as an investment include

scarcity, modification, fixity of investment and situs.

doctrine of prior appropriation

states where water is scarce, the ownership and use of water is often determined by the this. Under prior appropriation, the right to use water for any purpose other than limited domestic use is controlled by the state rather than by the adjacent landowner.

Property

the state or condition of holding legal claim or title to something. the indefinite "something" to which claim or title is held is generally referred to as

Navigable waterways

those accessible to commercial boat traffic, are publicly owned. They can not become the private property of anyone. Thus, for land adjacent to navigable waterways, ownership stops at the water's edge. The owner would have the same usage rights as the public.

homogeneity or nonhomogeneity

to refer to the uniqueness of land because each parcel of land is unique to itself. Even though two pieces of land may appear the same, they can not occupy the same geographical space. The complexity of land refers to the intricate variety of qualities, substances and characteristics that make up the earth