Real Estate Vocabulary Ch. 7

Beneficiary

1. The person for whom a trust operates or in whose behalf the income from a trust estate is drawn. 2. A lender in a deed of trust loan transaction.

Trustor

A borrower in a deed of trust loan transaction.

Syndicate

A combination of people or firms formed to accomplish a business venture of mutual interest by pooling resources. In a real estate investment syndicate, the parties own and/or develop property, with the main profit generally arising from the sale of the property.

Trustee's deed

A deed executed by a trustee conveying land held in a trust.

Trust

A fiduciary arrangement whereby property is conveyed to a person or 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.

Tenancy in common

A form of co-ownership by which each owner holds an undivided interest in real property as if he or she were the sole owner. Each individual owner has the right to partition. Unlike joint tenants, tenants in common have right of inheritance.

Limited partnership

A limited partnership is a business arrangement whereby the operation is administered by one or more general partners and funded by limited or silent partners who are by law responsible for losses only to the extent of their investments.

Cooperative

A residential multi-unit building whose title is held by a trust or corporation that is owned by and operated for the benefit of persons living within the building who are beneficial owners of the trust or stockholders of the corporation, each possessing a propreitary lease.

Community property

A system of property ownership based on the theory that each spouse has an equal interest in the property acquired by the efforts of either spouse during marriage.

Partnership

An association of two or more individuals who carry on a continuing business for profit as co-owners. By law, a partnership is regarded as a group of individuals rather than as a single entity. In a general partnership, each partner shares in the administration, profits and losses of the operation.

Corporation

An entity or organization, created by operation of the 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.

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 passes to the surviving joint tenant or tenants by the right of survivorship.

Severalty

Ownership of real property by one person only also called sole ownership.

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 of the condominium residents. Each condo owner has an undivided ownership interest in the common elements.

Undivided interest

Tenancy in common. Each owner holds an undivided interest in real property as if he/she were the sole owner.

Condominium

The absolute ownership of a unit in a multi-unit building based on a legal description of the airspace the unit actually occupies, plus an undivided interest in the ownership of the common elements, which are owned jointly wit the other condo owners.

Partition

The division of co-tenants' interest in real property when the parties do not all voluntarily agree to terminate the co-ownership; takes place through court procedures.

Unit of ownership

The four unities that are traditionally needed to create a joint tenancy-unity of title, time, interest and possession.

Trustee

The holder of bare legal title in a deed of trust loan transaction.

Joint venture

The joining of two or more people to conduct a specific business enterprise. A joint venture is similar to a partnership in that it must be created by an agreement between the parties to share in the losses and profits of the venture. It is unlike a partnership in the venture is for one specific project only, rather than for a continuing business relationship.

Tenancy by the 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.

Co-ownership

Title ownership held by two or more persons.

Real estate investment trust (REIT)

Trust ownership of real estate by a group of individuals who purchase certificates of ownership in the trust, which in turn invests the money in real property and distributes the profits back to the investors free of corporate income tax.

Separate property

Under community property law, property owned solely by either spouse before the marriage, acquired gifts or inheritance after the marriage or purchased with separate funds after the marriage.