Champion Real Estate Test Prep

education requirement for Texas real estate licensees

18 course hours for each licensed term

Express Contract

A contract in which the terms of the agreement are fully and explicitly stated in words, oral or written.

executory contract

A contract that has not yet been fully performed.

Unilateral Contract

A contract that results when an offer can be accepted only by the offeree's performance.

Fee Simple Determinable

A fee simple estate qualified by a special limitation. Has limitations as to what can or can't be done with a property. It uses phrases such as "so long as," "while," or "during" to describe the required condition

Joint Tenancy

A form of concurrent ownership, which occurs when two or more persons own a single estate in land, with right of survivorship. Must have equal shares, right to partition.

Judgment Lien

A legal claim on all of the property of a judgment debtor which enables the judgment creditor to have the property sold for payment of the amount of the judgment.

Buyer Agency Agreement

A legally binding, written contract between a potential property buyer and a buyer's agent

Designated Agent

A licensee authorized by a broker to act as the agent for a specific principal in a particular transaction.

When accepting compensation, which of the following statements is most accurate, according to the NAR Code of Ethics?

A licensee shall not accept compensation from more than one party to a transaction without the consent of all parties.

Voluntary Lien

A lien placed on property with the knowledge and consent of the property owner.

Broker

A person who, for a commission or other valuable consideration, performs specific real estate-related acts for another person

Visible easement

A property is subdivided into at least two separate properties, creating dominant and servient estates from what was once a single property. The easement must be situated in a way that it creates an obvious benefit to the dominant estate, and a burden to the servient estate. The easement must have been used long enough before subdivision to show that it was intended to be permanent. The easement must be reasonably beneficial to the dominant estate.

Lis Pendens

A recorded notice stating that a lawsuit is pending that may affect title to the defendant's real estate.

Special Assessment Tax

A tax issued by the government when providing a benefit for a limited number of property owners (ex. curbs and sidewalks). tax could be levied on property owners for a public project that benefited the property owners only in that district

Leasehold Estate

A tenant's right to occupy real estate during the term of a lease, generally considered to be a personal property interest.

Novation

A three-way agreement in which the obligor transfers all rights and duties to a third party.

Fee Simple Defeasible

A type of ownership of real property that grants the owner all the incidents of a fee simple absolute except that it may be taken away if a specified condition occurs or does not occur includes two categories, which can be distinguished in part by the way in which ownership may be regained by the original grantor of the estate.

General Agent

An agent with full authority over one property of the principal, such as a property manager.

market allocation

An agreement between brokers to split up competitive market areas among themselves and not compete in each other's areas.

Price Fixing

An agreement between competing firms to standardize commission rates

tie-in arrangement

An antitrust violation in which the provider of a service requires the customer or client to purchase another service

Easement by Prescription

An easement acquired by continuous, open, and hostile use of the property for the period of time prescribed by state law.

Freehold Estate

An estate in land in which ownership is for an indeterminate length of time, in contrast to a leasehold estate.

Undisclosed Dual Agency

An illegal agency relationship where buyers and/or sellers are unaware of an individual broker or firm's conflicting duties to their clients.

Periodic estate

An interest in leased property that continues from period to period—week to week, month to month, or year to year.

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.

Deed restriction

An owner place on the land when it's sold to limit the use of the property A provision in a deed that limits or places rules on how the deeded property may be used or improved.

Seller's Disclosure Regarding Potential Annexation

Any seller whose property is outside the city limits must provide which written statutory disclosure to prospective buyers before a sales contract's effective date

Steering

Channeling prospective buyers or tenants to particular neighborhoods based upon their race, religion, national origin, or ancestry.

Tenancy in Common

Co-ownership of property in which each party owns an undivided interest that passes to his or her heirs at death.

PMI

Covers the gap between the actual loan amount and 80% of the LTV

Improvements

Economic characteristic of land contains the concept that a land's value can be affected by the changes made to it, such as construction of buildings or fences Artificial attachments to land that include items such as fencing, buildings, and walkways

Blockbusting

Illegal practice of inducing homeowners to sell their properties by telling them that a certain people of a certain race, national origin or religion are moving into the area

Income Tax Lien

Involuntary lien placed against a property owner's property for due and unpaid taxes

real estate

Land, plus all things permanently attached to it naturally or artificially

Estate for years

Lease for a definite period of time

Group Boycotting

Occurs when two or more businesses conspire against other businesses or agree to withold their patronage to reduce competition.

eminent domain

Power of a government to take private property for public use.

Gerrymandering

Process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power.

Fair Housing Act of 1968

Prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race

Homestead Law

Protected a family's home and up to 50 acres of land from seizure for debts

Community Reinvestment Act

Required banks to make loans available in low income, minority communities

Sub-surface rights

Rights to use the space below ground level and to extract the natural resources lying below the earth's surface.

Property Manager

Someone who manages real estate for another person for compensation. Duties include collecting rents, maintaining the property, and keeping up all accounting. serves as a general agent to his landlord/client

transfer tax

Tax stamps required to be affixed to a deed by state and/or local law.

Depreciated Value

The basis of a depreciable asset used to compute the taxable gain from its sale; the basis is acquisition cost plus capital improvements less accrued depreciation.

Net Listing

The broker agrees to sell the property in order to achieve a net price to the owner, and anything which is received above the net price is the broker's commission. A net listing is prohibited by the licensing law in many states.

Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA)

The federal law that prohibits discrimination in the extension of credit because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, or marital status.

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.

condemnation

The process in which the government actually takes someone's property through the power of eminent domain is called

severance

The process of real property becoming personal will be described by the term "severed", or _______. The fixture is uninstalled and once again becomes personal property.

Notice of additional tax liability

The seller of an interest in vacant land must include in the contract a notice that the buyer may be liable for additional taxes

Private Transfer Fee Obligation

The seller of property that may be subject to a private transfer fee must provide the prospective buyer with which written notice

Escheat

The state takes property upon an owners death if there is no will & no heirs exist.

Eminent domain

The ultimate police power which allows the government to take private land for public use

assessed value

The value of an asset determined by tax authorities for the purpose of calculating taxes

Applicants must register and take the Texas real estate licensing exam when

Within one year from the date their application was filed

Easement by necessity

Without this easement—usually involving access to a road—the owner requiring the right of passage would be landlocked

Emblements

_______ are crops cultivated annually. Even though they are attached to the ground, they are considered the personal property of the farmer who cultivated them. They are not automatically part of the sale of a farm or ranch. Ownership can be transferred with a bill of sale, or the cultivating farmer may make arrangements to return to the property and harvest them one time after the sale closes and the crops are ready for harvest.

Trade Fixtures

_______ are fixtures installed by a tenant in order to carry out a business, and they may be removed from leased property prior to the termination of the lease. If trade fixtures are not removed prior to the termination of the lease, they become real property and pass to the landlord.

Implied Contract

a contract that exists based on an understanding or assumption, rather than on specifically defined terms

Modular Home

a home made up of separate boxlike sections that are built in a factory and assembled at the site

manufactured home

a housing unit that is fully or partially assembled in a factory before being moved to the living site

Estate at will

a leasehold estate for an unknown period of time, with either party permitted to terminate the lease by giving notice to the other

Easement Appurtenant

a right of use that continues from owner to owner that involves a relationship between two parcels of land: a dominant parcel that benefits from a servient parcel

fee simple conditional

all rights, but revocable if specific condition is violated

Implied Agency

an agency that occurs when a principal and an agent do not expressly create an agency, but it is inferred from the conduct of the parties

Option agreement

an offer to purchase a specific piece of real estate, but without the obligation to buy it.

Mutual Mistake

both parties to a contract have an incorrect belief about an important fact

bilateral contract

contract that involves an exchange of consideration between two parties

Law of Agency

covers how an agency relationship is created and explains the duties of an agent to the principal

Redlining

discriminatory lending practice whereby lenders limit the scope of their loans to exclude neighborhoods with certain ethnic or economic characteristics

Indistructibility

durability - it will always be there.

Scarcity

in short supply where demand is great - (a lot in Manhattan is more valuable than a lot in upstate New York.) -is usually based on geographic considerations.

encroachment

intrusion on a person's territory, rights, etc.

Testamentary Trust

is a trust created by a will. It only comes into use when the person making the will dies.

Special Agent

is an agent that is given the authority to perform specific tasks.

modification

land use and value are greatly influenced by improvements made by man to land and to surrounding parcels of land.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

law that established federal guarantees of civil rights for all citizens

Nonhomogeneity

no two pieces are exactly alike. A more current term is uniqueness. Each piece of land is unique.

Undue Influence

occurs when one party to a contract is in a position of trust and wrongfully dominates the other party

innocent misrepresentation

party to a contract does not know that a statement he or she made is untrue

Immobility

physical characteristic of land addresses the concept that the geographic location of a piece of land is fixed and can never be changed

Tenancy in severalty

real estate ownership by only one

The Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division

responsible for enforcing Texas Fair Housing Law

Conversion

take money from an escrow account and use it for someone who is not entitled to it

Market Value

the amount for which something can be sold on a given market.

bifurcation

the division of something into two branches or parts

Homestead estate

the home and property occupied by an owner are protected by law up to a certain amount from attachment and sale for the claims of creditors

Benchmark

the permanent marker used primarily for marking datums when measuring elevation

Easement in Gross

the right to use land for a specific, limited purpose unrelated to any adjacent parcel

Basic property rights include

the rights of possession, control, exclusion, enjoyment, and disposition

Surface Rights

the rights to use the surface of the earth

The Equal Housing Act

was introduced to combat discriminatory lending practices against individuals and businesses in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods

subordination agreement

when lien holders allow another lien holder's claim to have priority over their own

Assignment

when one party to a contract transfers the contractual rights and obligations to another but remains liable for the contract terms