1. Chapter 2

2. Georgia Real Estate An Introduction to the Profession Eighth Edition
Chapter 2
Nature and Description
of Real Estate

3. Key Terms appurtenance fixture improvement littoral rights meridians
monument
personal property
real estate
recorded plat
rectangular survey system
riparian right
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4. Overview What is real estate?
Real estate, or real property, is land and the improvements made to land, and the rights to use them.

5. Land
Land starts at the center of the earth, passes through the earth’s surface, and continues on into space.
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6. Improvements
Anything affixed to land with the intent of being permanent is considered to be part of the land and therefore real estate. These are referred to as improvements.
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7. Improvements
Items that permanently become part of the land and pass with the ownership are known as appurtenances. Appurtenant means to “run with or belong to.”
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8. Improvements
Items that are not a part of the land, such as furniture, are classified as personal property also known as chattel. Personal property is transferred through a bill of sale.
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9. Physical Characteristics of Land
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10. Indestructible Land does not typically wear out over time.
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11. Immovable
Land cannot be moved from one location to another. This is one reason land is used as security for debt.
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12. Nonhomogeneity No two parcels of real estate are the same.
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13. Economic Characteristics of Land
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14. Situs
Situs refers to location preference.
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15. Improvability
Improvability recognizes that changing a property can change the value, not only of the property changed, but also of surrounding areas.
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16. Scarcity
The supply of land in relationship to the demand of land defines scarcity. Scarcity can happen naturally or artificially.
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17. Fixity
Land is not typically a short-term investment, and takes a long time to pay for itself. Undeveloped land typically produces little, if any cash flow.
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18. Fixtures
When an object that was once personal property becomes part of the real property, it is called a fixture. A fixture is automatically included with the land.
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19. Fixtures
There are tests to determine if an item is real or personal property: MARIA Modification Attachment Relationship of the Parties Intentions of the annexing party Agreement
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20. Modification
Modification refers to the alteration of the article for the building or the building for the article. For example: a window air conditioning unit versus one installed in a whole in an exterior wall.
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21. Attachment
Attachment refers to how the object is affixed to the land. The garage door remote and house keys are considered attached to the property by their use.
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22. Relationship of the Parties
Trade fixtures are items that are purchased and installed by the tenant for use in a business. Trade fixtures do not become the property of the landlord, but they must be removed before the expiration of the lease, repairing any damage caused by the removal.
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23. Intentions of the Annexing Party
When the item was installed, was the intention to leave it and let ownership pass to the buyer? This is the weakest test of a fixture.
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24. Agreement
The most effective test of a fixture is the agreement between the parties involved. A seller can clarify in advance and in writing to the broker what is considered personal property.
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25. Ownership of Plants, Trees and Crops
Trees and perennial plants are considered to be part of the land. Plants and trees in movable pots are personal property. Annual cultivated crops are called emblements and are personal property.
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26. Appurtenances
An appurtenance is a right or privilege or improvement that belongs to and passes with land but is not necessarily a part of the land. Easements and rights-of-way are examples of appurtenances.
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27. Water Rights
Riparian right is ownership of land that borders a river or a stream. Doctrine of prior appropriation: the first owner to divert water for personal use may continue to do so.
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28. Water Rights
Littoral rights allow landowners to use water where land borders a lake or sea, provided they do not alter the water’s position by artificial means. Water table refers to the upper limit of percolating water below the earth’s surface.
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29. Land Descriptions
A legal description of land is defined as a method of identifying a property geographically exclusive of any other property on the face of the earth.
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30. Metes and Bounds
The metes and bounds method is used in Georgia, most commonly to identify an irregularly shaped parcel of property.
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31. Metes and Bounds
Permanent manmade monuments can be an iron pipe or iron pin. They can also be made of concrete or stone. Metes means distance Bounds means direction Direction is shown in degrees, minutes and seconds.
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32. Metes and Bounds
With a metes and bounds description, you start from a permanent reference mark and travel to the nearest corner of the property. There is a point of beginning, the description travels along the parcel’s perimeter all the way back to the point of beginning. There must be closure.
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33. Metes and Bounds
Benchmarks are commonly used as permanent reference marks. A benchmark is a fixed mark of known location and elevation. It can be an iron post or a brass disc set in concrete.
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34. Rectangular Survey System
The rectangular survey system is also known as the government survey. It is based on imaginary lines of longitude (East-West) and latitude (North-South).
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35. States Using Rectangular Survey System
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36. Rectangular Survey System
Every six miles north and south of a baseline, township lines are drawn. These imaginary 6-by-6-mile squares are called townships. Each 36-square-mile township is divided into 36 one-square-mile sections.
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37. Rectangular Survey System
Section
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38. Rectangular Survey System
Each square-mile section contains 640 acres. Each acre contains 43,560 square feet.
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39. Rectangular Survey System
Quarter Section = 160 Ac.
¼ of Quarter Section = 40 Ac.
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40. Rectangular Survey System
Georgia does not use the rectangular survey method for legal descriptions. Georgia uses districts and land lots instead of townships and sections.
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41. Recorded Plat
When a tract of land is ready for subdividing into lots for homes and businesses, reference by recorded plat provides the most convenient method of description. A plat is a map that shows the location and boundaries of individual properties.
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42. Recorded Plat
Recorded plat is based on the filing of a surveyor’s plat in the public recorder’s office of the county where the land is located. Each plat is given a book and page reference number and all map books are available for public inspection.
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43. Recorded Plat
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44. Informal Reference
According to Georgia License Law, most documents created with the assistance of a licensee, including leases, must include a sufficient legal description.
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45. Vertical Land Descriptions
Vertical measurements are necessary when air rights or subsurface rights need to be described. Example: condominiums or oil and mineral rights.
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46. Vertical Land Descriptions
A point from which a vertical height or depth is measured is called a datum. The most commonly used datum in the U.S. is mean sea level.
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47. Vertical Land Descriptions
Benchmarks are set by government survey teams. These benchmarks are used as reference points for metes and bounds surveys.
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48. Vertical Land Descriptions
An air lot is described by identifying both the parcel of land beneath the air lot and the elevation of the air lot above the parcel. Contour maps indicate elevations.
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49. Lot Types
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50. Lot Types
A cul-de-sac is a street that is closed at one end with a circular turnaround. A flag lot is a lot shaped like a flag on a flagpole.
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51. Lot Types
A corner lot fronts two or more streets. A key lot adjoins the side or rear property line of a corner lot. A T lot is a lot at the end of a T intersection.
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