Definition: Controls or restrictions on the amount of rent that landlords may charge tenants for the right to possess and use real estate. Rent control is much more common in urban rather than rural or suburban areas, and its purpose is to protect tenants from being taken advantage of by dishonest or unscrupulous landlords. Rent control, like zoning, is an example of government police power.

Terms, Definitions, and Concepts: Real Estate, Legal (Law), Management

Definition: A written or oral contract whereby one party (the lessor) agrees to allow another party (the lessee) to use and possess real or personal property owned by the lessor.
Also known as a Lease agreement.

Terms, Definitions, and Concepts: Real Estate, Title and Title Insurance, Legal (Law), Management

Definition: A business arrangement in which a group of lessors of real property agrees to combine their rental properties into an aggregate financial unit, with common management of all properties. The members of a rental pool share in the profits and losses of their combined rental properties, usually according to some predetermined formula.

Terms, Definitions, and Concepts: Real Estate, Finance and Investment, Management

Definition:
1. Finance: Cash or other liquid assets held back by a business to cover both anticipated and unforeseen costs and expenses.
2. Biology, Conservation, Forestry: Land that has been saved or set aside in order to preserve its natural qualities, structure, function, or composition; land where development is prohibited or only limited development may occur. Example: Forest reserve, Bio-reserve, Wildlife reserve, Watershed reserve, etc.

Terms, Definitions, and Concepts: Biology, Conservation and Sustainability, Ecology, Finance and Investment, Forestry, Geography, Hydrology, Management, Real Estate, Restoration, Science and Research, Water, Wildlife

Definition: 1. Cash or other liquid assets held back by a business to cover both anticipated and unforeseen costs and expenses.
2. Money collected from a borrower (mortgagor or trustor of a deed of trust) and held by the lender (mortgagee or beneficiary of a deed of trust) in an escrow or impound account to pay for expenses such as homeowner's insurance, private mortgage insurance, and property taxes.

Terms, Definitions, and Concepts: Finance and Investment, Legal (Law), Management, Real Estate, Taxes and Taxation, Title and Title Insurance

A zoning classification or type of zoning district that allows single or multiple family dwellings such as houses, condominiums, apartments, mobile homes, and townhomes.

The planting of trees under silvicultural prescriptions in areas where trees were once located but no longer exist due to disturbance (harvest, fire, wind, insects, etc.).

The legal process through which an estate is returned to the grantor, usually in fee ownership, after the grantee's estate ends.

The grantee's estate may end for a number of reasons. For example, the grantor may have specified that the grantee's interest in the property expires on a certain date. Other examples of different estates and the events that might end them include:
1. The death of the life tenant (conventional life estate) or the person upon whose life the duration of the life estate was based (life estate pur autre vie).
2. Violation of a condition (estate in qualified fee subject to condition subsequent) or limitation (estate in qualified fee determinable) specified by the grantor.

Contrast with remainder.

The interest in a conventional life estate (or an estate pur autre vie) that is retained by the grantor of the estate if no remainderman is named and that allows the grantor to recover ownership of the property once the life estate ends.

Anything that can be revoked, removed, annulled, withdrawn, cancelled, or repealed.

A permanent change in zoning laws from one permitted land use type (zoning district) to another. For example, a residential zone might be reclassified as industrial or commercial, based on changing community dynamics or needs.

A legal right appurtenant to some types of estates in real property, including estates in fee simple absolute and estates in fee simple defeasible, that allows title to the property to be transferred to the decedent's heirs by will (devise).

Definition:
The reversionary right and future interest retained by the grantor of an estate in qualified fee subject to condition subsequent. The right of re-entry allows the grantor to recover fee simple ownership of real property if a condition stipulated in the deed is violated. Action in a court with jurisdiction over real estate matters is required to recover ownership of property under the right of reentry.
Contrast with Possibility of reverter.


Terms, Definitions, and Concepts: Real Estate, Title and Title Insurance, Legal (Law), Management

A right to or interest in real property that is retained by the grantor of certain types of estates and that allows him or her to recover full fee ownership of the property under certain conditions. Rights of reversion can be thought of as secondary estates that are created when certain types of estates in real property are granted. Rights of reversion are property in and of themselves and, as such, can be transferred, sold, or inherited. The events that trigger reversion differ by type of estate; estates in real property with rights of reversion include:
Conventional life estate
Life estate pur autre vie
Estate in qualified fee determinable
Estate in qualified fee conditional

A rod is a unit of length used in land surveys.
One (1) rod is equal to one (1) pole or perch.
One (1) rod is equal to 16.5 feet.
One (1) rod is equal to 0.25 chains.
One (1) rod is equal to 25 links.
One (1) rod is equal to 0.025 furlongs.
One (1) rod is equal to 198 inches.
One (1) rod is equal to 5.5 yards.
One (1) rod is equal to 0.0031 miles.
One (1) rod is equal to 502.92 centimeters.
One (1) rod is equal to 5.0292 meters.
One (1) rod is equal to 0.00503 kilometers.

Unit of area measurement equal to 1/4 (0.25) acre, 40 square rods, or 10,890.0 square feet. For more rood conversions, see rood conversions or equivalents or converting roods.

One (1) rood is equal to 1/4 (0.25) acre. One (1) rood is equal to 40 square rods. One (1) rood is equal to 2.5 square chains. One (1) rood is equal to 10,890.0 square feet. One (1) rood is equal to 1,210.0square yards. One (1) rood is equal to 0.2959 arpents. One (1) rood is equal to 0.0004 sections or square miles. One (1) rood is equal to 0.00001 townships. One (1) rood is equal to 1,011.7141 square meters. One (1) rood is equal to 0.1012 hectares. One (1) rood is equal to 0.001 square kilometers.

Water that flows over the earth's surface; precipitation that falls to the earth, is not infiltrated, evaporated, or transpired, and exceeds the capacity of the soil or the vegetation to absorb it.
Also known as Surface runoff.

Terms, Definitions, and Concepts: Agriculture, Ecology, Forestry and Silviculture, Hydrology, Management, Pollution, Science, Water

A measure of merchantable timber in live trees of merchantable species. Generally, sawlogs should be a minimum of eight inches (8") diameter at breast height (dbh) and eight feet (8') in length.

Live trees of merchantable species that are suitable for harvesting and sawing into lumber according to specific criteria. Generally, sawtimber should be greater than eight inches (8") diameter at breast height (dbh), and should contain at least one (1) sawlog. Merchantable sawlogs are usually a minimum of eight feet (8') in length.

A relative lack or limited supply of a good or commodity. Scarcity is one of the economic properties of real estate that makes it valuable and desirable.

1. The series of rational steps that leads to the proof (or disproof) of a scientific or research hypothesis. The steps are observation, which leads to the formulation of a hypothesis through abductive reasoning, followed by tests or experiments to determine the validity of the hypothesis (deductive reasoning). The observed result of the experiment is compared to the expected result, and a conclusion is made supporting or contradicting the hypothesis. 2. The scientific method is the process by which scientific facts are discovered, proven, or learned.

A section is a tract of land approximately one (1) mile square and containing 640 acres, within a township. Sections are used in the government rectangular survey system (U.S. Public Lands Survey). Each section is approximately 1/36th (0.0278) of a township. Irregularities exist due to the curvature of the earth; these irregularities are corrected for in the northern and western tiers of sections in each township. One (1) section is equal to 640 acres, one (1) mile square, one (1) square mile, and 27,878,400 square feet.

One (1) section of a township is one (1) mile square and has an area of one (1) square mile. One (1) section is equal to 640 acres. One (1) section is equal to 27,878,400 square feet. One (1) section is equal to 2.59 square kilometers. One (1) section is equal to 3,097,600 square yards. One (1) section is equal to 102,399.59 square rods, poles, or perches. One (1) section is equal to 6,399.9744 square chains. One (1) section is equal to 2,560.0 roods. One (1) section is equal to 757.5523 arpents. One (1) section is equal to 0.0278 (1/36th) townships. One (1) section is equal to 2,589,988.1103 square meters. One (1) section is equal to 258.9988 hectares.

One of the two parcels of real estate of an appurtenant easement. The servient tenement is the property that provides the easement; the dominant tenement is the property for which the easement is necessary, as for access to the property.