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

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.

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

Lasting for an indefinite period of time; without an endpoint; of unlimited duration.

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 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.

Definition: A lease agreement wherein a tenant leases the unfinished shell of a building, as in a new shopping center, and agrees to complete construction himself by installing ceilings, plumbing, heating and air conditioning systems (HVAC), and electrical wiring, as well as those trade fixtures necessary for the operation of the business.

Discussion: Like many real estate terms and phrases, those associated with shell leases (e.g., vanilla shell, base shell, cold shell, warm shell, etc.) differ by location and situation, sometimes even within the same region or municipal area. As they say, the devil is in the details. The lease or sales contract should clearly and exactly specify the degree to which construction of any sort of "shell" building has been or will be completed prior to tenant occupancy.

Shell leasing and its various forms (warm, cold, base) are used primarily in commercial real estate, but are gaining popularity in upscale condominiums and townhouses and other high-end residential real estate transactions. The idea is to attract either tenants or buyers, or both, by offering customizable living units. Financial incentives in the form of tenant (or buyer) improvement allowances afford new residents the opportunity to select nearly all aspects of interior decor, including relatively large projects such as plumbing and fixtures, wiring, and interior walls.


Terms, Definitions, and Concepts: Real Estate, Construction and Building, Title and Title Insurance, Appraisal, Auction, Finance and Investment, Management, Legal (Law)

Definition:
The specific qualification included in the deed used to create an estate in qualified fee determinable. The grantee must ensure that the special limitation is continually met in order to avoid the possibility of reverter, a future interest retained by the grantor of the estate..

Example: Steve sells a parcel of real property to Ed with the special limitation that it can only be used for a church. If Ed uses the land for anything else, Steve automatically recovers full ownership of his former estate and Ed's estate ends.


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

Ownership of or interest in a unit within a larger building or complex of buildings, usually coupled with an undivided interest in a proportion of all common areas.
This type of property ownership was first used in Australia in the early 1960's. Strata title began as a form of ownership for buildings with multiple levels or floors, such as condominiums or apartments. It has since been expanded to include most multi-family complexes, even if they have only one story or floor (such as townhouses). With strata title, the property owner has title to the space within the walls of his or her particular unit, as well as an undivided interest in a proportion of all common areas. Strata title has replaced company title in most areas where it exists.

Surveys performed within a township that divide a township into sections.

The process of granting subordinate tenancies that characterized feudal land tenure. The king or other sovereign would grant title to land to tenants-in-chief in return for certain services, who would in turn grant title to lesser tenants in return for services, and so on. Each tenancy thus created was subordinate to the one that preceded it, and title to land was not held absolutely, but rather "of" another.
See also "Substitution".

The transfer or conveyance of title to or an estate in real property to another. In essence, one landowner substitutes for another, with all rights intact except for those reserved by deed restriction.
Substitution began to replace subinfeudation (the granting of subordinate tenancies) with the decline of the feudal system.

Interests in property which may be inherited following the death of the previous owner of the estate, as when a grantor conveys a life estate to her husband, with the remainder to her son, with the remainder following her son's death to her grand-daughter, and so on.

The process by which boundaries are measured and the locations or forms of land areas are determined; the on-site measurement of lot lines, dimensions, and position of structures on a lot including the determination of any existing encroachments or easements.

1. Real or personal property that is visible and has physical form, as opposed to incorporeal property such as rights or patents.
Also known as corporeal property. 2. Real property consisting of land, improvements to the land (tenements), and physical appurtenances such as sidewalks.

A form of property ownership reserved for a married couple, used in some states of the Unites States. The husband and wife together are viewed as one legal person, with each possessing an equal, undivided interest in the entire property. Generally, property owned in this manner cannot be divided without the consent of both spouses, and neither spouse can sell or transfer a portion of the property interest - it is "all or nothing" under this system of common law, which is why the term entirety is used. Upon the death of one spouse, the other takes sole ownership and possession of the real property. Tenancy by the entirety is not allowed in all states, and is never used in community property states.

Lesser royalty (earls, barons, dukes, lords, etc.) who held title to feudal land directly from the king or other sovereign. Tenants in chief were required to provide military service to the king in the form of knights or soldiers in return for the right to own land.

1. A buildings, structure, or other improvement to land.
2. Land, buildings, offices, franchises, etc. owned by another and held in tenure (leased).
3. A rooming house; a set of rooms divided from the remainder of a building and leased as a separate dwelling (a flat or apartment).
4. A parcel of real property, either with or without improvements, as in the dominant and servient tenements of an easement.

A state or condition characterized by a valid, legal will.

A person who has prepared a valid, legal will. This term applies to either gender.

A woman who has prepared a valid, legal will.

1. The ownership of and right to own real estate.
2. Documentary evidence of real estate ownership in the form of a deed.
3. The set of circumstances that would allow one to recover or retain ownership of real estate if that ownership was challenged in court. These circumstances often include possession of the land and the existence of a recorded deed showing ownership.