Notes

Land vs. Real Estate
Land refers to more than a tract of earth. Land includes not only the natural resources seen on the surface of the land, but the minerals below the surface and the air above the surface. So, ownership of land includes the surface, subsurface, and air rights.

Real estate includes the land AND human-made improvements attached to it. Examples of improvements include buildings, sheds, sewers, and fences.

Real Property
Real property is the real estate PLUS the bundle of legal rights associated with real estate ownership.

These rights include:

The right of exclusion

The right of possession

The right of disposition

The right of quiet enjoyment

Improvements
An improvement is any permanent human-made addition that is attached to the land. Buildings, fences, decks, and roads are all examples of improvements. Improvements are considered to be permanently attached to land and therefore are considered real estate.

A long, winding driveway.

Without improvements, land would just be land.

To describe the land and the improvements as one package, we use the term real estate.

Ownership Rights
There are four ownership rights associated with real property:

Surface rights🌲
Subsurface rights ⛏
Air rights 🌬
Water rights 🌊
It's important to understand that these four different rights may be sold separately, sometimes to different persons, thus creating situations in which multiple people can have an ownership interest in the same piece of property.

Subsurface Rights
Subsurface rights relate to everything beneath the surface of a tract of land. The importance of this right lies largely in the fact that it may secure ownership of mineral deposits located under the surface of a property. For this reason, subsurface rights are also commonly referred to as mineral rights.

Personal Property
Simply put, personal property is all property that is not real estate. It is unattached and moveable. Personal property is sometimes also called personalty or chattel.

Personal property is transferred through a bill of sale.

Fixtures
Personal property can be turned into real estate. This is accomplished by making that piece of personal property a fixture.

A fixture is chattel attached to real estate. It refers to an object that was once personal property, but which has now been firmly attached to the land in such a way that it becomes part of the real estate. If a tenant makes an improvement to a residence they are renting by adding a fixture, that fixture has become part of the real estate and it stays with the property when the tenant’s lease is over.

Fixture Examples
Some examples of fixtures include:

Elevators

Central air conditioning units

Garage door openers

Chandeliers

Ceiling fans

Light fixtures

Trade Fixtures
A trade fixture is personal property that is owned by and needed for a tenant’s business. For example, shelves that a store owner attaches to the wall when leasing a storefront in a strip mall. It is not subject to the same rules of transfer as fixtures in general.

Unlike a tenant in a residence who improves the property, trade fixtures are property of the tenant.

Fructus Naturales vs. Fructus Industriales
To decide whether plants are personal property or real property, one must generally consider their use and the duration of their existence.

Trees, persistent decorative plantings (such as perennial landscape plants), and uncultivated plants are referred to as fructus naturales and are usually considered to be real property because of their permanence.

Fructus industriales are annually cultivated crops. Also known as emblements, they are generally considered to be personal property, even prior to harvesting.