Modern Real Estate Practice in Texas, 16th Edition

Chapter 2 Answer Key

1. d The rights to use the air above the land may be sold or leased independently of the land. In large cities where land is scarce, it is not unusual to find air rights over railroads purchased or leased to construct office buildings. This would also necessitate the purchase or lease of small portions of the land’s surface for foundational support.

2. b Fructus naturales refers to plants that do not require annual cultivation (such as trees and shrubs) and are thus considered real estate.

3. c Subsurface rights are the rights to the natural resources below the earth’s surface. The owner retains the water rights because water is not a mineral.

4. b A manufactured home may be treated as real property if all requirements are met—among them if the owner has elected to treat the home as real property and if the home is permanently attached to land leased to, or owned by, the owner of the manufactured home.

5. b Trade fixtures are considered personal property of the tenant; however, they must be removed on or before the expiration of the lease.

6. d Chattel refers to personal property which includes furniture and farm equipment. Trees that do not require annual cultivation are real property.

7. b Real property is best defined as the land (surface, subsurface, and air), the improvements to the land added by man, and the legal rights of real estate ownership.

8. b A fixture is an article that was once personal property but has been so affixed to real estate that is has become real property.

9. c “Land” does not include any improvement added by man such as a building.

10. c The lumber stacked at the front of the house does not pass any of the four legal tests of a fixture.

11. b Once the lumber is used to build the porch it becomes a permanent part of the building; therefore, the lumber is considered a fixture and automatically included with the real property when a sale occurs.

12. b Lumber used in the porch becomes a permanent part of the building and, therefore, real estate. Lumber that has not been used is personal property.

13. c The word improvement applies to the buildings erected on the land as well as to streets, utilities, sewers, and other man-made additions.

14. a An item of real estate may be converted to personal property by severance. For example, when a porch is torn down, there is a severance of the porch from the real property thus the material becomes personal property.

15. b The awnings attached to the structure are a permanent part of the building and belong to the owner of the real estate.

16. b The right of control still requires the owner to use the land within the framework of the law.

17. a Although the terms real estate (land plus improvements) and real property (real estate plus the “bundle of rights”) have subtle differences, they are used interchangeably in everyday use and generally are considered synonymous terms. When someone purchases real estate, he or she is therefore purchasing the land, the improvements to the land, and the ownership rights of the seller.

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