Real Estate Terminology Quiz

Real Estate Terminology

• Accession: Acquisition of title to things attached to property by others (tenants, trespassers, or nature).
• Acre: A unit of land area, equaling 43,560 square feet.
• 43560: Square feet in one acre.
• Active License: A real estate license held by a broker, allowing licensed individuals (broker, associate broker, & salesperson) to practice real estate.
• Air Lot: Designated air space above land, common in condominiums.
• Air Rights: Rights to use the air space above a parcel, separable from land ownership.
• Appurtenance: Something that benefits land and transfers with ownership (minerals, air rights, water rights, easements).
• Artificial Monuments: Man-made markers (streets, fences, pins, posts) defining boundaries.
• Associate Broker: Licensed to act as agent for another broker.
• Attorney General: State's legal counsel, involved in serious license law violations.
• Baseline: East-west reference line in rectangular survey system.
• Bench Mark: Permanent reference point for surveyors, like a monument.
• Bill of Sale: Document transferring personal property ownership.
• Broker: Licensed agent for buying, selling, renting, or managing real estate.
• Call: Compass direction and distance of boundary lines.
• Censure: Formal reprimand by the Real Estate Commission (usually for minor violations).
• Chattel: Personal property.
• Closure: Boundary must end at the starting point in legal descriptions.
• Co-brokering: Cooperation of multiple brokers in a transaction.
• Commingling: Mixing trust funds with a broker's personal funds.
• The Real Estate Commission: State agency enforcing real estate license laws.
• Constructive Severance: Transfer of rights to remove attachments (timber, buildings, minerals) to someone other than the landowner.
• Contour: Shape of the Earth's surface.
• Correlative Rights: Water use by riparian owners, using a reasonable share during drought.
• Datum: Reference surface or point for measuring height or depth.
• Dual Agency: Representing both buyer and seller in a transaction (requires written consent).
• Earnest Money: Buyer's initial commitment to purchase, held in trust.
• Emblements: Annual crops, treated as personal property.
• Escrow Account: Separate account for holding funds belonging to others, subject to Commission review.
• Executor: Person carrying out a will's instructions.
• Fixture: Once personal property, now real property due to attachment.
• Fructus Industriales: Annual crops.
• Fructus Naturales: Naturally occurring, non-annual plants.
• Georgia Administrative Procedures Act: State law regulating the Real Estate Commission's actions.
• Improvements: Permanent, man-made additions to land (buildings, fences, etc.).
• Inactive License: Temporary suspension of active involvement in real estate, held by the Commission.
• Land: Earth's surface, extending from its center into space.
• Law of Capture: Oil or gas extraction from under adjacent properties.
• Legal Description: Accurate description of land, distinguishing it from others.
• Littoral Rights: Rights to use water of large lakes or oceans bordering property.
• Meridians: North-south reference lines in the rectangular survey system.
• Metes and Bounds: Describing land by measuring directions and distances of boundary lines.
• Mineral Rights: Landowner's rights to minerals beneath the surface.
• Monument: Fixed marker defining a boundary in metes and bounds descriptions.
• Natural Monuments: Natural features (trees, rocks, streams) marking boundaries.
• Navigable Water: Waterway open for commercial use.
• Non-homogeneity: No two parcels of land are identical due to location.
• Percolating Water: Underground water not contained in streams or channels.
• Personal Property: Movable items not considered real estate, also called chattel.
• Plat of Survey/Plat Map: Map showing land parcel location & boundaries.
• Point of Beginning: Starting point for land descriptions in metes and bounds.
• Portable Water: Drinkable water, usually found in natural sources.
• Principal: Client, individual employing an agent.
• Principal Meridian: North-south reference line in rectangular survey.
• Prior Appropriation: Water use in drought-prone areas, prioritizes permits for water use.
• Property: Specific item plus rights of possession, control, enjoyment, & transfer.
• Qualifying Broker: Designated broker for corporations or partnerships in Georgia.
• Range: Six-mile wide strip of land running north-south (rectangular survey system.)
• Real Estate: Land, attachments, and ownership rights (also known as real property/realty).
• Real Estate Commissioner: Commission administrator with no stake in any real estate company.
• Recorded Plat: Plat of survey with property boundaries filed in public records.
• Rectangular Survey System: Land description based on a grid using meridians, baselines, ranges, and townships (also called government survey system).
• Reinstatement Fee: Fee to reinstate a lapsed license.
• Revocation: Real estate commission's action to revoke a license.
• Right of Lateral Support: Support of neighboring land in mining operations.
• Riparian Rights: Rights to water of a river, stream, or lake bordering property,
• Rules and Regulations: Commission-created standards of practice for licensees, with the same effect as laws.
• Salesperson: Broker's representative in real estate transactions.
• Sanction: Penalty for violating real estate law.
• Section: One-square-mile parcel (640 acres) in rectangular survey system.
• Severance: Removing something such as minerals or timber from the land.
• Situs: Land location's value based on desirability.
• Spot Survey: Determining land boundaries, shape, and area.
• Topographic Map/Contour Map: Elevation map of the Earth's surface.
• Topography: Physical features of the land's surface.
• Township: Six-mile square parcel of land in rectangular survey system.
• Trade Fixture: Personal property attached for business purposes by a tenant.
• Water Rights: Rights to use water adjacent to, underneath, or on the land.
• Water Table: Level of percolating water below the earth's surface.
• License Law: Legal framework designed to regulate real estate agents, promoting public trust.
• Four Responsibilities of the Commission: Issue licenses, set fees, pass regulations, discipline licensees.
• Allodial System: Land ownership independent of governmental control but with retained governmental rights.
• Attachment Lien: Encumbrance on land during court action.
• Bundle of Rights: All rights associated with real property ownership (possession, control, enjoyment, & disposition).
• Commercial Easement in Gross: Right to use land for commercial purposes.
• Condition: Restriction in a deed requiring certain actions for title.
• Consummate Dower: Wife's right in husband's property after his death.
• Contingent Remainder: Future right to land upon a specified event.
• Covenant: Restriction in a lease or deed about property use.
• Declaration of Restrictions: Document outlining all restrictive covenants in a subdivision.
• Dominant Estate: Land parcel that benefits from an easement appurtenant.
• Dower: Wife's life estate in husband's property upon his death.
• Easement Appurtenant: Right of use on one parcel of land by another affecting both.
• Easement in Gross: Right to use land held by one parcel, not dependent on another.
• Easement: Legal right to use another's land.
• Egress: Exit point from a parcel of land.
• Eminent Domain: Government's right to seize private property for public use with fair compensation.
• Encroachment: Unlawful intrusion onto neighboring land.
• Encumbrance: Any factor that restricts an owner's freedom on real property.
• Escheat: Land returns to the state when an owner dies with no will & heirs.

Test your knowledge of key real estate terms and concepts. This quiz covers various definitions and terminologies essential for understanding the real estate industry, including property rights and measurements. Perfect for aspiring real estate professionals and enthusiasts.