Property Characteristics

Property Characteristics: Real Property & Legal Descriptions Understanding how real property is defined, classified, and described is foundational to the NY Real Estate Salesperson exam — questions from this area (~7% of the exam) test whether you can distinguish real from personal property, analyze fixtures, and identify the correct legal description method for a given situation. --- ## What Is Real Property? Real property refers to land and everything permanently attached to it — including the land itself, structures built on it, and certain rights that travel with it. Personal property is everything else: movable items not permanently attached to the land. This distinction sounds simple, but New York has one critical twist that trips up many candidates: > Co-op shares are personal property, not real property. When you buy a co-op apartment, you are purchasing shares of stock in a corporation plus a proprietary lease giving you the right to occupy a specific unit. Because you own shares — not land — a co-op purchase uses a bill of sale (personal property document), not a deed. Financing is through a share loan governed by UCC Article 9, not a traditional mortgage. By contrast, a condominium unit is held in fee simple — the buyer receives a deed, owns the unit outright, and holds an undivided interest in the common areas. This makes condo ownership real property. --- ## Fixture Analysis A fixture is an item that started as personal property but has become real property because it is permanently attached to or part of the real estate. The three classic tests are: | Test | Question to Ask | |---|---| | Method of attachment | Is it nailed,…