Pass your real estate exam with PrepAgent.com. Remember, keep it concise and keep it simple. We're talking about forms of ownership. But before we do that, let's start with a quick reminder. Title is ownership.
Title can be held in severalty or a concurrent estate. Severalty is sole or independent ownership by a person or entity. That means there's only one name on the deed. The concurrent estate describes the various ways in which property can be owned by more than one person at a given time. Three types of concurrent estates are 1. joint tenancy, tenancy in common, and community property.
Tenancy in common is the most common type of ownership. Ownership is assumed to be a tenancy common unless otherwise stated. A tenancy in common is a form of ownership of title to real estate by two or more persons.
Although they have unity of possession, they each have separate and distinct titles. In the event that one of the tenants in common dies, his or her title does not passed to the other tenant in common, but rather to his or her heirs or their estate. Joint tenancy is a form of ownership in which the tenants own property equally.
If one dies, the other automatically inherits the entire property. This is known as the right of survivorship. Thus, somebody cannot will a joint tenancy, and probate is not necessary under a joint tenancy. A person cannot take a property as a joint tenancy with a corporation because a corporation cannot die.
In that situation, it would be taken as a tenant in common. If a joint tenant dies owing debts, the surviving joint tenants are free of those unsecured debts. Joint tenants cannot be created by law.
Therefore, the two parties who wish to be joint tenants must make it clear in the conveyance documents. A joint tenant has the right to sell, mortgage, transfer the interest without the other joint tenants. To create joint tenancy, There has to be unity of time, title, interest, and possession. That is really the most important thing to remember for your exam.
You want to say it time and time again. Ready? Time, title, interest, and possession.
Time, title, interest, and possession. You can also remember the word to take. It's not much of a word at all, but it worked for me, so hopefully it'll work for you too. Joint tenancy would be terminated if one of those unities is destroyed.
Therefore, a person who buys interest as a joint tenant would be a tenant in common with the other joint owners if one of those essential elements are not there. For example, Stephen, Juan, and Carol purchase a home in the hills, and they take title as joint tenants. Stephen gets transferred to another state. He sells his property to Angie. Juan and Carol are still joint tenants, and Angie is now a tenant in common.
When you think of community property, don't think of the community itself. Rather think of husband and wife. Community property is property acquired by husband and wife during marriage. Community property laws vary from state to state.
Community property is owned by both the husband and wife, regardless of whose name is on title. For more great information to get past your real estate exam, remember, go to prepagent.com.