Do you know the difference between real property and personal property?

Property refers to an aggregate or “bundle” of rights that a person has in a tangible item.  The items are not as important as the rights a person has in those items.  These rights include the use of the item, whether they want to sell the item, or destroy the item and if they decide to give the item away. 

 Property items are understood easily when you are talking about a car, book, or home.   A person can own something that is related only indirectly to a tangible item – like a lease.  If you rent a commercial building, you have the right to occupy the space. The right itself is intangible. Property is also used to refer the rights a person has independently of anything tangible; ie, contracts, trademarks, copyrights and patents. 

Land is considered REAL PROPERTY or real estate.  Land is an important form of wealth.  A person who owned a great deal of property was considered very rich according to the history of England and American. 

PERSONAL PROPERTY is  considered movable and is usually transferred by a bill of sale.  Some historically items of personal property would include cattle, farm equipment, and the tool’s of a person’s trade.  Today intangible forms of wealth would be fanchises or shareholder’s interest in a company by shares of stock.

Confusion occurs when a home or business is sold.  It is very important that items are listed in an addendum as to what is to remain in the home.  A buyer looks at the purchase of a property differently then the seller.  A stove, refrigerator, storm windows, ceiling fans, or maybe a microwave to a buyer are parts of a home.  A seller maybe thinking about these items to go with them to another home or they maybe thinking about selling certain items.  These things need to be addressed at contract.

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Posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 11:33 am and is filed under Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.