Real estate is now spoken of as a business, and by those who engage in it, is looked upon as a voca tion. Real estate is also a commodity, and includes real property, and those interests in land which are not real property such as mortgages, leases, liens, etc.
Every business has in view commercial transactions resulting in the transfer of ownership of property of some kind. In our study of real estate, we shall con sider interests in land, liens upon it, the making of con tracts, transfers of title, conveyances used, and the rights, duties and privileges of the various parties to the transactions. We shall find that the methods of dealing in real estate, and the laws governing it are not arbitrary, nor mysterious or hard to understand. The practical business man should be familiar with the methods and laws for the conduct of the real estate business, in order to give intelligent consideration to the affairs which engage his attention.
8. Estates and chattel interests or several, or a large number of interests may exist in a parcel of land, at the same time. That is to say, many persons may have various kinds of interests in it. Some of these interests are known as "estates" and others as "chattel interests." Estates are interests in land which amount to real property. They may be interests the duration of which are measured by a life, or lives, or they may be perpetual. Chattel interests are all those interests in land which are of less importance in the eyes of the law and whose duration is less than estates. If the interest or right comes within the definition of real property, it is an estate; if it does not, it is a chattel interest, and is considered personal property.
9. Estates in fee everyday ownership of land is known as an estate in fee simple, or fee simple absolute. This is the highest form of property right in land known to our law. It is the right of a person, his heirs and assigns, to own land without limit as to time. This right is subject; however, to the limitations which the law imposes upon the ownership of all land and to which we shall refer later. This is the estate usually dealt in commercially, and a con tract to sell land is implied to be an engagement to sell the property in fee simple unless it is otherwise stipu lated.
All interests in land less than a fee simple imply that somewhere else, in some other person or persons, there is, or will be, the residue, which must be added to the particular estate, to make the fee simple abso lute.
10. Fee upon, condition and fee determinable.— Grants of land are sometimes made in such a way that the estate granted terminates upon the occurrence of a contingency. There are two such estates, a fee upon condition subsequent, and a fee determinable. An example of the first is where A gives the land to B, his heirs and assigns forever, only upon condition that no liquor shall be sold at any time upon the property. If the condition is broken, it is the right of A, or his heirs, to recover the property. The right which A re tains in the property is known as the possibility of reverter. A, or his heirs, can release this right at any time to the owner of the conditional estate, but they cannot sell it to any other person.
If A gives the property to B to hold forever, with the provision that if B dies leaving no children the land shall go to C, then B has an estate in fee deter minable.- The right would terminate if the contin gency happened for which A provided, and it would be determined within a time measured by a life, or lives, whether the contingency did or did not occur.
The difference between a fee determinable and a fee upon condition is that, in the case of the fee upon condition, a time may never come when it can be de termined whether or not the condition has been broken whereas, in the case of the fee determinable, it can be found out within a time which may be determined, whether or not the condition upon which the estate shall end has materialized.
11. Life estates and may be granted so that the present interest is not a fee, but is measured by the duration of a life, or lives, so that another person or other persons shall have the right to ., take the property after the present interest ends. A right to own land during a life, or lives, is called a life estate. The future interest, which will vest in posses sion after the end of a life estate, is known as a re mainder. Life estates may be measured by the life of the life tenant or by the term of life of another person or of other persons. Remainders may be contingent or vested. A vested remainder is the indefeasible right to take real property after the termination of a particular estate, or the right to take the property if the particular estate terminates immediately. A con tingent remainder is one which may vest in possession, if events happen which defeat the vested remainder.