Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Help me - I'm hypothecating!

The real estate profession has its share of strange vocabulary. So while there are few experiences more underwhelming than sitting through 90 hours of real estate licensing class, there are at least a few bright spots. One is the exposure to arcane but historically interesting vocabulary that is used on the licensing tests, or so they tell me. Take a look at a few of these words -

Chattel - an old name for personal property, basically anything that isn't real estate could fall under this heading. I associate it to stories about slaves being included as chattel, not a pleasant concept.

Emblements - these are crops that a tenant farm would grow on leased land - even is the land is taken back by the owner (for failure of the tenant to pay, for example) the emblements are the property of the tenant.

Escheat - an appropriately sounding word for the government appropriating property when a person dies without a will and with no heirs.

Hypothecate - when a borrower puts their property up as collateral for a loan - so I guess that means most home owners are hypothecators? That doesn't sound legal, does it?

Livery of Seizin - this Middle Age expression is the antiquated way of saying 'delivery of possession and title to a buyer. This is a new one for me.

Short sale - this term is actually not in the study material for the AZ real estate licensing exam but seems to be the term with the most cache in today's market!

To be honest, the breadth of information covered in this class has kept me interested most of the time. It's a great combination of law, history, geography, finance, taxes and social culture. And, yes, I'll be ecstatic to be finished!

No comments: