"Real property" refers to physical land, and anything growing on it, attached to in, or erected on it, including a house or any other structure.  A real property owner-that is, an owner of a parcel of land and all that is fixed upon it-has rights to everything on that land, including the space above and the ground below, with some limitations (for example, airplanes have the right to use the air through which they fly above land, and some person or entity other than an owner of a particular parcel of real property may have rights to minerals or water under the surface of a parcel of real property).

Historically, land was an asset that was considered more important than any other, including money.  Upon a person´s death, his or her estate was divided into land and other property.  From this division arose the distinction between real property and what is called personal property, which is all assets other than land.  Real and personal property also are often characterized as immovable and moveable property: real property is the physical, immovable land, and personal property consists of moveable assets.

Real property does not include anything that may be removed from the land in question without causing any injury or physical change in the land.  For example, an above-ground swimming pool or a trampoline located in one´s yard do not constitute real property, since they can be easily removed from the property without changing the characteristics of the property itself.  These types of assets are considered personal property, and are generally not included as part of the property transferred in a real estate transaction, unless their inclusion is specifically identified in a purchase contract.

An extremely important concept associated with real property is that of uniqueness.  Every parcel or real property is considered to be unique, in that it cannot be replaced exactly equally as many items of personal property can be.  Therefore, in transactions of real property, when there is a breach of contract, the injured party is more likely to be able to successfully seek specific performance before a court of law.  Specific performance requires the party who is in breach of a real property contract to fulfill his or her obligations under the contract.  This is most common in situations where a seller of real property changes his or her mind about a sale and attempts to back out of a sale agreement; courts usually will side with the buyer, since real property is not considered something for which a substitute can be offered fairly.

           
Real property can be of two types: corporeal or incorporeal.  Corporeal real property is anything material or tangible, such as the soil on the property or buildings constructed thereon.  Incorporeal real property refers to intangible aspects of the property that are associated.  An example of incorporeal real property is an easement, which is a limited right held by a person or an entity to enter property owned by someone else for a limited purpose.  A person may hold an easement to a strip of his or her neighbor´s property that allows him or her to access their own property; a utility easement gives public utility employees access to property as necessary for the implementation and maintenance of a specific public utility.

Real property ownership can involve any of a number of types of ownership schemes.  The most common real property ownership types are: fee simple, which provides the owner of the real property with the right to use the land for any purpose and to sell the property whenever and to whomever he or she desires; life estate, in which a person has rights to real property during his or her life, but cannot sell the land; estate for years, which is like a life estate, but with rights limited to a particular number of years; leasehold, which is the right to posses and use real property under the conditions of a lease; reversion, which is a future right to real property after the current owner has held it for a term assigned to him or her; and co-tenancy, which is the ownership of real property by more than one person or entity at the same time.

Real property is also referred to as realty, real estate, or fast estate.

Note: Contact an attorney on all legal questions or legal issues. A real estate agent is not qualified to give legal advice or tax advice and is not licensed to give legal advice or tax advice. GBrey