Real Estate Outline

1. Ownership of real property

a. Present estates and future interests
i. Present estates
1. Fees simple
2. Defeasible fees
3. Life estates
ii. Future interests
1. Reversions
2. Remainders, vested and contingent
3. Executory interests
4. Possibilities of reverter, powers of termination
5. Rules affecting these interests (including survivorship, class
gifts, waste, and cy pres)

2. Cotenancy
a. Types: tenancy in common and joint tenancy
i. Rights and obligations of cotenants
1. Partition
2. Severance
3. Relations among cotenants

3. Landlord-tenant law
a. Types of tenancies
b. Possession and rent
c. Transfers by landlord or tenant
d. Termination (including surrender, mitigation of damages, anticipatory breach,
and security deposits)
e. Habitability and suitability

4. Special problems
a. Rule against perpetuities: common law rule and statutory reforms
b. Alienability, descendibility, and divisibility of present and future
interests
c. Fair housing/discrimination
d. Conflicts of law related to disputes involving real property

5. Rights in real property

a. Restrictive covenants
i. Nature and type
ii. Creation
iii. Scope
iv. Transfer
v. Termination

6. Property owners’ associations and common interest ownership communities

7. Easements, profits, and licenses
a. Nature and type
b. Methods of creation
i. Express
ii. Implied
iii. Prescription
8. Fixtures
9. Zoning (fundamentals other than regulatory taking)
10. Zoning laws
11. Protection of pre-existing property rights
12. Rezoning and other zoning changes

13. Real estate contracts

a. Real estate brokerage
b. Creation and construction
i. Statute of frauds and exceptions
ii. Essential terms
iii. Time for performance
iv. Remedies for breach
c. Marketability of title
d. Equitable conversion (including risk of loss)

e. Options and rights of first refusal

f. Fitness and suitability
14. Merger Mortgages/security devices

a. Types of security devices

i. Mortgages (including deeds of trust)
1. In general
2. Purchase money mortgages
3. Future advance mortgages
15. Installment land contracts
16. Absolute deeds as security

17. Security relationships

a. Necessity and nature of obligation

b. Mortgage theories: title, lien, and intermediate
c. Rights and duties prior to foreclosure
d. Right to redeem and clogging the equity of redemption
18. Transfers
a. By mortgagor
i. Assumption and transfer subject to
ii. Rights and obligations
iii. Application of subrogation and suretyship principles
 iv. Restrictions on transfer (including due-on-sale clauses)
b. By mortgagee

19. Discharge of the mortgage

a. Payment (including prepayment)

b. Deed in lieu of foreclosure

20. Foreclosure

a. Types
b. Acceleration
c. Parties to the proceeding
d. Deficiency and surplus
e. Redemption after foreclosure

21. Adverse possession

22. Transfer by deed

a. Requirements for deed

b. Types of deeds (including covenants for title)
c. Drafting, review, and negotiation of closing documents

23. Persons authorized to execute documents

24. Transfer by operation of law and by will

a. In general
b. Ademption
c. Exoneration
d. Lapse

25. Title assurance systems

a. Recording acts
i. Types
ii. Indexes
iii. Chain of title
iv. Hidden risks (e.g., undelivered or forged deed)
b. Title insurance

26. Special problems (including estoppel by deed and judgment and tax liens)