GLOSSARY OF REAL ESTATE TERMS

CHAIN OF TITLE
The successive conveyances of a parcel of real property, beginning with the patent from the state or sovereign and running through the conveyance to the current owner.

CHATTEL
An item of tangible or intangible personal property.

CLEAR TITLE (MARKETABLE TITLE)
Title to property that is free from liens, defects or other encumbrances. Compare cloud on title.

CLOUD ON TITLE (TITLE DEFECT)
Any encumbrance, unreleased lien or outstanding claim against property which, if valid, would affect or impair title to the property. Compare clear title.

COMMON LAW
A system of jurisprudence, originated in England and later applied in the United States, which is based on judicial precedent rather than statutory laws (legislative enactments). Common law is distinguished from civil law, based on the Justinian Code, which prevails in most Western European countries.

COMPARABLE SALES (COMPS)
Parcels of real property, similar in size, location and configuration to a subject property, that have sold within a given time period and are used during the appraisal process to derive a value for the subject property.

CONDEMN
To declare as legally useless or unfit for habitation. A state or sovereign condemns a parcel of real property under its power of eminent domain.

CONDOMINIUM
A system of separate ownership of individual units in a multi-unit development. In addition to the ownership interest that one acquires in a particular unit, he or she is also a tenant in common with all of the other unit owners as to the common areas of the development and the land on which it is located. Compare cooperative.

CONDOMINIUM DECLARATION
A document describing the terms of condominium ownership. It defines the complex and the air spaces, the general common elements and the limited common elements and it establishes the basic rights and obligations of the unit owners. In addition, it provides for the creation of a management association with the authority to collect common expenses and otherwise act for the benefit of all unit owners.

CONFIRMATION DEED
The form of deed issued by a county public trustee or county sheriff following a foreclosure. Compare treasurer’s deed. See foreclosure.

CONSERVATOR (GUARDIAN)
A court-appointed custodian of property belonging to a person determined to be unable to properly manage such property.

CONSIDERATION
Something of value given in return for performance or a promise of performance by another, for the purpose of forming a contract. Without consideration, a contract may not be binding or enforceable.

CONSTRUCTIVE NOTICE (LEGAL NOTICE)
Notice that one exercising ordinary care and diligence as a matter of duty would possess. Constructive notice is imputed by law and is distinguished from actual notice.

CONTRACT
An agreement between two or more parties that creates in each party a duty to do or not do something and a right to performance of the other’s duty, or a remedy for the breach of the other’s duty. A valid contract requires (1) competent parties; (2) a proper subject-matter; (3) mutuality of agreement; (4) consideration; and (5) mutuality of obligation.

CONTRACT FOR DEED
See installment land contract.

CONVEY
To transfer property from one to another. With regard to real estate transactions, it is generally understood to mean the transfer of title to property by means of a deed.

COOPERATIVE
A multi-unit development owned by a corporate or business trust, which trust grants rights of occupancy to individual units by means of proprietary leases or other arrangements. Compare condominium.

COVENANT
Generally, a promise to do or not do a particular thing. With regard to real estate, covenants are limitations on the use of property. Covenants often address landscaping, or the size, height, color and style of structures permitted on property. They are recorded in the county in which the affected property is situate, and may take the form of a deed reservation (applicable to a single parcel), or a stand-alone agreement – covenants, conditions and restrictions, or “CC&R’s” (associated with condominiums and planned unit developments). A covenant must “run with the land” to be enforceable against remote grantees. Restrictive covenants relating to race, gender, sexual orientation or religion are not enforceable.

CURTESY
A husband’s right, at common law, upon the death of his wife, to a life estate in all of the parcels of real property that she owned or inherited during their marriage, provided that she bore him a child capable of inheriting the property. Abolished in Colorado. Compare dower.