National / General cheat sheet
Property Characteristics and Legal Descriptions Texas Real Estate Exam Cheat Sheet
This area asks you to classify property, recognize the physical and economic characteristics of land, identify legal-description systems, and separate public controls from private restrictions.
Classify first. Decide whether the item is real or personal property, then identify the description method or land-use control the facts point to.
What Pearson tests
- Fixtures, trade fixtures, emblements, attachment, severance, and bills of sale
- Metes and bounds, lot and block, government survey, surveys, and acreage
- Police power, eminent domain, taxation, escheat, zoning, deed restrictions, easements, and encroachments
Three traps to catch
- A trade fixture is installed for a tenant's business and is usually removable before the lease ends if removal does not cause material damage.
- A street address is useful for location but is not a legal description.
- Zoning is a public control. A deed restriction is private, and the more restrictive valid control can govern.
Essential vocabulary
Property Characteristics and Legal Descriptions terms to know
- Fixture
- Personal property that became real property through attachment and intent.
- Trade fixture
- A business item installed by a tenant that is generally removable within the permitted time.
- Emblements
- Annual crops produced by a tenant's labor and treated as personal property.
- Metes and bounds
- A legal description using directions, distances, monuments, and a point of beginning.
- Lot and block
- A description that refers to a recorded subdivision plat.
- Government survey
- A grid description using principal meridians, baselines, townships, ranges, and sections.
- Police power
- Government authority to regulate for public health, safety, morals, and welfare.
- Variance
- Permission to depart from a zoning requirement because of a qualifying hardship.
Check your recall
Can you answer these without notes?
1Which legal description starts and ends at the point of beginning?
Metes and bounds.
2What is the usual exam distinction between zoning and deed restrictions?
Zoning is a public land-use control. Deed restrictions are private controls.
3How many square feet are in one acre?
43,560 square feet.
Use the sheet, then retrieve
Test the rules while they are still fresh.
Read the full lesson when a definition is fuzzy. Then answer the topic questions without looking back at this sheet.
Primary sources
This is exam-prep education, not legal, tax, or transaction advice. Confirm the current law, form, and official exam materials before relying on a rule in practice.