New Jersey Real Estate Salesperson · Property Ownership and Interests
Land Characteristics and Legal Descriptions
On this page 6 sections
In 30 seconds
Land is physically immobile, indestructible, and unique, and economically scarce, improvable, permanent, and location-driven. The most tested distinction is physical versus economic characteristics: both describe land, but only physical ones are true of every parcel regardless of the market.
Why this matters
The exam tests whether you can tell a physical characteristic of land from an economic one, and whether you know that a street address is never a legal description.
The college version
In normal terms
- Physical characteristics never change: land cannot move, cannot be destroyed, and no two parcels are identical.
- Economic characteristics depend on markets: land is scarce, improvements change its value, investment is long-lasting, and location (situs) matters most.
- A legal description fixes exact boundaries by metes and bounds, recorded plat lot and block, or government survey; a street address only helps the mail carrier.
Concepts in this outline
- Physical characteristics of land — traits every parcel has by nature, regardless of the market.
- Immobility — land cannot be moved, so its value depends on its surroundings.
- Indestructibility — buildings can be destroyed, but the ground remains, which is why land is not depreciated.
- Nonhomogeneity or uniqueness — no two parcels are identical, which supports the remedy of specific performance (see Topic 07).
- Economic characteristics of land — traits arising from how people value and use land.
- Scarcity — the supply of land in any location is limited, which supports value.
- Improvements — additions such as roads, utilities, or buildings that change the value of the land and its neighbors.
- Permanence of investment — capital put into land and improvements cannot easily be withdrawn.
- Area preference or situs — preference for a particular location; usually the strongest single influence on value.
- Land measurement — the units used to size land (see Topic 11).
- Linear feet — length along a line, used for frontage.
- Square feet — area, length times width for a rectangle.
- Acres — the common land-area unit; one acre equals 43,560 square feet.
- Sections, townships, and ranges — grid units of the government survey system; a township contains thirty-six numbered sections.
- Legal descriptions — descriptions precise enough to identify one parcel and no other, required in deeds and mortgages.
- Metes and bounds — starts at a point of beginning and follows courses (directions) and distances back to that point.
- Lot-and-block or recorded plat system — identifies a parcel by lot and block number on a recorded subdivision map.
- Government survey system — rectangular grid of principal meridians, base lines, townships, and sections.
- Why a street address is not a legally sufficient property description — addresses can change and do not fix boundaries.
- Monuments and benchmarks — fixed reference objects surveyors use to locate boundaries and elevations.
- Natural monuments — naturally occurring markers such as rivers, trees, or large rocks.
- Artificial monuments — human-placed markers such as iron pins, posts, roads, or fences.
- Priority of calls in a metes-and-bounds description — when calls conflict, natural monuments outrank artificial monuments, which outrank courses and distances, which outrank area.
Eli explains
The same idea, in plain words
Explain it like I’m 10
Land differs from anything else you can buy, in two flavors.
The physical characteristics are facts of nature. Immobility: you cannot pick up a lot and move it. Indestructibility: a fire can burn the house, but the ground remains. Nonhomogeneity, also called uniqueness: no two parcels are exactly alike, which is why a court can order a seller to hand over that specific property.
The economic characteristics come from how people use land. Scarcity means only so much exists in any location. Improvements such as a road or sewer line change nearby values. Permanence of investment means money put into land stays put. Area preference, called situs, is the taste for a particular location, and it is the biggest driver of value.
Because every parcel is unique, deeds need a legal description precise enough for a surveyor to walk the boundary: metes and bounds (directions and distances from a starting point), lot and block (a numbered lot on a recorded plat map), or the government survey system (a grid of townships and sections).
Worked example
Nadia is buying a Montclair Victorian. Her licensee, Theo, points out that the deed does not say the street address; it says a lot and block number on a recorded plat map, plus a metes-and-bounds description that starts at an iron pin at the corner of the neighbor's fence and runs a stated distance along a compass bearing. When the surveyor finds that the fence and the pin disagree, the surveyor follows the pin, because monuments outrank measured distances in the priority of calls. Nadia also notices that the identical floor plan two streets over sold for far less: same house, different situs. Her land cannot move, cannot be destroyed, and has no twin, which is why a precise description matters.
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