Real Property Characteristics and Ownership
What real property is
Real property is land, everything permanently attached to it, and the bundle of rights that goes with it (surface, subsurface/mineral, and air rights). Personal property becomes realty by annexation. The fixture test asks about intent first, then method of attachment, adaptability to the property's use, and the relationship of the parties.
Estates in land
Fee simple absolute is the most complete estate. Defeasible fees end on an event: a fee simple determinable ends automatically (grantor keeps a possibility of reverter), while a fee simple subject to a condition subsequent requires the grantor to re-enter. A life estate ends at death (or at the death named in a life estate pur autre vie); the remainderman holds a future interest, and a life tenant may not commit waste.
Forms of co-ownership
Tenancy in common: separate, divisible shares, no survivorship, inheritable. Joint tenancy: four unities (time, title, interest, possession) plus survivorship language - one joint tenant's conveyance severs that share into a tenancy in common. Tenancy by the entireties is reserved to spouses and also carries survivorship; Indiana recognizes it, and the deed language controls. Indiana is not a community property state.
Traps
Trade fixtures a commercial tenant may remove; emblements belong to the tenant who planted them; a seller may remove an item only if the contract allows. Know riparian (stream) versus littoral (lake) rights, and accretion (gradual, owner gains) versus avulsion (sudden, boundary unchanged).
Rule of thumb
Ask who intended the item to stay and who is fighting about it. Between landlord and tenant, lean toward the tenant; between buyer and seller, the contract language decides.