Real Estate Law

Real estate law includes a variety of activities.  One of them is buying and selling which includes options to buy.  A second is creating and extinguishing easements.  A third is subdividing a large lot into a number of smaller lots.  A fourth is creating and extinguishing lenders’ security interests in real estate, usually called mortgages or deeds of trust.  Doing any of these usually requires familiarity with surveying and title insurance.  In my career I’ve been involved in all these areas, and I continue to be involved in them.  Real estate law in California and the rest of the United States stretches back centuries to England.  As a result it includes certain concepts that seem somewhat odd, like the distinction between beneficial ownership and legal ownership, and the possibility of acquiring rights in other people’s property by “prescription” and adverse possession.  On the other hand, the Subdivision Map Act is a relatively recent addition to California real estate, as is the process required to adjust a boundary line.  Real estate law has a logic and beauty all its own.  At the same time, it’s basically about dirt.  That endears it to me immensely, because practicing real estate law often requires a field trip (sometimes with a surveyor) to go out and look at the land in question.  For this lawyer, as litigation goes, it’s hard to beat a good easement or boundary line dispute.