What is tested in Property Ownership?
| Official PSI area | Property Ownership |
|---|---|
| Exam portion | National portion |
| Published weight | 10% of the 100-question national portion |
| Published branches | 4 |
| Source edition | PSI Georgia Candidate Information Bulletin dated July 1, 2026 |
| Last verified | August 2, 2026 |
The Rule
The percentage is an official content-outline weight. It describes the blueprint for the 100-question national portion, not a promise that every delivered form will group questions in a visible block.
Why this area matters
Ownership vocabulary appears again in contracts, title, land use, valuation, and financing. If you cannot identify the interest being transferred or burdened, later questions become guesses even when you know the second topic.
Complete official content outline
These are all branches named in PSI's current salesperson outline. The teaching points below unpack each branch so you can move from recognition to application.
A. Real and personal property; conveyances
Classify land, improvements, fixtures, trade fixtures, and movable personal property, then decide what transfers with a conveyance.
- Real property versus personal property
- Fixtures and trade fixtures
- The bundle of legal rights
- What a deed conveys unless a right is reserved
B. Land characteristics and legal descriptions
Recognize an adequate property description and use the measurement system named in the question.
- Metes and bounds
- Lot and block or recorded plat
- Government or rectangular survey
- Linear and square-foot measurement of structures
- Land measurement, including acres and square feet
C. Encumbrances and effects on ownership
Identify what burdens title, use, value, or possession and whether the problem is financial, possessory, or use-based.
- Liens and their effect on title and value
- Easements, rights of way, and licenses
- Encroachments
- Probate, leases, and adverse possession as potential title issues
- Mineral, subsurface, air, and water rights conveyed separately from the surface
D. Types of ownership
Determine who owns the property, what share each person holds, what happens at death, and which document controls.
- Ownership in severalty
- Tenancy in common
- Joint tenancy
- Timeshares, condominiums, and cooperatives
- Trust and estate ownership
- Business-entity ownership
- Life estates, remainders, and reversions
Complete lesson sequence
Work in order the first time. Each page connects the official topic to a full lesson, Georgia distinction, worked example, exam traps, original questions, mastery check, and recommended next lesson.
Lesson 50
Real Property, Personal Property, Fixtures, and Conveyances
Ask what the item was, how it is attached and adapted, what the parties agreed, and whether the transfer document includes it.
Lesson 51
Land Characteristics and Legal Descriptions
First identify the description system from its vocabulary, then ask whether the reference closes on one ascertainable parcel.
Lesson 52
Metes and Bounds, Bearings, Monuments, and Point of Beginning
Find the point of beginning, trace each call in order, and confirm the last call closes the parcel.
Lesson 53
Lot and Block Legal Descriptions
Verify that the deed reference leads to one recorded plat and one identifiable lot.
Lesson 54
Government Survey System
Start with 640 acres for a standard section and multiply every fraction named in the description.
Lesson 55
Measuring Structures, Acreage, and Land
Write the requested unit first, convert all inputs to compatible units, then calculate.
Lesson 56
Real Estate Liens and Their Effect on Title
Classify how the lien arose, what property it reaches, and what rule controls priority.
Lesson 57
Easements, Rights of Way, Licenses, Encroachments, and Adverse Possession
Ask whether the fact describes a use right, permission, physical intrusion, possession claim, or separate property right.
Lesson 58
Sole, Co-Ownership, Common-Interest, Trust, Entity, and Life Estates
Read the deed or creating instrument for owner names, shares, survivorship language, and the future-interest holder.
High-value distinctions and exam traps
Use these after the complete lesson sequence. Each comparison puts easily confused terms into the same decision table, then tests the controlling fact in a new scenario.
Comparison 168
Fixture Versus Trade Fixture Versus Personal Property
Classify who installed the item, why it was installed, how it is attached or adapted, what the agreement says, and whether removal is timely.
Comparison 169
Real Property Versus Personal Property
Ask whether the item is land, an improvement, a right in land, a fixture, or a movable chattel, then identify annexation, severance, and the transfer document.
Comparison 170
Lien Versus Easement Versus License Versus Encroachment
Ask whether the claimant wants money, a continuing use right, temporary permission, or correction of a physical boundary intrusion.
Comparison 171
Easement Appurtenant Versus Easement in Gross Versus Prescriptive Easement
Identify who or what receives the benefit, whether a dominant parcel exists, and how the use right was created.
Comparison 172
Voluntary Versus Involuntary Liens
Identify the event that created the lien: an owner's security agreement or a statute, assessment, judgment, or filing process.
Comparison 173
General Versus Specific Liens and Lien Priority
First classify the lien's scope, then build priority from the exact attachment, recording, tax, purchase-money, statutory, and subordination facts.
Comparison 174
Tenancy in Common Versus Joint Tenancy With Survivorship in Georgia
Read the deed for express survivorship language, then identify shares, lifetime transfer, severance, and the path at death.
Comparison 175
Life Estate, Remainder, and Reversion
Identify the measuring life, the current possessor, and whether the future interest was granted to a third person or retained by the grantor.
Comparison 176
Fee Simple Absolute Versus Defeasible Fee
Read the granting language for a condition, then decide whether the estate ends automatically or only after the future-interest holder exercises a right.
Comparison 177
Condominium Versus Cooperative Versus Timeshare
Identify whether the buyer receives a deeded spatial unit, entity shares with occupancy rights, or a recurring time-based interest.
Comparison 178
Eminent Domain Versus Condemnation Versus Escheat
Look for the power, the taking procedure, or the absence of anyone legally entitled to inherit.
Georgia-specific distinction
Worked example: Classify the right before choosing the remedy
Scenario. A neighbor has a recorded right to cross the rear ten feet of a parcel to reach a public road. The owner sells the parcel and the deed does not say the right ends.
Reason it through. The neighbor holds an easement, a nonpossessory right to use another person's land. A sale normally does not erase a properly created easement. The exam trap is calling it an encroachment, which is a physical intrusion, or a license, which is generally permission rather than an interest in land.
Common exam traps
- Calling every attached item a fixture without considering intent and agreement
- Treating a street address as a complete legal description
- Confusing an easement with ownership or possession
- Assuming every lien transfers possession to the lienholder
- Assuming co-owners automatically have survivorship rights in Georgia
Original practice questions with explanations
Answer each question before opening the explanation. These are original instructional questions mapped to the official outline. They are not copied from PSI or a live exam.
Question 1Which description depends on a recorded subdivision plat?
- A. Metes and bounds
- B. Lot and block
- C. Government survey
- D. Street address
Show answer and explanation →
Answer: B. Lot and block
Lot and block identifies a parcel by reference to a recorded plat. A street address helps locate property but is not one of PSI's legal-description methods.
Question 2A tenant installs display shelving for a retail business. What is the best classification while removal remains timely and does not cause substantial damage?
- A. Trade fixture
- B. Appurtenant easement
- C. Emblement
- D. Encroachment
Show answer and explanation →
Answer: A. Trade fixture
A trade fixture is installed by a commercial tenant for business use and is generally removable under the lease and fixture rules. It is not an easement or an intrusion over a boundary.
Question 3A Georgia deed names two grantees but contains no survivorship language. What is the safest exam conclusion?
- A. Tenancy by the entirety
- B. Joint tenancy with survivorship
- C. Tenancy in common
- D. Life estate
Show answer and explanation →
Answer: C. Tenancy in common
Georgia requires express survivorship language. Without it, the default is tenancy in common, so each owner's interest can pass through that owner's estate.
Mastery tracking
Mark this area mastered only when every statement below is true.
- I can explain every official branch in plain English without notes.
- I can identify the Georgia distinction before reading the answer choices.
- I can solve a new scenario and state which fact controlled the answer.
- I can explain why each tempting distractor is wrong.
- I meet my accuracy target in mixed practice on at least two different days.
- I know which lesson to reopen when this area weakens.
Related lessons
Georgia co-ownership and survivorship
Apply the Georgia deed-language distinction.
Ownership glossary
Review the interests and encumbrances that sound alike.
Property Ownership practice
Test classification and scenario decisions.
Recommended next lesson
Continue with Land Use Controls. Move from private property rights to public and private limits on those rights.