What Is Property?

Property is generally divided into one of three major categories:

Real Property
Intangible Property
Personal Property

Real Property

Real property is land and immovable structures attached to the land.

Intangible Property

Intangible property may be defined as:

A right or possession of a nonphysical or abstract nature that has value, such as a copyright, patent, license, trademark, or goodwill of a business, or

A financial asset having no intrinsic value but representing value, such securities, notes, accounts receivable, etc.

Intangible Property is property that does not have value itself, but represents something else. Stocks, bonds, and franchises are examples of intangible property.

Tangible Personal Property

Tangible personal property includes personal property that can be felt or touched. Examples include furniture, cars, jewelry and artwork. However, cash and checking accounts are not tangible personal property. The law is unsettled as to whether computer data is tangible personal property.

Personal Property is property other than real estate, or property that is movable or separable from real estate; it is property other than land and buildings attached to land. Tangible Personal Property includes assets other than real estate that physically exist. Business equipment and vehicles are tangible personal property. Cars, bank accounts, wages, securities, a small business, furniture, insurance policies, jewelry, patents, pets and season baseball tickets are all examples of personal property. Personal property may also be called personal effects, movable property, goods and chattel, and personalty.

For insurance purposes, tangible property is often called "contents." Personal property may be used for business purposes and therefore may be covered by a commercial policy, while personal property not used for business purposes is generally covered only by personal lines policies (such as homeowners or renters' insurance).

Personal Property is broken down into a number of sub-categories, the primary of which include:

Decorative Art
Fine Art
Gems and Jewelry
Machinery and Equipment

Each of these principal sub-categories can be broken down into a myriad of specializations, for example, The American Society of Appraisers currently designates and tests personal property appraisers in specialities that include:

Antique Firearms, Armor and Militaria
Antique Furniture
Antiques and Decorative Arts
Asian Art
Audiovisual/Media Recordings
Automotive Specialities
Books
Clocks
Fine Arts
Fine Arts Photography
Firearms
Native American Art
Numismatics
Oriental Rugs
Residential Contents - General
Silver and Metalware
Sports Collectibles and Memorabilia
Textiles - General
Textiles - Quilts
Violins

NOTE: Within the American Society of Appraisers, machinery and equipment and gems and jewelry are each considered their own discipline for testing and designation purposes.