The fact that the entire world is experiencing a certain kind of an economic crisis is almost known to all. So is the fact that it has hit the Western world in a particularly appalling manner. Similarly, the piece of information that each and every kind of business, whether of small or large scale, has suffered and is suffering during the recession is also a bit of stale news. However, something that can really turn a lot of heads and raise lot eyebrows is the fact that even in this scenario; one sector that is booming in the present continuous tense is the Real Estate business.

The term “real estate” is in fact a legal one and used only in certain parts of the world such as UK, USA, Canada and Australia among a few others which includes land together with everything permanently affixed, like buildings, particularly possession that is fixed to the particular location in question. The set of legal codes and the regulatory rules governing this particular sector pertaining to issues such as commercial as well as residential real property dealings and belonging to a particular area of jurisdiction is known as Real Estate law. Real property is also a phrase which is more than often used in an exchangeable manner with real estate.

The phrase real estate is argued to have originated from the legal concept ‘real’ referring to being related to a thing as differentiated from an individual. Thus real estate would be, legally, a distinguished entity associated with real property, i.e. the land and everything affixed to it and completely distinct from the idea of personal property which would encompass things like money, clothes, tangible goods, etc. The earliest use of this particular term for legal purposes is said to have taken place in the year 1666, according to certain historical documents. There is however a piece of counter argument which states that the term ‘real’ has its roots in the word ‘royal’ and the associated notion of monarchy and the ownership of lands as well as landed property especially during the medieval ages. Nevertheless, the word “real” in “real property” has its origin in Latin synonym for “thing”.

The major development and growth in the real estate business or the Real Estate Boom as it is more popularly referred to as began with the developments in the area of private property ownership. Not only that purchase of real estate will require a considerable investment, but one of the primary reasons behind this aforementioned boom of this business is the fact that real estate has advanced into quite a few individual fields as an industry due to the fact that every package of land has its own share of distinct and unique traits. Moreover the real estate business has further branched itself out into diverse and niche areas including Professional valuation services which is professionally known as Appraisal, brokerages, Property management, net lease, relocation services, development and real estate investment and consultancy and construction among others.

Although the notion of a business actually originated from an extremely small scale individual oriented level, with time it has certainly blown out of proportions and has simply got as big as it gets. As a result, the concept of ownership has also grown comparatively more complicated than what it used to be. Now, they can certainly vary from region to region or for a number of other factors, but primarily for the purpose of academics and jurisdiction, business ownership has been categorized into certain broad umbrella like broad heads giving rise to the following forms.

• Sole Proprietorship – One of the most common and apparent form of ownership of a business, sole proprietorship is the concept of a single individual be the owner of the business owning the means of production. It is entirely upon his or her discretion as to whether he or she would be operating the business alone or would wish to employ subordinates to carry out certain jobs for the proprietor. While in this case the proprietor has complete claim over the profits made in the business which is certainly an advantage, he or she on the other hand also has to consider personal liability for each and every kind of debts sustained by the business.
• Partnership – The very basic idea of partner ship in business actually arises from the need to override the disadvantage of shouldering the burden of liabilities in sole proprietorship. Generally in this particular category, more than a single individual channelize their efforts together in order to earn a profit. This idea of operating all together keeping in mind a common destination or goal forms the essence of partnership form of business. Here, mostly, each of the individual partners has got his or her share of liabilities for the various kinds of debts associated with the business. Typically, partnership can be classified further into three categories called general, limited and limited liability partnerships.
• Corporation – This idea of business ownership can be best understood in terms of maintaining a distance between the owners and the business itself. A corporation can be defined as a legal entity distinctly separate from the member of staff and the shareholders of the company. In fact as a legal entity it has limited liability giving the owners a whole array of advantages. Interestingly, according to the provisions of the corporate law, the organization of a corporation can be done both for a profit as well as not-for-profit motive. Since a corporation is technically possessed by a large number of shareholders, the operation is presided over by a board of directors in charge of employing the managerial staff.
• Cooperative – This is also an entity which has limited liability which can be again organized for both of the aforementioned motives. However, a co-op, as it is commonly referred to as, consists of members as opposed to share holders who have the authority to make decisions about the business policy in this case.

While talking in general terms, one often tends to use the word business in such a totalitarian and homogeneous way that it may be often quite misleading. The fact remains that not only can a business be organized in several ways; there exists a set of factors which contribute substantially and individually as to the manner in which the business is organized. Certain significant ones among them are:-

• The dimension and extent of the business along with its expected administration, managerial supervision and finally the notion of ownership. While the bigger businesses are in most of the cases structured as partnerships or (more usually) corporations as they have a wider ownership or further strict and inflexible organization, a small scale business is definitely more flexible. Moreover, a business that wants to raise capital or funds on a stock market or wishes to be in the possession of a larger group of people may be required, in more than often cases, to be approved through a particular legal document for doing so.
• The area and the location which can be, in other words, described as the sector and the specific location. The privately owned businesses governed by a profit motive are quite unlike the businesses that are owned by the government. In fact, in certain countries, there are few businesses which are constitutionally obliged so as to be structured in particular ways.
• The notion of limited liability. Conglomerates and companies, limited liability partnerships, along with other precise forms of business organizations often tend to shield their owner or group of owners from the risk or threat of failure of business by adopting an effective method of carrying on the business underneath a distinct and separate legal unit that is being provided with some particular legal fortifications. On the other hand, businesses which are unincorporated or a body comprising of individuals who are working on their own are more often than not devoid of the aforementioned sense of protection and safeguarding.
• Certain advantageous provisions related to taxation. Various organizations in fact receive completely varying and different treatments regarding tax laws from the concerned authorities or the government bodies, and may actually end up in an advantageous or disadvantageous position owing to reason.
• The various requirements for conformity and disclosure. Various kinds of business organizations can be needed under different circumstances to make announcements to the public or present a statement to pertinent authorities more or less information along with the fact that they may be compelled to meet the terms with several diverse rules and regulations.

It has been seen that several businesses are actually operated via a different unit including corporation, limited liability Company among others. The majority of these legal jurisdictions let individuals to organize such entities or units by clearing certain forms and abiding by certain rules, terms and conditions set by the concerned. The rights of stockholders, partners, or even the members are administrated by the charter papers and law of jurisdiction to which the organization belongs.