Real Estate Ownership, Land Use Controls, and Financing Practice Test

Actual dirt or soil on the ground is called land. In real estate terms, land refers to the physical earth—the surface and the soil itself. It’s the base substance that can have things attached or built on it. A building is an improvement—something man-made fixed to the land. Property is a broader concept that includes the land plus the rights and any improvements tied to it. Market price is the value of the property, not the physical material itself. So the dirt and soil—the physical substance of the earth—is land.