A fixture — something attached to the property in a way that makes it part of the real estate — generally transfers with the property to the buyer, rather than staying with the seller, needing its own separate sale contract, or being decided by who physically grabs it first.

Under Texas's rule of capture, a landowner generally has the right to pump and use groundwater beneath their own property — it isn't centrally state-owned in the way surface water is regulated, it doesn't automatically flow in ownership to a downstream neighbor, and groundwater and surface water are treated under distinctly different legal frameworks in Texas.

Fee simple is the most complete, unrestricted form of ownership recognized in real property law — it doesn't expire on a timer, it isn't a leasehold (a tenant's interest, not an owner's), and it isn't tied to someone else's lifespan, which describes a life estate instead.

A life estate is explicitly tied to a measuring life and ends when that person dies, with the property then passing to whoever the deed named (often called the 'remainderman') — it doesn't upgrade into fee simple for the life tenant's heirs, doesn't become a leasehold, and doesn't require a separate court ruling to take effect.