How co-owners hold title determines transferability, survivorship, and exposure to each owner’s creditors.
Tenancy in common. Separate undivided fractional interests, freely transferable, descending to heirs. No survivorship. Shares need not be equal. A creditor of one owner can reach that owner’s interest and force a partition.
Joint tenancy with right of survivorship. On death, the interest passes to the surviving joint tenants outside probate. Traditionally requires unity of time, title, interest and possession; conveyance by one joint tenant severs the joint tenancy as to that interest, converting it into a tenancy in common.
Tenancy by the entireties. Available to spouses in some states. Neither spouse may convey or encumber alone, and in most of those states a creditor of one spouse alone cannot reach the property. This is a significant asset protection feature and a trap for lenders who take a mortgage signed by one spouse.
Community property in a minority of states governs marital acquisitions with its own rules on management and disposition.
Partition. Any co-owner may generally compel partition in kind or by sale, subject to statutes favouring partition in kind for heirs property.
Entity ownership through an LLC displaces these rules with the operating agreement, which is usually preferable for investment property.