Short answer. Personal property first. If you do not exercise your option to choose, the sheriff must levy on your personal properties first, and reach your real property only if the personal properties are insufficient to answer for the judgment. The sequence is fixed by the Rules, not by the officer.
What the law says
If the judgment obligor does not exercise the option, the officer shall first levy on the personal properties, if any, and then on the real properties if the personal properties are insufficient to answer for the judgment.
Rule 39, Section 9 — Execution of judgments for money, how enforced. Read the full provision →
Your option comes before any default order
Section 9 does not begin with a ranking of assets. It begins with a choice given to the debtor. When the judgment obligor cannot pay in cash, certified bank check or another mode acceptable to the judgment obligee, the officer levies on property that may be disposed of for value and is not otherwise exempt from execution, giving the judgment obligor the option to immediately choose which property or part thereof may be levied upon, sufficient to satisfy the judgment. The word immediately matters. This is a choice exercised at the time of levy, and a debtor who says nothing then has effectively let the default sequence take over.
The default sequence when you say nothing
Only if the option is not exercised does the ranking apply. The officer first levies on the personal properties, if any, and then on the real properties if the personal properties are insufficient to answer for the judgment. Land is therefore the second resort under this provision, not the first. The condition attached to reaching real property is insufficiency, so it is not enough that personal property would be inconvenient to sell or slower to convert. The section reads as a protective ordering: the asset most people can least afford to lose is the one the Rules reach last.
What may be levied on at all
The property reached is described broadly. It is property of the judgment obligor of every kind and nature whatsoever which may be disposed of for value and not otherwise exempt from execution. Two limits sit inside that phrase. The property must be capable of being disposed of for value, and it must not be exempt from execution under the separate rule that lists exemptions. Real property, stocks, shares, debts, credits and other personal property, or any interest in either real or personal property, may be levied upon in like manner and with like effect as under a writ of attachment.
Garnishment runs on a separate track
Property held by third parties is not reached by levy in the ordinary sense but by garnishment. The officer may levy on debts due the judgment obligor and other credits, including bank deposits, financial interests, royalties, commissions and other personal property not capable of manual delivery in the possession or control of third parties, by serving notice on the person holding them. Because these are credits rather than tangible things, they fall on the personal property side of the ordering. Whichever route is used, the sheriff sells or collects only so much as is sufficient to satisfy the judgment and lawful fees.