Abandonment
The voluntary
surrender of property, owned or leased, without naming a successor as
owner or tenant. The property will gentrally revert to one holding a
prior intrest or in cases where no owner is apparent, to the state.
Abandonment does not relieve obligations associated with lease or
ownership unless the abandonment is accepted by the entity to which the
obligation is owed.
Absolute Auction
A auction in
which the subject property is sold to the highest bidder regardless of
the amount of the winning bid. There is no reserve price.
Absorption Rate
An estimate of
the rate at which a particular classification of space - such as new
office space, new housing, new condominium units and the like - will be
sold or occupied during a specific time frame.
Adjustable Rate Mortgage-(ARM ) A
loan in which the interest rate periodically adjusts, the rate can move
higher or lower based on a pre-selected index, such as Treasury bill
rates. ARM loans can include interest rate caps for a given time period
or over the life of the loan, additionally, these loans may include
limits on the frequency of interest rate adjustments. ARM loans
generally offer initial rates below market interest rates as a trade
off for the borrower sharing the risk that interest rates may rise
during the life of the loan.
Adverse Possession
The principle of real estate law whereby somebody who
possesses the land of another for an extended period of time may be able to
claim legal title to that land.
ASHI
The American Society of Home Inspectors,
founded in 1976, is North America’s oldest and most respected
professional society of home inspectors. ASHI’s goals have always been
to build customer awareness of the importance of a quality home
inspection and enhance the professionalism of home inspectors.
Border Shadow Area (BSA)
These are neighboring areas. When someone does a search in the MLS they generally do that search for a specific area. For example BRI would normally return just the available homes in the Briargate area. With the addition of BSA’s the system would show homes that are close to Briargate but not in Briargate, in other words in the shadow of the border. This is similar to the feature on a retail website that says “Others the bought that item, also liked these items”.
CMA Comparative or Competitive Market Analysis.
A document or collection of documents that provides a pricing opinion
and the supporting evidence for the recommended price. This is
generally in relation to a residential property valuation. Not to be
confused with an appraisal.
Comparable (Comps)
The most recent property sales of similar
properties in the area or nearby areas. This sales data is used by
Realtors in property valuation for marketing purposes and Appraisers
for verification of valuation during the appraisal process.
Declaration of Condominium Ownership
A legal document that allows a Condominium to be built or sold under relevant state law.
Pre-Approval
A
commitment from a Mortgage Lender to make a loan prior to actually
identifying a particular property. The purpose is to make it easierto
shop for a house. Different from a pre-qualification because the lender
actually checks the applicant's credit.
Previewing
This is the an old school practice. A Realtor that previews actually looks at houses without a buyer. The Realtor looks at everything in a particular area and price range. The idea is the Realtor can build an internal database of houses and the prominate features of those homes. Ultimatley, this practice saves homebuyers a lot of time by eliminating homes that don't suit a particular buyers needs.
Tandem Garage
A tandem garage is an alternative garage configuration adds depth to a garage not width. This configuration allows the builder to stay within a narrow building envelope by moving deeper not wider.
Cars in this type of garage park bumper to bumper as opposed to side by side.
