Where cozy means tiny and charming means needs work.
A property tax based on the assessed value of real estate, meaning the more your property is worth, the more you pay. Latin for 'according to value,' or as homeowners call it, 'penalty for improvement.'
The minimum fixed rent amount in a commercial lease before any additional charges like utilities, insurance, or common area maintenance are tacked on. It's the starting point before your landlord creatively explains why you owe much more.
Additional cash or property value included in a 1031 exchange to equalize the values being swapped, which unfortunately becomes taxable income. Named perfectly for something that kicks you right in the tax deferral strategy.
Shared expenses for maintaining lobbies, parking lots, landscaping, and other communal spaces in commercial properties, billed proportionally to tenants. Abbreviated as CAM, it's where landlords demonstrate remarkable creativity in defining what counts as 'maintenance.'
A mortgage that meets Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's size and underwriting requirements, making it eligible for government backing. Essentially, it's a loan that colors inside the lines and gets rewarded with better interest rates.
The ratio of total building floor area to the size of the land parcel, expressed as a decimal that determines building bulk. A FAR of 2.0 means you can build twice the square footage of your lot, just stack it up.
A long-term lease (often 99 years) where the tenant owns the building but rents the land beneath it, common for commercial properties and some condominiums. It's the real estate equivalent of building your castle on someone else's sand.
The decidedly low-tech practice of cruising neighborhoods looking for distressed, vacant, or neglected properties to target for investment opportunities. It's like Pokemon Go, but instead of catching Pikachu, you're hunting for overgrown lawns and peeling paint.
Days On Market—the number of calendar days a listing has been active, serving as a digital scarlet letter that either signals a property is priced wrong or has bodies buried in the backyard. The higher the number, the more desperate everyone becomes.
A performance metric showing the annual pre-tax cash flow divided by the total cash invested, expressed as a percentage. It's how rental property investors measure whether they're getting a decent return or just being a charity for tenants.
The accelerated property deterioration and landlord exhaustion resulting from high-maintenance tenants, frequent turnovers, or challenging neighborhoods. It's the reason experienced landlords develop that thousand-yard stare.
The predictable pattern of growth, stability, decline, and potential revitalization that communities experience over time. It's the circle of life for zip codes, complete with the inevitable gentrification controversy.
The physical structure and materials of a property, as opposed to the land or location. It's what contractors care about and what investors try to look past while focusing on cash flow.
The brutally honest (or diplomatically evasive) comments agents collect after property showings, ranging from 'loved it!' to 'we could smell the previous owner's choices from the driveway.' It's Yelp reviews for houses, but the house can't respond.
A seller's request for all interested buyers to submit their absolute top offer by a deadline, usually because multiple lowballers are circling. It's the real estate version of 'final answer' from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
The legal sleight of hand where a buyer transfers their purchase contract to another buyer before closing, often used by wholesalers who never intended to own the property. It's contract flipping without the renovation show.
The painful difference between what a buyer offered and what the property actually appraised for, requiring either price renegotiation or the buyer coughing up extra cash. It's the financial buzzkill of hot markets where emotions outbid mathematics.
Written proof that down payment money from family is a gift, not a loan, satisfying lenders' paranoia about hidden debts. The documented promise that Mom won't ask for it back.
The gradual escalation of luxury features in new developments, where yesterday's upgrades become today's baseline expectations. The reason your apartment complex needs both a yoga studio and a dog spa.
A lease with predetermined rent increases at scheduled intervals, allowing tenants to budget for inevitable pain. The landlord's inflation hedge disguised as transparency.
The window of time when buyers can inspect, investigate, and potentially back out of a deal without penalty. It's when you discover that 'vintage charm' actually means 'original 1950s electrical wiring that might kill you.'
Recently sold properties similar to yours that allegedly determine your home's value, though somehow the appraiser always picks the worst examples when you're selling and the best when you're buying. It's objective data filtered through suspiciously convenient selection.
A lawsuit filed by a co-owner to force the sale or physical division of jointly owned property when owners cannot agree on management or disposition. It's the legal sledgehammer for splitting property when co-ownership goes toxic.
The original loan amount borrowed, excluding interest, or in agency relationships, the person represented by an agent. Context is everything, because confusing the two can make closing statements deeply confusing.