AMORTIZATION: The operation of paying off indebtedness, such as a mortgage, by installments. The conventional amortization periods are15 or 30 years.
BALLOON LOAN: A short-term mortgage in which monthly installments are not large enough to repay the loan by the end of the term. As a result, the final payment due is the lump sum of the remaining principal. This is often set at 3-year or 5-year terms.
BALUSTERS: Vertical members in a railing used between a top rail and bottom rail or the stair treads. Sometimes referred to as pickets or spindles.
BEARING WALL: A wall that supports any vertical load in addition to its own weight.
BUILDING ENVELOPE: Shown on the survey as the only place you can put your house, driveway and
septic system. Anything else will require a Variance from the township.
BUILDING PERMIT - A written permission granted by the County Building Department and required prior to beginning the construction of a new building or other improvement (including fences, fence walls, retaining walls and swimming pools).
BUTT JOINT: The junction where the ends of two timbers meet, and also where sheets of drywall meet on the 4 foot edge. To place materials end-to-end or end-to-edge without overlapping.
CASEMENT WINDOW: A window with hinges on one of the vertical sides and swings open like a normal door
CLOSING COSTS: Costs the buyer must pay at the time of the closing in addition to the down payment which may include points, title charges, credit report fee, document preparation fee, mortgage insurance premium, inspections, appraisals, prepayments for property taxes, deed recording fee, and homeowners insurance. Closing costs can vary considerably from one financial institution to another.
COMPARABLES: An abbreviation for "comparable properties"; used in the appraisal process. Comparables are properties similar to the property under consideration; they have reasonably the same size, location and amenities and have recently been sold.
COOPERATING BROKER: A real estate broker who finds a buyer for a property that another broker has listed.
CONTINGENCY: A provision in a contract stating that some or all of the terms of the contract will be altered or voided by the occurrence of a specific event. For example, on a Home-Sale contingency, the buyers must sell their house before purchasing the new one, or the contract will be voided.
CULTURED STONE: A masonry product made from a concrete mix poured into molds taken from actual
stones and colored to resemble the original. Because it is flat on the back, the savings in labor is considerable.
DEED RESTRICTIONS: Limitation written into the Deed that come with the property; sometimes
use is restricted, type of building, activity on the property, etc. Very difficult to remove.
EASEMENTS: Gives one party the right to go onto another party's property. Utilities often get easements that
allow them to run pipes or phone lines beneath private property. Sometimes a landlocked property can only
be accessed by an easement, or driveway across someone else’s property.
EMINENT DOMAIN: The government's right to condemn private land for public use, such as the routing of a public highway.
ENCROACHMENT: A fixture, or structure, such as a wall or fence, which invades a portion of a property belonging to another. Solutions range from paying the rightful property owner for the use of the property to the court-ordered removal of the structure.
ENCUMBRANCE: A claim or lien on a property which complicates the title process.
EQUITY: The money you are left with after selling your home and paying off the mortgage, selling costs and any other liens.
FASCIA: Horizontal boards attached to rafter/truss ends at the eaves and along gables. Roof drain gutters are attached to the fascia.
FEE SIMPLE ESTATE: An unconditional, unlimited estate of ownership that represents the greatest estate and most extensive interest in land that can be enjoyed. It is of perpetual duration. When the real estate is in a condominium project, the unit owner is the exclusive owner only of the air space within his or her portion of the building (the unit) and is an owner in common with respect to the land and other common portions of the property.
FLAG LOT: Lot located behind another property and accessed by a long driveway. The driveway is the "flagpole" and the lot is the "flag". This lot has no road frontage, and usually cannot be subdivided.
HVAC: Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems.
INTESTATE: Legal designation of a person who has died without leaving a valid will.
LANDLOCKED: Property has no access or frontage to any road.
LIEN: A legal claim against a property that must be paid off before a property can be sold. This is often a claim by an unpaid contractor.
LTV (Loan-to-Value): The relationship between the principal balance of the mortgage and the appraised value (or sales price if it is lower) of the property. For example, a $100,000 home with an $80,000 mortgage has a LTV percentage of 80 percent.
MORTGAGE INSURANCE: Required by lenders in some loans to protect them from a possible default . All conventional loans with less than a 20 percent down payments require private mortgage insurance, or PMI.
NEGATIVE AMORTIZATION: Amortization in which the payment made is insufficient to fund complete repayment of the loan at its termination. The balance owed may increase, rather than decrease over the life of the loan.
OSB SHEATHING: Oriented strand board; an engineered wood product created by laminating shreds of
wood into sheets. Often takes the place of plywood.
PERC TEST: or Percolation test. Test performed to measure how porous soil is, which will determine what
kind - if any - septic system is to be installed Purchase of land should be contingent on a passing perc.
PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance): extra insurance that lenders require from most homebuyers who obtain loans that are more than 80 percent of their new home's value. In other words, buyers with less than a 20 percent down payment are normally required to pay PMI.
POINT: An amount equal to 1 percent of a mortgage (not sale price) that is paid at closing. A point is usually considered to be prepaid interest. Also referred to as Interest Rate Buy down.
RAFTER: Lumber used to support the roof sheeting and roof loads. Generally, 2 X 10's and 2 X 12's are used. The rafters of a flat roof are sometimes called roof joists.
RIPARIAN RIGHTS: Ownership of land bounding upon a river or water course.
ROLLBACK TAXES: When a property is sold that was formerly taxed at a lower rate but land use changes for the new owner, a rollback tax is enacted obliging the buyer to pay the difference for the past 5 years. For example, when former farmland is changed to residential use.
R-VALUE: A measure of a material’s resistance to the flow of heat. R-value is a laboratory measurement based on the constant temperatures on both sides of a material.
SEPTIC SYSTEM: An on site waste water treatment system. It usually has a septic tank which promotes the biological digestion of the waste, and a drain field which is designed to let the left over liquid soak into the ground. Septic systems and permits are usually sized by the number of bedrooms in a house.
SETBACKS: Minimum distance required by local zoning ordinances between a property line and the edge
of any building or septic system.
SHAKE: A wood roofing material, normally cedar or redwood. Produced by splitting a block of the wood along the grain line. Modern shakes are sometimes machine sawn on one side.
SIP: Structural Insulated Panels: two layers of structural board with an insulating layer of foam in between.
SOFFIT: The area below the eaves and overhangs. The underside where the roof overhangs the walls.
SUBFLOOR: The framing components of a floor to include the sill plate, floor joists, and deck sheeting over which a finish floor is to be laid.
T & G: Tongue & Groove. A system of joining elements in which a protrusion, or tongue, on one element
fits into a groove on the other. This term is used for logs as well as boards.
TITLE INSURANCE: A policy issued to lenders and buyers to protect any losses because of a dispute over the ownership of a piece of property
TITLE SEARCH: A check of the title records to ensure that the seller is the legal owner of the property and that there are no liens or other claims outstanding.
VARIANCE: a variance allows an exception to certain development standards such as setbacks, building
height, lot dimensions and other zoning code requirements.
WETLANDS: areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year
or most of the year. Wetlands are defined by soil content and type of flora and require an engineer to
determine for certain.
|