Real Estate Terms

Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; (also) an item of real property; (more generally) buildings or housing in general. Housing includes single family homes, multi-family homes, home-sites, condominiums, townhomes, commercial property and investment property, to name a few.

REOs are foreclosed homes owned by banks and lenders. Banks either withhold from releasing these properties on the market because they don't want to take a loss or list them in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) represented by an agent. REOs are often priced below market value to create bidding wars among buyers. REO properties can still be a great deal, but buyers should know that REOs may need repairs and banks will rarely cover these costs. When looking at purchasing an REO, buyers should get pre-approved with the bank that owns the property and try to put together the "cleanest" offer possible. Clean means few contingencies, a high earnest money deposit and no requests to the bank to pay for closing costs. Banks are dealing with huge numbers of these homes and prefer offers that involve the least hassle.

A professional real estate agent, broker or an associate who is appropriately licensed under the rules of compliance in their state of licensure and who holds active membership in a local real estate board that is affiliated with the National Association of Realtors. Realtors are held to a high ethical standard and abide by a strict code-of-ethics. All real estate licensees are not Realtors (a trademarked designation). Realtors typically have higher levels of continuing education than their state laws require and tend to be higher sales producers than non-Realtors.

Short for "real estate owned" (home), REOs are foreclosed homes owned by banks and lenders. Banks either withhold from releasing these properties on the market because they don't want to take a loss or list them in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) represented by an agent. REOs are often priced below market value to create bidding wars among buyers. REO properties can still be a great deal, but buyers should know that REOs may need repairs and banks will rarely cover these costs. When looking at purchasing an REO, buyers should get pre-approved with the bank that owns the property and try to put together the "cleanest" offer possible. Clean means few contingencies, a high earnest money deposit and no requests to the bank to pay for closing costs. Banks are dealing with huge numbers of these homes and prefer offers that involve the least hassle.