Home Seller &
Real Estate Glossary
The words that turn up in a purchase contract, a foreclosure notice, or a probate filing — defined in plain English and grouped by what is actually happening, not alphabetically. 125 terms, each one linked to the page that explains what to do about it. Nothing here is legal advice: confirm anything that affects a decision with a licensed attorney in your state.
How to use this glossary
Grouped by situation
Alphabetical order is useless if you don’t already know the word you are looking for. These are grouped by what is happening — a lender, a court, a tenant, or the condition of the house.
Concepts here, numbers elsewhere
Anything with a state-by-state answer — redemption windows, notice periods, exemption amounts — is defined here and linked to the sourced table rather than guessed at. A wrong number in a glossary is worse than no glossary.
Every term goes somewhere
Where a page covers a term properly, the definition links straight to it. A glossary is meant to be a doorway, not a destination.
Link straight to a term
Every entry has its own anchor, so you can send someone a link to one definition rather than the whole page. Quote them freely — we ask only for a link back.
Aldric Property Solutions is a property buyer, not a law firm. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice, and reading it does not create any professional relationship. Definitions describe general practice in the United States; specifics vary by state and sometimes by county. For a decision that matters, talk to a licensed attorney in the state where the property sits.
What the house is worth
Every number in an offer starts from one of these. They are not interchangeable, and the differences are where most disagreements about price actually come from.
After-Repair Value (ARV)
The estimated value of a property after renovations or repairs are completed.
Broker Price Opinion (BPO)
An estimate of property value prepared by a licensed real estate broker.
Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)
A report comparing similar recently sold homes to estimate value.
Comparable Sales (Comps)
Recent sales of similar nearby properties, used to estimate what a house is worth. Comps are how a credible offer gets built without anyone walking the property.
Acquisition Cost
The total cost of acquiring a property, including purchase price and closing costs.
Offers, contracts & closing
The mechanics of a sale from first offer to the day ownership changes hands.
Contingency
A condition that must be met for a real estate contract to proceed (e.g., inspection).
Inspection Contingency
A contract clause allowing buyers to cancel or renegotiate after inspection results.
Title Company
An independent, licensed company that holds the deposit, searches the title, clears liens, prepares the deed, and pays the seller at closing. Deliberately a neutral third party, so the money and paperwork are never under any one party's sole control.
Proof of Funds
Documentation showing a buyer actually holds the money to complete the purchase, typically a bank statement or a letter from the institution holding the funds. A buyer who cannot produce it on request is worth a second look.
Closing Costs
Fees and expenses paid at closing, such as title fees, attorney fees, and recording costs.
HUD-1 Settlement Statement
A detailed list of all charges and credits in a real estate transaction.
Final Walkthrough
A last inspection before closing to ensure the property’s condition has not changed.
Power of Attorney
A legal document allowing one person to act on another’s behalf in a transaction.
Cash buyers, investors & wholesaling
The vocabulary of a direct sale to an investor — including the parts most companies in this industry never explain.
Cash Buyer
A buyer purchasing without mortgage financing, so the sale does not depend on a lender's approval, appraisal, or underwriting timeline. Several very different business models advertise under this one phrase, and only some of them actually buy houses.
As-Is
A property sold in its current condition, with no repairs and no warranty about condition. What as-is does not do is cancel your duty to disclose — it limits what you must fix, not what you must say, which is the most common misunderstanding in a distressed sale.
Wholesaling
Contracting to buy a property and then transferring that contract to another buyer for a fee, rather than earning a commission. Aldric Property Solutions is a wholesale buyer — we contract and may assign. We say so before anyone has to ask, because a page defining this vocabulary has no business hiding its own model.
Assignment of Contract
The transfer of a buyer's rights and obligations under a purchase agreement to another buyer, who then closes in their place. For the seller nothing changes: the agreed price and closing date are fixed by the contract before any assignment happens, and the title company still pays out in full at closing.
End-Buyer
The party who ultimately funds the purchase and takes ownership, typically a landlord or renovation investor. In an assignment, the end-buyer is the one who closes and whose money reaches the seller.
Double Closing
An alternative to an assignment in which the purchase and the resale happen as two separate closings, usually the same day at the title company, instead of a paper transfer of the contract. The seller's price, date and proceeds are unchanged either way.
Absentee Owner
A property owner who does not live in the property, often renting it out or leaving it vacant.
Subject-To
An investment strategy where the buyer takes over payments on the seller’s existing mortgage.
Contract for Deed
An agreement where the buyer makes payments directly to the seller until the property is paid off.
Mortgages & financing
What the loan paperwork means — useful whether you are the one paying it off or the one being asked about it.
Adjustable-Rate Mortgage (ARM)
A mortgage with an interest rate that may change periodically based on market conditions.
Acceleration Clause
A mortgage clause that allows the lender to demand full repayment if certain conditions are not met.
Foreclosure, liens & debt
What the words on the notices mean, and which of them start a clock. Anything with a state-by-state answer is linked to its sourced table rather than guessed at here.
Judicial vs. Non-Judicial Foreclosure
Judicial foreclosure runs through the courts; non-judicial runs through a process written into the mortgage or deed of trust without a lawsuit. Which one applies is set by state law and the loan documents, and it is the biggest single driver of how long a foreclosure takes.
Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure
When a homeowner voluntarily transfers property to the lender to avoid foreclosure.
Loan Modification
A lender changes the terms of a mortgage to help a borrower avoid foreclosure. Aldric Property Solutions does not provide loan modifications and is not a foreclosure-rescue service. If keeping the home is the goal, the right first call is a free HUD-approved housing counsellor, not a buyer.
Free HUD-approved help in the Mohawk Valley · and in the Capital Region
Reinstatement
Bringing a defaulted loan current by paying the arrears, fees and costs, which stops the foreclosure. Distinct from redemption, which happens later and requires paying the balance rather than the arrears.
Redemption Period
The window after a foreclosure or tax sale in which the former owner can reclaim the property by paying what is owed. Whether one exists at all, and how long it runs, varies enormously between states.
Deficiency Judgment
A judgment allowing a lender to pursue a borrower personally for the shortfall when a foreclosure sale brings less than the debt. Some states bar it outright, some limit it, some allow it.
Tax Lien
A government claim against a property for unpaid taxes.
Selling with a tax lien · Tax lien rules and interest by state
Bankruptcy
A legal process where individuals or businesses seek relief from debts, often affecting property sales.
Homestead Exemption
A protection shielding some amount of equity in a primary residence from certain creditors. The amount protected ranges from token to effectively unlimited depending on the state.
Probate & inherited property
Estates are the one situation where a court, not the owner, sets the schedule. These are the words that appear on the filings.
Surrogate's Court
New York's name for the court handling estates and probate; most states call it probate court. It sits at county level, so the county where the deceased lived determines which court, and which backlog, an estate is subject to.
Executor / Administrator / Personal Representative
The person a court authorises to act for an estate. Executor applies when a will names them, administrator when the court appoints one because there is no will, and several states use personal representative for both. This is the only person who can sign to sell estate property.
Letters Testamentary
The court document proving someone has authority to act for an estate. A title company will ask for it before a sale of estate property can close — being named in a will is not the same as holding the authority to sell.
Intestate
Dying without a valid will, in which case state law determines who inherits in a fixed order of relatives. Intestate estates usually take longer, because the court has to establish who the heirs are before anything can move.
Heir vs. Beneficiary
An heir inherits under state law when there is no will; a beneficiary is named in a will or trust. The distinction matters at closing, because it changes whose signature the title company needs.
Stepped-Up Basis
A tax rule that resets an inherited property's cost basis to its value at the date of death. Because gains are measured from that reset figure rather than what the deceased originally paid, heirs who sell soon after inheriting often owe far less than they expect.
Transfer-on-Death (TOD) Deed
A recorded deed that passes real property directly to a named person at death, bypassing probate entirely. Not every state recognises them, and a TOD deed that was never properly recorded does nothing.
Tenants & occupancy
Who is living in the property usually decides whether a sale is simple or slow — and a tenant is far less of an obstacle than most owners assume.
Subject to the Lease
A sale in which the existing lease stays in force and the buyer takes the property with the tenancy in place, stepping into the landlord's position. The lease survives the sale — a change of owner does not by itself end it. Not to be confused with Subject-To, which is a financing arrangement.
Estoppel Certificate
A signed statement confirming the actual terms of a tenancy — rent, deposit held, end date, any side agreements. Routinely requested when a tenanted property changes hands, so everyone works from the same facts rather than from memory.
Holdover Tenant
Someone who stays past the end of their lease. What that creates — a month-to-month tenancy, or grounds for a court process — depends on state and local law and often on the reason for staying.
Cash-for-Keys
A voluntary payment to an occupant in exchange for leaving by an agreed date and in agreed condition. In some places relocation assistance is legally required rather than voluntary, which changes the calculation entirely.
Adverse Possession
A legal doctrine under which long, open, uninterrupted occupation of property can eventually ripen into a claim of ownership. Every state sets its own required period and conditions, and the bar is considerably higher than popular accounts suggest.
Condition & disclosure
What a seller has to put in writing — the duty an as-is sale limits far less than most people assume.
Disclosure
Information a seller must legally share about a property's condition or history. It turns on knowledge rather than condition — you disclose what you know, and an as-is sale does not remove the duty. Some estate, trust and foreclosure transfers are exempt.
Material Defect
A problem significant enough that a reasonable buyer would want to know about it, typically one affecting value, safety, or whether the property can be lived in. The threshold is defined by state law.
Latent Defect
A problem not visible on reasonable inspection — the kind behind a wall or under a floor. Latent defects carry the most disclosure risk precisely because a buyer could not have spotted them.
Caveat Emptor
“Let the buyer beware” — the older rule that inspection is the buyer's problem. Most states have substantially replaced it with mandatory disclosure, so it is best treated as background rather than as a defence.
Lead-Based Paint Disclosure
A federal requirement applying to most housing built before 1978: sellers must disclose known lead-based paint and hazards and provide the required informational pamphlet. Unlike most disclosure rules this one is federal, so it applies regardless of state.
Certificate of Occupancy
A municipal document certifying a building is fit to occupy. Some cities require an inspection, and sometimes repairs, before a property can change hands or be re-occupied. Set locally rather than by the state, so it varies between neighbouring towns.
Title, deeds & ownership
Whether ownership can actually transfer, and what the document doing the transferring promises.
Situations that drive a sale
The circumstances that most often put a house on the market before its owner planned to.
Agents, listings & the traditional sale
The other route. Worth understanding properly — for a house in good condition with time to wait, it is usually the one that nets more.
Commission
A fee paid to real estate agents for services, typically a percentage of the sale price.
FSBO (For Sale by Owner)
A property listed and sold directly by the owner, without a real estate agent.
Homeowners Association (HOA)
An organization that manages a community and enforces rules, funded by dues.
Looked a word up because something is happening?
Definitions tell you what the word means. These pages cover what people usually do next.
Behind on the mortgage
Start with how a sale before foreclosure actually works, then check your state's redemption window. In the Mohawk Valley, our Utica guide names the free HUD-approved help first; the Albany guide does the same for the Capital Region.
You've inherited a house
Our probate guide covers the sequence nationally, and the Oneida County guide and Albany County guide name the specific Surrogate's Courts involved.
There are tenants in it
Notice periods matter far less if you sell subject to the existing lease. See selling a tenant-occupied rental in Utica or in Albany.
The house needs work
What selling as-is actually means explains the difference between what you must repair and what you must say — the distinction half this glossary turns on.
Divorce or a vacant property
Two situations where the deadline belongs to someone else: selling during a divorce and selling a vacant house. Every other situation is indexed on seller situations.
Weighing up a cash buyer
Read how our cash offer is calculated, and before you contact anybody, how to tell a real cash home buyer from a lead generator. The full reference tables live on our resources hub. We buy in Utica and across more than 30 states.
Need to Sell Fast?
If the terms above are showing up because a deadline is closing in, we buy houses as-is for cash — no repairs, no cleanout, no commissions, and you choose the closing date.
Get My Cash Offer