Real estate, translated
Pricing a home
- ARV (after-repair value)
- What a home would be worth after the work is done, the number every fixer-upper deal is priced against.
- The 70% rule
- A flipper's rule of thumb: pay at most 70% of after-repair value, minus repair costs.
- Comps (comparable sales)
- Recently sold homes similar enough to price yours against.
- Price per square foot
- Asking price divided by living area: the quickest way to compare unlike homes.
- Days on market (DOM)
- How long a listing has been for sale, and the seller's patience meter.
- List-to-sale ratio
- What homes actually close at, as a share of what they asked.
What the listing is telling you
- As-is
- The seller will not repair or credit anything: what you inspect is what you get.
- Fixer-upper
- A home priced below its neighbors because it needs work, and the buyers it attracts.
- FHA 203(k) loan
- A government-backed mortgage that finances the purchase and the repairs of a fixer-upper together.
The deal itself
- HOA (homeowners association)
- The private association a neighborhood's deed makes you join, and its monthly bill.
- Earnest money
- The deposit that makes an offer credible, held in escrow and governed by the contingencies.
- Escrow
- The neutral third party that holds the money and papers until both sides have performed.
- Contingency
- A contractual exit: the conditions that let a buyer back out with their deposit.
- Closing costs
- Everything paid at the closing table besides the price: lender, title, escrow, prepaids and taxes.
- Appraisal gap
- When the lender's appraisal comes in under the agreed price, and someone has to cover the difference.
- Pre-approval
- A lender's written statement, after checking credit and income, of how much it will lend you.
- Seller concessions
- Money the seller contributes toward the buyer's costs instead of cutting the price.
- Cash offer
- An offer with no financing contingency, closing on the buyer's own funds.
Foreclosure
- Lis pendens
- A recorded notice that a lawsuit touches the property's title.
- Notice of default (NOD)
- The recorded first step of a non-judicial foreclosure.
- Trustee sale
- The foreclosure auction at the end of a non-judicial foreclosure.
- Deed of trust
- The document that secures a Nevada home loan, and the reason foreclosure here needs no courtroom.
- Short sale
- A sale for less than the loan balance, with the lender's consent to take the loss.
- REO (real estate owned)
- A home the lender took back at the foreclosure auction and now sells like any other seller.
- Super-priority lien (HOA)
- The part of an unpaid HOA balance that outranks the first mortgage in Nevada.
Where the words come from
Most of these terms appear on Kouzr's own pages: the jargon links on every listing page point here, and the buyer's guides use them in earnest. The pricing terms are the arithmetic behind the calculators; the foreclosure terms are the documents the foreclosure pages count. Definitions are general US practice with Nevada specifics called out where the difference matters, and none of it is legal advice.