Important Real Estate Expressions and Terms You Should Know

Affordability, also called home affordability, is referred to the amount of money you can afford to spend on a home without any difficulty. Notably, home affordability takes into consideration your down payment, income, and monthly debts.

Buy-rent breakeven horizon is the point at which purchasing a home is more financially logical than renting a house.

They are the kind of market conditions that occur when the number of houses for sale outnumbers the number of buyers. As a consequence, many houses end up sitting on the market for a prolonged time. The prices also drop significantly in this case.

Comparative market analysis or CMA is an in-depth analysis that helps in determining the estimated value of a house on the basis of homes of the same conditions that were sold recently. Typically, a real estate agent is responsible for preparing a comparative market analysis. Apart from the condition, the size, age, and features of a house are also considered for comparative market analysis.

Comps, also known as comparable sales, are the houses in a certain area that have been sold in the past several months. Real estate agents use the number of sold houses in a given area to convince their clients about a home’s value in the same area.

The listing price is the price of a house, which is set by its seller.

Days on the market are the number of days a house listing stays active on the market.

Multiple listing services is a database where all the real estate agents list their properties for sale.

A short sale is the sale of a house by a person who owes a greater amount on the house than its actual worth. In such a case, the person’s bank has to approve a lower listing price prior to the home getting sold.

These are the market condition that occurs when the number of home buyers is more than the number of homes for sale. It can lead to bidding wars as well. Moreover, the prices also tend to get higher than average.

An appraisal is known as the valuation of a property. Typically, it is an estimation of a house’s current market value. Appraisals are usually calculated by professional appraisers, and they do it by drawing a comparison between the recent sale of houses and the appraised property. Importantly, the process requires a thorough inspection and several upgrades such as an additional stairwell into account.