Real Estate Glossary Terms

• Deciduous

  Relating to trees or shrubs normally found in temperate climates. Deciduous trees shed their leaves in the fall. Deciduous woods such as pine, oak, Maple, redwood, and spruce are widely used for making furniture. Pine is a very commonly used deciduous building material. ...

• Control Variable

  Environmental element that remains unchanged and strongly influences real estate valuations despite the cost of improvements. ...

• Nonjudicial Foreclosure Sale

  Foreclosure sale enable in those states permitting the use of a power of sale clause to be inserted into a mortgage or deed of trust empowering the mortgagee to advertise and sell a property at a foreclosure sale upon the mortgagor's payment default. A nonjudicial foreclosure sale enables a foreclos ...

• Wrap-Around Mortgage

  A mortgage loan transaction in which the lender assumes responsibility for an existing mortgage. A wrap-around can be attractive to home sellers because they may be able to sell their home for a higher price. In addition, if the current market interest rate is above the rate on the existing mor ...

• Actual Cash Value

  Cost of replacing damaged or destroyed property with comparable new property, minus depreciation and obsolescence. For example, a 10-year-old living room sofa will not be replaced at current full value because of a decade of depreciation. The actual cash value clause is common in property insurance ...

• Cancel

  Termination of a policy. Contract may be terminated by an insured or insurer as stated in the policy. If the insurance company cancels a policy, any unearned premiums must be returned. If an insured cancels the policy, an amount less than the unearned premiums is returned, reflecting the insurance c ...

• Dynamic Risk

  Same as term Dynamic: changing state of the economy associated with changes in human wants and desires such that losses or gains occur. Dynamic changes are not insurable. ...

• Line Sheet

  Amount of insurance coverage that an insurance company is willing to write on a given category of business. ...

• Loss Reserves

  Provision for known claims due but not paid, known claims not yet due, and provision for incurred but not reported (IBNR) claims. The critical problem facing a casualty insurance company is the amount of reserves necessary for the incurred but not reported losses (IBNR) because many of these claims ...

• Premium Refund

  In some life insurance policies, provision that permits the beneficiary, upon the death of the insured, to receive not only the death benefit payable under the policy but also all premiums paid into the policy. ...