Common Real Estate Terms & Mortgage Terms Explained - Part 1

Although most of us are familar with many of meanings of many of the terms used in real estate, some of the terms can be confusing, misunderstood or even sound like a foreign language. To complicate matters, the meanings of some real estate terms can vary from country to country.

For the purposes of this real estate blog we will use the USA as our base.

So, with that in mind lets get started with our part 1 of real estate terms:

Agent
An person who represents a seller, a buyer (or both) in the sale or purchase of real estate.

Amortization
The schedule of loan payments that details the amount of payment to be applied to the principal and the amount to be applied to interest. An Amortization schedule is usually calculated to show a breakdown of payments on a monthly basis for the full term of the loan.

Annual Percentage Rate (APR)
The total interest rate of a mortgage. The Annual Percentage Rate includes the stated loan interest as well as any upfront interest paid in securing the loan. The Annual Percentage Rate will invariably differ from the mortgage rate quoted due to the inclusion of these items.