Real Estate Terms - From Easements To Good Title
By Raynor James, Fri Dec 9th

When buying or selling a property, it always helps to have abasic understanding of real estate terms. In this on goingseries of articles, we take a look at definitions starting with"easements."

1) Easement - permission given to (or acquired by) someone whodoes not own a parcel of real property enabling that person (orentity) to use that parcel for a specific purpose. It may add ordetract value. It may be neutral so far as the value of theproperty is concerned. Examples



include easements to utilitycompanies for the purpose of running power lines, easements tomunicipalities for running sewer lines, and an easement to aneighbor to use your driveway for ingress and egress to hisproperty.

2) Encroachment - a building, fence, wall, driveway, etc. whichis intended to be part of one property and is found to be on, orpartially on, another property.

3) Escrow - money and other items of value held by a third partyfor the benefit of the buyer and seller of real property. InCalifornia, items are accumulated in escrow for a stated periodof time until all items needed to finalize the sale are in thehands of the escrow agent and properly processed. In Virginia,the items are accumulated but are not signed until everyonemeets at the settlement table. Then the deed is signed, thelender releases funds, and so on. It is usually the next daybefore the change of ownership can be recorded at thecourthouse, so while it isn't customarily referred to that way,the settlement agent is usually an escrow agent for about 24hours in Virginia.

4) Equity - The wealth value of a property for the owner. Theequity in a property is equal to the fair market value minus anydebts such as mortgages and taxes.

5) Good Title - title to the real property being clear and cleanenough that a title insurance company will insure it and alender will make a loan with it as collateral.

As you can image, there are many real estate terms for which youhave a general understanding. In our next article, we continuewith the terms starting with "Home Inspection."

About the author:Raynor James is with http://www.fsboamerica.org - providing FSBOhomes For Sale By Owner. Visit our "sell my home" page athttp://www.fsboamerica.org/seller.cfm to list and sell your homefor free for one month. Visithttp://www.fsboamerica.org/buyer.cfm to see homes for sale byowner.

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