Every profession creates them—an ever-expanding vocabulary of specialized terms, followed by the list of acronyms they spawn. Chicago real estate is certainly no exception
Fortunately for the numerous house-hunters who have been out prospecting for Chicago homes this fall—and for the homeowners whose properties are their quarry—there’s really no need to memorize them all. Your Realtor® (ideally, that’s me) will acquaint you with all the definitions you need to know, if and when they crop up.
Even so, since some of the most common ones do occasionally creep into blogs, ads, and various other Chicago real estate communications, here is an abbreviated list of some common ones. Anyone with personal home buying and selling experience will recognize many of them, but may not remember the literal definitions. You can make this into a quiz by covering up the column on the right—if you get more than half of them, consider yourself a REV (Real Estate Virtuoso):
- ARM …………. Adjustable-Rate Mortgage
- ASP ……… Accredited Staging Professional
- COE………. Realtors® Code of Ethics
- CMA ……… Comparative Market Analysis (aka, a “comp”)
- CPM ……… Certified Property Manager
- DR ………… Designated Realtor® (a member of the NAR)
- DTI ……….. Debt-to-Income Ratio
- FHA ……… Federal Housing Administration
- FICO ……… Fair Isaac Corporation’s creditworthiness rating
- FMV …….. Fair Market Value
- FSBO ……… For Sale By Owner
- GAA ……… General Accredited Appraiser
- HOA …… Homeowners Association
- HUD …… Federal Dept. of Housing and Urban Development
- L/O ……… Lease Option
- LTV ……… Loan-to-Value ratio
- MFH ……… Multi-Family Home
- MLS ……… Multiple Listing Service
- NAR ……… National Association of Realtors®
- NOO ……… Non-Owner Occupied
- OO ……… Owner-Occupied
- PMI ……… Private Mortgage Insurance
- REO ……… Real Estate Owned (a property owned by the lender)
- RTO ……… Rent-to-Own
The difference between REO and RTO is only significant when they are fixtures in your everyday professional life. Call me whenever it’s time for you to capitalize on my Chicago real estate experience!
