Every profession creates them—an ever-expanding vocabulary of specialized terms, followed by the list of acronyms they spawn. Houston real estate is certainly no exception
Fortunately for the numerous house-hunters who have been out prospecting for Houston 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 Houston 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 extensive Jamestown real estate experience! Rinnovare Realty, LLC (832)-445-4957. Rinnovarerealty.com .