abatement:
A reduction, decrease or removal of a nuisance.

A, B, C, D paper
Mortgage loans are rated as A, B, C, or D paper. "A" paper loans are the highest quality, lowest risk loans; "B" quality are loans where the borrower has minor credit problems; "C" quality are borrowers with marginal
or poor credit; "D" quality indicates very high risk loans.

abstract of title
A full summary of all consecutive grants, conveyances, wills, records and judicial proceedings affecting title to a specific parcel of real estate, together with a statement of all recorded liens and encumbrances affecting the property and their present status. The abstract of title does not guarantee or ensure the validity of the title of the property. Rather, it is a condensed history that merely discloses those items about the property that are of public record; thus, it does not reveal such things as encroachments and forgeries.

abstract of judgment
A full summary by the court of a judgment. It becomes a general lien on all of a debtor's property in the county where it is recorded.

acceleration clause
A provision in a mortgage, trust deed, promissory note or contract for deed (agreement of sale) that, upon the occurrence of a specified event, gives the lender (payee, obligee or mortgagee) the right to call all sums due and payable in advance of the fixed payment date.

acceptance
The seller's written approval of a buyer's offer.

acre 
A measurement of land equal to 43,560 square feet. 

addendum 
A written addition or change to a contract. Any change to the contract must be acknowledged with signatures from both the seller and buyer. 

adjustable rate mortgage (ARM)
A mortgage in which the interest rate is adjusted periodically based on a pre-selected index. Also sometimes known as variable rate mortgage.

acceptance
An acceptance is a promise by the offeree to be bound by the exact terms proposed by the offeror. The acceptance must be communicated to the offeror.

accretion
The increase or addition of land by the deposit of sand or soil washed up naturally from a river, lake or sea. The gradual and imperceptible addition of land by alluvial deposits of soil through natural causes, such as shoreline movement caused by streams or rivers. This added land upon a bank or stream, navigable or not, becomes the property of the riparian or littoral owner, and it also becomes subject to any existing mortgages.

accrued depreciation
1. In accounting, a bookkeeping account that shows the total amount of depreciation taken on an asset since it was acquired; also called accumulated depreciation.  2. For appraisal purposes, the difference between the cost to reproduce the property (as of the appraisal date) and the property's current value as judged by its "competitive condition." In this context, accrued depreciation is often called diminished utility.

acknowledgment
A formal declaration made before a duly authorized officer, usually a notary public, by a person who has signed a document; also, the document itself. An acknowledgment is designed to prevent forged and fraudulently induced documents from taking effect.

acquisition cost
The amount of money or other valuable consideration expended to obtain title to a property. It includes the purchase cost, plus such items as appraisal fees, closing costs, finance charges, mortgage loan origination fees and title insurance.

acre
A measure of land equal to 43,560 square feet, 4,840 square yards, 4,047 square meters, 160 square rods or 0.4047 hectares.

addendum
Additional material attached to and made part of a document. If there is space insufficient to write all the details of a transaction on the sales contract form, the parties will attach an addendum or supplement to the document. The sales contract should incorporate the addendum by referring to it as part of the agreement. The addendum should refer to the sales contract and be dated and signed or initialed by all the parties.

adjusted basis
The original cost basis of a property reduced by certain deductions and increased by certain improvement costs. The original basis determined at the time of acquisition is reduced by the amount of allowable depreciation or depletion allowances taken by the taxpayer, and by the amount of any uncompensated property losses suffered by the taxpayer. It then increases by the cost of capital improvements plus certain carrying costs and assessments. The amount of gain or loss recognized by the taxpayer upon sale of the property is determined by subtracting the adjusted basis on the date of sale from the adjusted sales price.

adjustment
Decrease or increase in the sales price of a comparable property to account for a feature that the property has or does not have in comparison with the subject property.

ad valorem
The Latin word for "according to value."

adverse possession
The acquiring of title to real property owned by someone else by means of open, notorious, hostile and continuous possession for a statutory period of time. The burden to prove title is on the possessor, who must show that four conditions were met: 1. He or she has been in possession under a claim of right. 2. He or she was in actual, open and notorious possession of the premises so as to constitute reasonable notice to the record owner. 3. Possession was both exclusive and hostile to the title of the owner (that is, without the owner's permission and evidencing an intention to maintain the claim of ownership against all who may contest it). 4. Possession was uninterrupted and continuous for at least the prescriptive period stipulated by state law.

affidavit
A statement of declarations reduced to writing, signed and sworn to before a notary public or other authorized official.

agency
A relationship created when one person, the principal, delegates to another, the agent, the right to act on his or her behalf in business transactions and to exercise some degree of discretion while so acting. An agency gives rise to a fiduciary relationship and imposes on the agent, as the fiduciary of the principal, certain duties, obligations, and high standards of good faith and loyalty.

agent
A person who acts or has the power to act for another. A fiduciary relationship is created under the law of agency when a property owner executes a listing agreement authorizing a licensed real estate broker to be his or her agent.

air lot
A designated space of air, such as a condominium unit on the second floor. The title to this air space can be transferred just like ownership of any other real property.

air quality standards
The level of selected pollutants set by law that may not be exceeded in outside air. Used to determine the amount of pollutants that may be emitted by industry.

air rights
Rights to the use of the open space or vertical plane above a property. Ownership of land includes the right to all air above the property. Until the advent of the airplane, this right was unlimited, but now the courts permit reasonable interference with one's air rights, such as is necessary for aircraft, so long as the owner's right to use and occupy the land is not lessened. Thus, low-flying aircraft might be unreasonably trespassing, and their owners would be liable for any damages. Governments and airport authorities often purchase air rights adjacent to an airport, called an avigation easement, to provide glide patterns for air traffic.

alienation
The act of transferring ownership, title, interest, or estate in real property from one person to another. Property is usually sold or conveyed by voluntary alienation, as with a deed or  assignment of lease. Involuntary alienation takes place when property is sold against the owner's will, as in a foreclosure sale or a tax sale.

alienation clause
A provision sometimes found in a promissory note or mortgage that provides that the balance of the secured debt becomes immediately due and payable at the option of the mortgagee upon the alienation of the property by the mortgagor. Alienation is usually broadly defined to include any transfer of ownership, title, interest, or estate in real property, including a sale by way of a contract for deed. Also called a due-on-sale clause.

amendments
An amendment is a change to the existing content of a contract. Any time words or provisions are added to or deleted from the body of the contract, the contract has been amended.

amenity or amenities
The qualities and state of being pleasant and agreeable. In residential appraising, those peculiar and intangible benefits of home ownership such as satisfaction of possession and use arising from architectural excellence, scenic beauty, and desirable social environment.

amortization
The gradual repayment of a debt by means of systematic payments of principal and/or interest over a set period, so that at the end of the period there is a zero balance. The principal is thus directly reduced or amortized over the life of the loan. Some loans are not fully amortized, and require a balloon payment at the end of the term of the loan.

annual operating expenses
The actual costs it takes to run the property, such as property tax, insurance, maintenance, repairs, management fees, utilities, and supplies.

annual percentage rate (A.P.R.)
An expression of the relationship of the total finance charge to the total amount to be financed as required under the federal Truth-in-Lending Act. Tables available from any Federal Reserve bank may be used to compute the rate, which must be calculated to the nearest one-eighth of 1 percent. Use of the APR permits a standard expression of credit costs, which facilitates easy comparison of lenders

annexation
An addition to property by the act of joining or uniting one thing to another, as in attaching personal property to real property, thereby creating a fixture. For example, a sink becomes a fixture when it is annexed to the plumbing outlet.
 
anticipation
The appraisal principle which holds that value can increase or decrease based on the expectation of some future benefit or detriment produced by the property.

appraisal 
An opinion of the value of a property at a given point in time. The evaluation is made by a licensed appraiser.