Land & Real Estate Glossary

Plain-English definitions for the terms you'll run into when buying or selling land.

1031 Exchange: A tax provision that lets an investor defer capital gains tax by reinvesting proceeds from a property sale into a similar property.
Absentee Owner: A property owner who does not live on or near the land they own, often a target audience for land wholesalers and investors.
Acreage: The size of a parcel of land measured in acres, one acre being equal to 43,560 square feet.
Appraisal: A professional estimate of a property's market value, often required by a lender before approving financing.
Assignment Contract: A contract that transfers one party's right to purchase a property to another party, typically used in wholesale real estate deals.
Buildable Lot: A parcel that meets the zoning, access, and utility requirements needed to legally construct a structure on it.
Closing: The final step in a real estate transaction where ownership legally transfers from seller to buyer.
Comparable Sales (Comps): Recent sales of similar nearby properties used to estimate a fair market value for a parcel.
Contingency: A condition in a purchase agreement that must be satisfied before the sale becomes final, such as financing approval or a satisfactory survey.
Deed Restriction: A limitation on how a property can be used, recorded in the deed and binding on future owners.
Due Diligence Period: A window of time in a purchase agreement during which the buyer can investigate the property before the deal becomes binding.
Easement: A legal right for someone other than the landowner to use part of the property for a specific purpose, such as a shared driveway or utility line.
Encumbrance: Any claim, lien, or restriction against a property that may limit its use or affect its transferability, such as a mortgage or easement.
Escrow: A neutral third party that holds funds and documents during a transaction until all closing conditions are met.
Flood Zone: A designated area with a defined risk of flooding, which affects insurance requirements and, in some cases, buildability.
Frontage: The length of a property's boundary that runs along a road, street, or waterway.
GIS Map: A Geographic Information System map, typically maintained by a county, showing parcel boundaries, zoning, and other property data.
HOA: A homeowners association that enforces community rules and collects dues in certain subdivisions, sometimes including vacant lots.
Ingress and Egress: The legal right to enter and exit a property, often specified in an easement covering a shared road or driveway.
Land Contract: An agreement where the buyer makes payments directly to the seller and receives the deed only after the full purchase price is paid.
Land Trust: A legal arrangement where a trustee holds title to a property on behalf of a beneficiary, often used for privacy or estate planning.
Landlocked: A parcel with no direct legal access to a public road, requiring an easement across a neighboring property to reach it.
Legal Access: A recorded, legal right to reach a property, either through direct road frontage or a recorded easement across another parcel.
Lot Split: Dividing a single parcel of land into two or more separate legal lots, subject to county or municipal approval.
Metes and Bounds: A method of describing land boundaries using distances and directions from a fixed starting point, common in older or irregularly shaped parcels.
Mineral Rights: The legal right to extract minerals, oil, or gas from beneath a property, which can be owned separately from the surface land.
Non-Buildable Land: Land that cannot currently be built on due to zoning restrictions, wetlands, lack of access, or other physical or legal constraints.
Owner Financing: A sale in which the seller acts as the lender, and the buyer makes payments directly to the seller over time.
Parcel Number: A unique identifier assigned by the county to a specific piece of land, used to track ownership, taxes, and zoning records.
Perc Test: A percolation test measures how quickly soil absorbs water, used to determine whether a parcel can support a septic system.
Plat: A recorded map showing how a tract of land is divided into individual lots within a subdivision.
Plat Map: A map showing how a piece of land is divided into lots, streets, and easements within a subdivision.
Purchase Agreement: The written contract between buyer and seller that sets out the price, terms, and conditions of a land sale.
Quiet Title Action: A lawsuit filed to resolve disputes or defects in a property's title, often needed after a tax deed purchase before the title can be insured.
Quit Claim Deed: A deed that transfers whatever ownership interest the grantor has, without any warranty that the title is clear.
Raw Land: Undeveloped land with no utilities, roads, or improvements.
Redemption Period: The window of time after a tax lien or tax deed sale during which the original owner can pay off the debt and reclaim the property.
Riparian Rights: Legal rights associated with owning land that borders a river or stream, including access to and use of the water.
Setback: The minimum distance a structure must be built from a property line, road, or other reference point under local zoning rules.
Skip Tracing: The process of locating a landowner's current contact information, commonly used by wholesalers to reach absentee owners.
Subdivision: The process of dividing a larger tract of land into smaller individual lots, or the resulting platted community itself.
Survey: A precise measurement of a property's boundaries, prepared by a licensed surveyor, used to confirm legal boundary lines before a sale.
Tax Deed: A deed issued when a county sells a property at auction to recover unpaid property taxes.
Tax Lien: A legal claim placed on a property by a government entity for unpaid taxes, which must typically be paid off before the property can be sold with clear title.
Title Insurance: Insurance that protects a buyer or lender against losses from defects in the property's title, such as liens or ownership disputes.
Title Search: A review of public records to confirm a seller's legal ownership and check for liens or claims against a property.
Vacant Land: Land with no structures built on it, whether or not it has utilities or road access.
Warranty Deed: A deed in which the seller guarantees they hold clear title to the property and has the right to sell it.
Wholesale Deal: A transaction where a wholesaler contracts to purchase a property, then assigns or resells that contract to an end buyer for a fee.
Zoning: Local government rules that determine what a parcel of land can legally be used for, such as residential, agricultural, or commercial.