Miami Beach Real Estate Terms 101, (hint, hint…..  they don’t know what you are talking about).

I was reading a blog article earlier this morning and the author was saying that often when you do something for a living, those outside of that sphere who don’t do it daily, probably have no idea what you are talking about.

It’s an interesting read, you can read the full post here.

It got me thinking a little about the terms that I may use with my customers and clients on a daily basis.  I figured I should go through a few of the most common terms I use on a daily basis and explain them.

• Listings: A term we use to describe the properties we as agents list for sale or rent.  For example, “Are there any two bedroom listings for sale in Mosaic Condos?”
• Pocket Listing: A term used to describe a listing that is not active on the MLS but an agent knows that the owner would sell it if they had the right buyer.
• Escrow:  the literal translation is “an account established by a broker for the purpose of holding funds until termination of a transaction via wikipedia“  In plain English:  when you give a check for a deposit, I will give it to a broker or an attorney who puts it into an account to hold until the sale is completed and/or the 1st day of the rental.  This account is often used for reference during the transaction to send out letters stating that the funds have cleared and there is a deposit of $xyz amount and it is valid.
  
  
• Fannie Mae Approved:  This could be a big long explanation but basically Fannie Mae buys loans from approved mortgage sellers.  In order for Fannie Mae to buy the loans back, they have to be based on certain criteria.  So when a building is listed as “Fannie Mae Approved”, this means that the building meets the criteria of Fannie Mae thus you can more easily get a loan on a unit in this building.  **Everything still has to be reviewed and finally approved but it’s a good indicator that you can look to buy in this particular building if you need a loan that is back by Fannie.
• Listing/Seller’s Agent/ Owner’s Agent:  This is the real estate agent who represents the owner/seller of the property.
• MLS:  The multiple listing service.  This is a computer database where we enter our properties for sale and for rent.  From here this information gets syndicated to sites like Realtor.com, Zillow, Googlebase and more.

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