Glossary

An amount owed to another

The legal document conveying title to a property.

Short for "deed in lieu of foreclosure," this conveys title to the lender when the borrower is in default and wants to avoid foreclosure. The lender may or may not cease foreclosure activities if a borrower asks to provide a deed-in-lieu. Regardless of whether the lender accepts the deed-in-lieu, the avoidance and non-repayment of debt will most likely show on a credit history. What a deed-in-lieu may prevent is having the documents preparatory to a foreclosure being recorded and become a matter of public record.

An instrument that creates a voluntary lien on real property to secure the repayment of a debt. The parties to a deed of trust are the grantor or trustor (borrower), beneficiary (lender), and trustee (neutral third party). Unlike a mortgage a deed of trust includes a power of sale, allowing the trustee to foreclose nonjudicially,. Some states, like California, do not record mortgages; instead, they record a deed of trust.

Failure to make the mortgage payment within a specified period of time. For first mortgages or first trust deeds, if a payment has still not been made within 30 days of the due date, the loan is considered to be in default, or a tenant fails to pay rent

Failure to make mortgage payments when mortgage payments are due. For most mortgages, payments are due on the first day of the month. Even though they may not charge a "late fee" for a number of days, the payment is still considered to be late and the loan delinquent. When a loan payment is more than 30 days late, most lenders report the late payment to one or more credit bureaus.

1) Money offered as an indication of good faith regarding thr future performance of a contract to purchase. A sum of money given in advance of a larger amount being expected in the future. Often called in real estate as an "earnest money deposit." 2) A security deposit.

1) A decline in the value of property; the opposite of appreciation. 2) Depreciation is also an accounting term which shows the declining monetary value of an asset and is used as an expense to reduce taxable income. 3) Since this is not a true expense where money is actually paid, lenders will add back depreciation expense for self-employed borrowers and count it as income.

1) One percent of the principal amount of the loan, paid to the lender at the time the loan is made, to give the lender an additional yield above the interest rate. Because of the points paid at the outset, the lender is willing to make the loan at a lower interest rate. 2) Discount points refer to any "points" paid in addition to the one percent loan origination fee. A "point" is one percent of the loan amount.

The part of the purchase price of a property that the buyer pays in cash and does not finance with a mortgage.

A provision in a mortgage that allows the lender to demand repayment in full if the borrower sells the property that serves as security for the mortgage. Also called an alienation clause.

A flap to control or obstruct the flow of gases; specifically, a metal control flap in the throat of a fireplace, or in an air duct.

A coating applied to the outside face of a basement wall as a barrier to the passage of water.

A notch at the end of a piece of material.

A stiff straightedge of wood or metal used to level the surface of wet plaster.

Illuminating the interior of a building by natural means.

The weight of the building itself.

A large and/or heavy object buried in the ground as an anchor.

A material used to span across beams or joists to create a floor or roof surface.

A change in the shape of a structure or structural element caused by a load or force acting on the structure.

A pretensioning tendon that is pulled to the bottom of the beam to follow more closely the lines of tensile force.

Any of a number of devices for hoisting building materials on the end of a rope or cable.

The temperature at which water will begin to condense from a mass of air of a given temperature and moisture content.

See bracing.

A tool with a moving chain, belt, wire, straight blad, or circular blade whose cutting action is carried out by diamonds.

A bracing action that derives from the stiffness of a thin plane of material when it is loaded in a direction parallel to the plane. Diaphragms in buildings are typically floor, wall, or roof surfaces of plywood, reinforced masonry, steel decking, or reinforced concrete.

An industrial tool for giving identical form to repeadtedly produced units, such as a shaped orifice for giving form to a column of clay or an aluminum extrusion, a shaped punch for making cutouts of sheet metal or paper, or a mold for casting plastic or metal.

Manufactured by punching from a sheet material.

Subsidence of the various foundation elements of a building at differing rates.

A louver shaped so as to distribute air about a room.

Lengths of wood, rectangular in cross section, sawed directly from the log.

Building stone cut to a rectangular shape.

A transverse thickening of a one-way concrete joist structure used to allow the joists to share concentrated loads.

A strip of metal or plastic embedded in terrazzo to form control joints and decorative patterns.

An arch rotated about its vertical axis to produce a structure shaped like an inverted bowl; a form used to make one of the cavities in a concrete waffle slab.

A structure protruding through the plane of a sloping roof, usually with a window and its own smaller roof.

Two parallel sheets of glass with an airspace between.

A window with two overlapping sashes that slide vertically in tracks.

Acting to resist shear forces at two locations, such as a bolt that passes through a steel supporting angle, a beam web, and another support angle.

Glass that is approximately 1 inch (3 mm) in thickness.

A precast concrete slab element that resembles the letters TT in cross section.

A system for fastening to a concrete structure that uses metal tabs inserted into a slot that is small at the face of the concrete and larger behind.

A short cylindrical rod of wood or steel; a steel reinforcing bar that projects from a foundation to tie it to a column or wall, or from one section of a concrete slab to another.

A vertical pipe for conducting water from a roof to a lower level.

Removal of water.

A posttensioning strand that is placed along a curving profile that approximates the line of tension in a beam.

Shaping a material by pulling it through an orifice, as in the drawing of steel wire, or the drawing of a sheet of glass.

Glass sheet pulled directly from a container of molten glass.

Lateral deflection of a building cused by wind or earthquake loads.

A tapered steel shaft used to align bolt holes in steel connections during erection.

A discontinuity formed into the underside of a window sill or wall component to force adhering drops of water to fall free of the face of the building rather than move farther toward the interior.

A thickening of a two-way concrete structure at the head of a column.

A low-slump grout tamped into the space in a connection between precast concrete members.

A method of molding slightly damp clays and shales into bricks by forcing them into molds under high pressure.

See gypsum board.

An underground pit filled with broken stone or other porous material, from which rainwater from a roof drainage system can seep into the surrounding soil.

A hollow conduit, commonly of sheet metal, through which air can be circulated; a tube used to establish the position of a post-tensioning tendon in a concrete structure.

Drain-waste-vent pipes, the part of the plumbing system of a building that removes liquid wastes and conducts them to the sewer or sewage disposal system.