Info and Tips for Buyers and Sellers of Real Estate
Info and Tips for Buyers and Sellers of Real Estate
Info and Tips for Buyers and Sellers of Real Estate
Winnipeg Home Selling Hub. Tips, news and advice for Winnipeg house and condo sellers
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Are you confused about real estate abbreviations or listing terminology? Do you feel like real estate agents are trying to confuse you with real estate terms and real estate acronyms?
If you’re working with real estate brokers in the search of a new home, most likely you are receiving MLS® real estate listings via the new Keystone Matrix® system. My buyers are always asking me to explain what some of the real estate abbreviations or real estate terminology stands for, so I thought I might create this post to help everyone out.
Generally from the top of the listing sheet on down, here is the list of abbreviations
DOM: Days On Market reflects how many days since the home has been listed by the agent
TYPE: This refers to one of the 4 different types of homes the listing service is displaying. They are:
RD = Residential Detached. This is the most common type of house, the one most people think of when looking at homes.
SA = Single Attached (Side by Side). These are two residences which share one common wall. They are cheaper to build, and therefor less expensive to purchase as well
TH = Townhouse. Usually found in rows of 4, 6 or even more. One long building which has a number of separate homes. The end units share one wall, while all interior units actually share 2 common walls.
MH = Mobile Home. Generally means a home which is located in a mobile home park. Careful here, as a ‘mobile home’ might actually be firmly attached to a foundation, and thus become real property.
TAX AMOUNT: This is supposed to be the TOTAL GROSS property taxes, including all Education Taxes, Local Improvements etc. As an owner-occupant, you would qualify for a $700 Provincial Rebate
RMA: Means Rooms Above Ground level. This indicates the total number of rooms such as any formal dining room, kitchen and living room, but NOT bathrooms or powder room, etc.
BDA: Bedrooms Above Ground. Includes the master bedroom and all secondary bedrooms located above ground level
TBD: Total Bedrooms (including basement bedrooms). This is how you can tell how many bedrooms are in the basement. Simply subtract the BDA from the TBD and see that the basement has 2 bedrooms, for example. Careful here: Just because a property sellers are listing it as a bedroom, does not necessarily mean it fits the legal description of a bedroom.
FB: Number of full Bathrooms (a “FULL” bathroom has at least 3 pieces, so for example: toilet, sink and shower, or toilet, sink and tub)
HB: Number of half Bathrooms (a half bath might have only 1 piece, such as a toilet, or just a sink, but most often has 2 pieces)
EN: Ensuite, which refers to a bathroom that is accessible from a bedroom directly
Exterior: Refers to the exterior surface of the home’s walls. Most common in Winnipeg is stucco, but could also include brick, siding (including vinyl and aluminum siding) and wood.
Foundation: Most common is concrete, but older homes often feature STONE or sometimes Cinderblock or even brick. In the 1980s there was a fad for ‘Preserved Wood’ foundations.
Heating: Most common is ‘forced air’ which indicates central heat (preferred). Other options might be Hot Water (radiators) or electric (baseboard heaters).
Heating Fuel: Indicates whether it is gas or electricity. Some new home builders are making the switch to electric furnaces. Careful as even in our province, producing heat with electricity is substantially more expensive than producing it with natural gas.
Basement: Full. This means that the area size of the foundation is the same as the main floor. It does not mean the basement is finished, as this is indicated in another section.
Other options for the basement category are: crawl, slab, half and 3/4. Real estate professionals should be able to point out the differences, benefits and shortcomings, of each type of basement construction.
Square Feet: I’ve had clients try to add up all the room measurements of a listing, and come to the conclusion that the 1,200 ft home is really just 850 square feet. While they are correct, this is not how buildings are measured and advertised.
The proclaimed total square footage of a house is the OUTSIDE measurements which includes all 4-season living space, excluding the garage. It includes ONLY the areas above ground, so for example the main floor, second floor and third floor if there is one. It does NOT include the basement, UNLESS there is a crawl space under that part of the basement.
For further explanation, see this article on how homes are measured. and remember that different provinces and states might have different rules.
Garage – AT or DT. This refers to the car garage which can be either attached or detached. Confusion here sometimes as an ‘attached garage’ might be physically attached, but not have a direct door leading into the house.
S/S: Showings Start date. NO showings can occur BEFORE that date
OTP: Offer To Purchase date. That the is FIRST date when offers can be considered.
In addition to the above listing terms, you will probably come across many of the next acronyms used by the listing agent in their advertisements
A/C or C/Air: Central Air Conditioning
APPL: Appliances (personal property)
ATT or DT: Attached or Detached also refers to single-family home vs. attached home.
CLG: Ceiling
C/Vac: Central Vacuum
CC: Clothes Closet or possibly “WICC” as in Walk-In Clothes Closet
AT/2 or DT/2: Attached double or detached double (as in garage)
EE and HE: Energy Efficient and High Efficient
F/Fin: Fully Finished
HWFS and HWDS: Hardwood floors and simply Hardwoods
S/S or SS indicating stainless steel (as in appliances)
WDW: Windows
WDWK: Woodwork (as referring to baseboards and window casings)
Im hoping that this list of most common terms is of great value to you.
If you’re thinking of buying a house or a condo in Winnipeg, call me for a free buyer consultation. There is a lot of information which is difficult to convey in a blog post but I’d be happy to discuss in person.
Below is the audio version of my popular post : Closing Costs When Buying A House Or Condo In Winnipeg.
If you’re thinking of buying a home, please be sure to check out “Buying a house or condo in Winnipeg; 6 important steps”
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If you are trying to sell your home, there are some details you need to pay attention to. Learn five tips to make your house more attractive to buyers.
We might currently be in a seller’s market, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want your home to sell for …
If you’re thinking of selling your house or condo, and do not know a real estate listing agent, you’re likely going to interview a couple of REALTORS®. Here is a list of 10 questions to ask them BEFORE you hire them. Plus one question you should NEVER ask.
However, how do we pre-select the listing agent in the first place? Here are a couple of tips to get you started:
Odds are that you know someone who has used a Listing Agent in the past year or two. Were they happy with that agent? Ask them for blunt and frank feedback on how the sale of their home went.
Some Listing Agents in Winnipeg are accredited by the Better Business Bureau. Check their reviews, and complaints and customer feedback.
Here you have to be a little careful. Some older reviews may have been submitted anonymously, and may therefore be either unrealistically bad or over-the-top great. When you check Google Reviews, make sure they are legitimate, submitted by real people who took the time and care to identify themselves.
Using these methods, you should be able to narrow the field from the hundreds of Listing Agents down to one or two you might interview. By the way, some articles advise to interview any number of agents. Doing so will often lead to confusion and un-healthy ‘over-promising’ by agents. Remember that you hire your Listing Agent by what he/she will DO, not by what they promise or predict.
Now let’s say that you have come up with a potential agent, here are the 10 questions you should ask him/her.
Reason for asking: With the lure of ‘quick and easy money’ (believe me, its NOT), every one with a few spare dollars and some extra time has decided to get into real_estate”>real estate. The joke is that in some States, liquor stores will accept, as forms of identification, your drivers license or your real estate license. I sometimes compare a Listing Agent to a Restaurant: Out of every 10 that start up, only 1 is still around after 2 years.
Answer to look for: Minimum of 4 years experience.
Reason for asking: Nearly every Real Estate Listing Agent uses the MLS®. Its a powerful way of getting your house noticed by buyers and other agents. But its not the ONLY way. Recent studies show that between 80% to 87% of home buyers start their search on the internet and one study shows that only 1-in-3 use the MLS® as their primary tool.
So the answer you should be looking for includes not only the MLS®, but extensive internet presence.
Reason for asking: A lot of agents try and cut corners by whipping out the cell phone and taking a few shots. Don’t think thats true? Google the phrase “Bad photos on the MLS” and sit back with some popcorn…..you’ll be entertained.
The right answer is: “I have a specialist who takes all my listing photos for me.”
Reason for asking: This goes hand-in-hand with the previous question. With such a high percentage of people looking on the internet, your Real Estate Listing Agent should have an effective website. I’m constantly amazed at how many agents don’t even have a simple site, let alone a professionally managed, search engine optimized site.
Answer to look for here is a definite YES, with some explanation of how effective the site is, Google ranking, Alexa ranking etc
Reason for asking: thats where the buyers are. Does your prospective agent interact with those potential buyers?
Answer to look for: ” Yes, here is my facebook page, my twitter account, my youtube channel, my pinterest account….. etc.
Reason for asking: goes to experience. Find you how many homes the average real estate listing agent in your town or city sells and then compare. Average is ok, but more experience is better. On the opposite end of the scale, if your prospective listing agent always carries in excess of 15 or 20 listings, how much time will he or she have to work on your home?
In the answer, look for a nice balance.
Reason for asking: Many a Real Estate Listing Agent runs a ‘team’, and the only time you’ll actually be dealing with him is during your initial interview. And trust me…something WILL go wrong. Perhaps as little as spelling mistakes or poor picture quality in your listing, or it could be more significant such as the wrong price shown in the listing. Or perhaps you’ll just have some questions about feedback from the last showing. In all likelyhood, you will want to talk to someone about your listing, so make sure that you know who you’re going to be dealing with.
The preferred answer here : “If any issues come up, you call ME directly anytime. You’re NOT going to be talking with my secretary, my assistant or my butler…. here is my cell number, it goes directly to ME”.
Reason for asking: In many jurisdictions, it is NOT a requirement that a Real Estate Listing Agent practice his craft full-time. There are many places (now including Winnipeg) where your Real Estate Listing Agent could work on your file during the day, and then serve your meals at the local restaurant at night.
Answer to look for: YES! Don’t list with a real estate listing agent who might have to choose between showing your home and picking up an extra shift at the local Piggly-Wiggly for some fast cash.
Reason for asking: Chances are you will need to talk with your real_estate”>real estate listing agent, to ask him questions or to get updates.
Make sure he or she has a cell phone, pager, e-mail and any number of ways for you to contact them.
Like anything else in life, you get what you pay for. Make sure that the cut-rate commission doesn’t also cut the most important parts of the service, such as advertising and ongoing support.
Reason to avoid this during the selection process: The most desperate (and sometimes least competent) agent will often quote the highest price, just to get the listing. The discussion of “What should we list our home for?” should be left between you and the listing agent AFTER you have made your selection.
Please don’t worry: as the home owner, you’re the boss and its up to you to set the asking price. But asking this question of several prospective agents will divert focus from what really matters: What an agent DOES for you, NOT what he/she predicts will happen!
See also 15 Reasons to hire a listing agent.
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