Mortgage and Real Estate Glossary

Real Estate Definitions and Terms: E

Offers a Mortgage and Real Estate glossary for real estate and mortgage terms and definitions for home buyers, home sellers, and real estate consumers. Find expanded definitions of important real estate and mortgage home loan terms.

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Definitions and Terms: E

Earnest Money Deposit - A deposit made by a potential home buyer to show that they are serious about purchasing the property.

Easement - Giving other persons, other than the owner, access to a property.

EEM - Energy Efficient Mortgage; an FHA program that helps homebuyers save money on utility bills by enabling them to finance the cost of adding energy efficiency features to a new or existing home as part of the home purchase

Eminent Domain - The government right to take private property for public use depended on the payment of its fair market value.

Encumbrance - Any lien against a property or any restriction it its use, such as an easement; a right or interest in a property held by one who is not the legal owner.

Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) - The act declaring the elimination of discrimination on the basis of age, sex, and race in finance.

Equity - The difference between the current market value of a property and the principal balance of all outstanding loans.

Escalator Clause - A clause in a loan providing for increases in payments or interest based on pre-determined schedules or on a specific economic index, such as the consumer price index.

Escrow - A third party agent that receives, holds, and/or disburses certain funds or documents upon the performance of certain conditions. For example, an earnest money deposit is put into escrow until the transaction is closed. Only then can the seller receive the deposit.

Escrow Account (impound account) - An account that a borrower can hold with a lender once a purchase transaction is closed. This requires borrowers to pay more than the principal and interest each month. The overage is put into escrow, which the lender uses to pay items like property taxes and homeowner's insurance when they are due. This eliminates the actual number of payments that a homeowner has to worry about, but not the amount that has to actually be paid.

Escrow Analysis - An analysis performed by a lender each year to escrow accountholders to ensure that the correct amount of money is being collected to cover anticipated payments.

Escrow Fee - These costs cover the preparation and transmission of all home purchased-related documents and funds. Escrow fees range from several hundred to over a thousand dollars, based on the purchase price of your home. Not all states require funds to be put into escrow accounts for closing.

Estate - The ownership interest an individual holds in real property. This is also the sum total of all the real property and personal property owned by an individual at time of death.

Eviction - The legal removal of real property occupants for unlawful actions carried out by those occupants.