Real Estate Glossary

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tenancy by the entirety
A type of joint tenancy of property that provides right of survivorship and is available
only to a husband and wife. Contrast with tenancy in common.

tenancy in common
A type of joint tenancy in a property without right of survivorship. Contrast with tenancy
by the entirety and with joint tenacy.

tenant-stockholder
The obligee for a cooperative share loan, who is both a stockholder in a cooperative
corporation and a tenant of the unit under a proprietary lease or occupancy agreement.

third-party origination
A process by which a lender uses another party to completely or partially originate, process,
underwrite, close, fund, or package the mortgages it plans to deliver to the secondary
mortgage market. See mortgage broker.

title
A legal document evidencing a person's right to or ownership of a property.

title company
A company that specializes in examining and insuring titles to real estate.

title insurance
Insurance that protects the lender (lender's policy) or the buyer (owner's policy) against loss
arising from disputes over ownership of a property.

title search
A check of the title records to ensure that the seller is the legal owner of the property and
that there are no liens or other claims outstanding.

total expense ratio
Total obligations as a percentage of gross monthly income. The total expense ratio includes
monthly housing expenses plus other monthly debts.

trade equity
Equity that results from a property purchaser giving his or her existing property (or an asset
other than real estate) as trade as all or part of the down payment for the property that is
being purchased.

transfer of ownership
Any means by which the ownership of a property changes hands. Lenders consider all of the
following situations to be a transfer of ownership: the purchase of a property "subject to" the
mortgage, the assumption of the mortgage debt by the property purchaser, and any exchange
of possession of the property under a land sales contract or any other land trust device. In
cases in which an inter vivos revocable trust is the borrower, lenders also consider any transfer
of a beneficial interest in the trust to be a transfer of ownership.

transfer tax
State or local tax payable when title passes from one owner to another.

Treasury index
An index that is used to determine interest rate changes for certain adjustable-rate mortgage
(ARM) plans. It is based on the results of auctions that the U.S. Treasury holds for its Treasury
bills and securities or is derived from the U.S. Treasury's daily yield curve, which is based on the
closing market bid yields on actively traded Treasury securities in the over-the-counter market.
See adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM).

Truth-in-Lending
A federal law that requires lenders to fully disclose, in writing, the terms and conditions of a
mortgage, including the annual percentage rate (APR) and other charges.

two-step mortgage
An adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) that has one interest rate for the first five or seven years
of its mortgage term and a different interest rate for the remainder of the amortization term.

two- to four-family property
A property that consists of a structure that provides living space (dwelling units) for two to
four families, although ownership of the structure is evidenced by a single deed.

trustee
A fiduciary who holds or controls property for the benefit of another.