ON THE BOARD

"Acronym-ity"

Greetings to all NARS Network Members, Non-Members, Real Estate Professionals, Gurus, Wanna-be’s, Looky-loos, Roadies, Rock Stars, hangers-on, and all interested others who may be lurking anonymously out there in the ether.

We at NARS know that many new parties arrive in the “Realm of Creative Real Estate” (that we NARSonians and PACRats dwell in), but find that they do not fully understand the language. As time has passed, as with any community, we have developed and learned a shorthand manner of speaking to each other to facilitate communication. Our community possesses more than our fair share of acronyms, colloquialisms and strange phrases that might be completely incomprehensible to the uninitiated. In order to dwell with and converse with the rest of us via the NARS website Discussion Board, I'm here to help the newbies pick up our strange language with this mini-guide.

Many Realms have odd verbiage, acronyms and abbreviations to learn in order to converse with the denizens that reside there. For instance, I am a bit of a sports stat geek and until I know what RBI, HBP, SB, DNP-CD, GWH, LCS, DH or HR mean, I probably cannot have an intelligent conversation with any self-respecting Baseball fan (MLB anyone?). In the NBA, we find FTA, FGM, APG, DDBL, NBADL and MPG (which has nothing to do gasoline). In Pro Football, we need to know the definitions of NFLPA, FGM, YPC, SPG, AFC and YAC (yeah, that really is YAC, as in Yards After Catch) in order to communicate effectively and intelligently.

And, please, don’t even get me started on the FBI, CIA, NSA, NLRB, CSI, SVU and LNAEMLCAF (O.K., that last one is a very local thing and it stands for Late Night And Early Morning Low Clouds And Fog, otherwise know as June Gloom here in SoCal).

The Real Estate and Mortgage industries are almost literally choked with odd acronyms that newbies might see as little more than alphabet soup. There’s RESPA, TILA, HOEPA and RICO. Not to mention WAMU, EMC, FRB, HUD and FDIC.

Many of you reading this are members of the WAREIA or the LAREIC or the NAR and list properties on the MLS or dabble in CRE, or both. Around here, in this realm, we speak of and type of PAC and EHT, NEO and MAV and we somehow just expect that everyone already understands us. Many do not.

The point is that we don’t know what we don’t know until we ask. To that end, I hereby submit for your use the following commonly used and occasionally misunderstood acronyms (AKA: TLA) that are commonly used on our website and Discussion Board Forums:

NARS = North American Realty Services, Inc., Bill Gatten’s company and the group that brings you all you see and read here

EHC = Equity Holding Corp., a Non-Profit California Corporation who acts as Trustee holding title to the properties placed into Trust

EMS = Equity Management Service, EHC’s bill collection and disbursal service

EHT = Equity Holding Trust or equity holding title transfer transaction

SB = Settlor Beneficiary . . . Also known as: “Relinquishing Party” or Seller (“Seller” is a Real Estate rerm; we deal with Personal Estate, so be careful with your terminology)

IB = Investor Beneficiary . . . a.k.a. “Acquiring Party” or the party putting together a transaction between Seller and Buyer (“Seller” and “Buyer” are Real Estate terms; we deal with Personal Estate, so be careful with your terminology)

RB = Resident Beneficiary . . . a.k.a. person leasing property & making the payments or Buyer (Again, “Buyer” is a Real Estate Term; we deal with Personal Estate, so be careful with your terminology)

NEO = Non-Exclusive Option, How you tie up the property while you look for an RB

MAV = Mutually Agreed Value, The value of the property that the RB, IB & SB agree to for the purposes of the Trust Docs

FMV = Full Market Value or Fair Market Value

CC = Closing Costs

PITI = Monthly Mortgage, Property Taxes, and Homeowners Insurance obligation
P = Principal
I = Interest
T = Taxes
I = Insurance

LTV = Loan To Value, a.k.a. Loan amount compared to Market Value of property

CD = Contract for Deed

LO = Lease Option

LP = Lease Purchase

This should be enough to get you started.

Many of you out there reading this can likely think of several additional acronyms to either add to the above list or post questions about since you ran across them and do not yet know their origins or meanings.

Please feel free to do so and help us to ever expand our list.

We stand ready to assist in your success in any way we can. And remember:

MAKE OFFERS !!
GET HOUSES !!
JUST DO IT !!

Thank you,

Joe Cain and Mark Jones
NARS Documentation Department