The Seattle Real Estate Glossary, A to Z

Real estate has a vocabulary problem: the words are simple, the stakes are not, and nobody in the transaction stops to define anything. This is the fix — an A-to-Z glossary of the terms you’ll actually hear in a Greater Seattle purchase or sale, each defined in a sentence or two of plain English. Where we’ve written a full deep-dive, the term links to it.

Bookmark it. You’ll be back.

A

Appraisal — A licensed appraiser’s opinion of a home’s market value, ordered by your lender to make sure the collateral is worth the loan. The lender lends against this number, not your offer price.

Appraisal gap — The shortfall when a home appraises below the contract price; the buyer must cover it with cash, renegotiate, or exit via a contingency.

ADU / DADU — Accessory dwelling unit (attached) or detached accessory dwelling unit — the backyard cottages and basement apartments Seattle’s zoning increasingly encourages.

As-is — A sale in which the seller won’t make repairs. In Washington it doesn’t erase the seller’s disclosure obligations (see Form 17).

B

Backup offer — A negotiated second-position offer that activates automatically if the first deal fails — common and free to ask for in Seattle.

Buyer agency agreement — The now-mandatory contract between a buyer and their brokerage stating what the agent will do and what they’ll be paid. Fully negotiable; full explainer here.

Buydown — Paying money up front (often via seller concession) to lower the mortgage rate, either permanently (points) or temporarily (a 2-1 buydown).

C

CMA (comparative market analysis) — An agent’s estimate of a home’s value built from recent comparable sales; the working document behind list-price recommendations. How CMAs work.

Closing — The day the deal completes: documents are signed, money moves, and the deed records. In Washington this runs through escrow, not an attorney table.

Closing costs — The transaction fees both sides pay beyond the price itself — lender fees, escrow, title, recording, prorations.

Comps — The recently-sold similar homes that anchor any honest opinion of value.

Contingency — A contractual condition (inspection, financing, appraisal, title) that must be satisfied — or the buyer may exit with earnest money intact. The legal doors out of a deal.

Contingent — A listing status meaning an offer is accepted but a major condition is still open. Distinct from pending; the difference matters.

D

Days on market (DOM) — How long a listing has been active. In Seattle, low DOM with an offer review date is strategy; high DOM is a negotiating signal.

Deed — The recorded document that actually transfers ownership.

Deed of trust — Washington’s version of a mortgage security instrument: a three-party arrangement (borrower, lender, trustee) that allows non-judicial foreclosure. What it means for you.

Designated broker — The licensee legally responsible for supervising a brokerage’s agents. The person to call when you and your agent are done.

Dual agency (limited) — One brokerage — or one agent — representing both sides of a transaction, legal in Washington with written disclosure and consent. Read the limited dual agency rules and the bigger conflict-of-interest picture before consenting.

E

Earnest money — The buyer’s deposit, held in escrow, demonstrating commitment — forfeitable if the buyer exits outside their contingencies. How it works in Washington.

Escalation clause — An offer addendum that automatically outbids competitors in set increments up to your cap. The full mechanics.

Escrow — The neutral third party that holds funds and documents and executes the closing. Washington is an escrow-closing state; here’s what escrow charges.

Excise tax (REET) — Washington’s real estate excise tax on sellers, with graduated rates by price tier. The REET explainer.

F

FHA loan — A federally-insured mortgage with lower down-payment and credit thresholds; common for first-time buyers, slightly weaker in bidding wars due to stricter appraisal rules.

Form 17 — Washington’s seller disclosure statement — the seller’s sworn checklist of known defects, and the highest-yield document in the listing packet. How to read it.

FSBO — “For sale by owner.” Selling without a listing agent: the fee savings are real and so is the workload and liability.

G

Graduated rates — How REET works: different tax rates apply to different slices of the sale price, like income tax brackets.

GFE / Loan Estimate — The standardized form lenders must give you itemizing loan costs, so offers from competing lenders can be compared line by line.

H

HOA (homeowners association) — The governing body of a condo or planned community, funded by dues, wielding rules. Read its budget and meeting minutes before buying into one.

Home warranty — A service contract covering repairs of home systems and appliances; often less valuable than it sounds.

I

Inspection contingency — Your right to inspect and then renegotiate or walk. The contingency most often shortened or waived in Seattle bidding wars — and the one with the scariest downside.

Interest rate lock — See rate lock.

J

Joint tenancy — A way co-buyers can hold title with rights of survivorship; one of several vesting choices with real legal consequences — confirm yours with the escrow officer or an attorney.

K

Knob and tube — Early-1900s wiring still hiding in many Seattle attics; an insurability and remediation-cost question whenever you buy pre-war.

L

Lien — A recorded claim against the property (mortgage, taxes, contractor bills) that must typically be cleared before title transfers.

Listing agreement — The seller’s contract with a brokerage: term, fee, duties, and the protection-period tail. Read it before signing and again before firing anyone.

Loan-to-value (LTV) — Loan amount divided by home value. Above 80%, expect PMI on conventional loans.

M

MLS — The multiple listing service: the shared database where brokers publish listings, which feeds the portals you actually browse. Who runs it and who can see what.

Months of inventory — Supply at the current sales pace; the single most useful market-balance stat. How to read it.

Mutual acceptance — The moment both parties have signed the same terms; contract deadlines start counting from here.

N

NAR settlement — The 2024 antitrust settlement that decoupled buyer-agent compensation from listings, making buyer agreements and explicit fee negotiation the norm.

NWMLS — The Northwest Multiple Listing Service, the broker-owned MLS covering most of Washington.

O

Offer review date — A published date when the seller will consider all offers at once — Seattle’s standard mechanism for converting interest into competition.

Owner’s title policy — The title insurance that protects you (not just your lender) against ownership defects. See title insurance.

P

Pending — Status meaning the major contingencies are resolved and the deal is marching to closing — but not closed, which is why backup offers exist.

PITI — Principal, interest, taxes, insurance: the real monthly payment, not just the mortgage. Model yours with the mortgage calculator.

PMI (private mortgage insurance) — Insurance protecting the lender when you put down less than 20% — a removable cost, not a permanent penalty. When it goes away.

Points — Up-front fees paid to permanently lower your interest rate; worth it only if you keep the loan long enough to break even.

Pre-approval — A lender’s verified statement of what it will lend you — the credible version of pre-qualification, which is just an estimate from self-reported numbers.

Pre-inspection — An inspection done before offering, so you can compete with confidence (or shortened contingencies) in a multiple-offer situation.

Protection period (tail) — The clause in listing and buyer agreements that keeps a fee owed for a window after termination if you transact with someone the agent introduced.

Prorations — The closing-day split of property taxes, HOA dues, and similar costs between buyer and seller for the partial period each owns the home.

Q

Quitclaim deed — A deed transferring whatever interest the grantor has — with no warranties at all. Common between family members and divorcing spouses; a flag anywhere else.

R

Rate lock — A lender’s commitment to hold your quoted interest rate for a set window while you close. How locks, extensions, and float-downs work.

REET — See excise tax.

Referral fee — A payment between licensees for sending a client — legal between brokerages, invisible to most consumers, and worth asking about.

Rescission — Unwinding a contract — e.g., the buyer’s short statutory window to walk after receiving a Form 17.

S

Seller concession — Money the seller credits the buyer at closing — for repairs, closing costs, or rate buydowns.

Side sewer — The pipe from a Seattle house to the city main — the homeowner’s responsibility for its full length, and the reason sewer scopes exist.

Sewer scope — A camera inspection of the side sewer; in Seattle’s older housing stock, the best diligence money per dollar a buyer can spend.

T

Title — Legal ownership of the property and the recorded history behind it.

Title commitment — The title company’s pre-closing report and promise to insure: who owns the home, what liens exist, what the policy will except. How to read one.

Title insurance — A one-time-premium policy protecting against ownership defects — separate owner’s and lender’s policies, explained here.

Townhome — Attached single-family housing on its own lot — Seattle’s dominant new in-city form, with no (or minimal) HOA compared to condos.

U

Underwriting — The lender’s verification process between application and final approval — where deals quietly die when buyers finance new trucks mid-escrow. Don’t.

V

VA loan — The zero-down, federally-guaranteed mortgage for eligible service members and veterans.

Vesting — How you take title (individually, jointly, as community property) — a one-line choice on closing documents with estate-planning consequences. Ask a professional.

W

Walkthrough (final) — Your last pre-closing visit confirming the home’s condition and that agreed repairs happened.

Waiver — Giving up a contingency to strengthen an offer. Sometimes strategy, sometimes regret; always a decision to make in daylight.

X

eXcise tax — Yes, we’re cheating; X is hard. See REET — and sellers, budget for it.

Y

Yield spread / lender credit — A higher interest rate traded for lower up-front costs; the mirror image of paying points.

Z

Zoning — The rules governing what can be built on a lot — increasingly important in Seattle as middle-housing reform reshapes what “single-family neighborhood” legally means.

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The term that isn’t in anyone’s glossary

Notice the word missing from the industry’s vocabulary: price list. Almost every term above gets defined somewhere in your transaction paperwork — but what agents actually charge has historically stayed undefined until you’re sitting at a kitchen table. Manaky Homes fixes that one: a free marketplace where licensed Greater Seattle agents publish their fees — flat, percentage, hybrid — side by side. Join the waitlist, and add “fee transparency” to your working vocabulary.