Plain answers, no jargon
Real estate gets wrapped in words that are doing three jobs at once, and most of the confusion is not you. It is the vocabulary. So here is the whole thing in plain language, including the parts that do not help me sell anything.
I am Kevin. I am a REALTOR with Windermere Signature Properties, so I have an interest in this. Read accordingly.
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Four posts to start with, whichever side of a sale you are on.
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Pick whichever is closest. You will get a straight answer with the trade-offs included, not a sales pitch.
Tap any of these. No sales pitch hiding underneath, I promise.
The difference between what the house is worth and what you still owe on it. Worth $500,000, owe $300,000, you have about $200,000 in equity. That is the money you walk away with, minus selling costs.
A lender saying they would probably lend you a certain amount, based on what you have told them so far. The numbers have not been checked yet. It is what lets a seller take your offer seriously, and it is not a promise.
The neutral middle. A title or escrow company holds the money and the paperwork until everyone has done what they promised, then moves the deed and releases the funds. Neither side hands anything directly to the other.
A condition in a purchase contract that lets a buyer back out without losing their deposit. The inspection contingency is the common one, and it is why a buyer can still walk away after their offer is accepted. Giving one up is a real risk, not a formality.
The deposit a buyer puts up to show they are serious. A large deposit is expensive to walk away from, which is exactly why it signals commitment. A tiny deposit is cheap to abandon.
The legal record of who owns the property. A title search looks for anything attached to it: old loans, liens, judgments, heirs, easements. Most closing delays live here, not in the house itself.
A legal claim against the property that has to be paid before the property can change hands cleanly. A mortgage is a lien. So are unpaid taxes, a contractor who was never paid, or a judgment from a lawsuit.
The window after you accept an offer when the buyer does their inspections and can still back out. During it, you are off the market but not sold. That gap is where a lot of deals quietly die.
The fees that come with transferring a house, paid on top of the down payment and landing in the same month. On a purchase they include lender costs, title and escrow, and prepaid taxes and insurance. They are not small and they are not optional.
An independent licensed appraiser’s opinion of what the house is worth, ordered by the buyer’s lender because the lender is the one taking the risk. If it comes in below the contract price, the deal has to be renegotiated or the buyer covers the gap.
Recently sold houses similar to yours, used to estimate value. The word does a lot of work, which is why two people can look at the same six sales and disagree. Size, condition, date, and location all get argued about.
What you actually keep after everything comes off the top: repairs you did, cleaning, staging, brokerage compensation, closing costs, and the payoff on your loan. The number that matters is this one, not the asking price.
Everything you keep paying while a house sits unsold. Mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance. Nobody puts this line on a listing flyer and it is frequently the largest number in the whole comparison.
How most California home loans are secured. Instead of a mortgage, you sign a deed of trust that puts a neutral third party, the trustee, in the middle. That is why a California foreclosure usually runs through a trustee instead of a court.
Tick whatever is true. Nothing is sent anywhere, it just tells you what to read next.
Nothing ticked yet.
Send the address and the basics. You get the number and the arithmetic behind it, and the honest answer may be that waiting is the right move.
