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Term		Description
Easement		A grant or agreement that gives the right to use or access real estate by another entity. Utility companies, natural gas pipelines and other commercial interests frequently have easements granted by the city. They have the right to access your property to repair or replace a utility. Roads that border your property may also have an easement so they can expand the road if they need to without having to pay you or go through legal channels to gain access to your property.
Economic Life		The period over which a property will yield a return on the investment. This is over and above the economic or ground rent due the land.
Effective Age		An appraiser’s estimate of the physical condition of a building. The actual age of a building may be shorter or longer than its effective age.
Eminent Domain		The right of a government to take private property for public use by virtue of the superior dominion of the sovereign power over all lands within its jurisdiction.
Encroachment		To enter by gradual steps or by stealth into the possessions or rights of another. Trespass is a synonym for encroachment. Anything which affects or limits the fee simple title to property, such as mortgages, trust deeds, easements or restrictions.
Encumbrance		A claim (as a mortgage) against property.
Enforceable		To give force to, such as an agreement or contract between persons in which one or other party can legally compel the performance of others.
Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA)		A federal law that requires lenders and other creditors to make credit equally available without discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, or receipt of income from public assistance programs.
Equity		The interest or value which an owner has in real estate over and above the liens against it.
Ernest Money		Usually a deposit to purchase real estate that shows you are serious. If the buyer defaults the seller will receive the earnest money. As an investor, it is important to limit the amount you put down and include contingencies in the contract.
Escheat		The reversion of property to the state when there are no legal heirs.
Escrow		A deed, a bond, money, or a piece of property held in trust by a third party to be turned over to the grantee only upon fulfillment of a condition.
Escrow Account		Once you close your purchase transaction, you may have an escrow account or impound account with your lender. This means the amount you pay each month includes an amount above what would be required if you were only paying your principal and interest. The extra money is held in your impound account (escrow account) for the payment of items like property taxes and homeowner’s insurance when they come due. The lender pays them with your money instead of you paying them yourself.
Escrow Analysis		Once each year your lender will perform an "escrow analysis" to make sure they are collecting the correct amount of money for the anticipated expenditures.
Escrow Disbursements		The use of escrow funds to pay real estate taxes, hazard insurance, mortgage insurance, and other property expenses as they become due.
Estate		The degree, quality, nature, and extent of one's interest in land or other property. (See also: Possessions or Personal Property)
Estoppel		A legal bar to alleging or denying a fact because of one's own previous actions or words to the contrary. In other words, a legal theory under which a person is barred from asserting or denying a fact because of the person's previous acts or words.
Evict		To remove a person from a property by legal action.
Examination Of Title		The report on the title of a property from the public records or an abstract of the title.
Exchange		A means of trading equities in two or more real properties, treated as a single transaction through a single escrow or as a deferred exchange through two or more escrows.
Exclusive Agency Listing		A written instrument giving one agent the right for a specified time to sell a property, but reserving the right of the owner to sell the property himself without payment of a commission to the agent.
Exclusive Right to Sell Listing		A written agreement between an owner and an agent giving the agent the right to collect a commission if the property is sold by anyone during the term of his agreement.
Execute		To carry out fully; put completely into effect (such as to execute a command); to do what is provided or required by. To execute a deed is to make a deed, including especially the signing, sealing, and delivery; to execute a contract is to perform the contract, to follow it out to the end, to complete it.
Executed Contract		A real estate contract that is fully performed.
Execution of Contract		To sign a contract.
Executor		The person appointed by a testator to execute a will.
Executor's Deed		A legal deed to real property given by an executor of an estate.
Executory Contract		A contract not yet fully performed.
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