Real Estate Glossary
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Landscape architect - A professional who holds a degree in landscape architecture, which involves training in horticulture, landscape design and planning.
Landscape designer - A landscape designer has training in horticulture and landscape planning, but does not necessarily hold a degree.
Landscape contractor - A professional who carries out the plans of a landscape architect or a landscape designer.
Late charge - A fee a lender imposes on a borrower when the borrower does not make a payment on time.
Late payment - A payment a lender receives after the due date has passed.
Latent defect - An invisible problem in a piece of property such as bad wiring, termite damage or lead paint.
Lead - A metallic chemical element present in older dwellings, primarily in the form of lead-based paint and lead plumbing. Exposure to lead has been found to be a health risk..
Lease - A binding agreement that contains the terms and conditions of a renter's occupancy.
Leasehold estate - An arrangement in which the borrower does not own a specific piece of property but possesses a long-term lease.
Lease-Option - A lease that contains the right to purchase the property for a specific price within a certain time frame.
Lender - A bank, savings institution or mortgage company that offers home loans.
Legal description - A specific way of identifying and locating a piece of real estate that is acceptable to a court.
Letter of intent - A formal statement that the buyer intends to purchase the property for a certain price on a certain date.
Leverage - The use of a small amount of cash--a 5 percent or 10 percent down payment--to buy a piece of property.
Liabilities - A borrower's debts and financial obligations.
Liability insurance - A policy that protects owners against any claim of negligence, personal injury or property damage.
Lien - A claim laid by one person or company on the property of another as security for money owed.
Lifetime cap - A limit on the amount that a loan rate can move during the term of the mortgage. For example, the rate on an adjustable-rate mortgage that begins at 5 percent and has a lifetime cap of 6 percentage points cannot rise above 11 percent, even if rates on fixed-rate mortgages soar to 20 percent.
Lintel - A horizontal piece over a door or window that carries the weight of the structure above it.
Liquid assets - Cash and all other assets that can be converted to cash relatively quickly. Liquid assets can include money in savings and checking accounts, money-market accounts, and most certificates of deposit.
Liquidated damages - When a real estate deal goes awry, one party often is entitled to liquidated damages, a sum of money set out in the purchase contract in that event.
Listing - A piece of property placed on the market by a listing agent.
Listing inventory - The known number of houses for sale within a given market.
Load-bearing wall - A wall that supports not only its own weight, but the weight of other parts of a home. Also called a bearing wall.
Loan application - The first step toward submitting a home loan requires the borrower to itemize basic financial information.
Loan application fee - A fee charged by lenders to for making a loan application.
Loan commitment - A promise by a lender or other financial institution to make or insure a loan for a specified amount and on specific terms.
Loan officer - An official representative of a lending institution who is empowered to act on behalf of the lender within certain limits.
Loan origination fee - Most lenders charge borrowers an origination fee--or points--for processing a loan. A point is equal to 1 percent of the total loan amount.
Loan processing fee - A fee charged by some lenders for gathering information to enable the lender to process the loan.
Loan term - The amount of a time set by the lender for a buyer to pay a mortgage. Most conventional loans have 30-year or 15-year terms.
Loan-to-value ratio - A technical measure used by lenders to assess the relationship of the loan amount to the value of the property
Lock-in - When interest rates are volatile, many borrowers want to "lock in" an interest rate and many lenders will oblige, setting a limit on the amount of time the lock-in is in effect.
Loft - A living space not partitioned into rooms or a small space built above a larger room.
Log cabin - Homes constructed of rough-hewn timbers and a standard housing form in the early European settlement of the U.S.
Low-ball offer - An offer made to a seller that is substantially below market value. The longer a property stays on the market, the more likely there are to be such offers.
Low-down-payment loan - A home loan that requires the borrower to make only a small down payment before obtaining the financing needed to purchase a house.
