Death cleaning is the translation of a Swedish term, döstädning, describing a kind of de-cluttering later in life, when you downsize to make things easier for the next generation. It’s being popularized by The Gentle Art of Death Cleaning by...
Blackacre, Whiteacre, and Greenacre are legal placeholder names for imaginary parcels of land, the real-estate cousins of doohickey and whatchamacallit. Lawyers and law students use them in hypotheticals about land transfers, taxes, and other...
Is there a word you keep having to look up in the dictionary, no matter how many times you’ve looked it up before? Maybe it’s time for a mnemonic device. And: a listener shares a letter from Kurt Vonnegut himself, with some reassuring...
net branching n.— «Under the scenario, NARES was one of several shell corporations that operated under the name of “Pacific Bancorp.” The owners and directors of Pacific Bancorp granted franchise rights to do business in North Carolina to...
REO n.— «R.E.O. is industry lingo for “Real Estate Owned,” the term that bankers assign to homes they have taken in a foreclosure. Reomac is the industry group that serves the mortgage default trade, specializing in selling the busted-up...
off plan adv.— «“Many of them buy off plan, because they’re fearless,” she added, referring to the custom of putting money down on apartments long before they are completed.» —“An Irish Taste for Real Estate in...