Land and real estate glossary
Definitions of the words that turn up in Virginia land and home sales, from perc test and right of way to rollback taxes and title insurance, for owners and buyers in Southwest Virginia. Each entry says what a word means and names the statute, regulation or published source behind it.
A definition opens each entry, and the long argument lives on another page
Every entry begins with a definition written the way a dictionary opens: the term or its category first, then what separates it from the words around it. That first sentence also appears beside the term in the index, so it is written to be understood on its own.
Under the definition, an entry shows where the word turns up in a sale and, when a rule gives it force, which rule that is. It stops there. Whether a buyer can walk away when the soil work comes back unfavorable, or who pays rollback taxes when land taxed on its use value sells, is an argument rather than a definition, and it belongs to an answer. The entry links to whether a buyer can back out if the perc test fails or who pays rollback taxes when land sells instead of repeating it.
Related terms follow the body of each entry, because some words only make sense beside their neighbors. A quitclaim deed is easiest to understand next to a general warranty deed, and an easement next to a right of way. Browse by letter when you have the word, or by subject when you only know what part of the sale it belongs to.
Some words carry a statute, and some only describe the ground
Most words in the glossary either carry a statute or describe the ground, and each entry makes clear which it is dealing with.
Some are defined by law. The grantor tax and land use taxation are creatures of the Code of Virginia, so their entries follow the statute's own terms and cite the section. When a word like that appears in a contract or on a tax bill, the statute is where its meaning comes from, whatever the word suggests in ordinary speech.
Others describe the shape of the ground. A hollow or a stretch of bottomland is a real feature, and the words are useful on a map, in a deed call or on a walk across a tract, but no rule turns on them. Those entries say so plainly, because a buyer who hears bottomland and assumes a flood finding, or a wetland designation, has read a finding into a word.
A third group sounds like a defined legal term and is not one. No Virginia statute carries the name broker price opinion; its entry traces the phrase to federal banking guidance. No statute defines opinion of value by that name either, though the state's appraiser regulations use the words, and that entry shows where. A seller who is handed a document under either label can then tell what it is and what it is not.
Knowing what a word means does not settle what it does on your parcel
A definition tells you what an easement is. It cannot tell you whether the one recorded against your land reaches the spot a buyer wants to build, or whether a covenant in your chain of title still binds.
Those questions are answered from the recorded documents and the ground, by the professional licensed to sign for the answer: an attorney for what a deed, an easement or a covenant allows, a land surveyor for where a line runs. Nothing in this glossary is legal, tax, lending, survey or engineering advice. The work this office does not take on is listed on the About page for Bowman Real Estate.
Found a word in a deed, plat or contract that is not defined here?
Send the word and where you found it, and Lowell will explain how it is usually used in a Virginia sale and who reads it for your property. No cost, no obligation.
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Questions about this page
Why does a glossary entry link to an answer instead of explaining the whole issue?
So each argument lives in one place. A definition should be short enough to read in the time it takes to look up a word, and the full reasoning about a rule, with its conditions and the office that applies it, needs more room than that.
Are these the definitions a court or a county would apply?
Where a statute or regulation defines a word, the entry follows that definition and names the source. Where none does, the entry gives the usage from the source it names, such as a court opinion or the federal naming system. A court reads a word inside the document where it appears, and a county applies its own ordinance, so for a specific deed, contract or permit the attorney or the county office has the final word.
What if a word in my deed or contract is not in the glossary?
Send it through the form on this page with the county and the document it came from, and Lowell will say what it usually means in a Virginia sale. If the word carries legal weight in a recorded document, the reading that counts is an attorney's, and he will tell you that rather than guess.