Are you in the market for a new home? If so, you have a very wide range of options open to you, from condos to ranch-style, Cape Cod homes and numerous others. However, you will find that you need to learn how to decode a real estate listing for Chicago area homes in order to make sense of your options. Real estate listings can be somewhat hard to understand, particularly for first time homebuyers. Below, you’ll find some important tips to ensure you know exactly what you’re looking at.
Specific Lingo
Chances are good that the real estate listing for a Chicago area home you’re looking at will have some industry-specific lingo used throughout. To ensure you’re actually looking at home you want, you need to make sure you know what these terms and abbreviations mean. While some are pretty self-explanatory, others can be rather obscure.
• AC: This one’s easy – it means air conditioning.
• C/VAC or CAC: Again, this one refers to air conditioning, specifically to central heating and air.
• DET: This stands for “detached” and is often used to denote things like garages or outbuildings that are not attached to the main home’s structure.
• W/D: This stands for washer and dryer and can be used to indicate electrical and water connections, or that the home includes both a washer and dryer (usually used for connections).
• SF: This means “square feet” and is used to help denote the size of the home, individual rooms and other amenities, such as a finished basement.
• CP: This usually stands for “carport”.
• FDR: You’ll find this used to denote a formal dining room. Dining room is usually just DR.
Additional Lingo to Decipher
In addition to the terms listed above, you’ll find that quite a few others are used, especially to denote special features within a real estate listing in Chicago. Here are a few examples:
• VUS: This means “views” and is used to denote that a particular home or room has good views of the surrounding area.
• C-D-S: Used to denote a home that is located on a cul-de-sac within a neighborhood. Bear in mind that these will be homes within subdivisions.
• F/Fin Bsmt: As you might imagine, this is used to tell readers that a home has a fully finished basement. It’s sometimes accompanied by the number of square feet included in the basement.
• FP: This one means fireplace.
• H/W: This is used to tell readers that a home has hardwood floors installed.
• PL: This means that the home has a swimming pool. However, it doesn’t usually tell you if the pool is in-ground or aboveground.
• Eff Kit: This means that the property has an “efficiency kitchen”.
• Intimate: Usually used because a home or property is on the small side.
With a good understanding of the different terms used within a real estate listing in Chicago, you can begin to make better decisions about the properties you view and which one you eventually choose.