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Glossary of Terms
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Glossary of Terms

From 'Abstract of Title' to 'Triple-Mint', the arcana of real estate explained.Browse alphabetically by choosing a letter from the list below.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
O
Term Description
Oblique Views: This term is used to describe views from an apartment when one has a rather 'turn of your head' view of Central Park or either of the two rivers.
Offer Accepted: This term describes one of chain of events in the purchase of an apartment.  This refers to the point in time when an owner accepts the business terms of an offer for an apartment.  This can include the price, the closing period, and any contingencies the parties may agree upon.
On-Site Broker or Contact Person: This is the person hired by the owner of the building (rental) or a developer to sit at the building to field questions about the property, show vacant apartments and follow-through with any transactions at the building.  This is usually the person with whom the listing manager of a real estate firm will have contact for updates.
Open House: In order to promote a property, the listing broker or the owner of the property may hold an open house in order to get a large number of people and/or brokers through the property in a short period of time.  Often you will see Open Houses advertised in the Sunday New York Times Real Estate Section.
Open Kitchen: A kitchen which opens up to the living space of an apartment.  There is no door separating the kitchen from the rest of the apartment.  These types of kitchens are most often found in loft spaces.
Open Listing: A listing offered to the brokerage community by an apartment owner, a developer or a management firm which is not being marketed on a co-broke basis.  This type of listing often allows a broker to earn a larger fee than if the property were being marketed by a co-operating broker.
Original Detail: This term is used to describe detailing in pre-war apartments.  This can include ceiling moldings, chair rails, ornamental decorations around doors or fireplaces, etc.
Original Room Count: Many pre-war apartment buildings when built were designed to accommodate one or two apartments per floor.    Often these apartments could encompass from 10 to 16 rooms.  Over time these apartments have been slimmed down to smaller apartments of significantly smaller sizes.   Today we may also see a situation where individual apartment owners may take a six or seven room apartment and combine two maids' rooms or add a maid's room to a kitchen to create fewer, yet larger rooms in an apartment.
Owner Pays (OP): A situation when an owner of an apartment building or an individual apartment will offer an inducement to a prospective tenant or to a broker by paying all or part of the commission on the rental of an apartment.  In hot rental market, it will be less likely that an owner will pay any portion of a rental commission.
Ownership: There are several different types of residential ownership in Manhattan.  Each of them has their distinct characteristics.  They are Condominiums; Co-operatives; and Cond-ops.

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