The Internet Real Estate Glossary

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Waiver - The voluntary renunciation, abandonment or surrender of some claim, right or privilege. 

Warehouse Fee - A closing-cost fee representing the lender\'s cost of holding a borrower\'s loan temporarily before it is sold on the secondary mortgage market.

Warehousing - Mortgage bankers and other financial institutions make loans that then are sold on the secondary market. After the loan is made - but before it is sold - the loan is said to be in the lender’s “warehouse.”

Warranty deed - A deed conveying the title to a property with a guarantee of clear, marketable title.

Waste - An unreasonable or improper use, abuse, mismanagement, or omission of duty touching real estate by one rightfully in possession, which results in its substantial injury. Unreasonable conduct by owner that results in physical damage to real estate and substantial diminution in value of estates in which others have an interest. Constitutes cause for foreclosure.

Water Rights - The right of a landowner to water adjoining or passing through property.

Water Table - The distance from ground level to natural groundwater.

Wear and Tear - The lessening in value of an asset due to ordinary and normal use.

Wholesale - to contract a property with the intention of reselling it quickly at a higher price.

Wild Deed - An improperly recorded deed

Will - A legal declaration in which a person disposes of property to take effect upon his or her death.

Without Recourse - words used in endorsing a note to denote the note holder is not to look to the debtor personally in the event of nonpayment.

Workout - An alternative action to prevent a foreclosure for the benefit of the lender and the borrower. Includes loan modifications, Short Sales, and various forms of forbearance.

Wraparound mortgage - A loan arrangement in which an existing loan is retained and a new loan is added to the property. A method of refinancing real property or financing the purchase of real property when an existing mortgage cannot be prepaid.

Writ - An order issued from a court requiring the performance of a certain act or giving authority to have it done.

Writ of assistance - A writ issued from the court of chancery (equity), in aid of the execution of a judgment at law, to put the complainant into possession of lands adjudged to him, when the sheriff cannot execute the judgment. A form of process issued by an equity court to transfer possession of property previously adjudicated.

Writ of execution - An order of the court in which a party is granted authority to seize assets of the defendant to satisfy its judgment.

Writ of Garnishment - A court order commanding a person who holds assets for another person, such as a banker who holds funds on deposit, an employer who holds a paycheck or a stock broker who holds an account for an investor, to give those assets up to a creditor.

Writ of Levari Facias - Direction to sell

Writ Of Possession - A court document that authorizes a constable or other officer of the law to break down a tenant's door, drag the tenant from the premises and throw the tenant's belongings out of the house or apartment. A writ employed to enforce a judgment to recover possession of land. It commands the sheriff to enter the property for the purpose of transferring possession to the owner.

Writ of Scire Facias - See Summons.

Wrongful Foreclosure - A foreclosure that was legally improper and that caused a borrower to suffer damages.

This real estate glossary is courtesy of the Internet Real Estate Center - Join the Online Real Estate Revolution.