Hewlett-Packard may layoff as many as 30,000 workers. Photo by Flickr user Vernon Chan

With the Facebook IPO finally behind us, it looks like another Silicon Valley company will be dominating the headlines this week.

Unfortunately, instead of instant millionaires, the storyline will feature job seekers if tech giant Hewlett-Packard indeed lays off up to 30,000 workers, as the Wall Street Journal first reported Thursday.  If it plays out, the Journal said, it’d represent about 8 percent of HP’s workforce and be on the largest layoffs since the start of the recession.

It’s grim news for No. 10 on the Fortune 500 list.  And you probably have some local links to the story. With nearly 350,000 workers worldwide, according to the company’s fast-facts sheet,  there are probably some HP employees wondering about their fate in your market.  You can look for branch offices, but keep in mind that these days, sales and service employees in the IT world often have virtual workspaces and are on the go.  And here’s a list of the company’s customer education centers nationwide; that would be a starting point as well.

It’s unlikely that HP workers will bare their souls to reporters before they know their own fates, of course, but you can make contact and have human-interest stories lined up if the cuts affect people in your region.  And often these large workforce reductions include buyout offers or take into account natural attrition, so it is unlikely that 30,000 pink slips will be handed out next week.   (A story on the pros and cons of taking a voluntary buyout in today’s jobs market would be a catchy personal finance angle.)

Then there’s the Department of Labor’s WARN Act; that stands for Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification and requires employers to give 60 days notice of mass layoffs.  Nothing I’ve seen indicates that HP has notified workers of its plans so this too probably provides a buffer zone between this week’s news (which is expected in conjunction with HP’s earnings report) and the actual terminations.

Most activity that meets the government’s definition of “mass layoff” doesn’t hit our radar screens, but if you don’t want to chase local Hewlett-Packard employees, you might use the headlines as a peg for a piece on other layoff activity.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Mass Layoffs page, private nonfarm employers jettisoned more than 180,000 workers in the first quarter of 2012 through 1,077 mass layoff activities.   The quarterly report features quite a few tables that slice the data by industry, by worker characteristics and by state; you should be able to use the tables to present an update on layoff activity in your neck of the woods. 

Related stories would include an update on unemployment benefits in your state (some legislatures are reducing them) and career-related resources for the unemployed.

Victoria Lim. Photo by Cale Ottens

Victoria Lim visited Haiti after the earthquakes to report a sports story, but found the devastating damage to the country shouldn’t be shared in just words.

The experienced multiplatform journalist turned instead to photography and voice recordings to detail a man’s quest to establish a soccer academy and foundation for children in a shattered city.

Lim shared her experiences working as a multimedia journalist and offered coverage advice to a group of media professionals in her visual storytelling training session held on May 18 at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Visual storytelling was one of the topics discussed at JournCamp, a daylong workshop on digital journalism, sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists  and the Online News Association.

Though digital storytelling can be applied to virtually any aspect of journalism – Lim shared tips specifically for how to tell business stories with a visual eye. Here are her suggestions:

• Show the impact: If you are faced with the challenge of telling the story about a woman who lost her entire fortune because of a scandal, it’s best to simply show the viewers how the woman was impacted, Lim explained. For example: Lim once worked on a story with a similar focus and decided to shoot video footage of the woman’s grandiose home, including her large backyard, picket fence and swimming pool. Then she grabbed footage of where the woman was currently living – a small room in her daughter’s one-story house. Instead of simply stating how much this woman lost due to the scam, Lim detailed the lost with specific examples.
• Compare numbers to something people can relate to: If you are trying to emphasize a large amount of something, it may be more affective to compare the figure to another number, instead of bluntly stating the exact amount. For instance, you could say something like, “the damage caused the company to lose 350,000 gallons of oil, which could fill about 16 swimming pools,” instead of just saying, “the company lost 350,000 gallons of oil because of the damage.”

Koretzky, a former hiring editor and author of a weekly media job list, will offer tips for revamping your job search in an upcoming Webinar on June 13. The promo for the training called “Weird Careers in the Media” says journalists will learn the lessons Koretzky ” had to discover the hard way.”

Here’s more details on how to register for the free Webinar, which will run from 11 a.m. to noon, EDT and is sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists. The session is open to all journalists and doesn’t require a SPJ membership to attend.

People waiting in an unemployment line. Photo by iStock.

President Obama the other day proposed a new tax credit to reward small businesses that are hiring or giving raises to existing workers. As this New York Times post explains, the company would get 10 percent of any payroll boost back as a credit against taxes, up to $500,000.

The news prompted me to wonder about the efficacy of other tax credits and incentives for employers to hire; they keep popping up and it would be interesting, I think, to survey area employers about the credits and whether they have facilitated any new jobs or hires in your area.  And if so, what sorts of jobs and what wage levels are aided by the credits?

I don’t have a comprehensive list of credits programs, but your state workforce development office probably does.   

The Department of Labor publicizes the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which gives employers a financial break for hiring workers in nine categories, including disabled veterans, ex-felons, vocational rehabilitation clients, Temporary Aid to Needy Families recipients, food stamp recipients and others in difficult situations.   Last fall, the veterans category was expanded to include unemployed veterans. 

At the state level, companies often can receive tax credits for hiring people from designated enterprise zones — economically disadvantaged areas targeted for special help.  This program in Colorado, for example, offers employers credits for hiring, training and providing health insurance for designated applicants. 

These enterprise zone hiring programs are not new and I’ve even seen a number of third-party firms that specialize in screening job applicants to highlight those that would qualify the employer for the credits; in other words, it’s a program and process fairly well embedded in the business realm. Yet this report from a non-partisan watchdog group in California says “enterprise zones have no statistically significant effect on either employment levels or employment growth rates.”   Even if you’re not in California, the report is well worth a read as background and for generating questions for officials and companies in your realm.

Meanwhile, check out a couple of tools at the Good Jobs First website for more data on how companies are being subsidized in hopes they’ll create jobs.  (Caveat: I’m not familiar with this group and its politics, if any.)

First, take a look at the April report “Paying Taxes to the Boss.”   Apparently, some 2,700 companies nationwide are pocketing the state taxes they withhold from workers’ pay; it’s an extra perk some states grant in hopes of retaining or attracting businesses.  I’m not sure this is any more outrageous than other forms of grants but there is something unsavory about firms reaching into workers’ paychecks for their own benefit.  The spreadsheet of companies that do so is sortable by state and makes for some interesting reading. 

That’s what brought me to the Good Jobs First site and I was quite intrigued by its Subsidy Tracker; it says it contains data on 127,000 awards from 319 programs.  I searched on Michigan and got more than 11,000 hits; the spreadsheet includes company name, city, value of subsidy and category of subsidy.   Links take you to the source of the data, the awarding agency and more.  As with the programs mentioned above, I think it would be quite interesting to check in with some of the beneficiaries of this largesse about the size of their workforce, whether employment at the firm has grown or declined over the past five years, and what sorts of jobs it attributes to any incentive programs. 

Gerald Loeb Award

Four previous Barlett & Steele Award winners are nominated for a 2012 Gerald Loeb Award, in addition to a Reynolds Center staff member and presenter.

The Loeb Awards, presented by the UCLA Anderson School of Management, honor distinguished business and financial journalism. The winners will be announced at an awards dinner on June 26 in New York City. Here’s the complete list of the Loeb finalists in all 13 categories.   

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters Raquel Rutledge and Rick Barrett are finalists in the medium and small newspaper category for their series, “Shattered Trust.” Both reporters were recognized by the Reynolds Center in January for the same series, which revealed how a firm with a decade of serious regulatory violations of sanitary conditions was allowed to operate while the Food and Drug Administration failed to act. John Diedrich, Ben Poston and Mike de Sisti also contributed to the series, which won the 2011 Barlett & Steele Silver Award for Investigative Business Journalism.

Another reporter from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, John Fauber, is a finalist in the Loeb’s beat reporting category for his coverage in “Side Effects.” He won a 2010 Barlett & Steele Silver Award for his stories “Side Effects: Money, Medicine and Patients,” which examined relationships between doctors and the pharmaceutical industry.

Brian Grow, who grabbed the 2008 Barrett & Steele Gold Award for his contribution to Businessweek’s “Prisoners of Debt,” is a finalist in the news service category. He is nominated with Reynolds Center Senior Online Producer Kelly Carr for their six-part series, “Shell Games.”  Reuters’ Laurence Fletcher, Nanette Byrnes, Matthew Bigg, Joshua Schneyer, Cynthia Johnston and Sara Ledwith also contributed to the series.

Reynolds Center presenter and New York Times contributing writer, Diana B. Henriques, is nominated in the business books category for  “The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust.” Henriques will share her storytelling techniques in an Aug. 13 Reynolds Center Webinar, “Telling Great Stories Online.”  

Photo by iStock

Charles Piller and Robert Lewis are among this year’s finalists for the Gerald Loeb awards for their Sacramento Bee stories exploring hard money lending. The first of their two stories starts with a district attorney who borrowed from a hard money broker, which the story defines as the equivalent of a “legal loan shark who uses others’ money to make high-priced loans.” They write:

“Newell’s ties to the broker offer a window into a culture of fraud in the hard money community in Nevada County. A Bee review of thousands of pages of court and regulatory filings shows that for more than 20 years, a number of hard money brokers have misused or stolen their investors’ money. Some brokers landed in prison; many investors lost their life savings.

Abuses typify the hard money industry. A Bee review of statewide data for the biggest 344 brokers operating around the peak of the real estate bubble found one out of every four has been accused of wrongdoing or sanctioned by the state Department of Real Estate in the past decade.”

The winners of the Loeb awards, which honor business journalism, will be announced next month. 

Today’s Tip: Make sure you have every record associated with real estate transactions, Charles says.

“It’s easy for your eyes to glaze over, but you have to be sure you’re getting everything because one missing document totally changes everything,” he says. “You have to be dogged and determined to find everything.”

Finding the properties linking hard-money brokers to investors and borrowers required connecting names and various types of transactions, Charles says. Because the real estate records weren’t easily comprehensible, they contacted about six real estate experts to interpret them. They created a guidebook for each transaction to be sure they’d collected all of the information.

Charles Piller

The story also relied on campaign contribution data, contractual agreements with investors, regulatory reports and information from the California Department of Real Estate. The final tally of pages was between 7,000 and 10,000, Charles says.

The reporters also benefited from getting the primary people involved to sit for an interview. Charles says getting the hard-money broker was the biggest challenge. He said no 10 times before finally consenting.

“It’s a rare story where you interview three of the principal characters and they’re all crying in the interview,” Charles says. “It’s never happened in my career before.”

The reporters coverage of hard-money lending prompted legislative changes.

Television executive Paula Madison told Grambling State University students they can get the jobs of their dreams, starting with well-written, well-edited resumes and cover letters.

Paula Madison, CEO of the Los Angeles Sparks, stopped by to chat with Grambling State University journalism students. Photo: Trent Brown

“Cover letters should speak about how you can help me,” said Madison, a former NBC Universal television station general manager and news director. “Your cover letter is your first interview, even before I put your tape in.”

Madison urged the mass communication majors to create more than one resume and more than one cover letter, making each specific for every job, company and market.

Majority owner of the Africa Channel, Madison visited Grambling as the fourth and final installment of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism Visiting Professors Program this semester. She spent time visiting classes, providing one-on-one career and writing feedback and sharing her wisdom about business, business journalism and media and news careers and opportunities.

Madison said there would be a greater chance of seeing more diversity in business journalism if African American and other students stop veering away from math. “To be a business journalist, I’m not suggesting that you need to be a math wiz,” added Madison, “but you’ve got to have some proficiency with numbers, you need to have some understanding of economics, you need to have some understanding of finances.”

Before getting any job, however, Madison said it is essential to submit resumes and cover letters without any mistakes. Accidently mailing something to “Paul Madison” rather than “Paula Madison” can be the quickest way to find your documents in the trash.

“If you make that mistake, you will make more mistakes,” said Madison, who is the majority owner of the Los Angeles Sparks. When you make it to a big market, there is no room for such errors. Madison said when you make mistakes in markets like New York City, the company is likely to be sued.

The former news director at WNBC-TV in New York City said a lot of job candidates fail to write convincing cover letters, saying they will do anything rather than showing that they have some kind of specialty. Madison said big market media outlets want people who produce “enterprise,” stories journalists pursue on their own. It is so important that Madison said she would tell her newsroom staffs, “If you come to work and don’t have your own story, I will fire you.”

Paula Madison Visits Grambling State University from Orlando Lewellen on Vimeo.

After you have perfected a resume and cover letter, Madison said broadcast candidates must avoid sending tapes with what she called “beauty shots,” pretty faces with basic, expected journalism content. She said major television markets and networks are looking for some substance, not just journalists who know how to do live shots.

The most efficient way to produce enterprise work is not to fall victim to “lazy journalism.” Madison required her staff to find their own news, not depending on media releases and newspapers as primary sources.

Madison’s reporters find their own stories that provide a service for the community that people find necessary. The community understands that the only way you got that story is because you were really in the community. Madison liked her employees to live in the different communities, so they can get the stories that other stations would not.

Reneaux Ruffin, a broadcasting major, described Madison as “one of the most down to earth and homey people we’ve had to visit the university.” He said she was “honest and attentive” as she “drilled” students when asking about their careers, not just their majors.

Kevin Keise, a junior mass communication major from Houston, called Madison’s news and story idea development process “remarkable,” especially how she approached the evening newscasts.

What had the most impact on Justin Madden, a senior mass communication major from Los Angeles, was Madison’s encouragement and inspiration to ”not only report the news, but to own the news outlets” producing and providing the news.

A resident of Houston, Tierra Smith is a sophomore at Grambling State University. She is a broadcasting major with an emphasis on sports journalism. Already a staff member at the campus newspaper, The Gramblinite, she jumps in to help edit as often as possible. She did quite well in an mass media writing and editing class with a business journalism focus, and she’s been an active participant in the strictly-optional Reynolds Tigers workshop program. She’ll be doing an internship covering news and sports at Gannett’s Shreveport Times in the summer 2012.

Journalists might want to survey local or regional chains about their online strategies.

A local independent pet store that’s been around for years recently started advertising a courtesy home-delivery service.  When I inquired about it, I got the sense that it was an effort to combat competition from online shopping services.

That was a light-bulb moment, and indeed in checking Amazon, I found my dogs’ preferred brand for a couple bucks cheaper than the local store, plus free shipping. Will that be one more item — in addition to books, beauty products, weed whippers, computer batteries, cooking spices, bed linens, bathing suits, office supplies and gifts — that I order from the Big A rather than exert myself to head to Main Street?

If so, I won’t be alone.  And with new Census Bureau e-commerce stats due out today, you you might want to ponder a look at how local independent stores are trying to beat e-commerce, or join it, or both.

The last quarterly e-commerce report, released in February, showed that e-commerce retail sales were up 15.5 percent in Q4 2011 over the previous year, while total retail was up only 6.8 percent in the quarter.  And while e-retail sales are still a small fraction of overall retail trade, that growth rate must have bricks-and-mortar stores running.

The report released today only reflects national totals, unfortunately, but here’s another  Census Bureau 2010 e-stats report (PDF), just out last week, with a longer narrative explaining what constitutes e-commerce; it also features tables that, while lacking local data, at least offer some sector information.  Business to consumer sales outpace business to business e-commerce, but keep in mind that e-commerce includes not only goods but services like airline ticket sales and brokerage accounts. More resources can be found on Export.gov.

You might want to survey local or regional chains about their online strategies; I’ve noticed a greater push around here by hardware store chains, local pizza places, boutiques and specialty stores — even hair salons — to push an online presence via websites or social media.   In many cases, it goes beyond marketing and publicity to actual ordering or shopping or reservation systems online, so customers aren’t restricted by normal business hours.  Same with service companies like landscapers and plumbers.  And of course, daily deals sites are bringing more small and independent operators into the online fold.

And it’s not just small companies trying to compete with the ease of couch-shopping; this article from Direct Marketing News says Sears has just launched new ‘hyperlocal’ sites aimed at personalizing the shopping experience by giving consumers a heads-up on what special close-outs or other deals might be available at local stores, though not advertised in the broader circulars.  That’s an interesting idea that could get bargain-hunters or picky shoppers out from behind the computer.

From the personal finance angle, you might want to develop a sidebar or two about online shopping pitfalls, from casual impulse buying to outright shopping addiction or the ‘shopping under the influence’ phenomenon that the New York Times wrote about last year.  And here’s a new report from the Huffington Post about Internet romance scams, which it says cost consumers $50 million last year.

In the day-to-day grind that is modern journalism – hour-to-hour for more than a few – we get caught up on various reporting or production habits that get us through a day, week or month.

However, these rituals – from what sources we use to how we frame our work – can at times nudge our work in the wrong direction. It’s easy to fall into various traps on the real estate beat – with its many facets and forces – if you’re not always mindful of your current and potential audiences.

Real estate is a volatile and cyclical business and everyone has some horse in the race. Photo: Paul Swansen

One harsh reality is that it’s a good bet that editors in your newsroom will see the slew of national real-estate reports and wonder “How does our market fare?”

Don’t fight this hassle too hard, rather, be prepared by (1) knowing the schedule of these major reports so you can plan; (2) knowing which reports contain local or regional data that can highlighted; (3) what local sources have similar data that can amplify – or question – these “widely watched” economic releases.

Don’t always insist on writing these “national” stories. Instead, offer an info box or insert of the local context. In many cases, national trends have little to do with what’s going on in your community.

Now this could get you in “trouble,” but remember you have an audience to serve, too. If you master basic coverage skills, you’ll have time for the far-better stuff.

KEEPING ON TRACK

Assuming your goal is to reach a broad-based crowd of followers, here’s a check list to keep you on track: 10 things a real-estate reporter can’t forget.

1. Your audience: Real estate is a very competitive industry with a lots of colorful and strong personalities that creates frequent internal friction. Resist the urge to cover too much of we might call “inside baseball” of these tussles. That may be great fodder for your sources, but some “industry” news is not interesting to the broader audience.

2. Renters count: Certainly much of real estate’s drama has been in the for-sale housing market, with prices soaring and collapsing. So consequently, apartment rents that don’t move as much seem less sexy, coverage wise. Don’t forget that 40% roughly of America lives in rentals – and numerous experts suggest that the apartment dweller crowd will grow in the coming years.

3. It’s a local business: Know your market. Have great local sources. That is more than being able to put national trends in context. It’s likely that market conditions – residential or commercial, ownership or rental – are not the same all around your community. What niches or neighborhoods are hot. Which ones are not?

4. Use English:Real estate is not brain surgery or rocket science. Still, the industry does have its share of complex and confusing lingo. Always try to keep your coverage simple. You don’t really have to say things like “loan facility” or “mezzanine financing” when you simply mean a commercial mortgage. If you must use lingo — please explain it to your readers.

Photo by Flickr user kaymoshusband

5. It’s a volatile and cyclical business: History likes to repeat itself. And real estate is a prime example. So whatever trends you’re covering, remember that nothing’s permanent. Push sources to provide historical context – especially when you’re writing about short-term trends. If nothing else, watch year-over-year and year-to-date trends as well as monthly data.

6. Real estate is aspirational: Homes or office towers and the like are not just assets to be bought and sold. It’s all not about some price index. People develop emotional ties to real estate, whether they own it or not. Keep eye-catching and thought-provoking properties in mind. The drama of real estate is why, for example, reality TV discovered housing is a hot topic.

7. There is no perfect indicator: There is no Dow Jones Industrial Average to be the wise indicator of all that is real estate. (And even Wall Street’s Dow Jones stock index has its faults.) No single measure exactly covers real estate market activity. Sure, the plethora of indexes can be confusing – but that’s your job: Explain the trends. Showing “conflicting signals” is not a crime.

8. Hate hyperbole: Real estate is an industry filled with strong-willed salespeople with a bad habit of overzealous use of superlatives – whether it be describing a property or a market trend. (Plus, they frame every tidbit as a reason to buy.) Be vigilant. Watch for insanely colorful portraits of properties. Try to keep boosterism to a minimum. No trend is a once-in-a-lifetime or sea-change moment.

9. Construction matters: Even after a horrific loss of jobs that drove building-industry employment nationwide to a 20-year low, roughly 1-in-25 Americans works in construction. While it’s often dirty, less-than glamorous work – trends in construction employment can be early signals of economic turns. Plenty of dynamic personalities dot construction trades, lumber yards and the like. And don’t forget the remodelers, too.

10. Conventional wisdom can be wrong: Just because something hasn’t happened before — or in three quarters in century — doesn’t mean it can’t happen. This recent real estate downturn broke many real estate “truths” — from wild swings in buying and lending patterns as household formation took a sudden turnabout. Bottom line: challenge industry norms and expect the unexpected.

Jonathan Lansner is The Orange County Register‘s business columnist and real estate blogger. Since 1986, he has covered the Orange County economy — and its real estate scene — as a reporter, editor and columnist for The Register. The “Lansner on Real Estate” blog was launched in March 2006.

Photo: Dale Chumbley

By Jonathan Lansner

Like any other industry, real estate has its own lingo. Here’s a brief slice of the vocabulary needed to succeed in covering this beat.

Adjustable-rate mortgage: Interest rate and the resulting monthly house payments of these “ARM” home loans vary over time. Some ARMs offer teaser rates with initial, discounted payments. It was a key culprit in the real estate debacle as lenders allowed borrowers to get these loans despite the fact the borrower could not pay for the higher adjusted rate.

Annual Percentage Rate: Or the “APR,” this math measures of the cost of credit in terms of a yearly rate. It’s not just the stated interest rate, it includes the cost of acquiring that credit. Federal law details the formula for APRs quoted by lenders.

Appraisal: Third-party evaluation of the value of real estate typically done for application for a mortgage as part of a refinance or purchase transaction.

Appraised value: Value set on a real estate property and/or a home by a government agency that collects taxes based on a rate set against this valuation.

Cap rate: The “capitalization rate” is one estimate of potential income on a real estate investment based on the expected income that the property will generate. The math? Expected income generated divided by purchase price or value of the property.

Closed sale: These homes have formally changed ownership with a transaction recorded in government databases.

Closing costs: Expenses involved in making a mortgage including the paying of points, or loan fee, to the lender for advancing the funds.

Commercial real estate: Big properties that are owned typically by investors seeking investment income. Property can run from office buildings to malls to hotels to factories and warehouses.

Commission: What is paid — typically a percentage of the property sales price – to a real estate professional for negotiating the transaction. Traditionally, homeseller pays. The rate is negotiable and for residential properties it can run up to 6 percent.

Comp: Information about transaction of like properties – or “comparative” sales – used to determines a property’s value by comparing similar properties recently sold.

Conforming mortgage: Home loan below the dollar limit for loans bought by federal mortgage guarantee agencies. Currently, that’s $417,000 in many municipalities. These mortgages have traditionally offered lower rates due to the government backing.

Credit score: Various credit trackers have scoring tools that measure a person’s likelihood of repaying their loans. This is a key ingredient in the loan application process.

Deed-in-Lieu:Used to avoid the pain and hassle of foreclosure, a strategy whereby owner simply turns ownership of a property to the lender to fulfill the debt.

It's not just about homes. There's lots of lingo in real estate. Photo: Mickey Johnson

Default: When borrower fall behind on real estate loan payments, lender will officially notify the borrower that they are in legal “default” of the terms of their mortgage. This typically leads to the start of the foreclosure process.

Delinquency: When a loan back by real estate has late payments.

Direct mortgage lender: Person or entity that makes home loans with their own funds of funds or money collected from investors.

Earthquake insurance: Policies bought – frequently through government-sponsored programs — to protect against the damage caused earthquakes. Such damages typically not covered by a standard homeowners policy.

Effective rent: Measure of what landlords effectively get from their tenants – the rate of rent asked for minus whatever concessions it takes to get those tenants into a rental unit or apartment.

Equity: Funds put in a real estate deal, such as a downpayment; or the value of the property above the amounted borrower against it.

Eviction: Legal process where owner of a property has a tenant, former owner or the like physically removed from the premises.

Existing home: Old or “used” homes vs. newly constructed residences. Many groups, notably National Association of Realtors, track sales of existing homes.

FHA: The Federal Housing Administration’s goal is to advance home ownership in the nation. A primary service is mortgage insurance to lenders to cover losses if borrowers defaults.
Flipping: Where an investor buys a property — perhaps improves it a little — and then resells it quickly in hopes of profit

Flood insurance: Policies bought – frequently through government-sponsored programs — to protect against the damage caused by rising water. Such damages typically not covered by a standard homeowners policy.

Foreclosure: The act of selling a property whose owner has not made their real estate loan payments. Often, a foreclosure results in the lender taking back the property but investors a private parties can go to the foreclosure auction and buy such a distress property.

FSBO or “fizz-bo”: Homes that “For Sale By Owner” are marketed by the owner with little or no help from professional real estate sales people.

Ginnie Mae: The Government National Mortgage Association or “GNMA” is a government-owned agency overseen by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It pools mortgages backed by Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans Administration for resale to investors.

Government Sponsored Enterprise: Federally sponsored home-loan agencies –- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — that buy mortgages from private lenders; guarantee repayment; and then converts the loans into securities for sale to investors. This helps replenish to supply of money for real estate lending. Federal government seized both after they collapsed due to losses from the foreclosure wave created by real estate downturn.

Home Equity Line of Credit: Typically a second mortgage on a property where borrower can access a set amount of the excess value of the property above the amount owed on the first money. These loans usually are for a set amount that the borrower can choose to access and repay at their choosing over a 15-year period.

Homeowners Association: Often called “HOAs,” these legal entities – elected by owners of properties in a community — govern certain aspects of ownership within those communities. (These are frequently seen keeping the spirit of a master-planned community.) These homeowners associations collected dues and can legislate everything from the type of landscape homes use; to design and color of homes; as well as maintaining recreational facilities and landscaping in common areas in the community.

Homeowners’ policy: Insurance for property owners to protect the property against certain damages – fire, for example; theft; and for personal liability resulting from ownership of the property. Flood or earthquake damages is typically not covered.

In-fill project: Development space in highly developed communities. Often created by tearing down old structures. In such older, densely population markets, this is often the only way to get new housing or commercial projects developed.

Jumbo mortgage: Home loan that exceeds the dollar limit for loans bought by federal mortgage guarantee agencies. Currently, that’s $417,000 in many municipalities. Jumbo mortgages have traditionally offered higher rates due to the risk of to their larger size and the lack of government backing.

Loan modification: When a borrower a cannot afford a mortgage, they can approach a lender for new loan terms. If terms of the old mortgage are altered – changes in interest rate or size of amount owed – then borrower has acquired a “loan modification.” Several government programs have tried to motivate lenders to approve such actions.

Loan to Value Ratio: The often-called “LTV” is a percentage showing the amount borrowed vs. price paid or appraised value of a property being financed. In a purchase transaction, it is the reverse of the percent of down payment put forth by the buyer. (That is, 20 percent down equals 80 percent LTV.)

Master planned community: Neighborhood where a developer may plan out the entire community’s life — from housing, rental and owned; schools and parks; office space and shopping centers – from the start of the project. These projects often have common architecture, landscaping, etc. Famous master-planned communities are Irvine, Calif. and Columbia, Md.

Median price: This statistical benchmark measures the midpoint of a series of data points, such as the median selling price of homes in a given period. Unlike an average, it is not easily swayed by one unusually large or tiny price. Unfortunately, medians can be swayed by the change of mix of homes sold, such as more or less expensive homes being sold in a given period. National Association of Realtors tracks this.

Mortgage broker: Independent licensed person or agency that helps make mortgages. They typically offer funding from various third parties.

Mortgage interest deduction: This tax advantage allows the interest cost of a mortgage to be written off for income-tax purposes. That can reduce the cost of ownership. There is fear that elimination or scaling back of this deduction will hurt home prices.

Mortgage-backed securities: An “MBS” or mortgage bond are derived from pools of home loans that have been packaged into tradable securities. Once viewed as ultra-safe investments, the placement of risky subprime loans into these pools help create the recent real estate debacle.

Multiple Listing Service: The “MLS” is a broker-operated electronic service that tracks and publicizes properties for sale in a region. Thus, when a home is put on the market it is “listed.”

Negative amortization: The “neg am” loans allow borrowers monthly payments that due not cover the full interest and principal due to pay off the mortgage on time. That is, the loan balance grows rather than shrinks during a set period of a mortgage. These loans allowed borrowers to mistakenly buy more home than they could afford during the housing boom that collapsed into the real estate downturn.

Occupancy rate: A measure of how much of a commercial real estate property – or pools of such properties –is leased out. It’s one way to compare the tenant interest for a specific type of commercial real estate.

Pending sales: Home purchases that are under contract but not yet closed. These pending sales indicate the current level of homebuying activity. National Association of Realtors tracks this.

Points: Fees or other charges the borrower pays to lender complete a home loan that are a set percentage of the loan amount.

Pre-approved: A borrower who has gotten a lender to commit to lend a fixed loan amount based on a completed and approved loan application. Pre-approved borrowers still must acquire a property that meets various lender standards.

Property taxes: Government levies on the value of real estate, often based on a set percentage of the appraised value of the taxed property. These taxes are often major funding vehicles for local municipalities.

Raw land: Undeveloped property bought by speculators and/or developers for future projects.

Real estate agent: Salesperson for housing or other real estate. They need not be a Realtor.

Real estate investment trusts: These “REITs” or “reets” are pooled investments that owns commercial real estate from malls to office towers to storage units. Investors get income from rents collected by the REIT management – plus the hope of appreciation. REITs can be traded like stocks on Wall Street, though, some REITs are privately held.

Real estate owned: “REO” are properties that lenders have taken back from former borrowers and sit in their portfolio. Frequently, banks sell REO homes and other real estate at discounted prices.

Realtor: Specific trademarked professional designation from the National Association of Real Estate, a trade group for people who sell homes or other real estate.

Renters insurance: Policy bought by apartment dwellers or others who lived in rented properties to protect their own property against damage caused by fires, etc. Property owner landlord likely has insurance only to protect their structure from damage.

Reverse Mortgage: Home borrowings for seniors that converts equity in their home into available income – either monthly payments or line of credit. Ownership remains with the senior until death, when the lenders gets control of the home to be repaid.

Servicer: Slice of the mortgage business that collects mortgage payments from borrowers and advances those monies – minus a fee – to owner of the mortgage. This is frequently a different entity than the lender who made the loan.
Short sale: When homeowner is selling a home for less than the amount owed to the lender. These deals required banker approval and are very tricky to complete.

Subprime mortgage: Home loans made to borrowers with risky credit histories. Traditionally a niche business, it became a hugely popular way to borrow in the last decade and the risks involved eventually helped to create the real estate debacle.

Tear down: Situation where an existing building is bought for its land value and the new property owner plans to demolish it for a new structure.

Teaser rate: Discounted starting interest rate on an adjustable-rate mortgage, good for up to 10 years depending on the deal structure. When this rate ends, borrower has to pay the often-higher “fully indexed” rate set by a benchmark rate. Borrowers got in financial trouble in recent downturn when lenders did not check if borrower could afford payments after teaser rate ended.

Title insurance: Financial protection for both by buyer and seller of real estate to protect them from any legal challenges resulting from the transfer of the property where ownership or encumbrances later becomes in question.

Underwater mortgage: Situation will borrower owes more than a property is worth. These borrowers are thought to be more susceptible to foreclosure. This states is also called being “upside down” for being in “negative equity.”

Jonathan Lansner is The Orange County Register‘s business columnist and real estate blogger. Since 1986, he has covered the Orange County economy — and its real estate scene — as a reporter, editor and columnist for The Register. The “Lansner on Real Estate” blog was launched in March 2006.