Glossary

Law of Demand

The law of demand is a lynch pin of economic theory that states a consumer will demand a lower quantity of a good or service at a higher price. Economists illustrate this law of demand along the market demand curve, which represents the sum of quantity demanded by consumers across a market for a particular good. A change in the price of a given good will result in a movement along the demand curve, but will not increase or decrease demand.

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Law of Supply

The law of supply is a microeconomic theory that states that, all other factors held equal, as the price of a good increase, the quantity of the good supplied will increase. Put simply, firms will choose to supply more of a good or service as they watch the price of said good or supply increase.

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Lease

A legal document outlining the terms under which one party agrees to rent property from another party.

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Lease Co.

Lease Co. is a legal entity established to operate as a master tenant under a Delaware Statutory Trust (DST) ownership structure.

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Lease Coverage Ratio

In the context of a Delaware Statutory Trust (DST), the lease coverage ratio is calculated by dividing the property’s NOI by the sum of the debt service payments and the master tenant’s stated lease payment to the DST.

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Lease Termination Fee

Lease termination fee is a payment made by the tenant or resident to the landlord in order to legally end a lease early and not be held liable for the remaining time.

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Leasehold Improvement

A leasehold improvement is any change made to a leased property to meet the needs of the tenant. These improvements include changes to interior walls and ceilings, electrical and plumbing, and flooring, and can either be taken on by the landlord to increase the competitiveness of the space, or by the tenant themselves. In the event that the tenant undertakes the improvements, ownership of the improvements will typically revert back to the landlord once the lease has terminated, unless the tenant can remove the improvements without damaging the property.

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Leasehold Interest

Claim or right to enjoy the exclusive possession and use of an asset or property for a stated definite period, as created by a written lease. The concept of a leasehold interest is most commonly applied with ground leases. A leasehold interest can be sold or traded just like any other property.

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Leasing Commissions

Fees paid to real estate agents in connection with leasing space at a property. Leasing commissions may be due to a “tenant rep” which is an agent representing a tenant, or to a “landlord rep” which is an agent representing the property or landlord, or both.

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Legal Tender

Legal tender is the national currency of a nation. It prohibits the use of any other currency. Legal tender must be accepted by creditors as payment for debt. Only government institutions such as the U.S. Treasury in the United States and the Royal Canadian Mint in Canada can issue legal tender. Specifically, in the United States, Federal Reserve notes and coins are legal tender and marked as such. Some currencies, such as the U.S. Dollar and Euro, can be used as legal tender in other countries.

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Letter of Credit

A letter of credit is a letter from a bank or other financial institution which guarantees an investor’s payments to a third party. If the investor does not make its payments pursuant to its agreement with the third party, the party issuing the letter of credit will be required to make the payment of fund any shortfall. For example, imagine Company ABC is interested in purchasing 1,000 widgets from Supplier XYZ for $1 million. Given Company ABC’s weak credit rating, Supplier XYZ is worried that Company ABC will not be able to pay in full within 60 days. In order to ensure Supplier XYZ that it will make good on it payment, Company ABC gets a letter of credit from the bank stating that it will pay any outstanding liability within the set time period, with the bank acting as insurance in the event that it can’t meet its financial obligations.

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Liability Car Insurance

Liability car insurance is a type of auto insurance that covers people or property harmed by a driver. Liability insurance does not cover the driver. Rather than being sued by someone who the driver causes harm to, liability insurance is meant to provide financial protection for the driver. Some states require liability insurance to drive. In states that are no-fault insurance, drivers must purchase personal injury protection (PIP). PIP protects the driver and their passengers. In no-fault states, drivers are required first to file a claim with their insurance company, even if they are not at fault in an accident. There are two components of liability insurance — bodily injury and property damage. Bodily injury covers those that are injured when the driver is at-fault. This includes immediate and ongoing medical expenses, funeral costs, and any legal fees resulting from a lawsuit. Property damage covers damage to property outside of bodily injury. This includes the other driver’s car, buildings, and other non-human property involved in the accident. Liability insurance does have limits. Limits are configurable by the policyholder. The higher the limit, the more the policy will cost. One determining factor when choosing a policy limit is the amount of assets that a person wants to protect. If someone has $1 million in assets and chooses a $100,000 liability policy, they are leaving the remaining $900,000 of the assets potentially exposed to a lawsuit from injury or property damage. Regardless of the limit chosen, any expenses over the limit must be covered by the at-fault driver. Three Types Of Coverage Liability insurance limits are broken down into three types: Bodily injury — limit on expenses related to the injury of each person other than the driver. For example, each individual may be covered up to $50,000. Property damage — limit on expenses related to property damage. As an example, all property involved may be covered up to $25,000. Bodily injury per accident — this is the total that the insurance company will pay for all individuals involved. Using the above $50,000 per individual, the maximum per accident might be $200,000. However, if there are five people injured and each requires $50,000 in medical expenses, the at-fault driver is responsible for the remaining $50,000.

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Lien

A lien is a right to possess property belonging to another person, given that an underlying obligation is not met. In finance, a lien often serves as a guarantee that a borrower will fulfill his or her responsibility of repaying a loan.

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Life Insurance

Life insurance is a contract between an insurance company and a policyholder. The insurance company agrees to provide a death benefit to the policyholder’s named beneficiaries in exchange for a regular payment of a premium.

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Like-Kind Exchange

A method of deferring capital gains taxes on the sale or disposition of an asset held for business or investment purposes by exchanging the asset,

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Like-Kind Property

Upon the sale of an investment property, capital gains may be deferred by completing a 1031 exchange provided that the investor purchases

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Limited Liability

Limited liability allows investors to purchase shares in a partnership or limited liability company and limit their liability to only the amount invested. If the company fails and owes millions of dollars to creditors, investors are protected. Creditors cannot come after the investors. If shareholders did not have this protection, they would be more unwilling to invest in companies. Owners of a business can have liability exposure. Owners who start a business may personally guarantee loans made by the business. If the business fails, these owners are liable for paying back the loan. In this scenario, any shareholders remain protected and only lose their investment.

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Limited Liability Company (LLC)

Limited liability company is a business structure that combines the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a corporation.

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Limited Partnership

Two or more investors who pool their money to develop or purchase income-producing properties. In a limited partnership, each limited partner's

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Line of Best Fit

The line of best fit is used to identify the trend on a scatter plot graph. This line is also called a regression line. It can be found by using the least-squares method, which results in a geometric equation for the line. The line of best fit shows a relationship between points in a scatter plot. However, if the various scatter plot data points are too scattered, a trend will not be identifiable, and the line of best fit will be unreliable. An example of a line of best fit is plotting manager experience (x-axis) to salary (y-axis). As experience increases, so does salary. If 10 different managers at different stages in their careers are plotted, we should see a line that goes from the bottom left to the upper right.

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Line of Credit

Line of credit is a credit arrangement in which a financial institution agrees to lend money to a borrower up to a specified limit. The borrower can draw down on the

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Liquidation

Liquidation is the process of converting assets in to cash or cash equivalents. Liquidation can occur when a firm goes bankrupt and thus needs to extract cash from its assets with readily marketable value to satisfy the demands of creditors and investors, or when an investor decides to give up his or her position in a security in exchange for the cash value of that security at a given point in time.

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Liquidity

Liquidity describes the degree to which an asset or security can be quickly bought or sold in the market without affecting the asset's price. Market liquidity refers to the extent to which a market allows assets to be bought and sold at stable prices. Cash is the most liquid asset, while real estate, fine art and collectibles are all relatively illiquid.

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List Price

In real estate, list price is the initial sale price of the property that is suggested to the market. Evaluated by a real estate agent or other real estate professional, a list price is typically determined based off a comparative market analysis. This includes taking the sale price of comparable properties in the surrounding area, and making adjustments for any differing attributes. On larger scale investment properties, one may be able to utilize the appraised value of the property to determine an acceptable list price.

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Load Factor

The multiplier to a tenant's useable space that accounts for the tenant's proportionate share of the common area (restrooms, elevator lobby, mechanical rooms, etc.)

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Load on Equity

See Equity Load.

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Loan

A loan is an agreement between and lender and a borrower in which a lender agrees to provide funding, property or material goods to a borrower in exchange for repayment of principal and interest at a later date.

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Loan-to-Cost Ratio (LTC)

The loan to cost ratio is the ratio of the loan balance to the total cost of the project the loan is financing, expressed by the formula loan balance divided by total cost.

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Loan-To-Value (LTV)

The ratio of a loan to the value of an asset as determined by the formula of loan balance divided by the market value of the asset securing the loan.

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Local Tenant

Local tenant, also known as a “mom-and-pop", is a small scale company with a narrow footprint typically limited to a single market.

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Lock-out Period

A predetermined period of time following loan origination in which the loan cannot be prepaid, as set forth in the loan documents. The lock-out period can vary greatly from no lockout period at all to nearly the entire loan term. From a lender’s perspective, a lock-out clause is a form of call protection as it prevents prepayment. There is considerable time and effort involved to underwrite and originate a loan, thus the lender wants to ensure a certain level of minimal return on the loan.

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Low Income Housing Tax Credits

Created in 1986 and made permanent in 1993, is an indirect federal subsidy used to finance the construction and rehabilitation of low-income affordable rental housing.

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Low-Income Community Census Tracts

A low-income community census tract has an individual poverty rate of at least 20% and median family income up to 80% percent of the area median [Section 45D(e)].

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