If you are buying or selling a home, the chances are good you struggle with the meaning of descriptive real estate terms. Here are explanations and definitions for more terms.

Shed Dormers

These are often seen in Dutch colonial style houses and are flat roofed dormers. Sometimes these dormers are single windows, but often they are two or three windows side by side with one flat roof.

Blind Dormer Window

Sometimes builders construct fake dormer windows to add architectural interest to new houses. They are at attic level but cant be seen from the attic because the roof of the house covers access to them.

Oversize Garage

Ads often say how many cars a garage will hold. Then they add the word oversize as in oversize 2-car garage. What is usually meant is that there is room for storage, or a work bench in addition to space for the cars. Occasionally it simply means you can open a car door wide enough to actually get out with both cars in the garage!

Gourmet Kitchen

This phrase is intended to convey the idea that a very good cook can happily work here. That may or may not be the case, but it does usually mean that the kitchen is fairly large and attractive.

Great Room

Ive seen this used in two distinctly different ways. The first is to describe a living room, dining room, and kitchen in a very open floor plan. The area typically has a high ceiling. The second way Ive seen it used is when what wed normally call a family room has a high, often coffered, ceiling, a fireplace with a dramatically massive mantle, and perhaps an upstairs balcony overlooking it. I think this may stem from the idea of a great hall in old English houses.

If you can get the verbiage down, youll be way ahead in the real estate game. Look for future articles on this subject or visit our site to read more terms.