Puerto Rico real estate glossary

The marshal's written record of an auction, with the date, the place, the bidders, the bids and who won. The lender and the debtor get a copy, and the court reviews it before it confirms the sale.

The court officer who carries out the court's orders. In a foreclosure, the marshal holds the auction, writes its record, signs the deed of the sale for the owner and puts the buyer in possession.

A deposit given when a contract is signed, as a guarantee. If whoever gave it backs out, they lose it. If whoever received it backs out, they return it doubled. If the sale closes, it counts as part of the price.

What a property would be worth once it is fixed up. It is investor talk, not a legal term, and it comes from recent sales of similar homes already renovated.

An entry the registry makes on a finca, like the filing of a document, a recording, a cautionary note, a cancellation or a note. Recordings are numbered in order.

A property the lender kept after foreclosing, because it won the auction or because the court awarded it when nobody bid, and that the lender now sells itself.

Passing your place in a contract to someone else, the way a wholesaler does with a purchase contract. The rights can pass if the contract does not forbid it, but for the other person to take your place fully, the contract has to allow it or the other side has to agree.

Recent sales of similar nearby properties, used to estimate what one is worth. An appraisal for a mortgage uses at least three closed sales, usually from the last 12 months and the same neighborhood.

The document that names the heirs of someone who died without a will. A court issues it or, when nobody objects, a notary. With it, or with the will, the inheritance is recorded in the registry.

A notice printed in a newspaper or posted on the court's board so anyone interested can learn of it. For an auction, the notice is printed twice in a newspaper and posted in public places of the town.

The document a notary prepares and signs with the parties for a sale, a mortgage or another deal on a property. To be recorded in the registry, a sale has to be in a public deed.

A property the town declared a danger or a problem for the community because it is abandoned or in bad shape. The owner's main residence can't be declared an estorbo. Since June 2026 their sales follow new rules.

The property as it is recorded in the public registry of properties, with its own number. An apartment in a condominium is its own finca. To look one up you need the finca number and the registry section.

A charge on a property that secures the payment of a debt, like a mortgage or an attachment. At an auction, the liens that come before the foreclosed mortgage stay with the property, and the later ones are cancelled.

In Puerto Rico, a lawyer authorized to attest documents. Sales, mortgages and inheritances with no dispute go through a notary, who prepares the deed and files it in the registry.

The 14-digit number of a parcel on the map of the office that collects property tax. It is not the finca number, which belongs to the registry. Deeds have had to include it since 2012.

A contract where the owner agrees to sell to you and only you decide, within a term, whether you buy. If it is in a public deed and states the price, the price of the option and the term, it can be recorded in the registry.

What passes to the heirs when someone dies, their property and the debts that don't end with their death. In Puerto Rico, the group of heirs who own it together is also called a sucesión, like the Sucesión Rivera.

The lowest bid accepted at a foreclosure auction. At the first it is the value agreed in the mortgage deed, at the second two thirds of it and at the third half of it.

The book and the page where a finca was written by hand in the registry's books before the electronic registry. Older deeds say, for example, finca number 1234, recorded at folio 50 of tomo 300.