Rate of Return:  See Yield.

Real Estate Paper:  Notes secured by real estate and held by private parties; not banks, professional loan finders, or real estate agents in the business of dealing in notes for profit.  Real estate paper can include:  Mortgages, Deeds of Trust, Security Deeds, and Land Contracts.

Recall:  Retrieving data stored in the calculator memory.

Recast:  To decide new terms for an existing loan.  This may be associated with the situation wherein a debtor cannot pay according to the original terms, but can pay some other way.

Reconvey:  When a trust deed is paid off, the trustee reconveys his title back to the property owner and releases the lien from the property.  It means to convey title back to the owner of the property.

Reconveyance:  See Reconvey.

Recordation:  The formal recording (filing) of a legal document such as a security instrument.  Recordation with the County Recorder’s Office or other appropriate governmental office serves constructive notice to the world that the document exists.

Recorder’s Office:  The local governmental agency responsible for maintaining official records of documents filed therein, such as deeds and security instruments (real estate paper).  See Courthouse, Registrar of Deeds.

Recourse:  When signing (endorsing) a note from one party to another, you do so either with or without recourse.  With recourse means that you still have contingent liability to the buyer of the note.  In the event the maker doesn’t pay as promised, you have to pay.  See Without Recourse.

Redemption:  In a foreclosure situation, redemption means the right to pay off the loan in full plus foreclosure fees and either stop the foreclosure while it is in progress or get the property back after it has been sold.  See Redemption Period.

Redemption Period:  The period of time during a foreclosure when the debtor has the right to make payment in full and stop the proceedings.  Also a period after the property has been sold through foreclosure in which the foreclosed owner can pay the loan amount plus applicable charges and get the property back.  This varies according to state law.

Refinance:  Paying off an old loan on the property by putting a new, usually larger loan on it.  Any remaining funds go to the property owner.  See also Hard Money, Personal Liability.

Registers:  Storage pockets in the calculator memory.  You can store information in the appropriate register and recall it later.

Registrar of Deeds:  See Recorder’s Office, Courthouse.

Reinstatement:  In the beginning of a foreclosure, the debtor has the right to catch up the payments plus foreclosure fees and reinstate the loan.  This means to make it current and stop the foreclosure, just as it was before.  During reinstatement it is not necessary to pay the loan in full unless the loan was due anyway.

Reinstatement Period:  The period specified by local law, within which the debtor has the right to catch up the payments plus foreclosure fees and stop foreclosure.

Release of Liability:  The appropriate documentation from a creditor to a debtor, releasing the debt and any liens associated with it.

Release of Mortgage:  A written instrument releasing a mortgage lien from a property.  Also called a Certificate of Discharge.

Renegotiate:  To change the terms and conditions of an existing note by mutual agreement of Payor and Payee.  Either party can ask the other to renegotiate.  Asking for a discount for early payoff is a form of renegotiation.

Request for Reconveyance:  An instrument executed by a trust deed holder, directing the trustee to convey his title lien on the property back to the Trustor (property owner)  The Request for Reconveyance is usually printed on the back of the trust deed.

Reverse Polish Notation (RPN):  Calculator logic or way of thinking in which the number is entered before the operation (plus, minus, times, divided by).  The Hewlett Packard HP 12c uses RPN.

Risk:  A determination of how safe or dangerous something is.  An unsecured note generally involves more risk than a well-secured note.

Rollover Note:  A relatively short-term (5 year) note that renews each time at some new interest rate pegged to the cost of money at that time.

Rule of 72:  A banker’s interest computation invention that allows for greater than normal interest in the early part of the loan.  Also a rule of thumb for determining how long it takes to double your money at a certain interest rate.  Divide 72 by the interest rate and this close to the number of years it will take to double the money.

Satisfaction of Mortgage:  Completion of the terms of repayment and release from liability on a mortgage.

Seasoned Note:  A note that has been in existence for a while and has a proven record of satisfactory payments being made.  Seasoned notes are typically safer investments than newly created notes.  See Green Note.

Second:  The lien immediately junior to the First.  Recorded second in time.

Secured Loan:  A loan (note), which has specific collateral, pledged to secure its payment.  In the event payment is not made, the collateral will be sold to provide funds to pay the note.

Security Deed:  See Deed of Trust.

Security Instrument:  The official legal document which, when properly recorded, places a lien on the property to secure the payment on a note.  The most common security instruments are mortgages and trust deeds.

Seller Carry-Back Financing:  When the seller of a property takes a note secured by the property as part of the payment.  See also Owner Financing.

Seniority:  The order in time in which documents are recorded.  The first lien recorded is the “First,” the next is the “Second,” etc.  Recording, not when notes were created, is what counts.  In the event of foreclosure, the lien foreclosing is paid first and the leftover funds, if any, go to the juniors.  Senior liens are more secure than junior liens.

Senior Lien:  A lien recorded before others.  A lien can be senior to some and junior to others.  Example:  A second is a senior to a third but junior to a first.

Short-Term:  In private financing, a note having 3 years or less remaining.

Sign:  The plus or minus sign before a number as used in mathematics of addition or subtraction.  Also indicating whether a cash flow is positive (in) or negative (out).

Signature Loan:  An unsecured personal loan from a bank or credit union.

Simple Interest:  Interest based on the principal balance of the loan only.  It doesn’t add on to the principal.  It does not compound.  It is less than compound interest.

Simultaneous Closing:  Two transactions or two parts of a transaction that are completed at the same time.  Such transactions are often dependent and contingent upon each other.  One cannot happen without the other.  See Double Escrow.

Soft Paper:  Paper with low interest, a long term, low or no payments, and perhaps questionable security.  It has little or no marketability for cash and is used mainly in trade.  One would like to borrow on soft paper and sell on hard paper.

Stop Date:  The date of the last payment on a note.  It may be fully amortized or there may be a balloon payment.  Also referred to as Call Date.

Storage:  Placing a number in a register of memory unit of the calculator for later recal and use.

Straight Note:  A note having no payments during its term, with a balloon payment at the end.  It may have either simple or compound interest.