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Glossary of Terms

Explore key financial and real estate terms used throughout ChipEstate.

Chip

A chip is a fractional share of a property. If a home has 1,000 chips and you own 10, you own 1% of that property.

Cap Rate

Cap Rate is how much income a property makes compared to its cost. A 6% cap rate means you earn 6% per year of the price you paid.

Formula: Cap Rate = Net Operating Income / Property Value

Rental Yield

Rental yield is how much rental income you get in a year compared to the property value. It helps you understand if the rent makes the property worth it.

Formula: Rental Yield = Annual Rent / Property Value

Reserve Fund

A reserve fund is a safety fund set aside for repairs, maintenance, and emergencies on a property.

Reserve Balancing

ChipEstate uses a tiered system to keep reserves healthy. Smaller properties need a bigger safety cushion. Reserves range from 8% (for under $150K homes) to 4% (for over $2.5M). If the reserve drops too low, some rent may go into rebuilding it before being sent out to chipholders.

Formula: Reserve Target = Property Value × Tiered Reserve Percentage

Occupancy

Occupancy shows whether a property is rented. If it is occupied, it means someone is living there and paying rent.

Vacancy Rate

Vacancy rate is the percent of time a property is empty. A high vacancy means it hasn’t been rented much.

Formula: Vacancy Rate = Days Vacant / Total Days Available

Property Manager

A property manager handles the day-to-day work of taking care of a property, like fixing things and talking to renters.

Admin Fee

Admin fees are small charges that help pay for running the ChipEstate platform and keeping everything organized.

Net Rent

Net rent is the money left over after expenses like taxes and repairs are taken out of the rent payments.

Formula: Net Rent = Gross Rent - Operating Expenses

Distributions

Distributions are payments sent to chipholders from the income a property earns, usually every month.

Liquidity

Liquidity means how easy it is to sell your chips and get your money out.

Appreciation

Appreciation means the property’s value is going up over time.

Formula: Appreciation = (New Value - Old Value) / Old Value

Transaction Fee

A transaction fee is a small cost charged when buying or selling chips.

Chipholder Vote

A chipholder vote lets owners of a property decide on big things, like selling the property or doing renovations.

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