Glossary
The language of the lot
Every term used in an open, timed property sale, defined the way we mean it. Terms link to where you will meet them in practice.
- Exclusive Listing
- A property offered for open, timed bidding on House of Elites. Every Exclusive Listing runs to a fixed clock with a published reserve price and bid increment, and its full bid history stays public on the listing page.Browse Exclusive Listings
- Reserve price
- The lowest price the seller has committed to accept, published before bidding opens. Bidding starts at the reserve; if the highest bid falls below it, the listing closes without a sale and neither side owes the other anything.
- Guide price
- An indication of where the seller expects the sale to land. Unlike a reserve, a guide creates no commitment — it is an estimate published to help buyers decide whether the lot is in their range.Reserve vs guide, explained
- Bid increment
- The minimum amount a new bid must add to the current highest bid, set by the seller when the listing is created. It makes the next valid bid unambiguous for everyone watching.
- Anti-snipe window
- The closing stretch of a listing during which any new bid automatically pushes the close back. It removes the advantage of bidding in the final second, so a sale ends when bidding genuinely stops rather than when a stopwatch runs out.
- Bidding window
- The published period between a listing's opening and scheduled close during which bids are accepted. The close can extend beyond the scheduled end through the anti-snipe rule.
- Bid ledger
- The append-only, ordered record of every bid on a listing. Entries are sequenced by a single writer so there are no ties, and corrections are made as new records — the history itself is never edited.
- Lot
- A single property as offered in a single sale. One property can be offered as a lot more than once — for example after a sale closes below reserve — but each run has its own listing and its own bid ledger.
- Verified bidder
- An account that has confirmed its email address and, where the sale requires it, completed identity verification — Aadhaar, PAN and a live photo reviewed by an administrator — before bidding.
- KYC (Know Your Customer)
- The identity-verification process for sellers and, where required, bidders: Aadhaar and PAN details plus a live photo, reviewed by hand. KYC verifies people; it is not a check on the property, its title or its condition.
- Exclusive partner
- A property professional who brings listings to House of Elites and can bid or list on a client's behalf once the client approves the relationship with a one-time code. Partners are assigned to one of five Indian regions, and their listings inherit that region.Partners by region
- Verified partner
- An exclusive partner an administrator has checked specifically, shown with a verified mark on their profile. A partner can appear in the directory without the mark — listing and verification are separate.
- Settlement
- The step after a listing closes above reserve, in which the sale is marked settled and the winning buyer and the seller are put in contact. Contracts, registration and payment then move directly between the two parties — the platform holds no funds and takes no escrow.
- RERA
- The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, and the state authorities it created. Partners can publish their RERA registration number on their profile; buyers can verify it against the issuing state authority's register.