Coming from the UK I have to say that the way real estate is bought and sold is light years behind us with respect to efficiency. For example there is no MLS as such. marketing down to pretty much placing a flyer in a store window.
Lawyers control the industry and paperwork is transferred using regular mail, the "post", it is called.
Being involved recently in getting a house sold their I did learn one thing that I think we could use.
Before a house will be "listed" for sale by a selling service, a presale inspection is required. This costs @$750 and is payable up front by the seller. This inspection is a combination of property inspection, appraisal and disclosure.
The seller also has to pay @$350 additional up front to cover costs of marketing flyers and advertising.
It occurred to me that before a seller parts with $1000 cash they likely would not do it unless they were pretty serious and motivated sellers. Also the 'appraisal" would give a good basis to price the house to begin with.
Do you think that we could get sellers to have an up front property inspection? How about an up front appraisal?
With the new GFE requirements in place to disclose every item in a sale, perhaps we are looking at the future.
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