Real estate may be moving toward the paperless transaction, but, meanwhile, the industry is among the last to switch from legal-sized to letter-sized purchase agreements–despite the fact that most county recorders charge as much as double the price to process the larger version.
Courts for years have refused to accept legal-sized motions, pleadings and other legal documents mostly due to the advent of the fax machine, says Jim McKinney, president of San Rafael, Calif.-based Professional Publishing, which is converting all of its real estate forms to letter size this summer.
Fax machines work more efficiently with standard-size paper and when courts began allowing the use of faxed documents, the fate of the longer forms was sealed, McKinney explained.
To file legal-sized documents, clerks have to shrink them and, in the case of faxed documents, that can make signatures illegible and thus questionable.
One reason the real estate industry may be stuck on the long agreement document is that many state realty associations print their own forms, a lucrative business in some cases, McKinney said. The California Association of Realtors, for example, nets about $5 million a year on the sale of real estate forms to its members, according to McKinney.
Also, McKinney said, real estate agents like longer forms because it makes for fewer pages for clients to review and sign. Letter-sized forms usually add two extra pages to a standard real estate document.
Nevertheless, the long form may be on its way out. McKinney’s firm, the largest private publisher of real estate forms outside realty associations, decided to make the switch at the request of its Forms Committee, a group of real estate managers and brokers that acts as a kind of focus group for the company.
In addition, various states are looking at converting to letter-sized forms. In Ohio, for example, where form size is controlled by the state’s Division of Real Estate, the Ohio Association of Realtors is actively lobbying to convert to the shorter forms, according to the group’s Janice Johnston.
McKinney’s firm is planning to aggressively market its new letter-sized forms.
In addition, it has signed an agreement with Boulder, Colo.-based Formulator Software to make the new forms available for Windows users on disk or to download off the Internet.
– Liz Poppens.
A well-built site
Its Internet address is a little confusing, but http://www.abuildnet.com is anything but that.
The highly rated site by Littleton, Colo.-based BuildNET is regarded as one of the World Wide Web’s most comprehensive directories of building goods and services. And a quick walk-through on-site shows why.
This site is useful for anyone in the construction industry and a good example of a well-designed Web site for those who are not. Aside from the fact that it boasts 1,200 pages of information on building companies, opportunities and resources, and access to thousands more linked points of information on the Internet, this site offers free Web page assistance for those industry types not yet online.
It also incorporates user-friendly tips at spots where one can really use them. For example, on the site’s search page, it reminds users that if they plan to do frequent searches, they should bookmark the page. It’s a simple tip, but not one that especially the novice user thinks of.
The site’s vast trove of directories is organized by such categories as construction, service providers, architecture, suppliers, resources and manufacturers. These are further subdivided into such listings as consultants, home builders, contractors, construction equipment, software and the like.
If users don’t wish to search that way, they can click on a map of the site to take them where they wish to go within the site.
Giving visitors the tools to help themselves is a hallmark of this site. In addition to links to the latest downloadable versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer, there are links to online newspapers and magazines.
Sponsors of the site include Peach Media, MOD-TAP Residential Cabling Systems, Greenblock, Eastern Star Electric and JDS Development. This site, by the way, should not be confused with http://www.buildnet.com, an online guide (currently under construction) to new homes in the Chicago area.
Intuit, lenders link up
One of the big shoes in online lending dropped recently when Intuit announced it had teamed up with some of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders.
The move will allow consumers to get all their mortgage information and application online through a single Web site. The service will not be available until October through Intuit’s Quicken Financial Network.
The site will offer real-time mortgage information, personalized mortgage rate quotations, and online mortgage applications through Countrywide Home Loans, HomeSide Lending, North American Mortgage Co., PNC Mortgage and Principal Residential Mortgage. Other lenders may also participate in the program.
The lenders will offer a wide range of products, including conventional and jumbo loans with fixed or adjustable rates, or balloon payment loans, directly to customers.
“We’re trying to make financial decisions easier for consumers, by providing a source for unbiased information and automated decision tools,” said Bill Harris, executive vice president of Intuit. “And we’re creating a new channel for mortgage lenders to communicate electronically with prospective mortgage applicants, and to acquire new customers at a lower cost.”
Home buyers and homeowners seeking to refinance their loans will be able to compare mortgage options, customized for the particular property and the borrower’s financial situation. Because of the reduced origination costs inherent in electronic delivery, Intuit anticipates that consumers will save money when obtaining a loan through this channel.
The Quicken Financial Network’s online services so far include banking, insurance, investments, retirement and a tax center where consumers can explore their options and, if interested, connect with vendors. Three other categories answer personal finance questions, direct consumers to various online and offline resources and advertise Intuit software.
Most realty leads local
Most Internet leads for real estate business are from local prospects, not long-distance relocation inquiries, an analysis of buyer and seller e-mail by a business-prospecting firm has revealed.
“When we tabulated the e-mail from buyer and seller prospects, we were amazed who is using the Internet to look for a home,” Daniel Gooder Richard, president of the Gooder Group, a real estate prospecting and marketing firm, told Builder magazine.
Richard’s firm, based in Fairfax, Va., evaluated e-mail received by subscribers to Gooder’s Leads Online, a direct-response Internet link used by agents to develop prospects from Internet inquiries.
The survey showed that 98 percent of leads came from subscribers’ local areas, most prospects did not have an agent at the time of their inquiry, and that most of them planned to move within one to three months. In addition, only one in four prospects had been pre-qualified by a lender.
The survey also found that a little more than half of the Internet shoppers were renters; half were already owners.
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Chicago Tribune Homes.
Additional real estate information, including a monthly index of Inman News Features, is available at Chicago Tribune Homes on the World Wide Web. Go to http://www.chicago.tribune.com/homes/ and click News & Features.
