What disruptions in the antiquated Real Estate process would you personally like to see disrupted

[Tahir Slater]

Hello BP! Im sure we've all had a "darn, why isnt this easier", "there has to be a faster way" or"there has to be a fix for this" moment. I am currently pursuing a fix for one of these annoyances via mobile app development. I'd love to know what issues the BP network wishes there was a fix for. Please feel free to share the story where the problem was most prevalent, or where you "jimmy rigged" or innovated a solution. PLEASE BE SPECIFIC, TO ENCOURAGE DISCUSSION WITH OTHER BPers I AM DISCOURAGING GENERAL COMPLAINTS PLEASE ADDRESS A TOPIC, A MOMENT OR PROCESS THAT YOU THINK TECHNOLOGY OR A REVISION IN POLICY OR THE WAY THINGS ARE DONE IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD COULD BE BETTER SERVED. THANK YOU ALL IN ADVANCE!

[Brent Seehusen]

I think title insurance is ripe for disruption.  Something like only 10% of the premiums collected are ever paid out as claims.  Not only that, but every time a property sells a premium is collected by the title company.  There are no prorations for owning less than a year.  So in the case of a flipper, they need to pay title insurance when they buy and then 60-90 days later they sell to somebody that also has to pay the full title premium.  No discounts.

In this day and age when everybody has access to the same county records online that a title company does, it seems like you aren't getting any special expertise from their ability to search title.  Therefore, if only 10% of premiums are paid out as claims, it seems that the premiums could be reduced by 70-80% and the title companies would still be making a profit.  They could charge more for more complicated commercial or land deals, but standard residential should be much cheaper IMO.

In general look for where consumers are being gouged and that is likely to be the place most ripe for disruption.