Surfing the Internet to find a home, finance it and refinance it has become so commonplace it's, well, rather ho-hum.

With most mortgage programs available on the Internet and with the proliferation of homes for sale in cyberspace, you might be considered a tad electronically-challenged if you don't at least take a peek at the Net when you are shopping for housing and the means to finance it.

Yet e-commerce has only scratched the surface of the residential real estate transaction. If buying a home is ever to become a paper-less transaction, or at least more of a paperless transaction, there's yet much to accomplish.

That's certainly not because the less digitized segments of the industry aren't trying. Electronic efforts are in the works to add convenience, efficiency and savings to what could be the most tedious, most expensive transaction you'll ever complete.

Electronic Escrows

With more of a paper-heavy document load than mortgages, the title and escrow industry is looking to save millions in cost mitigation if they can just get past federal paper trail record requirements. The necessary digital signature technology is in the pipeline. In a strategic partnership between IntraLinks and PenOp, IntraLinks is offering PenOp's digital handwritten signature software in its Internet-based deal management services for the global capital markets. The technology will be used in the paperless, legal execution of electronic documents for syndicated loans, asset backed securities, private placements, mergers and acquisitions and municipal bonds via the Internet.

On July 15, J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House and Strom Thurmond, President Pro Tempore used PenOp's technology to electronically sign H.R. 775, "The Year 2000 Readiness and Responsibility Act" and e-mailed the bill to President Clinton -- an electronic first.

Such technology is easily transferable to the title and escrow process, according to Todd Hartle, president and founder of Fountainhead Information Systems, which already offers rudimentary online title searches.

"No one really debates the idea of electronic and digital signatures. Currently, 30 states have passed legislation to accept electronic and digital signatures. What is important is the implementation of the Internet and the technology," Hartle says.

At least one other company is taking advantage of the new state laws. Chicago Title Co.'s Western Division recently announced it can deliver electronically numerous title and escrow reports, including the preliminary report, escrow instructions, notes and deeds of trust, closing statements, HUD-1 Settlement Statement, power of attorney and a host of others -- all courier fee free and in an instant.

Virtual Appraisals

Meanwhile, the Appraiser's Institute is busy readying a massive residential, Internet-warehoused data base, Appraisal Institute’s Residential Database, Inc., or (AIRD), scheduled to be available for consumer use in 2000.

Homebuyers will access AIRD to ensure a property is comparable to other properties listed, much like a real estate agent would use the MLS. Home sellers will use AIRD to help them set a fair selling price.

You'll still need an appraiser to actually appraise home values, because the database will not calculate or assess property values.

After you enter location and other criteria and pay a fee to obtain comparable residential property data, the condition of property and other physical characteristics, you'll get data derived primarily from the front page of the Uniform Residential Appraisal Report (URAR) developed by Fannie Mae.

"Our members have the most accurate and reliable information on residential properties nationwide," said Joseph R. Stanfield Jr., president of the Appraisal Institute.

"Ultimately, this residential database will make available a more effective and accurate source of real estate data," Stanfield added.

Digitized Home Inspections

Until those newly designed microscopic computer chips are embedded everywhere in your home, you'll likely need the friendly neighborhood home inspector to visit your home to give it the once over.

Short of your home telling you it's condition, one company, San Ramon-based InspecTech is 60 to 90 days away from popping your home inspection report on the Web with links from each inspected home system to a plethora of related information on-line.

As a sort of virtual Gray's Anatomy of your examined home, your personal InspecTech home inspection Web page will include diagnoses, prognoses and prescriptions for your home or the one you are about to buy -- not to mention headache relief from the growing number of disclosure laws.

Along with the Web posting will come the option of an e-mailed Adobe PDF rendering of your report, produced by one of the 100 InspecTech inspectors working primarily in California, but also Washington state, Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey and New Mexico.

A pioneer in digitizing home inspection reports since 1993, InspecTech, now uses the Fujitsu Stylistic 1200, a pen-based, Pentium-powered computer-in-a-clipboard running Windows NT.

Instead of a useless check list of home systems inspected, InspecTech inspectors, with the Stylistic in tow, can now print or fax your fully-narrated inspection report, typically 20 to 30 pages of comments about the condition of your home.

"We have a comment library of 9,000 unique comments, in 13,000 combinations. It's a very complete system that acts as an expert (system) for home inspectors," said Vern Ernst, information officer for the firm.

"The value we've tried to create is to participate in this paperless transaction and compress these closing times to make things more convenient for consumers," he added.

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Published: July 23, 1999

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