real estate and the patriot act

[mrbill]

Recently my friendly neighborhood real estate broker told me a story.

He was perplexed by a delay in closing a mobile home and 2 acres because of the title company. No big deal, delays are common, something always screws up at closing, right? Wrong, not in this case. The cause for the slowdown at the title company was "homeland security". Yep, those nice folks at homeland security who now check up on everyone buying real estate and if you're on the list, no property for you.

Sounded a bit paranoid to me, this was a google moment.

Oh shit, it's true. According to section 352 of the neferious Patriot Act, "persons involved in real estate closings and settlements" are defined as "financial instutions" and subject to disclosure regulations. Something called the Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) is in charge of the list.

Oh boy, another hoop for buyers and sellers to jump through and the evil empire gets to keep a bonus record of every real estate transaction.

This is scary stuff.

[DebJ]

1. I guess that means Ted Kennedy and the other public official

who weren't allowed to board airplanes will now be closed out of the real estate market as well.