I think web 2.0 and CH are the missing link for ordinary people to contribute meaningfully in the new ways of creating wealth in this so called new economy.

Cycko, Feb 2007

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Link in the Chain

Submitted by: jim_lewis
Created: Jul 14, 2007, 9:53 am

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The Elevator Pitch

For Homebuyers/Sellers who want to know the status of the other transactions in the chain they are a part of the Link in the Chain Website is a web based information centre that allows users to follow the progress of all related transactions affecting theirs. Unlike informal information sometimes available from Real Estate Agents our product provides up-to-date detailed information.

The Idea

A website based idea, where people involved in the sale or purchase of a house can find out how many people are in the chain, and what stage each person on the chain is at with their transaction.

Each person simply enters the details they are aware of, IE their own purchaser or vendor and their stage in the buying/selling process, the system then ties them together to illustrate the chain.

The availability of the information could be liited only to those directly involved in the chain through the use of credit card address verification. People would be incentivised to enter their transaction status and details as they would need to do so in order to see information about other links in the chain.
Measures would be needed to avoid people badgering anyone to speed their transaction through.

I thought of this idea when I was...

Buying a flat recently, and information from Estate Agent friends of mine.

In one case an entire chain of 12 purchases fell through as one person was £3000 pound short on their finance. All the expense incurred by those 12 people was wasted, where if they had known about the £3000 they could each have contributed £250 to ensure all transactions completed.

Comments Posted

vanhees Posted: July 16, 2007, 1:03 am

Understand your point but find the situation so specific that I donm't hing that you can make a business idea out of this.
Tommy

vanhees Posted: July 17, 2007, 5:05 am

I dont think that is.
T

Merman Posted: July 18, 2007, 12:12 pm

It is hard enough to get communication from the principals in a real estate transaction with the client...much less with a third party collective database...It is a good idea but not workable in real life.

jill Posted: July 18, 2007, 5:27 pm

It's a good idea, but b/c of the business realities (Merman said it) the business might have to be more than a website. If it combined a financing feature maybe it could work, it would take some thought.

In Alberta the issue of chains and their problems is not part of real estate parlance. We have a different system of real estate conveyancing, and different business conditions generally. The idea you propose seems geared to UK but perhaps it applies elsewhere in the world.

What do you think the market is?

saigon Posted: July 18, 2007, 11:07 pm

Merman is right...try to solve that angle...their must be a solution outhere...but on my experienced sometime ago...its a corporate doc and not for anyone except if govt authority wants to audit this things in extreme cases however.

phaze Posted: July 19, 2007, 4:52 am

it would be great in the uk and else where but as jill says, not in canada or north america. but... if we new there was a chain we could do a real option valuation of the chain etc and decide , using normal arbitrage, what we would pay to fill in the chain and extract a risk free profit....

jill Posted: July 20, 2007, 1:52 pm

phaze, the financing you propose is exotic but a bit of a tangent. Still, if you work in a bank or investment dealer, hey, maybe you have just invented a new investment product! Congrats! Figure out how to value cold feet and you have it made ;-) (Just kidding)

At a more conventional level, I'm with you on the basic concept of linking this to financing. Where one financial institution or a co-operating group of them can have 100% information on the chain, then they could make this work. It could be a marketing angle for banks.

In the US it would perhaps be viewed as monopolistic & anti-competitive, but perhaps in UK it would just be friendly co-operation among industry members, I don't know.

Emesee Posted: July 20, 2007, 7:23 pm

Yes~!

Hello!

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