Digitization is taking the world by storm, transforming industries in their wake. Real estate is one industry that stands to gain the most from digital conversion. Given the high-value transactions, document verification is the logical way to streamline traditional real estate industry methods. In 2020, the volume of commercial real estate transactions reached a staggering $500 billion. Moreover, real estate can be a challenging investment for many people, and some even spend months pondering where to invest. Even more so, the process of acquiring a property can involve so many tedious steps. In such circumstances, online document verification aims to provide an automated solution and a higher accuracy rate. This blog discusses how to document authentication can help curb fraud and ensure successful transactions.
Streamlining Due Diligence Process
In most areas of the world, real estate is a highly crude business. With almost zero know-your-customer policies, it thrives on mutual trust. However, due to digitization, it is becoming increasingly difficult to rely solely on faith. Therefore, there is an enormous gap in the enactment of a due diligence process. Even in the traditional document attestation process, robust techniques and data still need to be improved. However, online document verification provides a solution to both of these issues. Firstly, it ensures that the sellers and buyers provide authentic and original documents. Secondly, the online part of document verification guarantees efficiency and precision in the procedure. Therefore, the real estate agency makes fewer errors, whereas the customers enjoy a streamlined due diligence process.
Minimizing Fraudulent Transactions
The real estate industry is infamous for deceitful actions and money laundering. Criminals and corrupt politicians hide behind this industry to launder their ill-gained money. The real estate provided a safe haven for these shell corporations, whether for direct corruption, bribery, or other illicit activities. However, the world is also rapidly progressing toward regulatory compliance. Document verification is the foremost line of protection against unlawful actions and criminals. Moreover, authorities worldwide are pressuring agencies and companies to ensure they care when working in real estate. Therefore, document verification allows companies to comply with these regulations as well.
Ensuring Safe Property Transfers
Conducting transactions is one thing. However, a significant problem arises during the actual property transfers. During this process, the agency or the buyer needs a few documents, including a sale deed, possession certificate, the layout of the building, and tax receipts of the property. The sale deed represents the actual property transfer, so the buyer needs to ensure everything is clear in the document. The possession certificate details the date of the sale and property handover.
Similarly, the layout confirms the property does not deviate from local development rules. This is by no means a complete list of the documents. Yet, it represents the significance of proper document verification in the real estate industry. Document verification can help the parties identify any disorder in the papers, thus, saving them from future issues.
Improving Efficiency of Document Handling
Apart from the legal and regulatory issues, document verification can streamline the operational processes of real estate. Despite the rapid advancement in technology, this industry still lives on paper. In the long run, it can accrue a massive cost in terms of man-hours and monetary resources. On the same note, properly storing and retrieving paper documents requires extra human resources. Contrarily, online document verification requires a one-time investment that saves the company from all these woes. Real-time document checking allows firms to ease the flow of clients while maintaining high accuracy.
Building Trust with Clients and Partners
Although the primary goal of document verification is to ensure secure transactions and mitigate fraud, it also results in secondary benefits. Traditionally, document verification can take a lot of time due to cross-verification with local authorities. This takes place manually, which can result in frustrated clients and partners. On the other hand, artificial intelligence powers document verification, resulting in a quicker process. Such a system maintains a log of the authorized database. The papers are matched against these databases during the verification and scanned for security features.
Facilitating Digital Signatures
Finally, even after documents are verified, there remains a prevalent issue. Malicious actors can fraud potential clients by using fake signatures. Also, digital signatures are sent via communication channels during overseas property sales. It can be challenging for the human eye to discern the potential forging of such signatures. Document verification can also help in this aspect by providing a robust feature for signature verification.
Wrapping Up Document Verification
Real estate is one of the largest global industries. With the rising population, real estate will also keep growing. However, it is a hot target for cybercriminals and money launderers due to its high-value nature. Document verification aims to curb these illicit activities by increasing the accuracy of document checking.
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