Why do real estate closings take a month on average, while automobile deals (involving comparable value, but much greater risk) take minutes?
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If you are buying in cash or only financing a relatively small amount of money it is possible to close a house in one sitting, especially when the house is brand new(relevant since most home sales are “used” properties and most car sales are “new”).
A lot of the time spent in the lead up to closing a house is spent verifying the condition of the house. You don’t want to buy a $300k house and then discover there is $25k worth of mold damage behind a wall that you didn’t know about(again, because the house is “used”). Conversely, in the case of selling a used car to a dealership, they have a staff of skilled mechanics that go over all the workings of the car in the 30-45 minutes you’re out test driving so they know what they can offer you. When *buying* a used car there is an implicit trust that the dealer is not lying about the status of the can, it’s in their best interest to not lie because if they get a reputation for lying no one will buy their used cars.
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