How Homes Change Hands

Hundreds of homes have been sold by Mike Kobeissi in La Cañada Flintridge, and this index explains the stages a sale passes through and the forces around it, from appraisal and inspection to buyers who live abroad and the signing that ends it.

The economics of the transaction have drawn scrutiny. A Brookings Institution review notes that in the United States the seller usually pays the commissions of both the listing agent and the buyer’s agent, that commission rates have stayed high compared with other countries, and that the country records about six million housing transactions a year with 1.3 million agents, against more than a million transactions and 50,000 agents in the United Kingdom.¹

Who buys has shifted too. The National Association of Realtors, which has published its Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers since 1981, found in its survey of purchases from the middle of 2024 to the middle of 2025 extremely limited inventory, mortgage rates averaging 6.69 percent, an all time high share of all cash buyers and an all time low share of buyers purchasing for the first time.² The last stage is the closing. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau describes it as the phase in which the buyer supplies documents for the underwriting of the loan, gets a home inspection, chooses the closing service providers and finally signs the papers, after checking that the Closing Disclosure states the loan correctly.³

The entries in this subject, in order, are The Luxury Housing Market, Home Appraisal, Home Inspection, Off Market and Pocket Listings, Real Estate Photography and Video, International Buyers in US Housing, Remote Closings and Notarization and Wire Fraud in Home Purchases.