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Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Another "Why Do These Not Exist" Thought

Gift cards for real estate.

Not sure why that popped into my head*, but it did and when I went to search for it all I found were 1) greeting cards for real estate agents and 2) gift cards for some outfit that supplies real estate agents with leads.

But why not a gift card that can only be spent as a down payment or mortgage payment on real estate?

Seems like a seller of real estate or a mortgage broker would make out well on the proposition -- cash flow coming in before anyone even looks at a house or lot and wants to buy it.

And it could be a good savings tool for people who keep thinking about buying a house but tend not to be great at saving.

And those people's friends and family might like to give them a gift card that gets spent (eventually) on something more substantial than dinner out or the latest game console.

I wonder if there are regulatory problems with the idea, or what?


* It probably popped into my head because I recently found what I consider, but Tamara doesn't, the perfect retirement spot, a nearly 1-acre lot in Golden Valley, Arizona, for single-digit-thousands of dollars. She objects to it being in the desert, being a "water haul" (i.e. no well or city water, you have a big tank and a truck comes by to fill it), etc. I was thinking about buying it anyway as an "investment" and then trying to get her out to it for a camping trip and hope she falls in love and says yeah, let's find a cheap RV to live in until we can afford to have a larger mobile home placed there.

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