Sssh—They Might Find Us

Gail and I bought a house today for the first time in 24 years. It was a nightmare. You should have seen the amount of paper we had to sign, swear to, and abide by. I swear we had to agree to pay fees on top of fees for one thing after another. We dotted "I"s crossed "T"s and accepted responsibility for everything from the San Andreas Fault to the national debt. It was awful. I saw that mountainous pile of paper and I remembered selling airplanes with just a few pieces of paper, registering them in Oak City, and doing a title search with only a few signatures. We didn’t know how well we had it. If I remember correctly, an airplane title search back then cost something like, what?—$25 or $35 total? And that was for a used airplane that could be flown all over the world. Today the title search on a house costs umpty-ump times that on a piece of property that hasn’t moved an inch in decades. Of course the banks cause a lot of this hassle, but to a great extent they are but reacting to lawsuits of the past. I reckon every time someone wins a lawsuit the banks add another sheet of paper and another layer of protection. Where will this all end? Will we eventually sign away our firstborn with 46 pieces of paper? I’m not blaming any one group for all of this, but do pray that lawyers never discover the aircraft sales business. Or—ohmygawd—have they already while I wasn't looking? We'd love to post your comments. Please click the comment tab at the top.