Reading dates out of a ratified contract
The highest volume calculation in a brokerage. A signed agreement arrives as a flattened PDF, and the deadlines that follow are derived from the effective date and the paragraph terms. Extraction here is per form and per state, which is a feature rather than a limitation: a system that claims to read every contract in every state is describing a demo.
A brokerage runs on dates that were calculated by a person reading a contract, and on leads that arrive in a different shape from every portal.
The listing data is already structured. It lives in the MLS, and since RETS was retired the modern way to reach it is the RESO Web API, which returns OData against the RESO Data Dictionary. Almost nothing else in the transaction is structured. The purchase agreement arrives as a signed PDF that was structured data inside the forms platform ten minutes earlier and got flattened on the way out.
- dotloop
- SkySlope
- Google Workspace
When this is the wrong thing to build
Pick something else if you operate across many states and want one extractor for all of them. Start with the form you close most, prove the dates against a month of real files, and add the second form only once the first is boring.
The constraint that shapes it
Negotiating, advising on price or terms, and soliciting are licensed activities performed under a supervising broker. More on how this sector works.
A file arrives. The fields come back typed and checkable. Read what this shape is, or start from one of these.
- Turning a docket entry into a calendar
- Turning a delivered transcript into a usable set of cites
- Coding a filing fee to the matter that will repay it
- Reading a nameplate so nobody retypes it
- Reading a year of utility bills into a load calculation
- Getting statements and receipts into one shape
- How do I calculate inspection and financing dates from a ratified contract?
- What is the effective date on a one to four family residential contract?
- Can software read dates out of a flattened PDF contract?
- How do the option period and the financing addendum interact?
Back to real estate, or see how this is priced and scoped.