The online condo deposit is finally here

A Canadian tech company wants to make buying a condominium as easy as pressing a button. And if it’s successful, pricey sales centers might become a thing of the past.

BuzzBuzzHome, an online property marketplace, launched a so-called “Buy Now” button on its website. Prospective buyers can click on it, sign a sales agreement and put down a $3,000 deposit — all online.

The Toronto-based firm is testing the product with a condo development in Kitchener, Ontario, but plans to expand it to new development projects across the U.S. and Canada. The idea is that buyers of apartments under construction can look at renderings and sign a sales contract online, skipping the trip to the sales center.

“I don’t see this being immediate, but as this continues to take off, you are no longer going to need to spend $2-5 million dollars building a sales center,” BuzzBuzzHome’s president Matthew Slutsky told Inman News. “You can build smaller centers.”

Within 10 days of putting down the $3,000 initial deposit, buyers will have to write a check for the actual deposit — 5 percent of the apartment’s purchase price. [Inman] — Konrad Putzier