A typical disclosure packet in a competitive market runs 200 to 500 pages. Buyers are often given a weekend to review it before writing a non-contingent offer. Be honest: nobody is reading all of it.
What gets read is the summary page, the inspection's "major findings," and whatever the agent has learned to check from past deals. What doesn't get read is everything else — and everything else is where the surprises live.
Where the surprises live
A few patterns we see over and over:
- The disclosure and the inspection disagree. The seller checks "no known roof leaks"; page 31 of the inspection notes staining in the attic sheathing. Neither document is wrong, but the gap between them is a question someone should ask before the contingency period ends.
- The HOA documents bury the lede. Dues are on page one. The reserve study — the thing that tells you whether a $40K special assessment is coming — is an appendix.
- The repair was disclosed; the permit wasn't. "Bathroom remodeled 2019" reads very differently next to a permit history that ends in 2011.
None of these require expertise to spot. They require reading — complete, unglamorous, cross-referenced reading, on every deal, under deadline.
This is what software is for
Reading every page and cross-checking every claim is exactly the kind of work machines should do, so that people can do the part machines can't: advising the client on what it means and what to do about it.
That's the division of labor Periphery is built around. It reads the whole packet and answers with citations; you bring the judgment. The buyer gets both.