States to Fingerprint House Sellers

Cook County, Illinois homeowners looking to sell their homes will need to provide fingerprints starting on June 1st.

Just for selling a house, you'll have to provide a thumbprint from your right hand, and some consumers are complaining that the new law is intrusive. The cost is minimal in the grand scheme of a real estate transaction: $25.

The argument in favor of the policy is the massive amount of mortgage fraud, and efforts to hold people more accountable are worth pursuing. What's puzzling to me is why the law also doesn't require the signatures of buyers who, because they're the ones taking out the loans, are more likely to be involved in fraud.

There's definitely a need for more safeguards to prevent mortgage fraud, but this one seems like barking up the wrong tree.