May 2, 2012

Does your dream home have a shady past?

Most of us aren’t thinking about whether a house has been broken into or had fire damage when we’re going out for viewings. We’re thinking about bedrooms and square footage, or how much we like the renovated kitchen – but should we stop to think about houses the way we think about people? How often do we Google a potential date or employee or employer? Well, homes have histories too.

Ottawa company, Homeproof.com, is now offering dossiers on homes for sale – similar to what you’d get with a vehicle history report on a used car. The information is garnered from various databases of from insurance companies and the police. The kicker is, that the homeowner must comply with its release. Such information may be obtained from the homeowner at no cost, however Homeproof claims they can have the information within minutes, versus 30 days.

What kind of information do you get? You can find out about sewer backups, floods, fires, damage from hail, wind or earthquakes, electrical fires, burglaries and even if the house was formerly used as a grow-op.

How would discovery such history affect your opinion on a house? Do you think such information should be given up front by the seller? Should it be mandatory?

Read more here: http://www.moneyville.ca/article/1156362–home-inspection-industry-unsupervised-and-information-for-buyers-is-limited?bn=1