There’s nothing worse than listening to a home buyer’s horror stories of why they regret buying their current home. It’s one thing to buy a home knowing it will need some TLC, but sometimes, that intention seems to unravel the longer you’ve lived in the home. If you’re not careful, the darling fixer-upper you decide to buy could drain more money than you thought it would because of those hidden “gems” you wish you’d known about.
– Would you have bought the home if you’d known the cracked foundation was as extensive as it is?
– Would you have bought the home if you’d known it had burglary claims in the last seven years?
– Would you have looked elsewhere if you realized last year’s tornado had increased your need to replace the roof as soon as possible?
That’s why it’s important to ask your realtor about getting a C.L.U.E. before making the final push to buy your home!
CLUE Me In
What’s a C.L.U.E. you ask? C.L.U.E. stands for:
Comprehensive
Loss
Underwriting
Exchange
Each C.L.U.E. will have the current owner’s insurance information and the type of damage or loss which exists in the property’s history.
A C.L.U.E. is not the same thing as a home inspection. Home inspections are required as a part of the property’s sale, and reveal such things as the durability of your roof, how reliable your heating/air-conditioning units are, and how well your pipes seem to hold up. The difference between a home inspection and a C.L.U.E. is, with the C.L.U.E. you get a report of any claims made on your potential home’s insurance in the last five to seven years.
This information helps you discover why the foundation may seem worn, the walls seem unstable, or what the previous owners have asked their insurance company to cover on behalf of the home. By getting a C.L.U.E., you can see the bigger picture of what it will require of your finances, time, and other resources in order to maintain your home in the future.
How To Get A CLUE
The catch to getting a C.L.U.E. is, as the home buyer, you can’t acquire this information yourself–it has to come from the seller. Having a C.L.U.E. on file with your realtor is a simple document to procure, however. The seller merely has to go to personalreports.lexisnexis.com, and initiate the process. This information could be vitally beneficial to both the buyer and the seller as price negotiations begin. The insurance claims the report generates can be a reason to reduce the price of the home and make the overall home buying and selling experience much more manageable.
With the housing market consistently having older homes available, asking your realtor to assist in researching a property’s C.L.U.E. may be one of the greatest investments of your time in this process. It’s important to have a reliable, knowledgeable realtor who can assist you in getting a C.L.U.E. from the seller before it’s too late. Realtor Kim Clark would excel in helping you get exactly the C.L.U.E. you need to buy your new home!