Whether you’re buying your first home or purchasing investment property, you always need to know the condition of the property and its history, right? Of course, and now there’s a service that makes obtaining that information even easier for homebuyers and investors alike; and it’s called Morin’s HomeProf Report.
Morin’s HomeProf Report pulls from an extensive amount (over one million!) of sources, including police reports and insurance claims, to find out everything and anything that has happened to, or in, a property. That “anything” can include floods, storms, tornadoes, and other natural disasters; but it can also include things like mould growth that occurs in a property in consequence of a grow-op previously being located within that home. This is a major problem in B.C., where the average cost of cleaning up after grow-op mould is $40,000. All of the information, whichever kind of damage or insurance claim it refers to, is then compiled by Morin’s HomeProf into one comprehensive report. Homeowners and investors then, can just log on and through a simple address search find out essentially, everything that has happened to that home.
When the service was first introduced it was thought that it would have a drastic effect on title insurance, with buyers simply getting their information from this site, but experts have said that’s not going to happen. Title insurance is extremely important, and still very much a part of the property-buying process. This simply gives investors and buyers the extra edge when going into a property, so they’ll be able to make a much better informed decision.
It could ultimately, also help with the housing bubble many experts think Canada is in, giving buyers more leverage when it comes to negotiating price. Being able to have the flood damage more closely examined prior to purchase could allow buyers to write into the offer that it must be repaired before closing. That in turn, could even help lower the overall debt of Canadians, as it could reduce the need for homeowners to rely on HELOCs when it’s time for home renovations.
That might be pushing it a bit far, but it does give you an idea of how much this one service could save Canadian property buyers – in both time and money.
