Get A CLUE Before You Buy A House
Too many people without a CLUE are buying homes today.
CLUE stands for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (CLUE). Essentially, this is a loss history that allows insurance companies to access prior loss information on a property. Sometimes insurance is unavailable because the property has had too many reported claims. Remember, this is a property report, not a report on the owner.
CLUE is actually a clearinghouse of information on claims made on a property. According to buyer's agent Debbie Deeb of Tourtelot Brothers Real Estate in St. Petersburg, smart buyers and their agents should make their contracts contingent upon the seller providing a CLUE report that is acceptable to the buyer; if not acceptable, the buyer should have the option of cancelling the offer and receiving a full refund of any deposit money held in escrow. Only the property owner can obtain a CLUE report according to federal privacy laws. The report can be ordered from the seller's current insurance agent. The CLUE report gives a 5-year history of dates and types of losses and the amount paid for each loss during that time period.
This sounds reasonable to me from a property buyer's viewpoint, although some sellers may not be too crazy about it as a contingency. In this market, however, I think most sellers will go along with it if it means the difference between completing the sale or not. Thanks and a tip-of-the-hat to Debbie Deeb for passing this factoid along.
For more information about real estate in the Tampa Bay area, visit my website at www.TheStPeteRealEstateSite.com.
CLUE stands for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (CLUE). Essentially, this is a loss history that allows insurance companies to access prior loss information on a property. Sometimes insurance is unavailable because the property has had too many reported claims. Remember, this is a property report, not a report on the owner.
CLUE is actually a clearinghouse of information on claims made on a property. According to buyer's agent Debbie Deeb of Tourtelot Brothers Real Estate in St. Petersburg, smart buyers and their agents should make their contracts contingent upon the seller providing a CLUE report that is acceptable to the buyer; if not acceptable, the buyer should have the option of cancelling the offer and receiving a full refund of any deposit money held in escrow. Only the property owner can obtain a CLUE report according to federal privacy laws. The report can be ordered from the seller's current insurance agent. The CLUE report gives a 5-year history of dates and types of losses and the amount paid for each loss during that time period.
This sounds reasonable to me from a property buyer's viewpoint, although some sellers may not be too crazy about it as a contingency. In this market, however, I think most sellers will go along with it if it means the difference between completing the sale or not. Thanks and a tip-of-the-hat to Debbie Deeb for passing this factoid along.
For more information about real estate in the Tampa Bay area, visit my website at www.TheStPeteRealEstateSite.com.
-30-
posted by Terry Ward at 4:56 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home