Best Place Real Estate

When you make an offer on a house, make it contingent on the seller providing a C.L.U.E. report. Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, hence the name C.L.U.E. report, is an information exchange insurance companies use to obtain prior claim history of personal property as well as automobiles.

Why is the claim history on the house important to a buyer? For one, it will give you an idea of past damage to the home and the probability of it occurring again. If the insurance company paid on a claim, you should check with the seller to be sure the repairs were actually made and the homeowner didn’t just pocket the money.

Another very important reason for getting a C.L.U.E. report is that it will help you determine if you, as the new homeowner, will be able to get insurance on the house. Even though past claims were submitted by the previous owner or owners, the damage was to the house. So when you are applying for insurance on that house, the property’s claim history is what the insurance company will look at. The claim history could affect the cost of the insurance or even if you will be able to get coverage at all.

It is really important that you get the C.L.U.E. report during your contingency period because if for some reason you are not able to get insurance on the house, you will also not be able to get financing. The lender will not fund without confirmation of insurance. You do not want to find out a day or two before escrow is suppose close that you have lost your financing because you can’t get insurance. The C.L.U.E. report is easy for the seller to get through Choicetrust.com and it can save you as the buyer a lot of headaches.

Many divorce specialists say that it is “never” a good idea for one spouse to keep the marital house. I disagree. As they say, “you should never say never”. While in many cases, it is best to sell the house when you get a divorce, sometimes it actually make sense for one spouse to keep the house.

I think what we would all agree on is that if you keep the house, know what you are doing. Make an informed decision. Too often the decision to keep the house is an emotional decision and this is the root of a lot of problems that occur after the divorce.

As real estate professionals representing buyers, we guide buyers through the due diligence necessary when purchasing a property. We advise all buyers to get property inspections, termite inspections, insurance reports, etc. However, when one spouse keeps the house in a divorce settlement, this process is rarely done. The result is that the spouse keeping the house is getting less protection than someone buying the house. It is important to note that just because you live in the house does not mean that you know what you are getting.

For instance, even though you live in the house, it is still very wise to get an home inspection. We all get accustomed to little quirks in our homes, but some of these things may need to be repaired in the near future. Are these costly repairs? What about termites? And how long are the appliances likely to last? While it is impossible for an inspector to guarantee nothing will break, a home inspection will give you a very good idea about the condition of the house.

It is also important to consult a loan officer during the divorce process. Are both spouses on the loan? If the spouse keeping the house agrees to individually refinance the house, can that spouse qualify for a loan?

There are other areas in which you need to be knowledgeable, such as title and tax issues. The point is that if you want to keep the house, it is imperative that you put your emotions aside and actually treat the house as a business transaction. A real estate divorce specialist can help you with this process and assist you with your property due diligence. Then you can make an informed decision that you will be able to live with after the divorce is settled.

At the beginning of a seminar I recently attended, the presenter held up a thin little red book and highly recommended that everyone read it. The next day I bought the book and read it immediately. Now I am recommending it to you. The book is The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann. It is a great book for anyone in business and even those who are not.

It can be compared to Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, MD in that it is a skinny little book with a huge message. Both books use a parable to make the point, although the story in The Go-Giver is more realistic. Both are the kind of books you read and hold onto and then read again a few years down the line.

The Go-Giver is quick easy reading and very inspirational. I highly recommend it. By the way, if you haven’t read Who Moved My Cheese?, read that one too. We all need to be reminded of the lesson in that story once in a while.