The CLUE report is an important document for buyers and sellers..

Most insurance companies contribute their claim history to what’s called the CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) report. 

The buyer can’t request this report from the insurance company—only the seller can.

If someone’s buying a home and wants to know what kind of insurance claims are a part of that home’s recent history (i.e., the past five to seven years), that’s what the CLUE report provides. 

However, the buyer can’t request this report from the insurance company—only the seller can. The buyer can ask the listing agent and the agent can have their seller make this request, though. 

This recent article from Bankrate goes further in depth about what you need to know concerning CLUE reports, but this section highlights the key points you need to know:

“Your free CLUE report includes the following:

• The name of the insurance company
• The date of any losses and their claims
• The type of loss—fire, wind damage, etc.
• Whether or not the claim was denied
• If not denied, the amount that the insurer paid out
• The homeowner’s insurance policy number and claim number

The report won’t include specifics, such as what part of the house was damaged—but it will give you enough information to ask the homeowner to explain the details.

A report might be blank, for two reasons:

• The homeowner did not make any claims in the past seven years.
• The home was covered by an insurance company that doesn’t participate in CLUE.”

Recently I sold a home for $2.2 million, and we were provided a CLUE report to the buyer per their request. As it turned out, there were damages awarded to the seller. Specifically, hail damage that had been done to the home’s slate roof. Thankfully, the seller had receipts that matched the report, and they had everything repaired professionally. This gave the buyer peace of mind knowing that, although the home had incurred its share of damage, the seller took care of it and provided the receipts. 

If you represent a buyer, make sure you differentiate yourself and ask sellers to provide their homes’ CLUE report so you can bring more value to your client. If you represent a seller, have them get the CLUE report ahead of time so that their home “stands out” to buyers during their home search. 

As always, if you have questions about this or any luxury real estate topic, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Keep raising the bar and bringing value to your clients—that’s how you attract more opportunities.

Michael LaFido
Founder & CEO | Luxury Listing Specialist Designation (LUXE)
Michael@MarketingLuxuryGroup.com
LuxuryListingSpecialist.com
LuxurySpecialistGear.com

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