RealtyTrac Launches HomeDisclosure.com Providing "Pre-Diligence" Reports for 117 Million U.S. Homes

IRVINE, CA - (January 26, 2016) - RealtyTrac®, the nation's leading source for comprehensive housing data, today announced the beta launch of its new consumer focused, mobile responsive, property Pre-Diligence™ website, www.HomeDisclosure.com, which arms real estate consumers with detailed due diligence data on 117 million U.S. homes. Home Disclosure will be available to consumers early in the process of buying, selling or renting a home.

Home Disclosure was created to empower real estate consumers with critical information they can't find anywhere else in one place, and some of which is only disclosed to buyers at the closing table -- if it's disclosed at all. In each property report, Home Disclosure provides more than 40 categories of real estate data, along with hyperlocal neighborhood and environmental data impacting the health, safety and financial security of the homeowner or renter. Watch video.

"There is no other property report -- let alone property listing website -- that will identify nearby registered sex offenders and drug labs, while also giving potential home buyers comprehensive loan history and financial details such as the current equity position on each property," said Rob Barber, CEO of RealtyTrac. "We're able to provide this unique combination of property due-diligence data to consumers thanks to RealtyTrac's nationwide footprint of publicly recorded real estate data along with the neighborhood and environmental data we gather through our subsidiary Homefacts.

"We're willing to provide this data to consumers because our business model is not dependent on whether someone buys, sells or rents a home," Barber added. "We are agnostic when it comes to whether or not a real estate transaction occurs, which frees us up to provide a property report with transparency as its highest objective."

The report also provides hyperlocal neighborhood data on natural hazard risk (including flood, earthquake, tornado, wildfire, and hurricane risk), environmental hazard risk (including superfunds sites, brownfields, polluters and storage tanks and spills), crime level, school quality, median income and much more. View sample report.

"When buying a home or investment property, it's extremely important to completely investigate not only the property but also the neighborhood," said Mike Sawtell, executive vice president and general manager of consumer solutions at RealtyTrac. "The Home Disclosure report will let you do exactly that. It's extremely powerful data that will not only help home buyers decide on which property and neighborhood may be right for them, but give them critical data to help them negotiate much more effectively.

"Most real estate websites provide consumers with the basic information they need to search for homes -- bedrooms, bathrooms and list price -- but they don't offer deeper data that will make buyers aware of potential risks in the neighborhood," Sawtell continued. "It's interesting that in today's world, consumers will perform more pre-diligence on a $30,000 automobile (by purchasing a Carfax report) than they will on a $300,000 home. This is because until now there was not a simple method to access the necessary information. Home Disclosure changes that. For no cost, a consumer can have access to a comprehensive, yet easy-to-use report that is built for smart phones and tablets. Home Disclosure provides important elements of big data necessary for thorough home pre diligence while making the report extremely accessible for all."

RealtyTrac built Home Disclosure from the ground up using public record real estate data (sales deed, mortgage, tax and foreclosure data), along with neighborhood characteristics and risks data, and packaging that data in a user interface designed carefully for a very specific real estate consumer: one performing pro-active, pre-diligence on a home -- whether they are looking at that home for purchase or rental, or whether they already own or rent the home.

Why is the Home Disclosure Report important today?

• Health risk (Porter Ranch, California gas leak story)
• Safety risk (Sex offenders Christopher Hubbart and Mark D. Beebout)
• Property value risk (Sinkholes hurt property values)
• Flood zone risk (Hurricanes Sandy in New York City and Katrina in New Orleans)

About RealtyTrac

RealtyTrac is a leading supplier of U.S. real estate data, with nationwide parcel-level records for more than 129 million U.S. parcels that include property characteristics, tax assessor data, sales and mortgage deed records, Automated Valuation Models (AVMs) and 20 million active and historical default, foreclosure auction and bank-owned properties. RealtyTrac's housing data and foreclosure reports are relied on by the Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury Department, HUD, numerous state housing and banking departments, investment funds as well as millions of real estate professionals and consumers, to help evaluate housing trends and make informed decisions about real estate.