Casaroo, home page
Check a house

Know what a house will cost you before you sign.

Free, impartial help for people buying a home in Canada, especially for the first time. Tell us the year it was built and we will show you where to look.

Have the listing photos? Get a free listing check

1 2 3 4 5
1. Roof near the endUsually $8,000 to $18,000 to replace
3. Federal Pacific panelUsually $1,500 to $4,000 to replace
4. Original water heaterUsually $1,800 to $2,800 for an owned tank
  1. Roof near the end: $8,000 to $18,000
  2. Thin attic insulation
  3. Federal Pacific panel: $1,500 to $4,000
  4. Original water heater: $1,800 to $2,800
  5. Foundation crack

Every house has blind spots

The roof, the panel, the wiring and the pipes are the things that cost money, and the things a listing almost never shows. Type one number, the year it was built, and I will tell you what to look for and what to ask.

A guess is fine. 1965, or just the 60s.

Anything worrying you? Tap any that apply, or skip it.

Free. No account. Educational and impartial, not a home inspection.

Or browse every year from 1900 to 2026 and see what is typical for each one.

No accountNothing to sellNo commission on anythingEducation, not a home inspection

Where are you in your search?

Walk through it room by room. Every room is free and none of them ask you to sign up.

Front hall

1 Just starting to look

Work out what you can afford before you fall for anything.

How much can I afford?
First-Time Buyer Money Pack

Living room

2 Found a listing you like

See what houses from that year tend to hide, then have the listing photos read for free.

Blind spots by year built
Free listing check

Kitchen

3 Going to a showing

You get about twenty minutes inside. Know where to look.

Showing checklist
30 second home checks

Dining room

4 Getting ready to offer

Sit down with the real numbers and the questions worth asking first.

Closing cost calculator
Questions to ask before you offer

Utility room

5 Reading the inspection

What a finding usually costs to fix in Canada.

Repair cost lookup
Is it a dealbreaker?

Front porch

6 Helping someone else buy

Free things to hand out at a library or office.

For organisations

What each era tends to hide

Houses built in the same years share the same weak spots. Here are the big ones, and where a house built in 1965 lands.

Knob and tube wiring, before about 1950
Galvanized steel water pipe, before about 1960
Lead paint, before about 1980
Federal Pacific and Zinsco panels, the 1950s to the early 1980s
Aluminum branch wiring, 1965 to 1973
Poly B water pipe, 1978 to about 1997
Kitec plumbing, 1995 to 2007

Built in 1965? Three of these may apply. See the 1965 page, or pick any year from 1900 to 2026.

In 2023, we walked right past this.

My wife and I bought our first house that year. In the basement was a grey metal box we never looked at twice. It was a Federal Pacific panel, a brand with a documented history of breakers that fail to trip, and one Canadian insurers now ask about by name. It was right there in the listing photos.

Inspectors know about it. Insurers know. It just never reaches a buyer standing in a stranger's living room with twenty minutes to decide. Casaroo is my attempt to put that knowledge in a buyer's hands before they sign, for free.

Chris, Ontario

The whole story, what is free and why

Free for good

The listing check has no account, no sign up and no limit.

Impartial

No listings, no referral fees, no cut of any sale or inspection.

Open

Our 96 repair costs are published under an open licence for anyone to reuse.

Honest about limits

Education, not a home inspection. Always hire a licensed inspector.

142 guides, written plainly

What goes wrong in Canadian houses, what it costs to fix, and where every number comes from.

Or start with a part of the house

ElectricalPlumbingRoofing HeatingStructureWindows ExteriorInsulationFinishes

Plus a page for every year built since 1900 and eight free calculators.

Helping buyers in your community?

Libraries, housing help centres and credit counsellors

A Money Pack that prints blank, a one page showing checklist and calculators you can link to. Nothing is collected from the people you give them to.

See what you can hand out

Home inspectors, mortgage brokers and agents

A free page of your own that sends clients into a listing with their eyes open. Nobody else on your page, and no commission, ever.

See the partner pages

Questions people ask

Is this a home inspection?
No, and that's deliberate. Casaroo is buyer education and triage. Always get a licensed inspection before you buy; Casaroo helps you decide which homes deserve one.
What is the difference between the bones and the appearance?
The bones are the roof, heating, electrical, plumbing and structure, the things that cost real money after you move in. The appearance is the kitchen, bathrooms and finishes, how nice it is to live in. A house can be beautiful with an old furnace, or plain-looking with great bones, so Casaroo reads both.
Why should I trust Casaroo's read?
Because you can check it. No seller, agent, brokerage, or lender pays us, so nobody can buy a better score. Every issue Casaroo raises traces back to a published guide in the Home Buyer's Library that names its own sources, and every cost range comes from one sourced Canadian cost table. And Casaroo will never tell you a home is fine: it flags what is worth checking, and never clears a home. Read the full answer, including what Casaroo cannot see
How does it work?
It analyzes the listing's photos, specs, and location signals and summarizes what stands out on each axis, the good and the bad, in plain English, ending with questions to ask the agent.
Is it free? What will I pay for later?
Everything live today is free. The Listing Check is unlimited, with no account and no limit, and it stays free. The library, the year pages and the calculators are free too. Casaroo plans to pay its own way with a flat monthly plan for home inspectors and mortgage brokers who want to share these tools with their clients. It is a flat fee, never a commission, so nobody earns more when you buy a particular house.
Will it tell me if a house is overpriced?
It gives you value signals, price against size, age, and days on market, to discuss with your agent. It's not a formal appraisal.