Plain-English, sourced explainers on both halves of a home. The bones: the wiring, plumbing, roof, and structure that quietly cost buyers the most and that listings never show. The appearance: the flooring, kitchens, baths, and trim you can see, priced room by room so 'dated' stops being a feeling and can inform your offer. Written by Casaroo to help you read a home before you fall for it. Education and triage, not a home inspection.
Type the year the house was built and I will tell you what else tends to be true at that age, what it costs, and what to ask. One number, ten seconds.
Free. No account. Educational and impartial, not a home inspection.
Old or failure-prone wiring and panels are among the most expensive, and hardest to insure, problems a buyer can inherit. Here's what to look for before you make an offer.
The pipes behind the walls decide whether you face a quiet repipe or a sudden flood, and some materials are now insurance and health issues. Know the material before you buy.
A roof is one of the largest predictable costs in a home, and its age shapes both your offer and your insurance. Learn to estimate the years left from the ground.
Most foundation cracks are ordinary shrinkage; a few are five-figure problems. The whole game is telling them apart before you remove your conditions.
The cheapest fixes prevent the most expensive damage. How water moves around a house is the single biggest driver of wet basements and foundation trouble.
Combustion appliances and chimneys are safety items first, cost items second, and they're high up and rarely photographed, exactly where listings hide problems.
Where warm, moist air ends up decides whether an attic stays dry or quietly rots. These are cheap fixes that prevent expensive, hidden damage.
Some hazards aren't a problem until you renovate. Knowing where they hide lets you plan, and budget, instead of being surprised mid-reno.
Foggy glass and old sealed units are easy to miss and easy to negotiate, once you know to look between the panes for the date stamp. Here's what windows really cost.
The single largest cosmetic line item in most homes, and the one where the tiers differ by a factor of five. What a refresh, a reface and a full renovation actually cost, and how to tell which one a kitchen needs from the listing photos.
Small rooms, big bills. Bathrooms carry the highest labour cost per square foot in the house, and the price hinges almost entirely on one thing: whether the plumbing moves.
Flooring prices per square foot, which makes it one of the very few things in a listing you can actually put a number on from the photos. Here is what each material costs, how long it lasts, and when a floor problem is not a floor problem.
Doors, trim, hardware, lighting and paint. Individually cheap, collectively a five-figure job, and the place a flip gives itself away: renovators touch these last and skip them first.
The pattern-recognition cards. How to read a finish tier, spot a flip, see past the staging, date a home by its finishes, and tell the difference between cosmetic damage and a mechanical problem wearing a cosmetic disguise.
See all 35 finishes & cosmetics guides →
The costly issues that hide in listing photos, and how to spot them before you offer.
Some homes are hard to insure in Canada, how to check coverage before you buy.
What rewiring, repiping, a new roof or furnace really costs in Canada, so you can negotiate.
Older homes have charm and hidden costs, the era-by-era issues to check before you buy.
What the photos hide, the costs to plan for, and what to ask, for first-time buyers.
The questions that surface a home's hidden costs before you offer.
Fast checks anyone can do at a showing to catch costly issues early.
Which home problems are real dealbreakers, and which are just negotiating points.
Usually no, a repipe is a known number. The real catch is insurance.
Insurable, but often only through specialty carriers. Confirm coverage first.
Usually manageable when clean and documented, and a leak or a hidden buried tank is the real risk.
Almost never, a high reading is a cheap, routine fix you negotiate.
Most cracks are minor shrinkage, a few signal movement. How to tell them apart.
You can't lean on the old class action anymore, budget the repipe and check insurance.
What common house sounds actually mean, and which ones mean call someone now.
Usually not, the fix is often cheap. But insurers may require it done.
The numbers behind home inspections: how often they find problems, what they cost, and what buyers save.
Assess a home's earthquake risk before you offer: the photo warning signs, retrofit costs, and the insurance s
It is a legal position, not a description of the house. Here is what it changes for you.
Sometimes it means paint. Sometimes it means the furnace. Here is how to tell.
The softest phrase in real estate, and the widest. What it can be hiding.
Nobody can answer your questions. That changes what the showing is for.
Almost always the finishes. Rarely the systems. How to tell which.
"Newer" has no definition. Here is how to turn it into a date.
A statement about the seller's timeline, not about value.
Careful maintenance and original systems, at the same time.
The most informative gap in a listing, and what to do about it.
Casaroo reads any listing for the bones as well as the appearance, free, in seconds.
Free listing check →