On April 24, Porch.com revealed that over 6 million Porch Home Reports (PHRs) have been requested by interested homebuyers since this product was launched in March 2014.
New Corp's NWSA ListHub was mentioned by Porch as being among 10 new listing partners, including: Estately, HomeFinder.com, PlanetRE and iHomeFinder.com.
Notably, News Corp's realtor.com was the first PHR partner, and currently 95 percent of for sale homes on the realtor.com site feature free Porch Home Reports.
Home repairs and maintenance history, as well as remodeling projects, can be viewed to give a homebuyers and agents a better picture of both the listed home and the neighborhood at a glance.
What Exactly Is A PHR?
According to Porch the PHR "includes home improvement project history, the cost and details of remodels and projects, background information for professionals that have previously worked on the home and neighborhood, and vital neighborhood statistics, such as how long neighbors have lived in their homes and the size, age, and cost of comparable neighborhood homes."
The report is built using data and insights from the Porch home network of over 3.2 million professionals and over 130 million projects, along with DIY projects uploaded by homeowners who have registered for their free "home page" on Porch.com.
Why Might This Sound Familiar?
One of the early backers of Seattle based Porch's technology platform was home improvement giant Lowe's Corp. LOW. Porch's point of sale displays are prominently featured on aisle end-caps in Lowe's stores.
By helping consumers find the right professional for a particular home improvement project, Lowe's hopes to narrow the gap with rival Home Depot HD, currently ranked No.1 when it comes to contractor sales volume.
After an initial pilot program in North Carolina, Lowe's rolled out the Porch alliance nationally in over 1,700 stores, where 250,000 Lowe's sales associates can help local customers to match the right professional with the job at hand.
Bottom Line
Over 25,000 real estate websites and brokerage firms now offer the Porch Home Report, and PHR's are now available for 100% of homes in the United States.
Over time, more and more projects and repair history will become available in each neighborhood, allowing home sellers to "boast" about both the quality of improvements and contractors who have done them right.
Porch hopes that the PHR will eventually become ubiquitous -- performing a similar function as Carfax for autos -- helping buyers to learn more about the maintenance and repair history for the homes they are considering to purchase.
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