About HouseFax in 2026
HouseFax was acquired by HouseCheck in 2019 and relaunched as HouseFax.ai, an AI valuation platform: a free home-value estimate plus a paid Pro tier for market alerts and comparables, aimed at agents, investors, appraisers, and lenders as much as buyers. If you want the risk and public-records side instead of a valuation, that is the gap this page is about.
Side by side
| Feature | Buyer Be Aware | HouseFax |
|---|---|---|
| The question it answers | What is wrong with this house before you sign: flood, permits, environment, insurability, records. | What is this house worth: AI valuation, comparables, market trends. |
| Pricing model | One-time $4.99-$19.99 per address. No subscription. | Free home valuation; paid Pro subscription for alerts and comparables. |
| Who it is built for | The buyer, paying their own way. No agent, lender, or seller in the loop. | Homebuyers plus agents, investors, appraisers, and lenders. |
| Flood, environmental & insurability risk | FEMA flood zone + preliminary-map trajectory, EPA enforcement, oil/gas well proximity, and an insurability verdict for CA/FL/LA/TX. | Built around valuation, not risk records. |
| Public records | Permits, code violations, ownership and sale history, post-sale property-tax reassessment. | Property and market data oriented to value. |
| AI synthesis | Address-specific executive summary plus a pre-offer due-diligence checklist with prioritized actions. | An AI home-value estimate. |
| Re-run within 30 days | Free. If the listing or any underlying record changes, you can pull a fresh copy at no charge. | Ongoing monitoring is a Pro subscription. |
What we kept from the HouseFax idea
The original insight was right. A house is a 6-figure, largely irreversible decision, and the buyer is the one with the most at stake. Yet the diligence packet is fragmented across 10+ disconnected agencies, and the listing agent has no incentive to pull it together. Both HouseFax and Buyer Be Aware exist to fix that.
What we changed
We're structured as a one-shot, place-keyed report. No subscription, no agent gatekeeper, no listing-platform conflict of interest. The legal posture is conservative on purpose. We report on the address, not the people on it, which keeps us out of FCRA territory and out of the people-search lane that Spokeo and BeenVerified live in.
On the data side we add what started to bite buyers after HouseFax launched: flood-zone trajectory from preliminary maps, insurability verdicts in the CA/FL/LA/TX residual markets, EPA enforcement overlays, and post-sale property-tax reassessment modeling.
Try it free first
The free check returns the FEMA flood zone and assigned school district for any address instantly, no account required. If you want the rest of the picture (the other 25+ checks), the paid report is $4.99-$19.99 one-time and includes a free re-run within 30 days.