See what's inside before you sign

You'd check what's in your food before you eat it. A lease usually costs more than a year of groceries, yet most renters sign one knowing almost nothing about the building.

That's why WURTHIT, the renter platform built by New Growth Investments, now has a free Building Scan at getwurthit.com/scan.

Type in any Chicago address and in about ten seconds you'll see what the City of Chicago has on record for that building: open building violations, housing-related 311 complaints from the past year, and whether the building is on the City's Building Code Scofflaw List. You'll also see what verified renters have said about it. Every building gets a plain-English grade: Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze or Review Required.

A free account (no password, just a link sent to your email) unlocks more: the owner of record from Cook County, every violation and 311 request since 2016, and an email alert whenever the City records something new at a building you're watching.

Birmingham, Alabama is next. Birmingham doesn't publish building violation records as open data, so the Birmingham scan at getwurthit.com/birmingham shows what is public: the owner of record from Jefferson County, where the owner's tax bill goes (in Birmingham, elsewhere in Alabama, or out of state), the county's appraised value, typical rent for the ZIP code, and renter reviews.

Public records aren't the whole story. A listed violation may already be fixed. But they are a better starting point than a listing photo. Scan the building, then ask the landlord about anything that comes up.