Does the home you want to buy have good high-speed Internet? You’d better find out

The detective-work part of buying a home has traditionally not extended to verifying the availability of basic utilities – but then broadband Internet became one of those basics.

And while high-speed connectivity now rates as a must-have, it has yet to reach will-get status.

In many rural markets, buyers and their agents must puzzle their way through incomplete or incorrect data to see what access awaits at a new house. Sometimes, new homeowners only learn after a closing that their property is bereft of broadband — leaving them to choose between paying tens of thousands of dollars to get wired connectivity extended or limping along with expensive, data-capped satellite Internet.