Be Prepared … Take Inventory Before Disaster Strikes!
Protection & Peace of Mind
Complete Documentation of Personal Property
Recommended by Insurance Companies & Financial Planners
An inventory is especially important for insurance purposes. When you make an insurance claim for damaged, lost, or stolen property, your insurance policy will require you to show the quantity, description, and possibly the amount of loss associated with each item. You may also be asked to provide copies of bills, receipts, or other documentation to support your figures. If you omit some items or fail to include an adequate description of others, you may receive less than full compensation for your losses. Relying solely on your memory can be an expensive mistake.
BENEFITS
A home inventory is a detailed list of the personal property or assets located in your home, including pictures. You should also include property that you have stored elsewhere, perhaps in a garage or storage shed.
Your list should include: furniture, jewelry, antiques, artwork, appliances, kitchen contents, clothes, carpets, drapes, computer equipment, television sets, CD players (and other audio or audiovisual equipment), musical instruments, clocks, mirrors, linens, lawn mowers, snow equipment, tools, sports equipment, collectibles and any other items of value.
Here are just a few reasons how you can benefit from our inventory services:
INSURANCE REQUIREMENTS
When filing a claim for destroyed or stolen items, pre-recorded documentation will make a claim easier and more credible. Be sure that all your items are covered under your current policy. You might be surprised at the list of exceptions that some insurance companies have listed. However, most insurance companies do suggest a documented record of your belongings. The format is not the same across the various insurance companies but the expectation is!
WHAT ABOUT MY PRIVACY?
Privacy and confidentiality are a concern anytime someone enters your home. It may be housekeeping, carpet cleaning, repairs, and painting or delivery personnel. We understand this concern and are sensitive to our client’s wishes. Before we start any inventory, we take a tour of the home with our client. At this time we listen to any concerns or issues they may have in any of their rooms or with any of their items. We respect that each person has a varying comfort level thus we put our clients at ease prior to beginning their inventory. We also encourage client participation, and we are bonded and insured. In addition, we sign a confidentiality agreement with you as part of our standard contract.
What happens to the information that is recorded?
During the inventory process we capture the details of your personal property in our secure business software. Following the completion of a home inventory we prepare a comprehensive reporting package which includes detailed reports including pictures. We offer two key reports: Home Inventory by Location & Home Inventory by Category so that you can easily view your property details.
Once you have verified the accuracy of our reports we finalize your inventory and provide you with the following in our comprehensive package:
Client Information Package containing the following documents:
We suggest you either store your report in a secure off-site location such as a safe deposit box.
How much does a home or business inventory cost?
Our inventory services are very reasonably priced and an estimate can be given after speaking with you to get the details on the size & contents of your home or business. Please contact us for more information.
What if my house is too messy for an inventory?
Your house does not have to be in perfect order. The most important thing is that you can see the items. We’re flexible and will work with you to record the maximum amount of detail for the personal property in your home.
INVENTORY PROCESS
The general steps taken before, during, & after a comprehensive inventory are as follows:
Walk-through
Upon arrival for your scheduled appointment, we will request a walk-through or your home. We will ask that you point out items of interest, such as collectibles, items in storage areas, etc… This will provide an opportunity to get to know us and give you a comfort level with having us in your home. The walk-through will also provide us with a better feel for your home contents, the level of detail required and the estimated time required.
Review & Deposit
Following the walk-through, we’ll review our service options, confidentiality agreement and payment terms. Our policy is to collect a 50% deposit on the day of your inventory with the balance due upon delivery of the finished product.
The Inventory
We begin the recording process by going room to room, photographing and recording the details of your belongings (serial numbers, descriptions, etc…). You may be involved as much or as little as you like, although, we do encourage client participation to ensure maximum accuracy. You can help provide the item values as we go or we can sit down following the inventory. We do require you to be present during the documentation of jewelry and any other small, high-priced items you may want us to document.
Once the interior inventory has been completed, we will photograph the exterior of your home. At this point, if you have any outbuildings, we will check the time to ensure that we can complete an inventory of your garage and/or shed.
If documenting outbuildings will cause us to exceed the agreed upon time, you can determine whether we should stop or continue at our hourly rate. We do our absolute best to finish your home, garage and outbuildings within the time allowed however forgotten items may be discovered during the inventory process, requiring additional time to document.
Final Package
Following your on-site inventory we will take the recorded data back to our office, upload the photos, and update our secure business software. We will then create your comprehensive inventory package containing printed reports, Data CD, Protection Plus Software and Client Information Package. Please see the ‘Comprehensive Inventory’ section of our site for full details. Any private information that we have on paper will either be shredded or provided to you in your package.
Delivery
Once your inventory package is ready, we will call to set up an appointment and personally deliver it to your home. We’ll review the package, which typically takes approximately 15 minutes and collect the final payment. It typically takes 3 business days to prepare your final package following the on-site inventory.
Review
You will have 14 days to review the reports and inform us of any corrections that need to be made. After 14 days a small fee will apply to perform any updates to your inventory.
PRE-INVENTORY TIPS
Please review our helpful tips to ensure an efficient inventory process:
Computers, printers, appliances, televisions and other electronics should be ready to pull out in order to photograph and document serial/model numbers. Receipts showing serial/model numbers of these items is also sufficient for documentation.
Smaller kitchen appliances in cupboards, such as, mixers, blenders, choppers, skillets, etc, should be removed in order for us to accurately document and photograph.
Closets should be accessible with clothing and linens ready for pictures. In regard to clothing, we respect your privacy and will only inventory items you wish to include. We encourage you to include any expensive suits, dresses, coats, etc…, as insurance companies prefer to have full documentation.
If you opt to inventory everything in your garage, basement, attic, and storage rooms, they must be neat and fairly organized in order for us to photograph and accurately inventory items. Items in boxes will not be removed by us therefore, they will not be documented.
We will record all vehicles, trailers, riding & push mowers, etc. on the property. Any items you have off-site will not be included but we can arrange to add off-site items at a later date.
Special collections will be photographed and documented as a group unless otherwise specified. Please have any special collections out and ready.
Fine china/silverware will be photographed in a single place setting. Each piece will then be counted individually and entered into the quantity fields of our software. Please have a single place setting out and ready.
Your homeowner insurance information, such as company name, contact info, policy number, etc., can optionally be included in your reports. Please have those documents available for review.
ABOUT US
We agree with insurance agents and financial planners who recommend that all homeowners maintain comprehensive home inventory documentation to maximize and simplify insurance claims.
Our professional documentation service provides you with a complete set of detailed reports containing full details about everything you own along with digital images. In addition, we also include a data backup CD, software so you can view home inventory results on your PC and a homeowner information package filled with helpful tips and advice.
Give us a call today so we can provide you with the protection and peace of mind you deserve.
