Episode 1818
How to Document Your Possessions for Insurance Claims: Expert Tips from Ken Aaron
Recording the details of your home and belongings is often overlooked until it’s too late, but Ken Aaron, founder of Virtual Home Inventory, stresses that proper documentation can save you from significant financial loss in the event of a disaster. In a dynamic discussion with Eric G, Aaron explains how a comprehensive home inventory not only helps with insurance claims but also acts as a vital tool for estate planning. He discusses the challenges many homeowners face when trying to remember what they had after a loss, noting that emotional stress can cloud their memories, leading to inadequate settlements from insurance companies.
The conversation explores the advantages of using advanced technology, such as 3D scanning, to create a detailed digital inventory of your home. Aaron elaborates on how this technology captures all elements of a home, from structural features to individual belongings, providing a point cloud that can be shared with architects and adjusters for precise evaluations. He urges homeowners to document everything, including high-value items that may require separate insurance coverage, and emphasizes the importance of keeping this inventory updated and backed up in the cloud.
As the discussion unfolds, Aaron highlights real-life scenarios where clients faced difficulties due to a lack of proper documentation. He also addresses the rising challenges posed by climate change, which is causing insurers to become more stringent in their policies and negotiations. The episode is not just a call to action for homeowners to be diligent about their inventories but also a roadmap for ensuring financial security and peace of mind through proactive measures. Ultimately, this episode serves as a powerful reminder that preparation is key, and the time to act is now.
Takeaways:
- Documenting your home inventory with photos and videos is crucial for insurance claims.
- Utilizing a 3D virtual tour can capture detailed aspects of your home effectively.
- Having a separate insurance policy for valuable items is essential for full coverage.
- Engage a public adjuster to assist with claims to ensure proper compensation.
- Regularly updating your home inventory can save you from significant financial losses later.
- Understand the fine print of your insurance policy to know your coverage limits.
Links referenced in this episode:
For more information check him out at https://virtualhomeinventory.com/
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Transcript
It's around the house.
Ken:You bring up a point which is really critical and that is with a claim, you're not just replacing possessions.
Ken:It's the house, the structure.
Ken:And it's really vital to capture the fixtures and finishes that are in the, in the house.
Ken:Because there's so much money involved in that.
Ken:That's why with what I do, because it captures everything, ceilings, floors, you name it.
Ken:It shows the of the build of the house.
Ken:And in addition to that, the advantage of the 3D is so it builds what it calls a point cloud, which is how it defines this 3D space.
Ken:You can take, we can take and export that point cloud and give it to an architect so that if you have a loss, we can give this to the architect.
Ken:You have 97% accurate plans.
Ken:When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know, but we've got you covered.
Ken:This is a around the house.
Eric:Welcome to the Round the House show, the next generation of home improvement.
Eric:Thanks for joining me today.
Eric:If you want to find out more information about us, just head over to the website around the house online.com and thanks for tuning in today.
Eric:Whether you're listening out on the talk media network, on the radio or the podcast or anywhere else streaming, thanks for joining me today.
Eric:We have a great subject and for you guys out there, this doesn't even matter if you're living in a rental, a home, a condo, this applies to just about anyone out there.
Eric:We've got Ken Aaron in the studio today.
Eric:We're talking virtual home inventory and you got to check out his website over@virtualhomeinventory.com Ken, thanks for joining me today.
Ken:Thanks so much, Eric.
Ken:It's great to be here, man.
Eric:You are providing a service out there for people and as someone who has had a break in before and it was a lot of years ago and I lost all my tools except for my big heavy toolbox that clearly there wasn't enough people to haul it off.
Eric:It was the only thing that got left.
Eric:I've had a big loss and I wish I had taken better care of documenting what I had because months later I'm going for a tool and I'm like, I didn't replace it.
Ken:Yep.
Ken:Oh, yeah, no, that's always the case.
Ken:Every person I've talked to that has had some kind of a major loss.
Ken:It's the same story every time.
Ken:They didn't have an inventory, the settlement was really low and they didn't put everything on the claim itself.
Ken:So that when they went to replace things, it's after the fact.
Ken:They're remembering, like you, the tool or the pan or the artwork or whatever, it was something they forgot about and remembered when it's way too late.
Eric:Yeah.
Eric:I think I'm lucky because with my television show, I have documented about 3/4 of my house way too much as I'm doing projects around it.
Eric:But it's the rare instance.
Eric:Right.
Eric:Nobody opens up the drawers.
Eric:You can even have a picture of your kitchen.
Eric:But to go back, and I can't go back and say, what was in the third drawer down to the left?
Ken:Exactly.
Eric:Perfect inventory.
Eric:I'm sorry, you can't.
Ken:No.
Ken:And that's really the case.
Ken:It is with everybody.
Ken:And the thing is that it's key to have that.
Ken:And the reason is, when it comes to your insurance and 90%, I believe, at least of the policies out there are replacement cost.
Ken:To get that replacement cost, you have to prove what you had, and that's proof of possession, quality, and condition.
Ken:The only way to do that is with a visible record of it.
Ken:Photographs, video, et cetera.
Ken:But you also need brands, model numbers, and all that stuff.
Eric:Yeah, that is great.
Eric:So how does this work with you as you go around?
Eric:You guys have a great service that you do around the country, and I think that's super cool.
Eric:How does this work?
Ken:So what I do is I combine 3D imagery and photography to create a complete digital copy of a home and its contents.
Ken:So we've seen the 3D virtual tours that realtors use to show houses.
Ken:Same technology.
Ken:I only take it a lot further.
Ken:So I start with a 3D scan of the entire house.
Ken:Then I go back through the entire house and photograph the contents of every cabinet, closet, drawer.
Ken:I will go into getting the serial numbers and model numbers for appliances, H Vac, anything of value.
Ken:And if the client has artwork and stuff that needs to be more fully documented, I can do all that.
Ken:Whether it's signatures for jewelry, maker's marks, all that stuff that matters.
Ken:That's all combined.
Ken:All that information is then embedded back into the 3D virtual tour.
Ken:So as you're going through the house, like you walk through with the Realtor, in my case, you can click on a cabinet, and it'll show you a gallery of what's in that cabinet or drawer or closet.
Eric:Nice.
Eric:That is cool.
Eric:And.
Eric:And it comes down to art.
Eric:It's an interesting one because you can go through and snap a quick picture, but if it's a.
Eric:If it's a print or it's a lithograph or it's an actual canvas painting that was a limited edition that you bought at a gallery many times there's a certificate, proof of authenticity that maybe is on the back of it or a separate thing.
Eric:You need to keep all that stuff so you can prove that, yeah, this isn't just something that I bought from a street vendor someplace.
Eric:This is actually the real deal.
Ken:Exactly.
Ken:And I'm.
Ken:I'm surprised at how many times people have collectibles like that.
Ken:Art, antiques, etc.
Ken:All of those do require a separate insurance policy.
Ken:The layers, limitations on your home, insurance on art and those things.
Ken:So they need a separate policy.
Ken:And just how many people have not gone to that point and done that documentation is surprising because there is a lot of value in there.
Ken:And one key thing to consider when it comes to an insurance claim, the idea is not to replace your stuff.
Ken:The idea is to recover at the lifestyle you had before the loss.
Ken:And the only way to do that is to have the proof.
Eric:With my house, it's been very interesting and I've had, I've got a great, a great agent who's a buddy of mine that I used to work with.
Eric:So it's great.
Eric:But I sat down when I changed policies on my home a few years ago and I looked at it, I'm like, oh my gosh.
Eric:I did this online.
Eric:I didn't talk to anybody.
Eric:I went on to, we're not going to name name brands here.
Eric:But I jumped online, filled out a policy, went cool, got my homeowner's policy ready to go.
Eric:Then I started thinking, wait a minute, I've done all these remodels and things since then.
Eric:And we had to really go back to the insurance company and say even though that I maxed out on what I could put on my house, do you realize I can't do it for what you're trying to do?
Eric:I don't have this big extravagant mansion.
Eric: This house is: Eric:It's not big, but I've got higher quality stuff in there.
Eric:And doing the mental math, I'm like, even at what that company was going to do wasn't going to get me back into the same lifestyle and the same things that I'd put in there.
Ken:No.
Ken:And that you bring up a point which is really critical and that is with a claim, you're not just replacing possessions.
Ken:It's the house, the structure.
Ken:And it's really vital to capture the fixtures and finishes that are in the, in the house.
Ken:Because there's so much money involved in that.
Ken:That's why, with what I do, because it captures everything.
Ken:Ceilings, floors, you name it.
Ken:It shows the, the quality of the build of the house.
Ken:And in addition to that, the advantage of the 3D is so it builds what it calls a point cloud, which is how it defines this 3D space.
Ken:You can take, we can take and export that point cloud and give it to an architect so that if you have a loss, we can give your this to the architect.
Ken:You have 97% accurate plans to start with and the architect can then just tweak it.
Eric:That is so brilliant.
Eric:Because think about a kitchen, right?
Eric:Let's say you just got done through a kitchen remodel and maybe you have a kitchen fire that completely totals that space is a great example.
Eric:And insurance company goes, cool.
Eric:Kitchen faucet.
Eric:Kitchen faucet could be something that's $50 on Amazon.com or it could be $11,000 through Waterstones.
Eric:And there's a big difference in between those.
Eric:And so if you don't have that stuff documented, you go, well, really, it was this.
Eric:There's a big difference there.
Eric:And that could be an incredible hit as far as the quality that you're trying to put back into that.
Ken:Exactly.
Ken:And that's why, whether you are hiring a contractor to do this work for you or you're doing it yourself, because I'm not that guy.
Ken:But I know lots of really skilled people who do a lot of work on their house.
Ken:And it's vital to a document what you did.
Ken:So show a before and after.
Ken:Just take some quick photos with your camera, with your phone, but also save all of those receipts.
Ken:The receipts, I cannot tell you how important they are.
Ken:And I am just as guilty as everybody else.
Ken:Before I came up with developing this company, I did not have an home inventory.
Ken:I did not save receipts.
Ken:I'm just as guilty.
Ken:My first home inventory was my first prototype.
Ken:But now, yeah, now everything is documented and saved.
Ken:And it's so important.
Eric:It really is.
Eric:And with cloud storage and things like that these days, it's so easy to put it in multiple places.
Eric:So you have that.
Eric:Not only maybe do you have a copy and a save, but you could have it up in the cloud and it's going to be there forever.
Ken:Exactly.
Ken:And my system or my service is cloud based.
Ken:You access it from any device, so your phone, your tablet computer.
Ken:Now if you lost all those in the fire, all you have to do is get access to a device to get to it and you bring up the key Point of backing it up in the cloud.
Ken:One example was friends who went through a personal loss out in Bend.
Ken:They literally woke up in the middle of the night, house totally engulfed in flames.
Ken:All they had time to do was run out the door.
Ken:Wallets, phones, everything was left behind.
Ken:And what was left was a few half walls standing and a pile of ashes.
Ken:Yeah, they didn't have an inventory and it was really turned into a bad scenario for them.
Ken:But the point is, is that you, if you don't put it in the cloud, you can lose your inventory if it's in the house as it burns or is lost in a fire, earthquake, flood, whatever.
Eric:Yeah, that, that makes a great point.
Eric:And that's one of the things I want to bring on just as a, as a side discussion here that everybody out there tuning into this show right now, that's listening in.
Eric:I want to make sure that you understand that you can have all the best inventory.
Eric:But if you haven't taken that time to work with your agent and have the discussion of what you got.
Eric:Great example.
Eric:I have a really.
Eric:One of my best friends had a cabin up here on Mount Hood.
Eric:And it was one of those cabins that had the hundred year lease but on the government land up there, the fore service land.
Eric:Beautiful 50s style cabin, wood plank walls, gorgeous.
Eric:When I had the windstorms this last, this last spring I think in February, they lost power out there.
Eric:The house, it froze up.
Eric:And so once it got thought out, by the time they got out there, he was sitting at home, he's like what's that on my security camera?
Eric:And it was a 3 quarter inch water line that had been broken and it was running through the ceiling, through the lights.
Eric:He was trying to figure out what it was.
Eric:By the time they got in the car, drove the two hours from where they live out there, they had a massive problem.
Eric:And the bad part was, is the insurance company was said they'd cover up to $200,000 on the place.
Eric:Their bill for water damage and remediation after it was gutted down to the studs from the company was like $130,000.
Ken:Yeah, no.
Ken:And that wipes out.
Ken:So just imagine how much they have left to replace everything else and rebuild the house.
Ken:Oh yeah.
Ken:Oh no, exactly, exactly.
Eric:Just got to pay attention to what things cost and, and pay attention to.
Eric:You could have lead paint, you could have asbestos.
Eric:So I just want everybody out there to make sure that you're having these conversations as a whole part of this episode here.
Eric:Because that's a part that I don't want anybody to skip over.
Eric:This part here is super important for you, but you still got to get it replaced, right?
Ken:You do.
Ken:And it's the point about knowing what you have.
Ken:So if you don't know what you have, you can't buy the proper amount of insurance.
Ken:There's a classic example.
Ken:So the inventory serves that purpose.
Ken:You can buy the right amount of insurance.
Ken:Talked to a public adjuster just the other day who had told me that his experience is most people are either way overinsured or way underinsured.
Ken:So you're either paying extra money that you shouldn't and you're losing that, or if you have a loss and you make the claim, you're not going to get everything because you're way underinsured from where you should be.
Ken:And the inventory can help you determine that.
Ken:At least get it much closer to where it should be.
Ken:There's also estate planning.
Ken:Now, I know a lot of people say, I don't have a big estate and all that.
Ken:You have stuff and you have stuff you want to leave to family and friends.
Ken:It all needs to be documented and noted as to where it goes.
Ken:And again, the inventory is the way.
Ken:The only way to do it.
Ken:So you can actually accomplish multiple things by just getting the inventory done.
Eric:That's a great point, Ken, because now all of a sudden, if you're going to be doing a will around that you have an inventory to work from.
Eric:And so you can go, hey, as of this point, I've got this, and this is how I want to dish this out to family members or be donated or whatever you want to do with it, because it's your call.
Eric:But if you don't have that, it's an incomplete list.
Ken:It is.
Ken:And on top of that, families are families.
Ken:And what happened?
Ken:So that painting that was in Grandma's house over the fireplace.
Ken:What?
Ken:Wait, where did that go?
Ken:It disappeared because someone wanted it.
Ken:And they'll say they snuck in there and got it.
Ken:And that happens much more frequently.
Ken:Exactly.
Ken:It's much more common than you think.
Ken:And by, again, having that documented, everything can be equitable and you can keep the difficulties surrounding families at that time down to a moderate level.
Eric:Yeah.
Eric:It's still going to probably look like a General Hospital episode when it's all said and done.
Eric:But it families and show me a family that's going to sit down and go, oh, that's wonderful, great.
Eric:It doesn't exist that way.
Eric:There's going to be some bit of stress because you want to eliminate as much of that as you can.
Ken:Exactly, exactly.
Ken:And preparation is key.
Eric:So the process is so okay, we've got people out there right now that are tuning in going oh my gosh, I'm way behind the eight ball.
Eric:How do I start this process?
Ken:Okay.
Ken:If it's.
Ken:Are you talking about hiring me or.
Eric:Hiring like hey, I don't have the time to go through and do this.
Eric:I, I have a full busy life.
Eric:I'm working, I've got vacations.
Eric:I want to have somebody knock this out for me because I want it done right.
Eric:And do it, do it and get it done.
Ken:Okay.
Ken:So the best first visit my website, call me, let's have a conversation.
Ken:I'll explain the process which I went over earlier.
Ken:Answer questions they have.
Ken:Then we have a conversation about how much stuff they have.
Ken:If it's someone who is not a big collector, it's typical people that have stuff that they want to document, that's fairly straightforward.
Ken:I can go through, have a good estimate based on square footage of the house on how much time it's going to take me.
Ken:Now if they have other higher value items, then we start talking about how many there are so that I can determine how much extra time that takes.
Ken:A typical.
Ken:I'll just give you an example.
Ken:I was in Des Moines, Iowa just this past weekend working for clients.
Ken:It's a couple.
Ken:They have two homes.
Ken:I did both homes.
Ken: One home was in the: Ken: The other one is about: Ken:Both of those were one day jobs.
Ken:I got in there.
Ken:The larger home, he also had an extensive coin collection.
Ken:So we were there from nine to six.
Ken:But I captured everything and now I have all the data here.
Ken:I can assemble the second home much simpler.
Ken:Not a no huge collection.
Ken:I was done by from nine to say 3:34 o'clock.
Ken:Both are back here now another two weeks and I have it all assembled and delivered back to them.
Ken:But there is, but there's also.
Ken:So that's me the great way to do it.
Ken:I know not everybody wants my service or needs.
Ken:My service people are more modest needs.
Ken:There is actually a very simple way to do it.
Ken:I'll just run through the steps.
Ken:Yeah, it's really the first thing is we all got the camera phone that's got video that works great.
Eric:Yep.
Ken:Use that to make a video of every room in the house.
Ken:However, there's a couple key points to make.
Ken:The first is move slowly, walk slowly, don't move fast because the image quality goes down and makes it harder to see what you're doing.
Ken:So you start in the middle of the room, and as a video, you go 360 degrees.
Ken:Just pan and get the whole thing.
Ken:Get the ceilings, get the floors, those heat registers matter.
Ken:Outlets and light switches matter.
Ken:Get all of it.
Ken:Then you walk through the room, start left to right.
Ken:Just be consistent.
Ken:And video up close.
Ken:Everything, it doesn't matter what it is.
Ken:Lamps with this, that and the other, open drawers, open cabinet doors, open closets, capture all of that stuff.
Ken:The goal is to capture enough to help you remember everything.
Ken:And the visuals will be our key to that.
Ken:But the other key is, as you're doing that video, talk, narrate, tell us about the stuff you're talking about.
Ken:Anything that you think is important, the material it's made out of, when you bought it, if you have an idea of the value, just keep talking through it.
Ken:It will help you so greatly.
Ken:The other thing that's also important is don't do one big video of the house.
Ken:Break it up by each room, because if you do need to use it later, it's going to be much more efficient to just look one room at a time rather than fast forwarding to the last room that you did to get there.
Ken:You know what I'm talking about?
Ken:Because you play with audio and video all the time.
Eric:So, yeah, 62 minutes in, I think.
Ken:Yeah.
Ken:So those things will get you a long way.
Ken:And especially like your friends with the cabin up on Mount Hood, that would have been huge.
Ken:I know they were limited, but that would have been huge for documenting and remembering everything they had.
Ken:The last thing is don't keep it on the phone.
Ken:Almost every phone has some sort of icloud cloud storage.
Ken:Put it up in the cloud and keep it up there.
Ken:It will, it.
Ken:You will.
Ken:So thank yourself for doing that.
Eric:Nice.
Eric:My rules on any data like that is if you don't have it in three separate places, you don't have it enough places.
Ken:Exactly.
Eric:And one of them being the cloud.
Ken:At least, at least I personally, I have.
Ken:There is a backup here.
Ken:Yep, there is.
Ken:That's easy access.
Ken:There's the cloud and there's a safe deposit box.
Eric:There you go.
Eric:Yeah, on my computer.
Eric:I.
Eric:This, I don't want this sound like a commercial because I pay every year for it, but I still use that old program Carbonite to back stuff up with.
Eric:Just so every computer has got a backup of my laptop fries.
Eric:I can go down, pick up another one and just go restore, get it back there.
Eric:And so that's my, my fourth backup on Things.
Eric:But, yep, you all recommend when you're walking through to, like, turn the lights up and we change that phone to make sure that you're getting, like, the best 4k or whatever, best quality possible.
Ken:Make this.
Ken:Make the settings on the phone highest quality.
Ken:Now turn on all the lights in the house.
Ken:But sometimes it's better to close the drapes and blinds rather than open them.
Ken:And the reason is that high contrast, that light streaming in through is not your friend on video.
Ken:If you close that blind, or if you have the opportunity to tilt the lever, the louvers so that some light is coming in, you want really what we call a flat, even light, because you want to see as much as you can.
Ken:And it is again, move slow.
Ken:Move slow.
Ken:Move slow.
Ken:Yeah.
Eric:And you really want to do everything right.
Eric:You want to do the house, you want to do the garage, you want to do the storage shed, the attic, any place that you have belongings, maybe even your storage unit.
Eric:Right.
Eric:Just everything you can get, every single.
Ken:Piece of it and the exterior of your house.
Ken:Walk around the entire outside, get that patio furniture, the tool shed, like you said.
Ken:Is it important?
Ken:Anything like that?
Ken:All of it matters, even down to the landscaping.
Eric:Ah, smart.
Ken:Because.
Eric:Yeah, all it takes is depending on where you're.
Eric:Where you're in the country.
Eric:Wildfire, tornado, hurricane, whatever.
Eric:It's one of those things that all of a sudden that can be really messed up and you've got a big problem.
Eric:So I like it.
Eric:So I got a question for you.
Eric:So let's say you just had a loss, right?
Eric:You had something happen.
Eric:Fire, flood, tornado, name it.
Eric:Like, we were just talking about, what do you do afterwards to try to go, okay, I didn't document this correctly.
Eric:Is there any advice for people that are maybe trying to save it after it's too late?
Ken:There is.
Ken:First, it's going to be hard and it's going to be traumatic because a lot my major loss is.
Ken:And losing your home really is one of the most traumatic experiences we can have because it's very debasing and destabilizing.
Ken:So you're already upset.
Ken:And then your insurer hits you right away with, the first thing is, I need a list of everything you lost.
Ken:And you're sitting there going, I can't remember that.
Eric:You're already overwhelmed, Right.
Eric:You're emotionally overwhelmed.
Eric:And now you have to dig deep into the memory banks.
Ken:Exactly.
Ken:That phone that took all those pictures, you want to start looking at those and go back.
Ken:Anything that has the house or what you lost in it, save it Then you go to your friends and say, do the same thing.
Ken:Look at all of that stuff.
Ken:Tell me what you have shared.
Ken:The photos with me that you took at the parties at our house.
Ken:Look at your social media.
Ken:If you share photos about stuff on your house, you got photos up there.
Ken:The next step after that is one of the harder ones, which is you go to the house and you're literally sifting through ashes.
Ken:My friends and Ben told me that story and how hard it was.
Ken:You'd seriously.
Ken:And I saw the house while it was still in the state of ashes.
Eric:Yeah.
Ken:You're literally going through ashes to go, is, this was a pot of some kind, but it's melted.
Ken:I'm not sure what it was.
Eric:Now it's forensics.
Ken:Right, exactly.
Ken:And the other thing is hire a public adjuster if you don't want to know what public adjuster is.
Ken:They are an adjuster who probably used to work for an insurance company, but now they're freelance.
Ken:They work for you.
Ken:They understand the process of working with insurers and they can help you catalog all this stuff.
Ken:And they'll walk you through a visualization process.
Ken:It's tedious and hard.
Ken:And the way it works is you'll sit there and you're standing at your front door.
Ken:Okay, what do you see on the entryway?
Ken:There was this table and a lamp.
Ken:Great.
Ken:The lamp is what you describe it.
Ken:Document it.
Ken:The table drawers in the table.
Ken:How many drawers, what was in the drawers.
Ken:Now you have to do that for every single room, every single item.
Ken:And yeah, it takes a long time.
Ken:You can't do it all in one day because emotionally you just get tired.
Ken:Plus, it's physically tired.
Ken:It's not uncommon for a claim.
Ken:It takes for it to take up to a year.
Ken:Excuse me.
Ken:To get a claim filed when you don't have an inventory.
Ken:Just trying to remember it all.
Eric:Wow, that's incredible.
Eric:And I can't say that enough that a public adjuster is the way to go, because you now have an advocate to sit there and go, no, no, no, that's not how it works.
Eric:And I don't want to bash on the companies out there that are providing insurance, but they're a business as well, and they're maybe not looking out at your best interest.
Eric:They're looking out for their best interests, for the company.
Eric:So you need to have somebody on your side.
Ken:You do.
Ken:And the public adjuster is that person.
Ken:The other one I'd suggest is find a lawyer, because you're going to need them.
Ken:You may not need them right away, but find, talk to friends, find a good attorney who knows insurance law and understands that and have them in your pocket because you're going to need them.
Ken:The insurers, like you say, they're a business and they're trying to, their goal is to reduce how much they pay out to you.
Ken:And when you think about it, an insurance policy is simply a contract.
Ken:It's a business contract that defines the terms, except that they define the terms, you don't.
Ken:And a claim is a business negotiation.
Ken:So that's the way they approach it.
Ken:And their goal is to minimize what they pay out to you.
Ken:And your goal is to maximize what they pay out to you.
Ken:So you see the conflict that happens and that's why having the documentation puts you in so much of a stronger position.
Ken:Without it, you're really weak.
Ken:My friends in bend, they got 42 cents on the dollar for their claim and now try and figure that, figure how you're going to recover to your lifestyle.
Ken:You had with that.
Ken:So these, this is why it's so important.
Ken:And unfortunately most people don't realize and learn this until after the fact.
Eric:Yeah.
Eric:And you think about it a great example.
Eric:So your house, you had a 10 year old heating and cooling system in that thing that was working beautiful before.
Eric:You had that total loss.
Eric:That was a $5,000 unit 10 years ago.
Eric:And now because building code you're going to spend 22,000.
Eric:These are things that you need to make sure you've got documented.
Eric:So at least you could have the argument going, this is the only thing I can, could put in because that's what code is.
Eric:And these are all the little things where that adjuster is going to help you through that.
Ken:Exactly, exactly.
Ken:And it's key because the adjuster is used to doing this.
Ken:They're level headed.
Ken:You're upset, you're not.
Ken:It's not just that you lost your home, you're also angry because of what the insurance company is coming back with.
Ken:The two biggest complaints about insurers.
Ken:First, the biggest complaint is the claims process.
Ken:When you break it down, the details of that is people are upset about the low values they offer and the built in delays or ensure cause delays in the process.
Ken:My friends and Ben went it was coming up on two years when I believe there's a law that says the insurance claims should be settled within two years.
Ken:If the insurer can push past that then they can start claiming you're not negotiating in good faith and they can cut you off and they literally had the insurer stopped talking to them about three months before that date.
Ken:This is where the lawyer came in.
Ken:They had to sue to extend so they could finish their claim.
Ken:And it wasn't their fault.
Eric:No, of course not.
Eric:And so, and then one other piece I want, I just want to give as a reminder for people out there and I want everybody to answer this in their own head and our wonderful audience out there.
Eric:When was the last time that you went through your renters or homeowners policy and read that from the first word to the last paragraph.
Eric:When was the last time you went through and understood the insurance that you've purchased?
Ken:Exactly.
Ken:Read your policies and something to note, these days most insurers, what they deliver to you via email or whatever is a summary of the policy, not the policy that's in your account where you have to log in and download it and read the fine print, read about the process.
Ken:Honestly, your insurance broker probably does not know the claims process because they're not involved in that.
Ken:That's not what they do.
Ken:They hand you off to the claims adjuster, which is a totally different person who has operating under different rules.
Ken:They're not trying to sell you, they're trying to pay you as little as possible.
Eric:It's like going into a car dealership and asking the salesperson to go do the service on your vehicle.
Eric:They got probably no idea how that process works.
Eric:Even though it's in the same building.
Ken:Exactly, exactly.
Eric:And the other thing too is, is that I think that understanding that is really good because first off, you're right.
Eric:If somebody sits there and oh yeah, I read it was three pages wrong document.
Ken:Yes.
Eric:Going to be like, it's going to be like a book.
Eric:It's going to be like a countertop book when you go through reading that thing.
Ken:Exactly.
Ken:If you're reading a document at night because you have insomnia and it's putting you to sleep, that's probably the right document.
Ken:No, but seriously, it is.
Ken:You got to go online and you got to read it and the details of that policy matter so greatly.
Ken:You will have a much better understanding of what you're facing and that may motivate you to get the inventory done.
Eric:Yeah, that is so smart.
Eric:That is so smart.
Eric:And this is so important.
Eric:The same rules apply for somebody that's maybe even in an apartment or something that they've just got renters insurance.
Ken:Exactly.
Ken:While you're not liable or responsible for the walls, everything in front and even the built in fixtures but your stuff, and this is very Much the case where a renter, unless they're a high end renter, they probably don't need me.
Ken:Those steps I gave you to do yourself are going to go a long way to help you out should that happen.
Ken:And you can do that within two or three hours.
Ken:Especially if you're a renter and it's a smaller home, it's not going to take you very long to do that.
Ken:Documentation having that is so critical for.
Eric:Your renter, it's got to be interesting for you.
Eric:And you talked about it with your trip out Midwest with the, with the coin collection, but really detailing that stuff out so an expert can go back if there is a claim process of knowing what it is.
Eric:Whether it's coins or stamps or art or anything else, the more data you have, the better off you're going to be.
Ken:And a key thing for that was, that I was talking with my client about was you need a separate policy for this, all that needs.
Ken:So I documented it so he has proof, so there's something there.
Ken:But you really need that separate policy to get the full value if you lose it.
Ken:But the wall, the work that we did is you can zoom in on any of these.
Ken:You can see the dates and the marks and all that kind of stuff so that it is documented fully and it's.
Ken:And again, art works the same way, antiques the same way.
Ken:Find that label on the bottom underside of a shelf and photograph it.
Ken:So the manufacturer, the artist, whatever.
Eric:Nice.
Eric:That is so smart.
Eric:So, Ken, what have we missed here?
Eric:I know there's so many details to this.
Eric:Is there something that we haven't talked about that's super important here?
Ken:Oh, boy.
Ken:I don't know that we missed anything, but what it is, is I just can't emphasize enough how important it is to do this.
Ken:And the best example I can give is there's an adage in sales.
Ken:It's easier to sell a pain pill than it is a vitamin.
Ken:I'm selling a vitamin.
Ken:Most people don't want to think about that.
Ken:You're, you're sitting there.
Ken:If it's like, like most of us, I can do this improvement to my house.
Ken:I can do this fun thing, vacation or something, or I can do a home inventory.
Ken:Where do you think they're going to go?
Ken:They're going to do one of the other two things because there's much more immediate benefit.
Ken:But when you really understand the amount of exposure you have without having an inventory, then you start coming around to understanding the importance of it.
Ken:And I guess that's the biggest thing is we know this isn't fun.
Ken:There's a chance you may never use this.
Ken:However, when you need it, it can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars.
Ken:I have heard the anecdotes from other adjusters, public adjusters, et cetera, where even people of means who have.
Ken:People who help them do these things are not adequately covered.
Ken:And when they lose stuff, they lose huge amounts of money.
Ken:So it really can affect you greatly.
Ken:Yes.
Ken:I've one story was large house, lots of artwork.
Ken:And we're talking artwork of million dollars apiece and more crazily, not properly insured.
Ken:Lost it all.
Eric:Wow.
Ken:And did not get anything for that because they had no proof.
Ken:And no separate policy.
Ken:That I keep harping on.
Ken:The separate policy.
Eric:Hey, I agree with that.
Eric:I didn't have.
Eric:Up until probably a year ago, I didn't have a separate policy for my tools.
Eric:I didn't have a separate policy for my artwork.
Ken:Yep.
Eric:And a little bit of my wife's jewelry.
Eric:So I didn't have separate policies.
Eric:I went, oh, I'm covered.
Eric:It's.
Eric:It's a homeowners.
Eric:That's all in the house.
Eric:And it really wasn't when I started talking to my agent.
Eric:And again, not bashing on the online people out there that sell stuff, but I really want people to sit down and talk to a human and talk about what things are like.
Eric:And if you can share some pictures and go, is this something.
Eric:Get a good idea of what should be cut.
Ken:Yeah.
Ken:No.
Ken:And I.
Ken:I have a slight bias towards independent brokers, and that's just because they're not tied to one company.
Ken:It's not that the branded brokers are bad or evil.
Ken:They're not that.
Ken:But the independent broker is not tied to one company.
Ken:And therefore they're going to have a little bit more of your interests at heart.
Ken:And you can have these conversations.
Ken:Kudos to your broker for sitting down and telling you you need something separate.
Ken:It's not a sales tactic to get more money.
Ken:It's really.
Ken:That is truly trying to protect you.
Eric:Homeowners policies are so relatively cheap compared to like an auto policy when it comes down to it.
Eric:Right.
Ken:It's yes.
Eric:You going out and saying, wow, I covered that.
Eric:I might have been paying another $50.
Eric:It was stupid.
Eric:How much?
Eric:What?
Eric:What having the proper insurance was as far as the cost.
Eric:It's not that big a deal considering what the loss is if you didn't.
Ken:Oh, no, exactly.
Ken:Exactly.
Ken:I have a separate policy for my artwork and collectibles that I've gathered over time.
Ken:And that's not a small number.
Ken:Not like it's not even one piece of art compared to some clients I've had.
Ken:But it's.
Ken:It's a significant number.
Ken:But the annual fee for that is actually really modest.
Ken:The issue is you do have to get it appraised, which takes time and does cost money.
Ken:But if anything is lost, the artwork and collectibles, which.
Ken:They have value, but I.
Ken:They have sentimental value, because these are things from trips and personal.
Ken:Very personal things.
Eric:Yeah.
Ken:So.
Ken:And if you lose it, you don't get the personal connection back, but at least you get some sort of compensation.
Eric:Yeah.
Eric:I've got one piece I have to get appraised here as well, that I went online and went, oh, that's worth a lot more than I thought it was.
Ken:There's.
Ken:That's always the surprise to you.
Ken:If you have appraisals, too, you're supposed to get them updated every two years because the values change.
Ken:Yeah.
Ken:The updates are a lot less money than the initial appraisal.
Ken:Yeah.
Eric:Yeah.
Eric:I've got something that's a.
Eric: It's an event poster from the: Eric:That's an original.
Ken:Nice.
Eric:And it's.
Eric:It's super cool.
Eric:But I was looking at it online, going, oh.
Ken:Oh, wow.
Eric:That went up.
Eric:That added zeros.
Ken:Okay.
Eric:I got to pay attention to that.
Ken:Oh, no, Exactly.
Ken:Exactly.
Ken:When I had.
Ken:When I had mine updated recently, there's one painting, and this.
Ken:This is the one that is so mean, so much to me.
Ken:It almost doubled.
Ken:And I was just like, pay more.
Eric:Absolutely.
Eric:But it's.
Eric:It's insurance.
Eric:It's smart to have.
Eric:Because it is.
Eric:And with art, too, even more.
Eric:So.
Eric:That could be a.
Eric:That could be a bathroom bathtub overflowing upstairs.
Eric:It could be something so simple, it doesn't have to be a tornado or a fire.
Eric:It could be something very simple that gets that thing damaged.
Eric:And now you're trying to make a claim.
Ken:Exactly.
Ken:But you just mentioned something you.
Ken:And you had asked.
Ken:Is there anything we're missing?
Ken:So one more minute of climate change.
Ken:So climate change and how it affects insurance.
Ken:So we know that climate change is causing more frequent and stronger storms, whether it's hurricanes, tornadoes, or in the event of the west.
Ken:In the west are fires.
Ken:Yeah.
Ken:Much bigger fires.
Ken:What that's happening.
Ken:What's happening then is insurers are having to pay out more than they've ever had to in the last few years, they've been huge payouts, which is why insurers are leaving some markets like Florida and California, and we're starting to hear rumblings about it in some parts of Oregon and that sort of thing where you cannot get a policy anymore.
Ken:And what that means for us as individuals is a, our rates are going to go up.
Ken:I just saw a news story the other day talking about how they're going up.
Ken:And then the second point of that is they're going to be much more difficult in their negotiations.
Ken:They're going to be much harder, much more hard nosed because they're trying to protect their profits.
Ken:Which just leads me to say again, you have to have the proof.
Ken:Without proof, you're in a much weaker negotiating position.
Eric:One other thing too that I'm seeing, and this is just a little side note, to make sure you're maintaining your property, I am seeing companies out there that are name brand companies that are jumping on to either satellite companies or using Google Earth and stuff.
Eric:And all of a sudden people are getting in an email or in the mail certified to them saying, we see stuff on your roof and it looks like you're not maintaining your property.
Eric:You have too many things out there.
Ken:Yeah.
Eric:Better get it done or we're going to cancel you in 60 days.
Eric:Please send us new pictures once you have it handled.
Ken:Yeah, there's a restoration company in Southern California that started up a separate well, call it subdivision.
Ken:That is Wildfire preparation for your landscaping.
Ken:So how do you build that defense perimeter around your property and all that, which is all great for all the natural disasters.
Ken:We have all kinds of advice on how to prepare.
Ken:Yeah.
Ken:And with that one, there's one piece they always mention do home inventory.
Ken:It never gets done.
Ken:But here's the thing, when it comes to that, if you're not prepared for a complete loss, you're not prepared.
Ken:You're not fully prepared 100%.
Eric:And technology, I will say, is getting so good out there.
Eric:I've talked to some of these companies that if you lived in Southern California, Wildfire, they come in and have high pressure sprinkler systems that they can put in with storage, where they can literally put a fog of water over your house that's already plumbed in.
Eric:There's smart devices now you can plug into your home that monitor your electrical system that'll tell you before you have an electrical short, you've got a problem.
Eric:I've got a new product showing up my house right now that you plug in the wall that detects open flame in the room.
Ken:Wow, that's very cool.
Eric:I got that showing up here in the next week and literally I could go sit behind my couch, grab a lighter behind the couch with it being on the other side, hit the lighter and it will say, open flame detected.
Ken:Wow.
Eric:So technology is going to help us, but guess what?
Eric:It still doesn't solve the problem that you still need to have this stuff inventoried.
Eric:And Ken, thanks for coming on today, man.
Eric:You guys are doing something that's super important.
Eric:And the most important thing here.
Eric:How do people find you?
Ken:WW Virtual Home Inventory is 503, 248.
Ken:1101 is the phone number.
Ken:I am more than happy.
Ken:Call, ask me questions.
Ken:There's no high pressure sales.
Ken:I really just want to educate you and help you understand why you need all of this.
Ken:And I'm more than happy to answer any questions you have.
Ken:On the website is a lot of the same info that details it all out.
Ken:There is also an actual inventory on there.
Ken:You can walk through and see exactly what I deliver.
Ken:And by the way, everything is in that 3D model.
Ken:However, also downloadable for the client is every photo that I take inside separately.
Ken:It's all organized by room and labeled properly.
Ken:That's downloadable for you.
Ken:And when I do things like the model number, serial numbers and get to that level of detail or other individual items, I do schedule those on spreadsheets.
Ken:So you have that scheduled.
Ken:And that's something you can build upon.
Ken:You should build upon as you add more.
Ken:And the other thing is with an inventory, once you have it, maintain it.
Ken:So for the next year, have that, whether it's on your computer or a physical one.
Ken:Because some of us still like manila folders.
Ken:Put your receipts, I.
Ken:Oh, I have them on my desk.
Ken:Yeah, put your receipts in there.
Ken:And once a year, all you have to do is take those receipts, find those items, document them, you're updated hour or two, you're done.
Eric:There you go.
Eric:That simple.
Eric:Ken, Aaron, thanks for coming on today, guys.
Eric:Check him out@virtualhomeinventory.com Be prepared for that next time.
Eric:Thanks for coming on today, man.
Ken:Thanks so much, Eric.
Ken:I really appreciate it.
Ken:It's been a lot of fun.
Eric:It's been great.
Eric:I'm Eric G.
Eric:And you've been listening to around the House Somewhere Unseen and undiscovered Anywhere beyond the me Love is a love song let's be lovers we're all over the radio Take my hand I know where to go all over the radio with you we're all over the radio.
