Why Have a Home Inventory? by Steve Wahl

Homeowners have many things that demand their time and attention-family, jobs, social life and sports interests. You can, probably, add to this activities list from your own personal life and you’re busy, right!



One of the last things that is, probably, on your mind to do is an inventory of your household items. There are no current statistics on what percentage of homeowners has one for their home but common sense tells us that the number is probably a low one.



Let’s take a minute and see what is involved as well as why your might want to move this need up on your "to-do-list" and have these items recorded beforehand. If your home is burglarized you'll be asked by both the police and the insurance adjuster from your homeowners’ insurance company what items are missing. How will you do that from memory? Okay, you know the Flat Panel TV is missing from the entertainment center and your laptop or I-Pad is missing from your desk, but do you know what else is missing. What about Serial Numbers on selected items- Guns, TV’s, Electronic Gear Cameras and Computers, etc.? Do you have the receipts, Serial Numbers and other records for this purpose?



What if your home is involved with a fire or tornado? After this disaster, you may be forced to live in a motel or apartment while the claim’s process and reconstruction take place. The insurance adjuster will ask you to produce a list of missing, destroyed or unaccounted items of your personal property for claims purposes. Will you be in the best frame of mind to undertake this recollection of your goods? I’d think that most people would be in a stressed condition, to say the least, after a catastrophe like a fire or tornado. Having a record beforehand would be a real convenience, if not a necessity.



The homeowner can do this inventory himself or hire a professional to do it for him. Why is a video record an excellent solution for your needs? Imagine being able to review the entire contents of your home, Room by Room, on video on your laptop, for example. Your ability to recall is greatly increased, over a mental recollection only. Also a video acts as a great backup should there be questions about a particular item or items by the adjuster. Seeing is believing!!! Serial numbers can be copied by video to prove ownership and provide traceability. Your receipts of Jewelry and other valuables can be recorded on video as well.



When you submit your claim for personal items, under your insurance policy, you will have the confidence that because of your pre-planned inventory, your claim is much more complete, than were it done, using just your recollection from memory.



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There are other advantages to having video inventory:

a. Your can get a secondary digital backup copy of the inventory, should your primary be lost of destroyed supplied by the video professional.

b. This can be used as an estate planning tool for elderly parents, in the event of their death.

c. DVD’s or CD’s of your inventory can be stored in a variety of safe places: your work, safe deposit box, just to name two.

d. Have you thought about that RV or boat, where also many of your possessions that need to part of a video inventory? They can be put on a video inventory DVD also.

e. Police recovery of stolen items is greatly aided with a video description and serial no’s



We have talked about several reasons why a home inventory is really a necessity. You can do it yourself, if you want to take the time. The question is will you find the time. Hiring a professional to complete this task will probably be more complete and save more time than were you to do it yourself.



Next, how do I find this service in my area of the country? There are firms located on the internet, thru the electronic yellow pages or searching phrases, "photo inventory of household goods" or "home inventory" to start with.



I hope the article was helpful and here are some sites that might help in your search

www.bessed.com/homeinventoryservices/

http://www.assets2image.com/