How to Protect Your Home (and Not Break Your Budget) Series

My 4-week series is a must for every homeowner. Once you buy a home, it’s now all your responsibility! But are you truly prepared for the unexpected? This series is a great overview on what you need to know when it comes to getting homeowner’s insurance, keeping your home safe and secure, and avoiding costly mistakes when protecting your home.

This week you’ll learn why keeping an itemized list of your home’s contents is a HUGE help when you need to make an insurance claim.

We purchase homeowners’ insurance for peace of mind. For that scary event that hopefully never happens when our home is damaged by flood, fire, or storm. Or when someone breaks in and takes our treasured items. 

It’s not something we want to face, but we purchase insurance so we can rebuild our home and replace our property in the event the unimaginable happens. Having insurance allows gives us comfort, right?

The key to successfully replacing your home and belongings rests with YOU.  That’s right, the better records you have about your home, latest renovations, furniture and belongings the more completely your property can be replaced.

The more comprehensive your records the easier it is to go through the claims process.

Why It Matters

Your home is filled with items of different value, maybe you have antiques sprinkled in with your more modern couches and electronics. Some items have great sentimental value while others have higher monetary value, while other items are just part of your life like the coffee maker or your latte machine.

You know the value of your property, but would you remember everything you own and what it cost?  Would you be able to justify or prove the value? How much are you really covered for?

It is very important to take and keep a good inventory of your home. Keep lists and receipts for purchased items, do a video tour each year focusing on new purchases and renovations:

• It gives you a better idea of how much coverage you need, and
• It can help verify the value of your belongings when you file a claim, and even facilitate the process.

Your inventory can help the claims process tremendously since there is no second guessing since you can provide both visual and documented proof.

Getting It Right … and Making It Easy

A home inventory is exactly as it sounds. Pulling together a detailed list of items in your home … furniture, fixtures, paintings, jewelry, appliances, electronics, etc.  And with that making sure you take a picture and include a description, serial number, model, purchase date, and estimated value (include any receipts) for each item.

Taking pictures and making a detailed list sounds a little overwhelming but it is well worth the effort. On top of that you need to keep your inventory somewhere other than your home so it does not get destroyed if anything happens to your home.

There are several apps out there for this purpose and once you have done your initial inventory it will be easier to just add new items (and delete items you no longer have) as you purchase or eliminate them. 

Software should help you track a description, picture or video, purchase price, date and location purchased (copy of the receipt will have all this), current appraised value if applicable, serial number where applicable.  Some software has barcode readers for easily recording this information.

If software is not your thing, you can always save your lists and pictures online with iCloud, drop box, OneDrive, etc.  And don’t forget your final video walk through showing each item in its current place.

No matter what system you choose, the most important thing is that you’re organized and prepared if something happens to your home.

Follow up with your Insurance Agent

Once you have that inventory, have a follow up conversation with your insurance agent to review your coverage and make sure all your treasures are property covered.

Keep It Safe

Now that you have that inventory, be it paper, or digital make sure to keep it off site for safety. Either uploaded to online storage as mentioned previously or if you are still more comfortable with paper (or prefer paper backup in addition to digital) keep it in a safe deposit box.

There are several apps out there such as Sortly, Encircle, Home Inventory, Smart Inventory System, to name just a few. Not all work on all platforms and there are pros and cons to each one. There are several articles that review the software and can help you pick the one that works best for you. Here are just two one on Hippo Insurance  , and one on NerdWallet you may want to visit.

Next week in my 4-week series, How to Protect Your Home (And Not Break Your Budget), you’ll find out why you just may need flood insurance for your home. You might be surprised by why it’s critical to get this added protection.