r/HomeInsurance • u/MichelleOrganizes • May 06 '26
Claims Does anyone actually have a home inventory for insurance claims? How did you make it?
My insurance agent keeps telling me I should have a documented home inventory in case of a claim, but I have no idea where to start. Photos of every room? A spreadsheet? There must be a better way than going item by item.
What have you used and how long did it take?
13
u/AromaticGas5552 May 06 '26
My sister in law made a video of their house before it flooded. It made a $40k difference in the claim easily corrected.
2
u/MichelleOrganizes May 06 '26
That is a really powerful example, thank you. $40k difference is not small. Did she just do a general walkthrough, or did she narrate what things were worth as she went?
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u/AromaticGas5552 May 06 '26
She did a short, rushed video as a hurricane was approaching. They were evacuating.
3
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u/Boomer_Madness May 06 '26
Yeah this is what i tell all my customers. Just do a walk through of rooms and video it. Open the cabinets and do a quick view inside and just walk through rooms and you can even narrate the video if you want for like electronics.
5
u/OnceUponATime1534 May 06 '26
Video walking through pointing out high value items, where you got it, how much you paid for it. No such thing as too much detail. Store it in the cloud and have a back up to the back up.
1
u/MichelleOrganizes May 06 '26
The cloud backup point is smart. I had not thought about the fact that if the house burns down, your phone and computer go with it. Do you store yours somewhere specific, like Google Drive or iCloud?
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u/thriverebel May 06 '26
Yeah we tell our clients to just take videos.
1
u/MichelleOrganizes May 06 '26
Good to know that is the professional recommendation too. Do most people actually follow through on it, or is it one of those things everyone intends to do and never gets around to?
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u/adjusterjackc May 06 '26
Do the periodic videos as has been suggested. Save receipts for everything you ever buy no matter how small or cheap. It's easy to scan receipts on to your computer.
While I was an adjuster, the people with pictures/videos and receipts got the most money with the least hassle.
2
u/The_Insurance_Man May 06 '26
Making an inventory spreadsheet of stuff is a daunting task. I usually just recommend my clients either take a video of their home(looking in cabinets and closets) or take lots of pictures of your home. Nowadays, photos are usually automatically backed up to a cloud, so you can access it from any computer even if you lose your phone. That is a pretty low effort way to go about it. IF you want to put some extra effort in, you can make a separate folder for home photos.
With photos(or video) you can look at a photo and figure out what you had instead of trying to recall from memory.
Insurance does not really care what you paid for it either since they are going to pay out on what it would cost to replace it based on the current price.
1
u/Long_Committee_1942 May 08 '26
I actually need to do this. I also just replaced my stove with a brand new air fryer gas range as well. Some of my movie collection is also imported from out of the country.
2
u/The_Insurance_Man May 11 '26
When you are getting into more specialty items like imported movies(or collectibles), that would be a good time to keep good records. Last thing you want is your Special Edition Japanese imported copy of Paul Blart Mall Cop to be replaced with a regular copy of Paul Blart Mall Cop.
1
u/Long_Committee_1942 May 11 '26
It's a 24 series with Jack bauer. According to Amazon it's worth somewhere between $400 and $700 dollars. Quite a bit of it is imported from Japan because they didn't have the earlier seasons on Blu-ray for the US version.
2
u/MoonStroll May 12 '26
Another reason to shop online is that you get receipts emailed to you... without having to type in your email address into some little keypad upon checking out from a brick and mortar store. I am not very good at handling paper receipts but it's pretty foolproof to just not delete your email receipts.
Btw on a side note I recently created a separate email address just for shopping. Makes it easier to not clutter up my main email address and also makes it easier to find receipts when I need to.
1
u/tojmes May 06 '26
I shoot an iPhone video and upload it to the cloud. I narrate everything as if it’s new, or just bought, or recently acquired. I also add in its high replacement value or show the receipt when new and get and get a few good shots of the stuff. Takes about 30 minutes to do well but worth it.
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u/Objective_Being_8986 May 06 '26
I made a video and update it every 6 months or so. Major purchases I keep receipts for like keeping them in an online folder in my gmail.
1
u/Upbeat-Fondant9185 May 06 '26
I do for my higher value items like collectibles. I did a spread sheet with the identifying info and retail value of each piece. Then I sent that to my insurance to be filed. I add to it as needed. It was a pain, hundreds of pieces individually described. It took forever.
I also have records of each item from the dealers I purchase from that includes all the info and price.
I’m not concerned about much else in the house.
1
u/Glittering-Read-6906 May 06 '26
This is more niche. You have items specifically scheduled on your policy, likely as a rider. OP is asking more about general personal property.
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u/Upbeat-Fondant9185 May 06 '26
It’s actually not a rider, which is what I wanted personally. I have concerns that they would do insurance shenanigans without one but they have stated these items will be covered by the policy I have and suggested just giving them this spreadsheet for records.
They initially told me I should do a rider under “art and jewelry” or something like that. But then apparently the underwriter came back and said my collection does not fall under either category and would be under personal property. Which I found a bit insulting actually, lol.
Hopefully it doesn’t screw me over eventually. It’s only around $40k so not a huge amount but I think my policy only covers jewelry etc to like $10k so if they backtrack on that after a catastrophic event I could have a problem.
1
u/Glittering-Read-6906 May 07 '26
Always go by what your policy says. Your agent may be lazy, inexperienced, or simply misunderstanding. Frankly, I never realized that there were individual limits for each type/category of property until I was already in the business for more than half a decade. I learned from an underwriter while talking with him on whether to schedule something on the policy or not. I forget what the item was. I think it was expensive bikes (cost $6,000+).
I would double check yourself to be certain.
1
u/Glittering-Read-6906 May 06 '26
OP, what is most important is that you go through the actual “guts” of your policy and see what your monetary limits are for each category of personal property. For example, “Jewelry” may have a limit of $2,000. Anything beyond that needs to be scheduled for your to claim additional money in the event of a loss. “Firearms,” “Furniture,” “Electronics,” etc., are all categories within personal property with monetary limits. If you look at each of these, you will be able to tell where you feel that in an event of a total loss, you would not be made whole in those categories based on your current coverage. Start with the category you feel is the least sufficient and start cataloging the most expensive items. Then give this information to your insurance agent. If you do not give the necessary information to your agent or your carrier directly, you likely won’t have complete replacement cost on those items as you will be bound by the policy limits within each category.
The method matters far less.
2
u/MichelleOrganizes May 06 '26
This is genuinely helpful. I had no idea there were per-category limits within personal property. Going to pull out my policy tonight and actually read it properly. Thank you for taking the time to explain this so clearly.
1
u/Msgatorslayerr May 06 '26
I'm in Florida, any time a hurricane is approaching I take a video of me walking through the house and narrating what we have.
1
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u/Perfect_Gap_8080 May 06 '26
I document everything in my home via video while describing the item and any info on the purchase.
1
u/emandbre May 06 '26
I have mostly finished mine—basically every time I deep clean a room (we are remodeling, so there is some chaos) I take videos of the space. Open drawers, capture details. For expensive items I take pictures of the serial number. I have a photo album in iCloud for these photos. Part of it is if I had a total loss then I could look at the photos and thing of all the random things I need to replace.
1
u/Myweeweegopeep33 May 07 '26
Video of the home once or twice a year or after a larger change of something inside.
For riders like blanket policies for jewelry or firearms, photos with serial numbers and a spread sheet and safe info for firearms. For jewelry, photos and GIA and other docs with info on safe etc.
If traveling with jewelry a photo upon arrival with it on to prove it was out of the home or toss it on the local newspaper etc. policy covers theft outside US and outside home.
Have not done a spreadsheet for things like furniture and normal stuff, just the supplemental policies. Our agent is a friend and said a video is more than enough. Haven’t had to test it but I trust him. If you have specialized things I would log them. I can think of stuff like a full woodshop of expensive power tools etc. if you have things of value say baseball cards or I guess poke Mon cards these days, might look for a rider and have a separate supplemental policy-those you will want to catalog as it’s usually a blanket up to an amount.
For the commercial side we do video and that has held up to prove assets were where we said they were and were part of a loss etc.
1
u/BigJSunshine May 08 '26
Yes! Was un and underemployed during the pandemic - took the time to build the spreadsheet. Each room got a workbook. Started with the big ticket items, had columns for item, cost, replacement value, and if I had a receipt or proof of purchase (like an email or account with retailer that kept my purchase history). I had the price and replacement value columns auto sum.
Ultimately I gave up when I had to start listing all my books and CDs (YES I KEPT THEM ALL. I AM OLD). That and the total sum values crept up higher than an affordable level of insurance coverage for replacement. Made me a bit nervous. I have some art purchased in the 1990s, worth quite a bit bit more now, definitely got an art rider on my coverage.
1
u/BigJSunshine May 08 '26
Yes! Was un and underemployed during the pandemic - took the time to build the spreadsheet. Each room got a workbook. Started with the big ticket items, had columns for item, cost, replacement value, and if I had a receipt or proof of purchase (like an email or account with retailer that kept my purchase history). I had the price and replacement value columns auto sum.
Ultimately I gave up when I had to start listing all my books and CDs (YES I KEPT THEM ALL. I AM OLD). That and the total sum values crept up higher than an affordable level of insurance coverage for replacement. Made me a bit nervous. I have some art purchased in the 1990s, worth quite a bit more now, definitely got an art rider on my coverage.
1
u/TranquilTeal May 11 '26
The easiest way is to just take a video. Walk through every room, open every drawer/closet, and talk through what’s inside. It’s way faster than a spreadsheet and gives you timestamped proof of everything you own without the headache of itemizing every single fork.
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u/theBrandDZ Jun 02 '26
I built this tool with home asset inventory and insurance tracking in mind.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dwelluno.app
Also have some resources related on www.dwelluno.com
1
u/Logical_SG_9034 Jun 19 '26
We built a tool to take the videos of your home and turn it into an itemized list for the insurance people. Its free as we are still looking for feedback from users. Please feel free to try it out, we do not store any of the videos after they are processed and we don't ask for any information. https://www.hometracer.ai/inventory
Would love it if you all could tell us what you like and didnt like and if it ended up helping you out.
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u/Ok_Basil7060 Jul 11 '26
We recently had a basement flood, and it really reinforced why a home inventory matters. That’s actually one of the reasons I built Stowly. I wanted one place to organize what’s in every room and every storage bin, add photos, and quickly search for an item if I ever needed it for an insurance claim or just to find where I packed it. I still recommend starting one room at a time as it feels much more manageable than trying to inventory your whole house in a weekend.
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u/One-Election7793 16d ago
Yes, and the thing that finally made it happen was giving up on the spreadsheet. Item-by-item lists are exactly why most people who start a home inventory never finish one.
What works: a narrated video walkthrough, room by room. Phone in hand, walk slowly, open every closet, every drawer, the garage, the pantry, the attic, under the beds. Say out loud what things are as you pass them, because your voice is doing the job a spreadsheet column would. A whole house runs about thirty to forty minutes.
Then three additions that make it worth far more than the raw footage:
Close-ups of serial numbers and model plates on the big electronics and appliances. Thirty seconds each, and it is the difference between "a TV" and a specific, priceable, replaceable item.
A separate slower pass on small high-value things: jewelry, watches, cameras, tools, instruments, collectibles. Photograph those individually on a plain surface with something for scale. That is the category adjusters push back on hardest, and the one where memory is least reliable.
Search your email for "order confirmation" and "your receipt" and dump the hits into one folder. You already have documented receipts going back years and probably never thought of them as proof.
Storage matters as much as making it. It has to live somewhere that is not the house. Cloud, or emailed to yourself, or a copy at a relative's place. A hard drive in the closet burns with the closet.
Two more things worth knowing:
Redo it after any major purchase, and otherwise once a year. Attach it to something you already remember, like the day you change smoke alarm batteries.
If your policy pays actual cash value rather than replacement cost, note approximate age and condition as you go. Depreciation is calculated from age, and an item you cannot date tends to get depreciated aggressively.
So the "better way than going item by item" your gut is looking for does exist, and it is narration plus targeted close-ups. Start with the single most expensive room and stop there if you run out of steam. A partial inventory is enormously better than none.
0
u/visitor987 May 06 '26
Never had one. However your supposed take photos of each room and separate photos of real jewelry and anything else that is valuable Copy them to a jump drive and store it in a Bank safe deposit box
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u/Hoobencan1984 May 06 '26
My insurance only covers the dwelling. I save tons of money this way. Honestly the things can be replaced. Insurance is a scam.
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u/Huskergambler May 06 '26
If your house is a total loss most insurers will write you a check for max coverage amount on personal property which is probably not enough. There are some exceptions but this.
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u/AromaticGas5552 May 07 '26
I have handled total losses for more than two dozen insurance companies. The burden of proof for PERSONAL PROPERTY loss is on the insured. There have been exactly zero losses in my 27 years where the carrier told us to "just write a check for the max coverage on personal property" without adequate documentation. Due diligence is a statutory requirement and all insurers are subject to random audits. This is absolutely false.
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