Included in most homeowners, condo owners, and renters insurance policies is coverage for the contents of your home. However, do you know how much coverage you would need if you had to replace everything in your house? Would you know what you had in each room of your home in the event of a claim? Would you be able to remember every item you have accumulated over the years if they were all gone? Recent survey results show 65 percent of homeowners have not made a list or inventory of their possessions.
Creating and updating an inventory of your personal possessions is one of the best ways to make the most of your homeowners or renters insurance, and it makes filing a claim easier and more efficient. If your home is damaged or totally lost due to a fire or other event, having a home inventory will help you recover all your personal property with the least amount of time and stress.
Creating a personal home inventory helps in calculating how much your personal property is worth. Knowing this ensures that you have an accurate value to insure. If you have too little coverage, you would not have enough funds to replace lost property, and if you have too much coverage, you are paying higher premiums than you need to pay.
How to Create a Home Inventory
Creating a home inventory is actually simple these days thanks to technology. Here are a few tips.
- Create a digital record of every room. While you are videoing, describe each item and identify a replacement cost.
- It may be useful to categorize clothing. For example, 10 pairs of men’s pants, 12 tee-shirts, 6 pairs of Nike shoes, etc.
- Make sure you focus on high-end items like jewelry, guns, computers and artwork.
- If you have expensive art or other items, it would be good to have it appraised.
- Update the inventory from time to time.
- Keep the inventory in a safe or at a secondary location. It can even be stored in the cloud.