Ep 003 – What is a Home Inventory and Why You Need One?

SHOW NOTES:

Welcome to the Be A Smarter Homeowner Podcast, today your hosts John Bodrozic and Beth Dodson are focusing on what a home inventory is and the reasons why they are recommended. As a homeowner, you may have not even thought about doing an inventory on your home, but if you need to make a claim it can be very helpful. Not just for insurance claims, home inventories become handy in managing money and estate planning as well. Tune in to this episode to get organized on maintaining and protecting your largest asset and expense, your home.

IN THIS EPISODE:

  • [01:00] What does it mean to take a home inventory and what should you record?
  • [04:29] Beth gives advice on ways of doing inventory on the items in your home depending on what has value and is important to you, i.e., photos, video, and spreadsheets
  • [06:35] Different tools and ways to take your home inventory
  • [13:00] The importance of a home inventory to ease insurance processes and claims
  • [21:35] Using tools to create a better relationship between consumer and insurance company and evaluating your insurance policy
  • [27:00] Home inventory for estate planning, trusts & wills

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

  • There are many different ways to take your home inventory and different things to record- make sure to record what has value to you personally
  • Updating your home inventory is important, especially after remodels and updates- this includes updating the value of your homeowner’s insurance policy to value these changes
  • Technology can be a big help in the home inventory process in taking video or photos and then being able to record these items digitally- making it easy to submit to insurance companies as needed

Home inventories can also come in great use if you ever move to a new house- you can manage the move with a moving company more easily

Links Mentioned:

www.beasmarterhomeowner.com

www.homezada.com

8 Make-or-Break Home Office Essentials You Didn’t Know You Needed

8 Make-or-Break Home Office Essentials You Didn't Know You Needed

Whether you’re a work-from-home veteran or a new initiate, building an inviting office space is vital to maintaining your productivity. For all those bringing the 9-to-5 into their humble abodes, here are eight home office essentials to make your workday run smoothly. 

An online P.O. box

Working from home can be hectic, meaning that little errands like checking your P.O. box, slip through the cracks. You might tell yourself that you’ll check the mail tomorrow, and before you know it, you’ve missed out on vital documents and packages. 

With a virtual P.O. box service from providers like iPostal1, entrepreneurs or solo professionals can check their P.O. box virtually without leaving the home office. It uses an actual street address to intercept and upload your mail to the client portal. From there, you can decide whether the employees forward, scan, shred, or store your mail, all from the comfort of your home. 

Read More

How To Prepare Your Home for a Severe Storm

How To Prepare Your Home for a Severe Storm

We’ve all been affected by severe storms at some point in our lives. Whether you got caught in a storm while you were away from home, lost power, or sustained significant damage to your home. A flood can be especially devastating to your basement or lower levels. If you’re worried about this happening to you, take a look at this guide on how to prepare your home for a severe storm.

Read More

How’s Your Home Inventory?

How's Your Home Inventory?
Photo by Martin Adams on Unsplash

What is the current state of your home inventory? 

If you haven’t taken an inventory lately or it has been a while, summer is an ideal time to fill one out, since the weather is nice and your children are home to help you.

However, you might be asking yourself why you should conduct a home inventory. Actually, there are several reasons for this.

You can get back to normal more quickly in the event of a disaster (e.g., burglary, fire, etc.) because you have evidence of what you lost that you can show your insurance company and/or the police.

Read More

Home Management Made Easy

Home Management Made Easy

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have the best tool possible to manage your home? We have the best tool you will need. It is not a hammer or screwdriver, not even a chainsaw. But is it is a digital home management platform that helps you track everything about your home in one central location. You may be asking what is a digital home management platform?

HomeZada gives you an website and a set of apps to track a home inventory, manage a maintenance calendar, leverage templates for home remodel projects, and review all home finances. Not to mention if you own multiple homes, you have one centralized location to track everything about your homes.

Read More