Experts' Picks: Home-Inventory Software
by Judy Dahl
If your home were destroyed by a tornado or hurricane,
could you prove you owned it or what it contained? A home
inventory can help, and software tools—simple or
sophisticated—can ease the process.
"In 2004, hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jeanne tore
across Florida," says Lee Hydechuk of Haines City, Fla. "If
you plot their paths, where they intersect is where I live."
Although he describes the damage to his home as "only
moderate," Hydechuk's experience dealing with insurance
adjustors and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency)
showed him how unprepared he was to recover from disasters. He
realized from his own personal experience he needed to create
a
home inventory or a record of his possessions and
important documents.
A detailed home inventory lists and describes your
possessions--from appliances to closet contents--and often
includes photographs or videos of rooms and items.
Descriptions note where you bought each item and its make,
model, and serial number, along with sales receipts, purchase
contracts, and appraisals, if you have them.
A detailed inventory also should include copies of
documents--such as the deed to your house, your driver's
license, insurance policies, and credit union and other
financial account information--you'd need to prove your
identity and recreate your financial life in the event of a
disaster. Store a copy of the inventory away from your home,
and you can use it to expedite insurance claims, access your
funds, and go on with your life if your home is severely
damaged or destroyed.
Decide what you want to accomplish
Before deciding
what tools you need to prepare a home inventory, decide what
you want to accomplish. "Ask yourself how you'll want to
access the information, what format you'll want it in, and how
detailed it needs to be," recommends Vicki Norris, president
of organizing firm
Restoring Order,
Portland, Ore.
Ask yourself how
you'll want to access the information, in what format, and
how detailed it needs to be.
"It has to be
something that you're willing to maintain and update, and for
many people photos of rooms with close-ups of big-ticket items
are enough," she adds. "Then you can save it in a simple
Excel spreadsheet,
copy it to a CD, and put it in your safe deposit box."
Norris notes that
if you use general software, like Excel, or an
Access database,
or a
Word document to
record your inventory, you can set up your own categories and
structure it in a way that makes sense to you. Some
home-inventory software products specify the categories and
require numerous fields of information for each item.
"When people shop
for software, they often want the bells and whistles, and then
it may be so overwhelming that they just give up," Norris
says. It's better to have a simple system that you're willing
to maintain than an incomplete, outdated record made using the
latest software.
On the other hand,
some people find it helpful to have a home-inventory software
product provide categories that guide them through the
inventory process. And detail-oriented, tech-savvy consumers
may appreciate the bells and whistles--such as advanced search
engines that let you easily locate individual items.
"It's especially important that people living in areas
prone to natural disasters have very detailed home
inventories," says Gordon P. Turner, owner of
Mycroft Computing, Baltimore, which offers the
Everything I Own product. There are a variety of products
to choose from; a
Google search on "home inventory software" yields pages
and pages of results.
It's better to have a simple system that you'll maintain
than an outdated record made using the latest software.
Try before buying
Before Hydechuk selected software to assist with his home
inventory, his first step was to determine what he wanted the
product to do. "Home-inventory software must meet three
criteria," he says.
- "It must be capable of containing in-depth details to
the level the user wants to go. If people just want photos
and brief descriptions, that's fine. If they want to say
where they bought it, scan in documents, and add other
notes, it needs to allow that as well.
- "It needs to perform efficiently and rapidly. Home
inventory is a monumental task in itself; if the software is
cumbersome, you can lose patience very quickly.
- "Most important, you need to be able to back up the
software on a CD or USB
flash drive, so that in time of need you can recover the
data from any computer in the world."
Hydechuk researched available products, but didn't find one
that included all his desired features. Since he's president
of software firm Custom Apps Inc., Haines City, Fla., his
solution was to develop his own product,
Computerize Your Assets (CYA) .
While that's not an option for most of us, we can try
various products and find the best alternative. Kevin Sparks,
director of
Kaizen Software Solutions, Fremont, Calif., says, "Most of
the software contains the same basic features, and I think
people should evaluate the free trial versions to identify a
home-inventory product they find easy to use. Then they're
more likely to keep up the motivation to get started and
finish this important task." His company offers the
Home Manager home-inventory product.
It's especially important that people in areas prone to
natural disasters have detailed home inventories.
You can download trial versions from most products' Web
sites, and Sparks suggests printing sample reports and having
your insurance agent confirm they include all information
you'd need in the event of a claim. "And of course it's
important that the software provide a robust backup capability
that provides options for storing the data outside of your
home for safe-keeping," he says.
Store a copy away from home
Storing a copy of your inventory away from home is
essential. "Most people who do home inventories end up placing
them in their homes, offices, or vaults--three wrong places to
have them," says long-time disaster-services expert Michael
Emmerman. He's director of the Special Operations Support
Group, which advises law enforcement and public safety
agencies, and managing director of investment management firm
Neuberger Berman, LLC, both located in New York City. "In
disasters I've seen, when homes, offices, and financial
institutions are in the same area, all can be affected."
Regardless of the tools used to develop a home inventory,
Emmerman advocates creating two
"red files," envelopes containing paper or electronic
copies (a CD or USB flash drive) of all your financial
documents and your home inventory. "Keep one copy and send the
other to a trusted friend, family member, or paid fiduciary
(such as a trust officer) in an area of the country where
you're not," he says.
Some software allows you to store your home inventory
online, but Emmerman recommends against this. "I have a real
issue with placing financial information on a supposedly
secure Internet site," he says. "We're not at the point where
that's sufficiently secure. It's nice to access your
information from anywhere in the world, but anyone else could
potentially access it too. I'd rather have a trusted party
ship it back to me after a disaster."
Document those things that you'll have to replace to get
back on your feet after a disaster.
Keep it up-to-date
Even the most sophisticated software can't keep your
inventory up-to-date for you. "That's one of trickiest things
because it's so rare that you need the information," says
Susan Lannis, president of ORGANIZATION Plus! Inc., Portland,
Ore. "I don't live in a crisis-prone area, but you never know.
"It's hard to remember that as soon as I buy a new
appliance, I need to update my inventory," she continues. "But
I figure if I have 80% of my stuff recorded I'm probably in
pretty good shape."
She's tried several mechanisms to help her remember, and
has settled on making it a New Year's activity. "It doesn't
always happen that day, but it does happen," says Lannis. "If
I lived in a tornado area, I'd do it at the start of each
year's tornado season."
Whatever system you use to manage your home inventory,
"Take the time to document those things that you'll absolutely
have to replace to get back on your feet after a disaster,"
Hydechuk stresses. "Whatever tools you use, even if it's a
camera, a notepad, and a piece of paper, do something. I can't
emphasize that enough."
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