Clothing. Pots and pans. Towels. Books. Toys. If you are the average homeowner, all the stuff in your house represents your third largest asset, after your home and your retirement account, says Suzanne Heronemus. “But, very few people have enough coverage on their homeowners insurance to replace the contents of their houses,” she says. “And, they don’t usually realize it until after a tragedy, such as a fire, flood, theft or tornado.”
Heronemus is one of 20 inventory specialists in seven states who contract with the Batavia-based Asset Verification Franchise Corporation (AVFA). For 25 cents per square foot, Heronemus documents the contents of your home, room by room, cupboard by cupboard. For 50 cents/square foot, she tallies its value, too.
“People say, `Couldn’t I do this myself?’ and I tell them, yes, you could, but have you?” says Randy Forman, who co-founded the company three years ago with his brother, Greg. Forman has a patent pending on the software AVFA uses to catalogue home contents.
An inventory tells a homeowner if she needs to beef up her insurance. If disaster strikes, it enables her to process an insurance claim by proving possession of a stolen or damaged item. “People also use the inventories for estate planning,” says Heronemus, a Batavia resident. “They use a copy as a codicil to a will, adding who they want to leave their possessions to.”
“Some of our clients use them as part of their prenuptial agreements,” says Forman. “We inventory what one spouse has in the house before the other moves in. During a divorce, things tend to disappear. This way, there’s a record.”
Few people put much thought into the fine print on their homeowners’ insurance policies that declares the value of “miscellaneous personal property.” Most accept the industry standard, which is 70 percent of the home, excluding the land. So a home with a $300,000 price tag, for example, ($80,000 land plus $220,000 bricks and mortar) would have a personal property value of $140,000.
“That sounds like a lot of money, but would it replace everything in your house?” says Heronemus. “One hundred percent of our clients have found out they were underinsured after they saw what their property was worth. It would cost much more than what their policies say to replace essentials, not including Grandma’s crystal, window treatments, artwork, jewelry. Also, people lose track of how much they’ve spent on things they buy one by one, like CDs or Disney movies.”
Before Heronemus inventories a home, she walks through it with the homeowner. “I ask how I should identify each room on the completed inventory (`Anna’s bedroom,’ `Grandma’s bedroom’), figure out the least obtrusive place for me to set up my equipment and ask details about collectibles,” says Heronemus.
She wears a headset attached to a laptop computer. The voice-activated AVFC software includes a template for each room. The kitchen template, displayed on the laptop screen, for example, lists appliances found in most kitchens. Heronemus scrolls to the word “oven,” then dictates “General Electric, gas.” Then she dictates items in the room that are not on the template, such as “12-place settings Blue Danube dishes.” She uses a digital camera to photograph contents of drawers, cupboards and closets. “One master bedroom closet had so many clothes, I took 80 pictures,” she recalls.
Heronemus says she respects people’s privacy and tries to be careful with their possessions. “I don’t touch anything I don’t have to,” she says. “I always remember that it is a privilege and a responsibility to be in someone’s home, seeing their treasures.”
It takes Heronemus five to six hours to cover a 3,000-square-foot home. Before she leaves, she plugs a printer into her computer and prints out the inventory.
It lists each item by room, with space for the homeowner to add purchase prices, names of stores where they purchased them and other details.
Within 10 days, Heronemus gives the client a disk version of the inventory, too. AVFC keeps duplicate copies under lock-and-key.
Clients who want their property appraised, too, receive appraisals that reflect market values. AVFI subcontracts the appraising to a company that works from AVFI’s descriptions and photos. “For jewelry, we have an appraiser who comes to the house while I’m there so the jewelry never has to leave the house,” says Heronemus.
Heronemus tells clients to keep their inventories and appraisals outside of their homes, preferably in a bank safe deposit box.
While you’re at it, she says, other things to keep in the box include old photographs, baby picture negatives, marriage and birth certificates and receipts of household purchases.
Homeowners should update their inventories once a year, says Heronemus. She adds a blank page at the end of each inventory book for the client to list new purchases.
Homes comprise half of Heronemus’ clients. She also inventories businesses and churches.
This job is a switch from her previous positions in marketing and publicity, says Heronemus. But it suits her because it enables her to work while her children, ages 5 to 13, are in school. “I’ve learned to look at homes differently,” she says of her second career. “Now, I notice if a piece of artwork is numbered and what type of window treatments are on the windows.” She was a fan of PBS’ popular “Antiques Roadshow” before she became an inventory specialist, she says. But her evening reading list has expanded to include her husband’s electronics magazines. “Now, I can tell a subwoofer from an amplifier,” she says.
For more information, contact Heronemus, 888-350-1876, or visit the company’s Web site, www.assetverification.com.
