Burglarized Twice in a Row...

Burglary Victims May Become Victims Again

We recently had a client call for a home inventory after their home was burglarized. A few weeks after everything had been replaced, they were burglarized again. The thieves stole all of their brand new TVs and other electronic equipment. When the police arrived, our client pulled out their home inventory and were able to give the police detailed information like make, model and serial numbers of their stolen electronics. Not only were the police impressed with their records, but having this information immediately at hand may greatly increase the chances of their stolen property being returned. It also may be the thing that can provide evidence to convict the criminals.

Just imagine your computer being stolen. How long would it take you to get your digital life back in order? Do you have the make, model and serial number stored in a safe place? Do you have your digital information backed up? TVs can be replaced but these days our computers hold so much information that we need daily as well as personal and financial information you would not want thieves to have.

It seems obvious that our clients have become a target of a thief or a ring of thieves. Thieves know you will be replacing TVs and computers rather quickly. These thieves gave their victims just enough time to strike again. They made off with big beautiful brand new TVs and electronics, only this time they took their computer.

You Have Layers of Protection:

· You have homeowners insurance to protect you, but that comes with a high deductible these days.

· You have a home security system, but thieves know they have 3-10 minutes before police arrive once they have been dispatched.

· Having a Home Inventory provides proof of your claim but it can also provide information to the police that could lead to getting criminals off the street.

A Home Inventory is designed to protect you from loss as well as a seemingly insurmountable task of documenting your property in the event of total loss. Having a home inventory can provide you with peace of mind that you have done everything you can do to protect your family’s financial future if something should happen.

Kelly Rinke
President
ProActive Home Inventory
www.ProActiveHomeInventory.com
kelly@ProActiveHomeInventory.com
972.869.9000

From Divine Love to Divorce Court...

How a Home Inventory can help during the transitional times of marriage...

In business relationships, it is widely understood to "design your divorce while you're still in love". In other words, if one partner decides to change their course during the business relationship, there needs to be a clear definition made before things go bad as to what will happen to the business. This is when cool heads can prevail and create a winning solution for all.

So why don't we do that in marriage? Marriage starts out with the best intentions for a life long union. But sometimes things change, people change and commitments change. The "D" word comes up. Divorce is a difficult enough time as it is, but now you have to separate your property. If you had a prenuptial agreement, you may already have an understanding how to divide property. If you do not, there will be a lot of questions in your mind. Will my spouse be fair? What will we fight over? The CD collection? The sofa? It's not going to be easy.

Having a home inventory is one way the couple can fairly divide their property without having to go through painful face-to-face negotiations. This can allow the couple to claim the property they want and negotiate the items they both want in a neutral setting and in their own time. It should include a complete listing of all personal property along with pictures for reference and some sort of cataloging system so you know which clock/chair/computer/etc. each is referring to.

So let's say you are engaged to be wed in the near future. You may have even considered a prenuptial agreement and a home inventory should be part of that agreement. What a home inventory can do for you is identify what each partner has come to the marriage with in the event that things don't work out. This way there would be no disputing the property brought into the marriage. The same can also be said for roommates moving in together.

It gets a little bit dicier with this perspective, but perhaps you expect your spouse to become problematic in your upcoming separation. Having a home inventory in place prior to any legal proceedings could prove a very valuable tool in the end. This would create a detailed digital record of the items to be split, proof that they exist and that they were in the home. Sometimes this kind of preemptive measure may be in your best interest.

Marriage can bring out the best in people, but unfortunately it can also bring out the worst. If you know someone who may be going through a marital change, please share this with them.

Kelly Rinke
President
ProActive Home Inventory
www.ProActiveHomeInventory.com
kelly@ProActiveHomeInventory.com
972.869.9000

Prove it...

Your insurance is only as good as your proof…

Most people think if they have homeowner’s insurance they are covered. To some extent this is true, however if you were to lose your home to a fire (or other named peril), the burden to prove your claim is on you. Of course the insurance adjuster can see the house was burned to the ground, but it’s what he can’t see that we are talking about. The insurance company would require a list of EVERY ITEM lost or damaged in order for them to pay what you would expect. This is an extensive and exhaustive itemization of every stick of furniture, item of clothing, all of your CDs, DVDs & books and the list goes on and on. Furthermore, you would probably still be working on that list a year or more after your home burned down. The insurance company may also want proof that you owned certain items through pictures and/or receipts. If you’re like most people, all of your pictures and receipts would have been destroyed with your home.

Relying on memory alone could be a very expensive mistake as most people will forget about 20% of what they owned. In order to make sure your insurance works for you as you would want, it is essential to have a home inventory secured away from your home. Even though we may have good intentions for getting this done, most people don’t ever get around to it. In my experience less than 10% have any kind of home inventory and many whom have do not have it secured in a safe place away from the home.

So I ask you, if you think insurance is important to maintain, why wouldn’t you want to make sure it will work for you when your time comes? Having an up-to-date home inventory is really the only way to assure you will be paid what you deserve. If the something happens to your home this service can save you tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of your precious life. It's time to get ProActive about documenting your property.

Kelly Rinke

ProActive Home Inventory

www.ProActiveHomeInventory.com

kelly@ProActiveHomeInventory.com

972.869.9000

Top 15 Tips to Secure Your Home While on Vacation

Summer is here and that means vacation for many of us. Just imagine your fun filled vacation being ruined by an intruder in your home. Thieves look for easy homes to prey upon so let's make sure you leave your home a difficult target by doing all you can to protect your home and property.

Here are the top 15 tips to securing your home:

1. Leave a car parked in your driveway or front of your home. Ask a neighbor to use your driveway and garbage cans while you're away.
2. Arm your security system when you leave.
3. Either stop mail & newspapers while you are gone OR have a neighbor pick them up for you. Have them check your front door area for package deliveries as well.
4. Don't tell people unnecessarily you will be gone except a trusted neighbor. Ask them to keep an eye out for people on your property. Let that neighbor know how to contact you. Consider leaving a key with them.
5. Install some timers on lights. Leave a radio on a talk radio channel.
6. Lock ALL doors, windows, storage sheds & gates. All exterior doors should have deadbolt locks. Lock the door from your garage into your home. All gates should have padlocks. THIEVES LOVE TO ENTER YOUR HOME FROM THE BACK WHERE THEY CAN'T BE SEEN!
7. Move valuables to a safe deposit box.
8. Keep the grass cut while you're away.
9. Don't leave a key hidden under a rock, around the door frame, or anywhere else.
10. Leave a generic outgoing message on your voice mail.
11. Hire a house sitter.
12. Install visible security measures: Security stickers, signs, locks, landscape lighting, etc.
13. Close drapes or remove valuables from rooms with open drapes. You could also close drapes downstairs and leave them open upstairs.
14. Notify police if you will be gone longer than one week.
15. Rethink sending an automated email message to your sender that you will be returning to work on such & such date.

Insurance is only as good as the proof of your claim. A Home Inventory provides that proof. If you don't have a Home Inventory yet, when will you get around to it?

Get prepared by having your personal property properly inventoried. ProActive Home Inventory offers full service in the Dallas metroplex, a webinar to teach you how to preform your own inventory, and a f.ree download about your family's safety as we go into tornado season. Please visit the home page at www.ProActiveHomeInventory.com to request your copy.

Warm Regards,
Kelly Rinke
972.869.9000
kelly@ProActiveHomeInventory.com
www.ProActiveHomeInventory.com

Just imagine if this happened to you…

I want to tell you a story about Alexandra’s experience when her father’s home was destroyed by an F4 tornado in Kansas a few years ago. Luckily her father survived but the tornado demolished his home. Alex went to Kansas to help her father put the pieces of his life back together. She literally cleaned what was left of his home with a shovel. During the process, she recalls creating an exhaustive list for the insurance claim of his personal belongings from the tattered remnants of his life. What the insurance company wanted was a detailed listing of every item gone or destroyed, including when & where each item was purchased, how much it cost, they even wanted brand names. Mind you, there was hardly anything except memory from where to start. She had to take a month’s leave of absence from work to create this list for her father. You wonder how much that cost her financially. But family and home is where the heart is and most of us would do the same if we were in her shoes.

Most people won’t remember about 20% of their property. What would 20% look like to you? Here’s a little test you can take for yourself. Leave the room you are in now and write down everything that was in that room from your memory. Then go back and compare your list with your room. How much did you forget? Did you include the closet and drawer contents? I can tell you that people whom have experienced something like this spend months if not years remembering items they forgot to include.

How much is your time worth? How much is your peace of mind worth? How much is your property worth? Isn’t it time for you to get ProActive about your financial life?

A properly stored home inventory could have saved Alex and her father weeks of their lives, perhaps even months. It could also have saved him a lot of money as he surely did not remember everything he owned.

Get ProActive about your financial life. Have your home inventoried BEFORE something like this happens to you and your family.

Home Biz may not be covered under Homeowners Policy

If you have a home based business, your business property may not be covered under your standard homeowner policy. If you purchase computer equipment, office furniture and tools of your trade with your business income, or if you have any business property on a depreciation schedule for your business, your property may not be covered under your homeowners policy. You may need to consider a separate business policy for business property.

A home inventory specialist can perform an inventory that encompasses all of your property, including your business property at your home. If you should sustain a catastrophic loss due to a house fire or another peril, will your business survive? FEMA estimates that 80% of businesses do not survive following a major catastrophe due to factors like poor record keeping.

The time is now to get ProActive to protect your personal and business assets.

Kelly Rinke
ProActive Home Inventory
www.ProActiveHomeInventory.com