Unfortunately, that is not where the difficulty ends for most property loss victims or claims professionals when it comes to contents valuation. 

Most personal property insurance claims disputes relate to disagreements over repairability or valuation. This occurs because of mostly underqualified service providers, who have limited ability to prepare accurate valuations the carriers then rely on, and homeowners often limited ability to correct or prepare these valuations. This leads to disputes and underpaid claims settlements. It’s a system that isn’t working well for anyone. 

To help speed up the valuation process, companies like Xactware™, have created contents estimating software. These types of software use automated pricing databases to provide approximate values for property. For example, the user will enter a property description, “one large wooden chair (medium quality)”, for which the software will recommend a suggested retail or replacement cost value of let’s say $150. All of the property in the structure can be priced in this same manner. 

But for the low wage-earning technician who is under pressure to move as quickly as possible to document these damaged items, more so than to be accurate and thorough in their assessment of the damaged property, the opportunity for failure is great. The difference between a pair of average sneakers and a pair of Air Jordan’s may not appear to be much to the unknowing eye, and the difference between a Gucci purse and knockoff may never be easy to tell, but through proper training and valuation techniques, these types of issues can be avoided.

For ARCHER inventory, accurately quantifying the value of damages in a large contents loss starts with a discussion about the property with its owner and an initial planning meeting onsite. Properly trained teams are then mobilized to the loss location to physically inspect, assess, and document the damaged property throughout the structure. Then ARCHER individually researches each item to identify where the comparable replacement property can be purchased and its actual replacement cost value. For specialized property, like antiques or fine arts, ARCHER has established relationships with experts who can be hired to provide recommendations to ensure valuations are accurate and fully supported.

Because ARCHER provides the actual replacement sources and costs for damaged property, settlements are accurate, disputes are more easily resolved, and for policyholders, ARCHER’s reports provide an easy path to recovering replacement cost holdback settlements. For fast, effective, accurate service for an industry that is starving for it, ARCHER inventory is here.