About a month ago, I was talking to a client after completing a commercial virtual tour of his gymnastics training facility.  We were discussing other uses for our tour technology.  He jumped on my idea of doing a Home Inventory Tour.  Later he confided why he was so interested. 

His mother returned home from a weekend visit to her son's home (my client) around 9:00 p.m. Sunday night.  She opened her front door to find 12 inches of standing water in her new home.  Needless to say she was devastated!  Not knowing what to do, she called 911 on her cell phone.  The fire department was dispatched.  They came and shut the water valve off.  Around 12:00 midnight, she and some close friends from church started cleaning up the mess.  They began throwing items in the trash cans without thinking.  The next day, the garbage was picked up.

On Tuesday morning a water damage cleanup company arrived.  They set up about 20 fans and humidifiers to extract any moisture and remaining water.  After 5 days of running fans for 24 hours, all the flooring and baseboards had to be torn out and furniture had to be moved into a pod.  Needless to say, the home was gutted. 

A water supply hose on the washing machine had burst.  Thousands of gallons of water had been deposited into her home over the long weekend.  When the water reached the electrical appliances, the circuit breakers tripped.  By the end of the weekend, the food in her refrigerator and freezer was spoiled.  Living in an area of red clay soil, all the red dust had floated up and stained fabrics throughout the house.  Furniture was ruined, carpets were waterlogged, shoes and clothes hanging on lower closet rods were stained, books from her lower shelves were floating throughout the house, drapes were stained, electrical items were destroyed, and drywall throughout the house was stained.  Just think of all the things you have under your beds, stored in low shelves, and sitting on the floor.  Could you list everything in those locations in your home (don't cheat by looking)?  Well, that is what she is having to do right now.

Only after the water damage cleanup company's arrival, did someone mention insurance and an inventory list.  Learn from this tragedy. Make sure you have enough homeowner’s coverage on your home's contents, AND be sure that you have documentation of those contents.  My client's mother did NOT have any such documentation.  She desparately tried to remember everything she had, but the insurance company needs PROOF of ownership.  A virtual tour can be used to document valuable items that you might forget.  This type of accident can happen to anyone and spending a couple hundred dollars on having a Home Inventory Tour produced is money very well spent.  Give us a call today and find out what TotalTour 360 can do for you!