Your deed and mortgage, the details of your washing machine purchase, the agreements you signed with contractors- Where do you keep these and all of the other important records related to your home and its contents? For me, the answer is a tiny (non-fireproof) metal file cabinet. I usually find what I need, but it does take some time, and those papers could easily disappear in a burglary or fire.
I did some snooping around, and found a few inventory and document repository tools. The advantages of using such a system are everything you enter can be backed up, it’s all in one place, and they even do simple analysis for you, such as calculating how much insurance you should have or tracking the value of your belongings over time. I haven’t yet signed up with any of these programs, but listed below are some that I plan to explore further:
Ownersite is an online system gives you a 60-day free trial, and then charges you $29.95 a year for total access. If you have more homes, you’ll pay a little more.
Everything I Own is a downloadable program that has a one-time fee of $19.95. A 30-day fee trial is also available.
Home Inventory Manager by Quicken is also a downloadable program available for $29.95
Anywhere Vault is an online system that costs $49.95 per year.
Know Your Stuff offers totally free software, and if you choose to have your info stored online, you pay extra.
KZS Software is a program that costs $29.95.
Personally, I would select a company that kept this data stored on their servers for me to access, but also allows me to backup onto my own discs (that I’d then hide). Anyone have any experience with any programs like these?
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Home Inventory Systems
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4 comments:
Hello Thrifty Homeowner!
Thank you very much for including our Home Ownersite product amongst your list of recommended home inventory systems.
I may be a bit biased, but we are very proud of Home Ownersite because it is not only a web-based inventory product, but also because it is a repository for important documentation and many other details of home ownership.
(though we do back up your data regularly, you can also export your inventory lists to Excel, to a text file or even print a PDF version of your inventory web page if you want yet another level of backup to put in the safe, store on your Smartphone or put in the safe deposit box)
This is fantastic information on a much needed topic.
There are also Home Inventory Professionals (such as myself) across the country who will handle this task for you. You can find more information by visiting the National Association of Home Inventory Professionals website at NAHIP.com, and find a provider in your area.
You do need an on-site fireproof container to store vital records - with regards to other approaches (off-site, online etc) it is not an either/or. In many scenarios, the fireproof container (UL-rated file or safe) complements those other measures.
Consider when using removable media the vulnerability of the data until it gets off-site. Normally with a tape drive or removable hard drive backup, someone has to put the tape in the drive, start the backup and then remove the tape or drive (typically the next day) and then have it transported to an offsite facility. Since this is typically done overnight (and not transported offsite until the next day) the data is completely unprotected through the night and into the next day. In essence, a whole day is vulnerable, and since no one can predict a fire, it will happen that day - Murphy's Law and all that.
The onsite solution provides immediate and complete protection. We are not claiming that that off-site is bad or shouldn’t be part of the solution. It is just that it is often not the only or complete solution. Still I think it is worth pointing out the downside the slow upload speeds (it can take days to upload data) when using an online service. If your hit by a fire, what are you supposed to do for the 2-3-4 days it takes for the online service to replace the data? For businesses or users that would need to have more immediate access to vital backup data, the FireKIng Media Vault HD is the answer.
Try this. RedLightDepositBox.Com This site offers so much more than just inventory. This system also has many tools aiding in property recovery.
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