Question of the Day: Matterport for Documentation Prior to Disaster?10730
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 WGAN ForumFounder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| WGAN-TV Matterport Meets Insurance Claims-Fire and Floor Remediation and Restoration #1120-Matterport for Documentation Prior to Disaster? Interview with Matterport Director, Business Development and Head of Partnerships and New Market Development Tomer Poran (Thursday, 7 November 2019) Hi All, The WGAN Forum Question of the Day for Friday, 27 December 2019) is: Is there a business opportunity for Matterport Service Providers for documentation of possessions prior to disasters of upscale homes: particularly in flood/fire prone areas of the United States? For context for this question, in this (above), WGAN-TV Short Story (#1120), Matterport Director, Business Development and Head of Partnerships and New Market Development Tomer Poran says: "There is a big opportunity, especially in areas that are prone to disaster. So whether that's northern California where I am right now or southeast Florida panhandle, the Texas coastline, the Midwest, flood prone areas along the Mississippi." "Those areas especially when you're talking high net worth homes. But generally homes that I say high net worth, that's where we see the most business pick up for this type of offering. But actually going out and saying, hey, knock on doors, hey, you've got $1 million worth of stuff in this house." "Do you really want to risk the case of a flood or fire, taking this all out, and then getting paid low-balled by the insurance not because they don't want to pay just because you don't have any proof? Do you have receipts or pictures? That's the first thing the insurance carrier's gonna ask you." "And if not, then they'll go and give some kind of settlement that's somewhere in the middle. We don't believe that armoire was worth $5,000 in terms of the quality, here's $1,000. And that's what you'll get on a lot of your claim. Unless you have really good photography capture of everything there." Are you creating Matterport digital twins of upscale homes specifically for documenting contents in the event of a disaster? Happy New Year, Dan WGAN Forum Related Discussions ✓ Transcript: Matterport Insurance Claims: Flood/Fire Remediation/Restoration ✓ Transcript: WGAN-TV: Matterport Meets Insurance Underwriting and Risk Mgmt ✓ MSPs: How to get more Matterport biz from winter storms (and at full-price) ✓ Video: How MSPs can get Matterport Biz When There is a Natural Disaster Transcript (for video above) - Yeah, our project took nine months, which I think is unusual because we actually used it as an opportunity to say, okay, let's renovate the bathroom. Let's not renovate the bathroom after we put down the new hardwood floors. And if there was a happy lining for us, the $41,000 plus change, the insurance and the general contractor and the remediation company, they were within maybe $1,000, and we were only, that came out of our pocket. And that was only because we chose, we wanted to have our plumber, our master plumber, deal with a lot of the stuff rather than the plumber from the general contractor and our plumber cost more. And we were totally happy to have our new hardwood floors because we'd been in the house since it was built, so I think it was, you know, maybe almost 17 years we hadn't refinished the floors. So we're going, well, out of adversity came something good. We got new hardwood floors and we put laminate in the basement instead of the carpet. My wife's happy because we had so much stuff that was wet that she thought was crap anyway. So we threw out a ton of stuff. And so we de-cluttered. - In your case, though, because it wasn't a total loss, you were able to stay living in your home. Think of often folks who are living in alternative housing or hotels around. That's a huge cost to the insurance company for sure, and that's why they want to reduce that cycle time. But it's also just a huge inconvenience. - I think we had to step out of the house for seven or 10 days that the insurance company put us up at a hotel while the hardwood floors were being done. There was a moment where it was kind of depressing, because all the furniture on the main level of the house had to be removed in preparation for the hardwood floor. So I think we literally had two lawn chairs and a TV set and were watching TV, we're looking around and going, well, this is kind of depressing. But at the end of the day, we got some new floors out of it. We were happy. The process seemed to work. I just thought it was the most inefficient process of you can take your picture, come back and take more pictures. - We're trying to get efficiency in there. Yeah, so you touched earlier on policyholders, like in what policyholders service, where the policyholder gets benefits for. But one thing, we touched on these three points in time, first notice of loss, mitigation, and post repair. There's another really important point in time and that is before the property was damaged. Insurance carriers would love to get their hands on your property a second before it was flooded, because most of what's called insurance fraud is because you go and say, hey, this was like that, this was brand new, this was mahogany, this was stony, and basically when you inventory your things and anybody who's gone through a loss can say, especially a fire loss, where the things that were there are no longer there, is told, go inventory everything you had in your living room. And not only is this an extremely painful process, you don't really know, and you're gonna miss 30%, so you're going to be under covered by 30%. And it's just a horrible, nightmarish situation for home owners to go sort through the ashes literally. - So who's the business opportunity for the documentation of the house prior to a loss? - Yeah, so we're engaging lots of insurance carriers, and the carriers are telling us, sure, I would love to have that scan. But for home insurance, then I'm going to take, I don't know, $1,000 in premium a year. I'm not sending anyone over to cut into my margin by 30% with a $300 scan. That's not what I'm after. I'd rather just go based off satellite imagery, given value, and take his word for it in the case of a claim. Not the case so much in commercial properties where they do inspect. And that's kind of how we plan the insurance underwriting space is we say, hey, we could send potentially a scanned service provider to that commercial property to scan it, get an inspection done, you have full inventory of the situation pre-loss, and your underwriting department now has much better data to underwrite with. When you think of underwriting, it's composed of two factors. What is the value of the property I'm underwriting and what is the risk associated with that property? You match those two, you'll get a premium, and that's what underwriters do. That's what the actuaries do in the insurance companies. - Is that an opportunity for the renovation company? - No, not so much. Well, partially, and I'll get to that in a second. But this is basically the need. The need of the insurance carrier, both if there is a claim that need is even more so, because now they really want to know what was there. But even in the onset when they're just insuring or re-insuring or re-inspecting the property, they want to know what's there and what's the risk associated with it so they can better give you a premium and that you won't be underinsured. That's a huge risk that you carry is if you say your house has $10,000 worth of goods and that's now you're happy because your premium is lower but then there's a fire and you start adding things up and you say that's $70,000 of things, carrier goes and says, well, your policy only covers for up to $10,000 worth of goods. Why'd you tell us there was $10,000 in there? So it's in both sides' interest, often, to get appropriate insurance. And retroactively, you would have said, of course I would have paid an extra $10 a month on insurance if I would have known that I wouldn't be losing out on $60,000 on this loss. So often it's in both sides' interest to get the right amount of insurance. Now, where is the opportunity here and for who it is? There is a big opportunity, especially in areas that are prone to disaster. So whether that's northern California where I am right now or southeast Florida panhandle, the Texas coastline, the Midwest, flood prone areas along the Mississippi. Those areas especially when you're talking high net worth homes. But generally homes that I say high net worth, that's where we see the most business pick up for this type of offering. But actually going out and saying, hey, knock on doors, hey, you've got $1 million worth of stuff in this house. Do you really want to risk the case of a flood or fire, taking this all out, and then getting paid low-balled by the insurance not because they don't want to pay just because you don't have any proof? Do you have receipts or pictures? That's the first thing the insurance carrier's gonna ask you. And if not, then they'll go and give some kind of settlement that's somewhere in the middle. We don't believe that armoire was worth $5,000 in terms of the quality, here's $1,000. And that's what you'll get on a lot of your claim. Unless you have really good photography capture of everything there. - So it sounds like you've transitioned, perhaps, to opportunities for Matterport Service Partners? - Yeah, we're seeing... - And that sounds like the first opportunity is documentation prior to loss. - Documentation prior to loss especially in storm and disaster stricken areas, especially in high net worth residential. What we're also seeing is a lot of our contractors, like a lot of our restoration contractors, like I said, offering this to commercial owners. They're less focused on residential except, again, in the high net worth arena. So basically, that's one opportunity is going to commercial and residential properties, high net worth especially, and offering that kind of inventory service for the case of a claim. Now you have something for your insurance to show your insurance agency, to show your carrier in the case of a loss. |
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 WGANStandard Member Los Angeles |
Home3D private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Insurance itself is an expense which is challenging to pay since when we write the check, we hope it’s a waste - that we’ll never need it. So the step up to the additional cost of visual documentation, an additional cost, is a degree harder to justify. However, here is an example of the merit of doing so. This 11,300 sq ft custom home was documented by myself in photos, video and a 3D tour. These were completed because the home was put on the market. Then LA’s Wolsey Fire in November 2018 razed the home to the ground in a matter of hours. The owners engaged an independent adjuster to negotiate with the insurance carrier. This adjust said the property documentation was the most thorough they had ever seen, and I’ve heard that the owners’ compensation exceeded what they would have received from the sale, had it sold prior to the fire. In addition to what you see here, I have extensive aerial drone footage after the fire and 3D aerial models of the property both before and after the fire. Maybe one day I’ll get around to cutting the “after” video. Can be seen at clickable text |
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WGAN Forum Founder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @Home3D Thanks for sharing! Also, a great reason to save Matterport scans. Happy New Year, Dan |
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ron0987 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Funny you ask this question today, I just purchased a new home and after filling out the insurance application I was notified by the insurance company due to the size and value of the home we need to document it to verify your coverage will cover the replacement of your home. So low and behold today a contract employee sent by the insurance arrives. I was expecting a through photo shot and through documentation of the house. After about 15 interior and unknown exterior he left. he only used a low end pocket digital camera. Prior to him leaving I asked if he would share some personal info on his background and how he got the job. He said his background was strictly sales with little photography background. I asked why the company did not use Matterport to document the house and he had no idea what Matterport was. I asked if it comes to a dispute on a claim they base it solely on his photos and he said if the homeowner does not have better documentation of the home yes. So based on what I just experienced and what @Home3D said I guess I have to do it myself. This all leading to my next statement I see little interest from the insurance companies to do a through documentation to protect themselves and why home owners would not want to do the same. | ||
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