Protecting What You Own, Before You Ever Need to Prove It

In Las Vegas, your chance of being a victim of property crime is 1 in 37 in any given year. The property crime rate here is 49% higher than the national average. Nationally, over 358,000 home fires happen every year, with cooking, electrical malfunctions, and heating equipment as the top causes. These are not rare events. They are statistical realities for homeowners in this area.

You pay your insurance premiums every month. You have a policy. You believe you are covered. And technically, you are. But coverage and getting paid are two very different things.

When something happens, your insurance company does not just write you a check. They send an adjuster who asks you to list every single item you lost. Every piece of furniture, every appliance, every electronic, every tool, every piece of jewelry. The brand, model, serial number, how old it was, what it cost, what condition it was in.

You are doing this from memory. In shock. Displaced from your home. Meanwhile, the adjuster has done this thousands of times. They are trained to manage payouts. You are doing it for the first time in the worst moment of your life.

That is not a fair negotiation. And without documentation, the outcome is almost always the same: you get paid less than you are owed, for less than you lost.

Carlos and Maria Martinez have lived in their Henderson home for 12 years. Four bedrooms, a two-car garage full of tools, a living room with a 75-inch TV and surround sound system. Maria's jewelry collection. Carlos's workshop with $8,000 in power tools. A guest room full of the kids' old electronics. They pay $1,800 a year for homeowner's insurance. They have never missed a payment.

One night, an electrical fire starts in the garage. By the time the fire department arrives, the garage, kitchen, and half the living room are destroyed. Smoke and water damage reach every room in the house.

The next day, the adjuster shows up and hands Carlos a form. "List everything you lost. Include the brand, model, serial number, purchase date, and estimated value for each item."

Carlos sits in a hotel room with his family and tries to remember. He knows he had a table saw, but was it a DeWalt or a Ridgid? He had at least 20 power tools, but he can only name 11. Maria knows her jewelry was worth thousands, but she has no receipts. The kids' old gaming consoles and laptops? They cannot even remember how many there were.

After three weeks of trying, they submit their list. The adjuster processes the claim. The settlement comes back $23,000 less than what they actually lost. The tools Carlos could not name do not exist on the claim. Maria's jewelry exceeds the policy sublimit, and without appraisals, the insurance company pays the cap. The electronics with no serial numbers get reduced values.

The Martinez family paid $21,600 in insurance premiums over 12 years. When it mattered, they lost $23,000 because they could not prove what they owned.

A professional home inventory would have changed everything for this family. It will change everything for yours.