Compiling A Property Inventory

When you plan to get a flood insurance policy to cover the contents of your home, you can not just walk in and announce your wish. The insurance company would require you to have a detailed list and thorough inventory of all the things and contents you want cover.

Compiling an inventory would not only enable you to have an idea how much you need to insure your contents for, but it will help you get the most of your UK flood zone insurance policy. This will also save you a lot of money to have somebody else do the inventory for you, and your flood insurance claims will be settled with greater speed.

So how is an inventory made? If you buy a new home or has just moved into a new one, it is better if you start to make an inventory right away and not wait until things pile and accumulate through the years. You may find yourself spending more time buried amidst a clutter of things you did not even know you have.

To start the inventory, you need to make a systematic plan where or in what room to start. Make a list of all the rooms in your house. For example you may start in the living room, moving on to the bedrooms, the kitchen, the garage, the attic, the basement, balcony, closets, and all the other rooms. Make a systematic method that is also convenient for you.

When you start on the first room, all you have to do is to make a list of every item and write a short description for each. You should include the serial number and the year model or date of the item as well as an estimation of the cost based on the present day prices.

This should be easy for you once you get the formula for estimating the value of contents in your property. You can get the original cost of an object based on the present market price. Then estimate its lifespan and how long you have had it, how long you expect to have that item around and you can get an almost accurate estimate to get the right content insurance. You can do this with all the other items in your house.

If you have valuable items like artworks, paintings, antiques and other valuables you will probably need the services of an expert. It is important to tell your flood insurance provider as much information as possible, whether you buy more items or sell anything for them to adjust your inventory.

Updating your insurance provider about your inventory would assure you that in case of emergencies or calamities, your contents are properly covered. One final advice, be sure to keep your inventory lists, receipts and other important documents which may be necessary when you make a flood insurance claim in a safe place. This could be a factor to speed up or delay getting your insurance claims when you need to.

One final tip - take pictures of everything you own and store them in a safe place. Having pictures will help you prove ownership and also remind you that you possessed the item in the first place! It is easy to sometime forget what you have!

Author: Imarket

Source: http://www.streetdirectory.com

4 Reasons to Create a Property Inventory for Your Vacation Home

Having a clear inventory of which items you have in your vacation rental property is very important. You should have a copy of the inventory on your personal computer, a copy at your vacation rental, and a copy for your housekeeper.

A property inventory is vital for four reasons:

1) Proving theft. If a renter walks away with your hairdryer or DVD player, your housekeeper will notice.

2) Keeping track of what you have in your home. This may sound silly, but it's easy to forget (especially for owners of multiple properties) if you have a certain item (waffle iron, crockpot, The Goonies on DVD, etc.).

3) Providing an account for insurance purposes. If something were to happen to your vacation home, you'd need an account of everything in your vacation rental.

4) Easing the transition between housekeepers. If you're firing your housekeeper, it's a good idea to have a record of how many towels, sheet sets, etc. that you're supposed to have in your home to avoid mix-ups. The inventory will also help your new housekeeper more quickly familiarize themselves with your home and its contents.

Actually creating the property inventory may be a pain, but it will be well worth it in the long run.

Source: http://ownercommunity.homeaway.com

What is Inventory control management and how do you apply it in an organization?

The most important objective or inventory control is to determine and maintain an optimum level of investment in the inventory. Most companies have now successfully installed one or the other system of inventory planning and control. The inventory control models range from very simple methods to highly sophisticated mathematical inventory models.

In the simplest method, the purchase man periodically reviews the stock, perhaps visually; to see what inventory items are in short supplies and places order when he thinks a minimum level has been reached or when the inventory of a particular item is exhausted. No inventory levels are kept on records. Obviously, such a method is likely to incur excessive purchasing and carrying costs on the one hand and stock out costs on the other. While excess purchase would lead to excessive investment in obsolete or slow moving goods, shortage or inventory may disrupt production or sales may be permanently lost.

To improve upon the visual method a re-order line may be drawn in the bin or storage area so that when stock reaches this line, order will be placed. The re-order line in the bin would be high enough to cover normal usage until the new order arrives. A variation of this method is to use the two bins systems: an order is placed when the working stock bin is empty.

Another inventory control approach is through the perpetual inventory system. Managers are already familiar with the principles and procedures of this system. Another method used to assist in the control of inventory is the ABC classification. Here the inventory items are classified into groups, usually three, according to the annual cost of the item used and ranked according to the rupee value of the usage. It may, however , be pointed out here that ABC analysis is not actually a control system in itself: it shows the way to decide which items are most in need of strict control system. It is ultimately the management who decides how best to control each class of items.

Techniques of inventory control:

1. Economic purchase order quantity (How much to order)
2. Reorder level (when to order)
3. Minimum inventory or safety stock.

Economic Purchase Order Quantities: In order to control inventory a decision model has been developed to determine the optimum quantity of materials to be purchased on each purchase order. The model determines the optimum working stock level to be maintained. Each time a purchase order is placed, the company incurs certain costs. In order to minimize the costs of placing purchase orders, the company could increase the order quantity to meet the company’s entire needs for the year at one time, incurring only the cost of one purchase order. However, such a practice will lead to having a large average inventory of working stock, resulting in increased carrying costs. The costs of ordering and costs of carrying inventory may be summarized as followsl:

Cost of Ordering :

- Preparing purchase or production orders, receiving and preparing and processing related documents.
- Incremental costs of purchasing or transportation for frequent orders (Purchase in small lots is often costlier and transportation costs also increase)
- Out of pocket costs of postage, telephones, telegrams, cost of stationery, traveling etc.
- Extra costs of numerous small production runs, overtime, setups, training etc. In addition- fixed costs in form of salaries, wages of employees connected with this work in purchasing, receiving, inspection and Material handling Departments.

Costs of Carrying:

- Interest on Investment.
- Losses from absolescence and deterioration, spoilage.
- Storage-space costs, including Rent, Rates, Taxes, Electricity, etcs.
- Insurance, in addition- fixed costs in form of salaries, wages etc of employees connected with this work in stores and Material handling Departments.

It should be noted that in the consideration of the optimum inventory decision, the costs of buying the inventory would usually be irrelevant, because it is assumed that the quantity required for the year would be the same for various alternative. The important relevant costs to be considered are the costs of ordering and the costs of carrying.

Reorder Level:

Lead time is the time interval between placing an order and receiving delivery. If the lead time and the quantity of demand during lead time are known with certaininty the recorder point may be determined. If in the above example, lead time is 2 weeks and the average usage is 18 per week, the recorder point will be 18*2=36units. The day the level of stock falls to 36 units, an order for 173 units will be placed. By the time these are delivered, the stock would be nil and on the day of delivery it will shoot up again to 173 units and so on.

Minimum Inventory or Safety Stock:

In our previous paragraph, we had assumed with certainity that 18 units would be used per week. In practice, we seldom come across such a situation and demand cannot be forecast accurately. Actually the demand may fluctuate from period to period. If, therefore the usage per week at anytime goes beyond 18 units per week, the company will be out of stock for sometime. Hence arise the need for providing for some safety stock, i.e. some minimum or buffer as inventory as a cushion against such stock outs. The recorder point is inter-related with the safety stocks because as the recorder point is moved upwards, the amount of the cushion is increased. Thus the recorder point is the resultant of the demand during lead-time plus safety stock. By increasing the safety allowance the recorder point is increased by the same amount. It should be noted that the economic order quantity does not come into the picture and is independent of safety stock analysis.

There are several methods determining safety stock levels. A rough and ready method followed by many companies is to provide a constant safety stock of say, one or two month’s usage requirements regardless of the item. Another method mainly based on intuition is to have large safety stock when quantity usage is high, lead time is long or the ordering schedule is frequent. Small safety stocks can be maintained when there is low usage, short lead time or infrequent ordering.

Another method makes a statistical analysis of the probability of a stock out by predicting the dispersion of usage around average usage and the dispersion of lead times around the average lead time. The above discussions of inventory control are based on the two bins or constant order quantity system

Source: http://www.management-hub.com

Real estate management – how to make your life easier

Real estate investment can happen for various reasons. You may invest in real estate because you need a house for yourself (that house of your dreams that you so badly want). You can use real estate as a means for supplementing your income either by buying at a lower price and selling at a higher price or by letting it out. Sometimes you might buy a property for the purpose of resale but might want to wait for a few years before you actually sell it. In such a case, again it would make sense to rent out the property and earn some money till you actually decide to sell it off.

Whatever the reason, letting out real estate demands real estate management and real estate management is not an easy job for everyone. In fact, a lot of people find it so much of a hassle that they prefer keeping their property vacant instead of renting it. Real estate management demands time, which you will rarely have. Real estate management is not just about finding tenants and collecting rent from them. Real estate management is also about ensuring that you do all the duties that a landlord/landlady is required to do.

Real estate management is about verifying the credentials of the tenants before you actually let out your property to them. Real estate management is about ensuring that all the paper work is complete and correct i.e. the tenancy agreement etc are properly done. Real estate management also requires you to do repairs as and when required. Real estate management activities also include maintenance, painting, polishing etc of the house when the tenants move out and before the new tenants get in.

Real estate management is not that easy a job for someone who is in a full time job. However, there are two solutions to this problem.

The first is hiring a real estate management firm to do all these activities on your behalf. This will mean that your income will be significantly reduced due to the commission/ fee charged by the real estate management firm. A small price for the convenience that a real estate management firm brings to you? However, it’s important that you choose the real estate management firm carefully. There are all kinds of real estate management firms out there (good and bad). You must check the references of the real estate management firm before you actually hire them for the job. A good real estate management firm will not only keep your property occupied at all times but will also ensure that you always receive the rent in time and without any hassle.

The second is to use an online property management system. Online property management software will keep all your records in one place, automating your records and paperwork. You can verify a prospective tenant’s credit, list your property when it becomes vacant, keep all financial information up to date and give you easy access to all tenant and vendor contact information - some online property management systems will even offer you the freedom of receiving online rental payments. These systems are usually available for a small monthly fee, thereby decreasing your expenses, increasing your cash flow and maximizing your time.

Source: http://renttropolis.com/rentalarticles

Renttropolis Online Property Management

Real estate investment can happen for various reasons. You may invest in real estate because you need a house for yourself (that house of your dreams that you so badly want). You can use real estate as a means for supplementing your income either by buying at a lower price and selling at a higher price or by letting it out. Sometimes you might buy a property for the purpose of resale but might want to wait for a few years before you actually sell it. In such a case, again it would make sense to rent out the property and earn some money till you actually decide to sell it off.

Whatever the reason, letting out real estate demands real estate management and real estate management is not an easy job for everyone. In fact, a lot of people find it so much of a hassle that they prefer keeping their property vacant instead of renting it. Real estate management demands time, which you will rarely have. Real estate management is not just about finding tenants and collecting rent from them. Real estate management is also about ensuring that you do all the duties that a landlord/landlady is required to do.

Real estate management is about verifying the credentials of the tenants before you actually let out your property to them. Real estate management is about ensuring that all the paper work is complete and correct i.e. the tenancy agreement etc are properly done. Real estate management also requires you to do repairs as and when required. Real estate management activities also include maintenance, painting, polishing etc of the house when the tenants move out and before the new tenants get in.

Real estate management is not that easy a job for someone who is in a full time job. However, there are two solutions to this problem.

The first is hiring a real estate management firm to do all these activities on your behalf. This will mean that your income will be significantly reduced due to the commission/ fee charged by the real estate management firm. A small price for the convenience that a real estate management firm brings to you? However, it’s important that you choose the real estate management firm carefully. There are all kinds of real estate management firms out there (good and bad). You must check the references of the real estate management firm before you actually hire them for the job. A good real estate management firm will not only keep your property occupied at all times but will also ensure that you always receive the rent in time and without any hassle.

More on: http://renttropolis.com/rentalarticles/?p=44

Property Inventory management With 60% Savings

Inventories management is headache for every landlord. Most of the time, they have to alter for some loss/theft, because of too much inventories to remember. There is also chance for great loss by mismanaging inventories. Error free property inventory services can make you inventory management better.

Inventories Transcription is providing complete property inventory service to individuals and business. They are offering error free low cost inventory service which satisfies you. They have specialists to complete your inventory transcription accurately. You can try their services for FREE at http://www.inventoriestranscription.com/contact.php

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You will get various benefits by hiring inventory services form Inventories Transcription:

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You can find more information about Property Inventory Services and saving offers at: http://www.inventoriestranscription.com/ or can post direct requirement at info@inventoriestranscription.com

Home Inventory Of Property - 7 Easy Ways To Create One!

Are You Looking To Create A Home Inventory, But Not Sure Of What Methods Are Available?

Did You Realise There Are 7 Ways To Create A Home Inventory, Of Your Hard Earned Possessions?

YES 7 Different Methods! And what's good news, is you could be on the road to starting your Home Inventory, in the next 60 minutes!

So What Are The 7 Methods Of Creating A Home Inventory?

Well you can easily get your Home Inventory started, by using any one of the following Home Inventory Creation methods. Simply click on the links, to be taken to your preferred method of Home Inventory creation:

1. Home Inventory Forms - A Home Inventory Form, with the space for detailed information of five items.
2. Home Inventory Lists - A Home Inventory List, pre-formatted with common items, found in the home. The package includes summaries of business items, specified items and personal effects. There are lists for basement / garage / clothing items / home improvements, and extra blank lists for additional property.
3. Home Inventory Spreadsheet - Pre-formatted with all the required input fields.
4. Photo Insurance Creator - A simple fast Home Inventory creation method! Allowing you to simply create a list of items, with basic details and images. The simplicity of this method is, that it creates a Home Inventory in minutes, using only your browser!
5. DVD / Video / Camera - Home Inventory - A walk around your home creating a visual recording.
6. Home Inventory Software - Create your own Home Inventory, using your PC. We have tested the majority of Home Inventory Software packages, and the one we recommend is the one we use daily. We tell you why! Read our article Home Inventory Software - My Home Inventory.
7. On-line Home Inventory Service - There are numerous On-line Inventory Services available on the internet. If you are thinking of using an On-line Inventory Service make sure you read our article Creating Your Inventory Using An Online Inventory Service, first. We only recommend one On-line Inventory Service. This service
can also be used as a PC ONLY based system! A package that provides you with a lot more than just a Home Inventory! Read our article on The Estate Vault - A solution for home inventories, estate planning, will creation and protecting ID Theft!

Well there you have it, 7 Ways Of Creating A Home Inventory of your hard earned possessions.

More on: http://homeinventoryaustralia.blogspot.com