Home inventory builder

After a fire or a burglary you have to show what you owned, how many, and what it cost. The ISO homeowners form (HO 00 03 05 11) tells you to prepare an inventory of damaged personal property with the quantity, description, actual cash value and amount of loss, and to attach bills and receipts. The builder lets you do that work before anything happens, room by room, and checks the total against your coverage.

How to use it

Start with your personal property limit, Coverage C, from the declarations page; the field starts blank. Pick a room from the list: living room, kitchen, dining room, primary bedroom, other bedrooms, bathrooms, home office, garage, basement and attic, or outdoors and sheds. For each item enter a name with brand and model, a category (electronics, furniture, appliances, clothing and shoes, jewelry and watches, art and collectibles, tools and equipment, sports and hobby, kitchenware, books and media, firearms, silverware and goldware, cash and coins, securities, stamps and documents, business property, boats and trailers, or other, which is the default), the year bought, what it would cost to replace today, and whether you ticked "Receipt or photo saved." "Add an item to" the chosen room opens a new line and "Remove" deletes one.

Nothing is kept until you press "Save on this device," which stores the list in this browser only. "Download spreadsheet (CSV)" writes the rooms, items, categories, years, costs and a yes or no for receipt or photo to a file, skipping lines that have neither a name nor a cost, "Print" gives paper, and "Erase" clears the list after a confirmation. Keep a copy somewhere other than the house.

What it checks

The builder adds up every replacement cost and reports the inventory total, the item count (lines with a name or a value) and how many of those have a receipt or photo, with a bar for each room that has a value. If you entered a Coverage C above zero, it shows the limit, the total and the difference and says whether you have room to spare or are underinsured for a total loss. It warns when a category total is above the standard limit, once per category, using the ISO special limits:

• jewelry and watches total more than $1,500 (theft);
• firearms total more than $2,500 (theft);
• silverware and goldware total more than $2,500 (theft);
• cash and coins total more than $200;
• securities, stamps and documents total more than $1,500;
• business property totals more than $2,500;
• boats and trailers total more than $1,500;
• art and collectibles total anything at all: the warning says they are covered only for named perils on a standard HO-3 and may be worth scheduling for an agreed value.

Every result also ends with a note that belongings usually kept at another residence you own are limited on the standard form to 10% of Coverage C or $1,000, whichever is greater, plus a reminder to photograph each room and keep a copy away from the house.

Say, hypothetically, a $175,000 Coverage C limit and an inventory of $182,000, including $4,000 of jewelry. The tool shows a difference of −$7,000 marked "underinsured for a total loss," a warning that your belongings are worth more than your personal property limit, and the line "Jewelry and watches total $4,000 — above the standard $1,500 theft limit," which is your cue to ask about raising Coverage C and scheduling the pieces (scheduled personal property).

What it assumes

Values are what you enter as replacement cost, with no depreciation applied. The category thresholds are the Coverage C special limits of liability in the ISO form, such as $1,500 for jewelry, watches and furs and $2,500 for firearms, both for theft (HO 00 03 05 11, May 2011 edition, published by the Maine Bureau of Insurance). The art warning is the tool's own rule of thumb, not a policy figure, and it has no dollar threshold. ISO's newer 2022 forms raise several of these limits (jewelry theft to $2,000, for example), but North Carolina's version does not take effect until June 1, 2027, and most policies still use the 2011 form or an insurer's own.

Where it stops being right

A comparison with Coverage C tests the limit, not the payout. The ISO form pays belongings at actual cash value unless an endorsement adds replacement cost, so a replacement-cost total can overstate what a claim returns (actual cash value). The form's other special limits (trailers not used with watercraft, business property away from home, portable electronics in a vehicle) have no category of their own, and the tool's business property threshold is the on-premises $2,500 limit, so use the valuables coverage checker. Each special limit covers all property in its category together, and the builder adds each category across every room. It also cannot tell whether a loss is a theft, which matters for the theft-only limits.

The form also limits property usually kept at another residence or in a self-storage unit to the greater of 10% of Coverage C or $1,000; the builder prints that as a standing note but cannot mark an item's location. It stores a proof checkbox, not the photos or receipts themselves. Browser data can be cleared, so download the CSV as well. For the process behind the list, read how to make a home inventory for insurance and filing a personal property claim: the contents list, and when you need it, work through the home insurance claim checklist.