Photo by Ash Daniel
Richmonder and Fan resident Kim Wright was between jobs when she approached a friend to learn more about a personal property inventory business the friend had just started in Dallas called TakeStock.
“I am an organizer at heart, on the side,” Wright says. “And it intrigued me. It’s organizing at a different level and using technology, which I love.”
Wright trained in Dallas and, now running the second TakeStock location nationwide, is considered a licensee.
The bonded and insured company uses cutting-edge 3-D imaging technology to photograph rooms, charging a flat rate geared toward a 3,000-square-foot home. Customers can add options that include high-definition photography of additional stored items like art, jewelry, wine or fine china. Clients have access to files to personalize and document the value of the items. State-of-the-art secure storage of their data is accessible to clients via password-protected dedicated servers.
Approaching the first anniversary of establishing the business, Wright has provided services to longtime homeowners who want to get a handle on their possessions to create a more accurate insurance quote. She has also worked with art collectors, people going through divorces, and second homeowners as near as “the Rivah” and as far away as hurricane-prone Miami. Appraisal services are also available.
Wright says her company’s images have an advantage over DIY home inventory programs on the market because they capture everything in the line of sight in a room. The software allows clients to identify and describe possessions, add a make and model number, and include the story of an item's origin, whether it was bequeathed by an ancestor or acquired on a vacation. Users can state whether an item should be donated, appraised or assigned to an heir. Then the content is available in a printable report format.
TakeStock may serve as another security measure in the event insurance does not cover loss when property owners do not adequately document belongings, Wright says. She explains that the contents of just one kitchen drawer — everything from spatulas to silverware — are typically worth about $250, so one can imagine the true cost of replacing everything in a home.