The Benefits of Precise Property Insights for Homeowners
Something as seemingly straightforward as “getting insurance” for your house can quickly become a complicated and confusing endeavor: What are the major risks your home may be vulnerable to? How much coverage do you need? What does that coverage actually protect you from?
Homeowners often rely on agents and insurance carriers to offer the right coverage at the right price. However, agents and carriers also need accurate information so they can help ensure homeowners select the right amount of coverage for their property and the risks for that location.
CAPE Analytics provides precise property insights that empower insurers and homeowners with the knowledge they need to protect their investments. CAPE insights can help homeowners in terms of coverage, pricing, and speed when it comes to insuring their homes.
Property Insights and Insurance
CAPE was founded on the vision that better information could help shape and protect the built environment, helping people make smarter decisions about insuring, protecting, building, maintaining, or investing in homes and other structures.
In the insurance industry, CAPE provides objective property insights to insurance providers for use in their risk assessments. These insights are derived from high-resolution aerial imagery using computer vision and machine learning models. CAPE does not capture aerial imagery itself, but rather uses aerial imagery collected by partners several times a year via airplane and satellite. Our partners do not use drones to collect the imagery we use.
From this aerial imagery, CAPE uses a form of AI called computer vision to derive information about a property that once required an on-site inspection by an insurance company. These insights include a variety of information, including that about the roof’s condition and age, as well as characteristics that can make a home vulnerable to hail, wind, and wildfire damage.
Understand Your Home’s Risk and Ways to Improve It
CAPE’s insights can give homeowners a valuable view into the state of their property. By understanding the specific risks and areas that need improvement, homeowners can take proactive steps to enhance their property’s safety, value, and insurability.
For instance, CAPE can flag a developing problem on a homeowner’s roof that they otherwise may not have known about unless they climbed up on the roof or had a water leak that destroyed precious memories and cost thousands of dollars to repair. The roof is the primary protection for a home, and knowing the roof’s condition can alert homeowners to the need for a roof replacement.
Better knowing the home’s characteristics can also present a financial incentive for homeowners. With these property insights available at scale, insurers are able to offer credits for roof replacements and home hardening measures against wildfire, like clearing vegetation in the defensible space around a home.
Get the Right Insurance Coverage and Price
One of the most significant benefits of these insights for homeowners is the ability to obtain the right coverage at the most competitive price. Underinsurance is a systemic problem that leaves many homeowners vulnerable in the event of a disaster. CAPE’s insights help insurance carriers objectively assess the risk associated with a property, ensuring they can offer homeowners the appropriate amount of coverage at the right price—a scenario that can only be made possible when they have accurate information on hand.
For example, CAPE insights take the guesswork out of trying to identify the age or condition of a roof or the square footage of a home’s living area—information that many homeowners do not have easily accessible when filling out an application. This unlocks the ability for carriers to offer lower deductibles or discounts on coverage for homes with newer roofs, roofs in good condition, or properties in overall good condition.
Obtain Insurance Quicker and with Less Hassle
Property insights also play a crucial role in streamlining the insurance underwriting process. Traditional methods of property assessment, like on-site inspections, can be time-consuming and invasive, often leading to delays in policy issuance and renewals. Advanced technology allows for quicker and more efficient assessments, enabling carriers to offer faster policy decisions with less homeowner headaches.
CAPE insights empower insurers to deploy a fast-tracking process for homes with good condition. For example, homes with little to no yard debris or with roofs in excellent condition can be processed more quickly. Additionally, information about a roof’s experience with a recent hailstorm can help verify and fast track a homeowner’s claim in the event of roof damage.
Protecting Life’s Biggest Investment
In keeping with our vision, CAPE insights help homeowners avoid underinsurance, getting the most comprehensive coverage quickly and with a price reflective of the actual condition of their home. Buying a home is the biggest investment that most will make in their lives and protecting that investment through insurance is just as important an endeavor. CAPE takes pride in powering that protection, enabling homeowners and insurers to better understand the homes in their care.