New Property & Building Attributes Available
Elements has fast become an insurer’s best friend; within seconds, valuable property features and attributes are available, such as swimming pools, roof condition, defensible space information, and more. And now there are even more property and building attributes available for use!
More Building Attributes
You already could learn many things about buildings, such as its footprint, the roof material, if there was any roof discoloration, if it had solar panels, its height, if there was missing material or a tarp and even debris. And now we’ve added more information on roof discoloration and more identification of items that exist on a roof like a chimney or skylight.
Roof Discoloration
To this point, the information you could glean off of roof discoloration was if it were detected and if so, to what degree. The output was a percentage of how much of the roof was discolored. This helped deliver insights into why the condition of a roof might be at risk and in need of replacement or repair. And now we’ve taken that discoloration info one step further by helping to identify if the discoloration came from either algae staining, vent staining, or water pooling.
In the example below, you can see a home where there are clear issues with the roof. When pulling the property information, the following computed output on the roof condition and discoloration was generated:
You can see from the information that vent staining and water pooling are contributing factors to the roof discoloration. Which also leads directly into the next set of new roof attributes available: roof vents, air conditioning unit, chimney, satellite dish, and skylight detection.
Using the home above again as reference, it’s easy to view highlighted roof features where a single chimney was identified and 14 roof vents. These details can help support an evaluation of risk to a specific property or determine underlying causes for damage, such as the discovery of multiple roof vents and the impact to roof staining.
New Property Attributes
The latest Building Attributes are specifically focused on roof details, but the newest Property Attributes dive deeper into what is detected on a property within its parcel boundary.
First up, hardscapes, otherwise determined as paved or impervious surfaces. Hardscape detection can determine what level of protection–or risk–a home may have against wildfire or potential flooding. Examples of hardscapes for a home include patios, walkways, driveways, parking pads, and more.
The home below has significant hardscaping on the property. After pulling the Property Attributes information, we get two key pieces of information: the total surface area of detected hardscapes on the property, and what percentage of the total parcel area is detect as hardscape.
Also new to Property Attributes: what type of swimming pool is detected on a property (above ground, in ground, hot tub) and what its surface area is. For the property above, a pool is clearly detected and is in ground with an overall surface area of 443.0 ft2.
Finally, the last property feature to highlight focuses on identifying vehicles found on the property, mainly automobiles and boats. The output will determine if vehicles were detected (Yes/No) and a count for each type. Below is another example of a home with this computed information.
With these latest additions to Elements, you can now pull over 40+ attributes per property! Use this information to strengthen your underwriting, resolve claims faster, and more accurately determine risk on a property. If you’re not using Elements, now is the time to get started. Fill out the form below to request further information and a member of our team will help you get access to data that will positively impact your book of business.
MORE INFO
To see a full list of attributes within the Elements product line, go to: https://gic.org/elements/
