Commercial properties are proven to be more prone to loss when there’s been a lapse in maintenance and upkeep. Our customers find that an effective way to mitigate this risk is to look at and validate commercial property data with insights derived from building permit records.
If you’re underwriting commercial policies that include property, BuildFax can help you:
- Verify applicant input data
- Accurately assess collateral risk and premium potential
- Validate property improvements and updates
To achieve this, BuildFax provides a fast and easy research tool designed to deliver the following:
- Property update details so you can see what work has been done
- Up-to-date permits on a property so you can see if there’s active work
- Contractor names and details so you know who worked on the property
You can do all of this with a few easy clicks. Here’s how it works.
Sign in
When you work with BuildFax, you’ll be able to log in with your secure username and password.
Enter an address
Then you simply enter the address of the property you want to search and select a Report Template. In this example, we’re using the BuildFax Report.
Get a visual of the property
The first thing you’ll see is a visual of the property you’re interested in. BuildFax utilizes third party data to retrieve this information.
Quick check for risks
You can quickly check the 20-Point History Scan for permitted work related to the property’s risk profile. These include:
- Water Damage
- Security & Sprinkler Systems
- Alterations, remodels, & additions
Permit history timeline
For details on the work completed on the property, you can look at the timeline of construction activity to see what types of projects have been done and when they were carried out.
Drill down into major systems
To view the individual permits on the property, you can easily toggle between types of work using the icons shown below. Specifically, this breaks down:
- Electrical
- Plumbing
- Mechanical
- Roof
- Building
- Pool
This is a great way to see what changes have or have not occurred to ensure more accuracy calculating depreciation of the property.
Deep dive into the permits
The individual permit details provide a wealth of information. You can find out how much money was invested in a project, the contractor who performed the work, and even view inspection records.
By having all this information in one easy-to-access place, you’ll save a ton of time once you start pulling these reports as a regular part of your underwriting process.
Inspection records
Inspection records show you the process a project went through to get approved, showing exactly when inspectors were on site examining the work.
We have many customizable delivery options for our products including API and batch data, but the example shown in this post is our product most often used during desk review.
If you’d like to learn more about BuildFax’s commercial property data, click here.