DataLath, MSB Join to Support Insurer Growth in High-Value Property Market
January 10, 2008
NEW BERLIN, WI – January 10, 2008 MSB, an MDA company, announces that DataLath Inspection Services has chosen MSB’s Residential Component Technology® (RCT) High Value tool for its property inspection services. The implementation enables DataLath’s insurance carrier clients to effectively target opportunities in the expanding market of high-worth, single-family homes by obtaining localized “total-component” replacement cost values for underwriting, claims, and book of business management.
“A growing problem for insurers is how to value reliably and efficiently the increasing numbers of high-value homes they are asked to insure. DataLath takes a detailed approach to its property inspection and data collection processes, which is critical to develop replacement cost calculations in a component-based approach,” says Karen Linnell, Assistant Vice President of Residential Solutions at MSB.
“Component-based systems have two absolute requirements,” says Charles Smith, DataLath President. “The first is collecting all the details about the building systems and the wide range of fixtures and finishes found in high value homes, and the second is pricing those components properly. We chose MSB‘s RCT High Value solution because it has the richest and deepest construction cost data set available in the industry.”
MSB’s RCT High Value tool is a component-based system built on the time-proven concept that a building’s unique features are the best measure of its replacement cost. RCT High Value offers property inspection professionals the greatest flexibility in capturing detailed data necessary to estimate replacement costs for even the most complex structures. The valuation application can be deployed via a variety of options, including on MSB’s Internet-based platform, MSB Express™.
DataLath’s technical experts have integrated the company’s proprietary tablet-based inspection software into RCT hosted on secure MSB Express platforms. This enables easy and efficient transformation of inspection data into RCT reports for high-value or main street style homes.
High-value homes, a rapidly growing market segment, are characterized by specialized features that traditional square-foot and other generic methods cannot accurately assess. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey, over 10 million American homes are valued at $500,000 or more. Prices are rising as well. Sales of homes priced above $5 million were up 31 percent in the first quarter of 2007 from 2006 levels, according to John Karevoll, chief analyst DataQuick Information Systems. As the number of high-worth properties grows, so does the importance of having a tool that will determine reliable, defensible replacement cost values for these special properties.
About DataLath Inspection Services
Based in Marion, MA, DataLath Inspection Services provides residential property inspections to insurance underwriters, specializing in comprehensive interior inspections. DataLath also markets its proprietary inspection system to insurance carriers and other inspection vendors. For more information about DataLath, contact Charles Smith at 508-748-2900, e-mail ctsmith@datalath.com, or visit www.datalath.com.
About MSB
Marshall & Swift / Boeckh (MSB), an MDA company, is the leading supplier of local building cost information, residential and commercial property valuation technology and services for the property and casualty insurance sector in the United States and Canada. MSB has five offices throughout the U.S. and Canada. For information, please contact Marsha Berenson, Media Coordinator, at 800-285-1288, Ext. 2828, e-mail Marsha.Berenson@msbinfo.com, or visit MSB’s Web site at www.msbinfo.com.
About DataQuick
DataQuick, an MDA company, is a provider of U.S. property information, combining timely, in-depth national real estate data with more than 28 years of product leadership, technological innovation, and quality. DataQuick draws information from a real property repository containing data on more than 87 million properties across the nation. Key clients include Realtors®, title insurers, mortgage lenders, investigators, appraisers, and insurance providers.
About MDA
MDA provides advanced information solutions that capture and process vast amounts of data, produce essential information, and improve the decision making and operational performance of business and government organizations worldwide.
Focused on markets and customers with strong repeat business potential, MDA delivers a broad spectrum of earth and space based information solutions, ranging from complex operational systems, to tailored information services, to electronic information products.
MDA employs more than 3,000 people in locations across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The Company’s common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol TSX:MDA.
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