Think you have an eye for damage?
InstaBud's corner of the internet for the property claims world — a weekly challenge to test your eye, anonymized teardowns, and sharp field notes.
Spot Check: How Much Is Buried Under That Pile?
Storage rooms are the quiet multipliers of a claim. Adjusters document the obvious collapse and move on — then the supplement lands six weeks later because nobody counted what was under the pile, or scoped the ceiling that let it happen. This room has at least four line-item traps. Find them before the reinspection does.
How it works
- 1. Study the elevation like it's your claim.
- 2. Tap every spot you'd flag for damage.
- 3. Reveal what InstaBud caught — including what most eyes miss.
There are 6 findings hiding in this photo. How many will you catch?
When you scope a collapsed storage room, what do you typically do with the floor before closing the estimate?
Tap to vote — see how the field answers
One Spot Check, one teardown, one sharp idea — every week.
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From the Lab
Teardown: The Storage Room Claim That Closed Twice
A commercial storage room collapses under a wind event. The desk adjuster scopes the racks and the debris. Fourteen months later the ceiling finally gets looked at — and the supplement rewrites the whole loss.
6 min readStorage Room Claims: You're Scoping the Wrong Plane
Collapsed shelving grabs all the attention. The ceiling, the wall framing behind the racks, and the floor under the pile are where the real scope lives — and where the supplements come from.
4 min readTerm of the Week: Hold Point
A hold point is a defined moment in the repair sequence where work must stop and the adjuster or consultant must inspect before anything gets covered up. It is one of the most effective — and least used — tools for controlling supplement risk.
2 min readTeardown: The Debris Field Nobody Scoped
An EF5 tornado claim closed with a debris-removal line item anchored to building footprint. The actual debris field was four times larger. Here's the dollar delta and how it happened.
6 min readAerial Imagery Is a Scope Document. Treat It Like One.
Teams use aerial photos to confirm loss, then write the estimate from structure data. That sequencing is backwards — and it's why debris, boundary, and access supplements keep reopening files.
5 min readTerm of the Week: Debris Removal Coverage
Debris removal sounds like a line item. It's actually a coverage provision — and in a total-loss CAT scenario, it's one of the most commonly under-scoped exposures in the file.
3 min readThe $61K That Wasn't on the Aerial
A CAT hurricane claim closed in 18 days. The primary structure was scoped correctly. Three secondary items — a debris-field cleanup, a partially damaged detached garage, and a pool cage — never made it into the estimate. Here's how the gap happened and what it cost.
6 min readCAT Aerials Are Triage, Not Scope — Here's the Difference
Post-hurricane aerial imagery is genuinely useful for prioritizing dispatch and spotting total losses fast. It is not a substitute for structured scope. The distinction matters more than most desks treat it.
5 min readTerm of the Week: ALE (Additional Living Expenses)
ALE is one of the most frequently mishandled coverage components in residential claims — not because it's complicated, but because the trigger, the cap, and the documentation standard are all handled inconsistently across desks.
3 min readThe Total Loss That Was $31,000 Light Before Anyone Left the Driveway
An EF-3 stripped a home to its slab. The dwelling scope was solid. The contents scope was a disaster — because the adjuster assumed 'total loss' meant the insured would sort it out in a Personal Property Proof of Loss. They didn't. Nobody did.
6 min read"Total Loss" Is Not a Documentation Strategy
The moment you write 'total loss' in a file, the temptation to stop documenting kicks in. That's exactly backwards. Here's why the debris field is the most time-sensitive evidence you'll ever have.
4 min readTerm of the Week: Ordinance or Law Coverage
When a tornado levels a 1987 ranch house, the rebuild has to meet 2026 code. Who pays the difference? Not the base policy — unless the insured has this coverage. Here's what it does, what it doesn't, and why it matters on every total-loss file.
3 min readTeardown: The $42K Brick Veneer Scope Nobody Read Correctly
A tornado strips the front facade off a two-story brick veneer house. The adjuster scopes the obvious. The contractor bills for what the adjuster missed. Here's where the gap lived — and how a second set of eyes would have closed it on day one.
6 min readBrick Veneer Claims: What the Photos Don't Volunteer
Brick veneer is one of the most consistently under-scoped cladding types in wind and tornado claims. Here's why — and what to look for before you lock a reserve.
4 min readTerm of the Week: Ordinance or Law Coverage
When a tornado forces a rebuild to current code, the base policy may not cover the difference. Ordinance or Law coverage is the line item that fills the gap — and it's one of the most commonly misunderstood provisions in residential property claims.
3 min readThe Tornado Total That Wasn't: How Sequence Failures Blew the Reserve
A confirmed tornado total loss. Walls standing, roof gone. The adjuster wrote a confident reserve on day three. By day 45, the file had three supplements and an attorney. Here's exactly where the sequence broke down.
6 min readDesk Adjusters: Tornado Totals Aren't One-Step Closures
The roof is gone, the walls are standing, and the field report says 'total loss.' That's not the end of desk review — it's the beginning. The sequence of what gets authorized, in what order, is where tornado files go sideways.
4 min readTerm of the Week: Temporary Protective Measures (TPM)
Tarps, boards, pumps, and fencing — TPM is the first line item on almost every catastrophic loss. It's also one of the most disputed. Here's what it covers, what it doesn't, and why the authorization timestamp matters more than the invoice amount.
3 min readThe $5K Gap on a Metal Roof Wind Claim Nobody Argued About
A municipal building. A quick field walk. A tidy $4,200 estimate. Then a desk reviewer started asking questions — and the scope grew by 127% before the first repair contractor touched the building.
5 min readSecondary Uplift Indicators on Metal Buildings: The Checklist Nobody Prints
Wind hits a corrugated metal building and every eye goes to the ridge. Meanwhile, the Z-closures, fascia transitions, and panel fasteners are quietly telling a more expensive story.
4 min readTerm of the Week: Wind Uplift
Wind uplift is the aerodynamic force that acts perpendicular to a roof surface — pulling upward and outward. It's the dominant failure mechanism on low-slope and metal roofs, and understanding it changes how you read storm damage photos.
2 min readThe Mold Claim That Was Really a Structural Claim in Disguise
One interior ceiling photo. One adjuster who stopped at 'mold remediation.' One supplement 11 weeks later that doubled the reserve. Here's what the original scope missed and why.
6 min readMold Protocol and Mold Scope Are Not the Same Thing — Adjusters Conflate Them Constantly
The IEP test tells you whether mold is present. The scope tells you what it damaged. Most adjusters handle the first half competently and fumble the second. Here's where scope falls apart on mold claims.
4 min readTerm of the Week: Subrogation
Your carrier paid the claim. Now it wants its money back — from whoever actually caused the loss. That's subrogation. Here's how it works in property claims and why the adjuster's documentation on day one makes or breaks the recovery.
3 min readTeardown: The $11,000 That Was Hiding in the Studs
A Category 3 flood loss. A desk review that looked clean. A supplement that should have been avoidable — every line item was visible on day one.
6 min readThe High-Water Line Is Evidence. Treat It Like One.
That dark stain on the studs is the most important measurement in a flood loss. Here's why most desk reviews don't use it — and what happens when they don't.
4 min readTerm of the Week: Category 3 Water Loss
Not all water damage is the same — and the category classification changes your scope, your pricing, your disposal protocol, and sometimes your coverage analysis.
3 min readThe Cedar-Shake Claim That Grew $31 k Between Desk and Field
A desk review logged $9,200 for a partial shake repair. The field adjuster came back with $40,400. Here's every line item that changed — and why the photos told the whole story from the start.
6 min readCAT Surge and the Desk Adjuster: How to Triage 300 Files Without Losing Your Mind
When a CAT event drops 300 new assignments in 72 hours, the instinct is to work chronologically. That's the wrong instinct. Here's a triage framework that actually holds up.
5 min readTerm of the Week: RCV (Replacement Cost Value)
RCV is the cost to repair or replace damaged property with materials of like kind and quality — without deducting for depreciation. That one phrase does a lot of work in a claim.
3 min readTeardown: the $6,800 supplement that was sitting in the day-one photos
An anonymized wind-driven-rain claim closed clean — then reopened a month later. The interior supplement everyone called 'new damage' was visible in the original 180-photo upload.
4 min readSupplements aren't surprises. They're sequencing failures.
Most interior supplements were knowable on day one. The problem isn't that the damage was hidden — it's that the review stopped at the roofline.
3 min readCycle time is not the same as speed
A claim closed in two days that reopens in thirty has a worse real cycle time than one that took four and stayed shut.
2 min readTerm of the Week: ACV (Actual Cash Value)
What the damaged property was actually worth at the moment of loss — replacement cost minus depreciation — and why a photo-grounded scope makes that number defensible.
1 min readTeardown: the $7,200 a desk review almost missed
An anonymized hail claim: the photo dump, the report InstaBud produced, and the three line items a 90-second desk review skipped right past.
4 min readCAT season is a staffing problem wearing a weather costume
Surge doesn't break carriers because the storms are bigger. It breaks them because report production doesn't scale with headcount.
3 min readEvery photo deserves a second look (humans can't give it)
Leakage isn't usually fraud. It's the hairline crack on photo #143 that nobody had the bandwidth to notice.
2 min readTerm of the Week: FNOL (First Notice of Loss)
The first report of a loss to the carrier — and the moment intelligence should start, not after the truck rolls.
1 min readTerm of the Week: ROM (Rough Order of Magnitude)
A fast, defensible cost range generated from detected scope — so reserves and triage happen before the detailed estimate.
1 min read