Restoration Rewind Feb 2015

Restoration Rewind

Delta Development Group Monthly Newsletter

February 2015

Convention News

With all of the 3rd Annual Franchise convention just about 30 days away, we are all very excited about how the event is coming together. And you should be too. We have all of our speakers confirmed, final RSVPs are coming in from our vendors, and the final food choices are being made. We are going to have a live fire demonstration, and an in-depth investigation of that fire and…well you’re just going to have to wait to find out the rest, first hand for yourselves.

You should have already sent your RSVPs to Ragan, but if you haven’t, please get her the number of people from your office who will be attending. Also please remember to make your hotel arrangements by February 10th in order to take advantage of our discounted rate.

Don’t forget about the additional DMS training that we will be having on Thursday, March 12. There are some very exciting new tools within the system that we want to show everyone. We also know that many of you have new employees that could benefit from training on our systems. This is a great opportunity to get that hands-on activity that will really help them be effective.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about the event or the training. We can’t wait to see you all there in March!

Big News in Northern Colorado

This month’s newsletter has been just a little bit late in getting out, but the delay couldn’t have come at a better time and for a better reason. As most of you know, many of our offices have taken on hosting a golf tournament as a charity event for their community. Delta Disaster Services of Northern Colorado started their annual golf tournament last

summer and it benefits the Kawasaki Foundation. In some big news, just released today, the Kawasaki Foundation has just partnered with NFL and the NFL Players

Association for their sponsorship efforts. This means the Delta Disaster Services of Northern Colorado golf tournament has just gone to another level. Check out the flyer below. The tournament is now boasting a former or current NFL player, playing along with every foursome registered. If you are interested in playing in the tournament you can contact Cammy Seaman, her contact information is on the flyer. The group is also

looking for hole sponsorships as well as donations for silent auction items, please contact them if you have want to help this great cause.

www.deltanortherncolorado.com

Delta Disaster Services of Northern Colorado

2nd Annual ScrambleGolf Tournament

Benefitting Kawasaki Kids Foundation

www.kawasakikids.org

Monday, July 13, 2015, 11 a.m.Ptarmigan Country Club, Ft. Collins

$1,000 per team of 4 Scramble format

Kawasaki Disease (KD), also known as Kawasaki syndrome, is a serious illness characterized by inflammation of blood vessels throughout the body that primarily affects young children and infants. Kawasaki Disease is the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children. About 4,200 children are diagnosed with KD in the U.S. each year. KD is more common in boys than girls, and the majority of cases are diagnosed in the winter and early spring. It is not contagious.

Without treatment, about 25% of children develop heart disease involving the coronary arteries. Timely diagnosis and treatment (which usually includes intravenous immunoglobulin) is highly effective in preventing coronary complications.

What Is Kawasaki Disease?

To register your team today go to www.kawasakikids.org/events,

or contact Cammy Seaman at (970) 567-9061 or email

[email protected] or Shawn Logan at 970.420.2909 or email

[email protected]

All teams are invited to a FREE mixer on Sunday night preceding the golf tournament to socialize with NFL players.

Spouses are welcome to join...please contact us for further details. Lunch will be served on various holes on the course.

Steak dinner and LIVE auction to follow!

Spend the day with former and current NFL players as you enjoy a day of golf and

food all while supporting a great cause!

Every team will include a formeror current NFLplayer!

* Receive a discounted rate of $250/player when you register a team before April 30, 2015. Registration is limited to 36 teams, or 144 players. Payment in full is required to re-ceive the discount. Registration increases to $300/player or $1,200.00/team May 1, 2015.

Register your team before April 30th to receive a discounted rate of $250/player.* This premier event is filling up quickly. Don’t miss the chance to golf with an NFL player and help support a great cause.

Register today!

Big Fire in Utah Mike Mastous recently had the opportunity to work with Mac Urie the owner of Delta Disaster Services of Southern Utah. Mac has quite a lot going on, as many of us do. He just finished up the mitigation of a 40 unit Quality Inn that was hit with a large amount of water from a broken suppression system. At the same time he also is handling a large fire loss. Both are solid six-figure projects.

The fire loss was somewhat complicated as the complete roof assemblies had to be removed and replaced. In doing this, he needed to keep the entire framing of the dwelling intact and undamaged. It's not always easy to find a framing subcontractor that can delicately remove framing items without affecting adjoining framing. As you can see from the photographs, all the roof assemblies were removed and are now being replaced.

Mac was able to work very effectively with a large loss team from State Farm that came up and wrote an initial estimate. The team from State Farm that did this was very well versed in large loss and gave Mac a good starting point to work from. As with many adjusters they tried to save some interior wall areas to include some cabinets and shower surrounds. At the end of the day and through further investigation, Mac was able to determine that many of these wall areas were pressurized with smoke and required additional demolition. The adjuster understood and acknowledged this additional demolition. Another example of a large loss with a very competent adjusting staff and a professional restoration contractor working together.

CASH IN THE DOOR! Based on December Royalties…

Southern Colorado does it again! Congratulations Emmis, Rosey, Tiffany and Crew on some great collection efforts that exceeded $150,000 in cash in the door! Can anyone beat these guys!?

Pricing the priceless - Valuing irreplaceable

works of art Ripped from the headlines – a wealthy art collector reports an original Picasso painting stolen. The FBI initiates a search for the criminals, the press speculates on who might have stolen such a high-valued work, and the insurance company has the difficult task of reimbursing their insured for lost value.

Fine art appraisers specializing in insurance claims are sometimes called upon to help establish value for those items that are often referred to as “priceless.” The logical question then becomes, “How do you value irreplaceable, ‘priceless’ works of art?”

The answer is simple in theory and difficult in practice; while most works of art are in fact irreplaceable, almost everything has a value. For appraisers, that value is most often determined by comparing like kind and quality items that are for sale or have recently sold in the market.

To elaborate, let's take the example of the stolen Picasso discussed here. While these paintings are definitely irreplaceable, they are not necessarily “priceless.” Because Picasso’s paintings and paintings by other high-caliber artists are often traded in the auction market at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, prices for these paintings are established semi-frequently in the market and become a basis of value for these particular artists’ work.

To value the Picasso, we would compare the insured’s painting to other Picasso paintings which have sold at auction. To complete this task we would consider the year of creation, canvas size, subject matter, medium, style of painting, and other determining factors which would affect value. We would not directly compare a Picasso

Cubist abstract to a Picasso Blue Period portrait for a value. Instead, we would compare like kind and quality works as well as how the market is currently responding to Picasso paintings in general. When Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust Cubist painting broke an auction record in 2010 for $106.5 million, it set the standard of value for other Picasso Cubist still life paintings.

his scenario holds true with other seemingly priceless paintings by masters such as Van Gogh, Monet, and the like. As long as there is an auction market for an artist’s work, a price can be established. It is often the case that private dealers and realized auction prices are very similar. This is particularly true of higher end art. However, a work that has come up at auction over and over again and has been seen frequently by the public may be considered “stale” and not as valuable in the short-term as a work that has rarely been seen. For this reason, it is also important to have an awareness of the recent visibility of both the subject property piece and the works to which it is being compared.

Appraising high-end art is challenging, especially in the event of a loss and damage insurance claim. If the piece was damaged, an adjuster will often ask for help to secure restoration estimates and compare those to the replacement value. If the cost of restoration plus the cost of the estimated diminution of value is less than the replacement cost, an item will be recommended for restoration.

When collector Steve Wynn (the billionaire Las Vegas hotelier) accidently elbowed his Picasso, leaving a silver dollar-sized hole in the canvas before trying to sell it, his insurance company was notified immediately. Most likely, if the painting was scheduled on Wynn’s insurance policy, they footed the restoration bill, raising the question as to whether the damage and subsequent restoration affected the value of the painting. The answer is yes, there would be a diminution in value to the piece in comparison with other Picasso paintings that have not been restored.

Whether or not a piece has been restored in the past is something appraisers need to take into consideration; the condition of these paintings plays a major role in determining value.

Along with condition, provenance also plays a major role in the valuation. Provenance is the successive history of ownership of a work of art and it is one of the factors that helps establish the authenticity of a piece. If an important work of art does not have a paper trail it can be a red flag.

While appraisers are not authenticators, there are a number of things they look for to complete due diligence and help establish value. Most major artists have a catalog raisonné to reference. A catalogue raisonné (French meaning “reasoned catalog”) is a comprehensive list of artworks by an artist, describing the works so that they may be

reliably identified by third parties.

Appraisers reference the artist’s catalogue raisonné in search of the painting being appraised to make certain it is listed. Also, the owners of the painting, if authentic, would most certainly have purchase documentation, auction house records, previous insurance appraisals, and/or insurance schedules to accompany their piece. In the event the authentication of the piece is questionable, there are experts to

call on for assistance. The estate of the artist or the artist’s foundation can assist with recommending authenticators of their work.

For insureds who are art collectors, it is advisable to have them schedule their fine art separately on their insurance policy with an accompanying certified appraisal. This appraisal should be updated every two to four years, since many changes in the market can occur in this time period affecting the value of the artwork: the death of the artist, a record-breaking auction sale for the artist, and an increase in the art market in general are all factors that can increase value.

Before and Afters

Most of the reasons that we take job photos center around our relationships with insurance carriers and the work we do for them on a very regular basis. But there are a couple other very good reasons for job photos, especially before and after photos. Having these photos, give you excellent visual documentation of the work you are capable of performing. You can use these photos on your website, on your social media outlets and in your marketing collateral. You can also send these to potential referral sources to show them what you are capable of doing for their customers.

At Delta Development Group we are also working on the launch of a new marketing program in which we will be looking for and asking for your job photos. We will be using them to show to potential new franchise owners and illustrate the quality work that we our operations are capable of doing.

Please make sure that you are properly photo documenting your jobs. Create a plan for when you first arrive on site so that you can capture all of the pertinent work in your photos, but also so you can go back and take photos of the same areas after work has been completed.

INTUIT, QUICKBOOKS PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Fortunately (or Unfortunately) we are gaining some inroads on pricing with Intuit and QuickBooks! If you have any questions or wish to go forward with any of these products, please contact Dixie for additional information. You can also contact our sales person, Alley Byrd. Alley’s phone is 800.931.2120 X717 and email at [email protected].

Going into 2015 some things to consider:

Current Version of QuickBooks: If your QuickBooks version is two years old or older, consider upgrading to 2015. You do get a franchise discount on the upgrade. You will also get a discount for adding users.

T-SHEETS: T-Sheets is an “electronic time sheet” app that will sync with QuickBooks from a computer, smartphone, or tablet. Once the set-up is in place it works great. The set-up does take some time. Delta Disaster Services of Denver has been using it for about 3 months; Delta Disaster Services of Salt Lake has also used it for some time. Cost is very low in comparison to having to do the data entry to get your job costing into QuickBooks. Using T-Sheets effectively will require that you process your payroll through Intuit. (We have used Intuit for over seven years for payroll processing. Problems are minimal).

Hosting: Moving your QuickBooks to Clouded Storage: This will allow you to access your QuickBooks from the office, home, wherever you have internet access. It can also allow your account or bookkeeper to access from another location. You will also free your local computer (or server) and the space QuickBooks is using. Delta Disaster Services of Denver and of Western Colorado are both in the process of moving our Hosting to Uni-Data. Uni-Data is the only hosting company that will provide us with a dedicated server and the ability to sync with DMS. Below is the pricing:

Dedicated Server (1-3 users) = $250/month (Normally $275, a $300/year savings.)

Each additional user = $38/user/month

Microsoft Office = $12/user/month (If you need to be able to run/create reports or email po’s/invoices, etc. you will HAVE to have Office even if you have it on computer.)

Additional Apps = $7/user/month (DMS software and TSheets. DMS should only need 1 additional app per company.)

mailto:[email protected]

If you are coming from another hosting provider they suggest you purchase service hours to make the switch unless you have a tech department.

SERVICE HOURS

-QB Enterprise 5 hours = $700

10 hours = $1300 -QB Pro/Premier

5 hours = $500 10 hours = $900

When you purchase service hours you are assigned to a dedicated point of contact in the service department and your hours do not expire for 2 years.

CREDIT CARD PROCESSING: We have some great rates from Intuit for Credit Card Processing. This is certainly something to consider based on any current contractual requirement you might have:

QUICKBOOKS ENTERPRISE RATES

Description Special Offer

Discount Fixed rate for Visa, MasterCard, and Discover

Swipe – 1.60%

Keyed – 2.85%

Monthly Customer Service Fee $0

Transaction/Authorization Fee $0.25

Monthly Minimum fee $0

GoPayment Card Reader Free

Check Processing/ACH $0.50 per transaction

Contract No Set Up Fee No Contract No Cancellation Fee No Termination Fee

QUICKBOOKS PRO/PREMIER RATES: Pricing Schedule #1



Swipe – 2.40%

Keyed – 3.40%

Monthly Customer Service Fee $0




Check Processing/ACH $0.50

Contract No Set Up Fee No Contract No Cancellation Fee No Termination Fee

QUICKBOOKS PRO/PREMIER RATES: Pricing Schedule #2



Swipe – 1.75%

Keyed – 3.15%

Monthly Customer Service Fee $19.95




Check Processing/ACH $0.50

Contract

No Set Up Fee No Contract No Cancellation Fee No Termination Fee

Reminder: 1099’s are due January 31 for all subcontractors.

And we will leave you with this…

“Treat your employees like they make a

difference and they will.”

~ Jim Goodnight ~ CEO, S.A.S Shoes

Documents

Restoration Rewind Feb 2015