WRAP MORTGAGE FAQ’s – Why Do You Need So Much Property Information And What Is The ‘Replacement’ Cost?

by Kelly Troy on March 9th, 2012

In order to develop the amount of insurance needed to adequately protect the property against loss, known as the reconstruction or replacement cost, we must first need to know the physical characteristics of the property such as the square footage, year constructed, number of bathrooms, construction grade, and so on.

As addressed in another question, the reconstruction or replacement cost value is not a number simply chosen at random. Most companies use the Marshall & Swift/Boeckh (MSB for short) data service to arrive at this value. MSB is a large global company which tracks the labor and material costs for every zip code in every county in the United States.  Insurance companies pay millions of dollars each year to utilize the MSB service and when performing quotes, agents are required to input the various construction data about the subject property such as square footage, number of baths, exterior construction, construction grade, and so on. This information is then used to calculate cost per square foot and total reconstruction value for the insured property.


Go Back to FAQ's About Wrap-Around Mortgages

Kelly Troy

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kelly Troy is founder and President of InsuranceForInvestors.com as well as an active real estate investor himself, purchasing and ‘rehabbing’ both residential and commercial properties and actively engaging in non-traditional investing throughout the United States. As the founder of “STREETSMARTinvesting” as well as the developer of the “Riches in Rehabs” and “Riches in Rentals” investor programs; he has traveled extensively to host workshops and impart to other investors and real estate professionals the same principals and skills that he himself has learned regarding how to successfully profit from purchasing real estate. Kelly also established his own successful real-estate investor’s group and he is a frequent guest speaker at other REI groups and he often hosts local investing workshops in addition to teaching TREC-approved MCE courses for licensed real estate professionals. Kelly is also a combat veteran of the United States Army Infantry as well as an active member of his community, serving on several City and Regulatory Boards and having either Chaired or actively served on the Board of Directors for many professional and community organizations. In addition, after having spent several years as a traditional mortgage lender, he founded his own private-lending firm, Genesis Funding Solutions, and he was a hard-money lender underwriting and managing private loans to investors for projects of all types across the country. He is also extremely well-versed in all forms of seller-financing and in brokering privately-held mortgage notes. Prior to his investing career, Kelly was also a professional safety and risk consultant having developed many safety and risk management programs in various industries and he traveled frequently developing and implementing industrial and manufacturing processes, safety, and quality assurance programs throughout both the United States and Europe. He also worked for the Texas Worker’s Compensation Commission (TWCC) as well as the OSHA Consultation Program (OSHCON) as an Industrial Hygienist and he is; therefore, extremely familiar with risk management and loss mitigation, personal liability, worker’s compensation, and commercial risks. While having owned a previous agency with Farmer’s Insurance Group, he was chosen from over 150 agents as the President of the graduating class at the University of Farmers in Los Angeles, California and he was later recognized as one of the Top 25 commercial agents in Texas.

Leave a Reply