Your natural disaster risk score, securing your files

When RealtyTrac released its first Natural Disaster Housing Risk Report, we took a look. (See the interactive map here.) After all, our Operations Center is in Oklahoma City so we live with natural events including tornadoes, ice storms, and lately even earthquakes. Our county is blazing red with risk.

More importantly, we’ve invested millions into redundancy and disaster recovery systems. Since we power over half of the nation’s residential real estate transactions, disaster-proofing is a part of our DNA and we’re obsessively self-reliant.

Even though you probably don’t have 45 ton generators with names like “Big Bertha”, it doesn’t mean you aren’t acutely aware that disaster can strike at any time. With the most prolific category in this map showing “High Risk”, most appraisers have something to be wary of – tornado, earthquake, hurricanes. And even this map doesn’t take events like crippling ice storms or fire into consideration.

But you don’t have to invest heavily to get your business disaster-ready. One of the biggest items on your checklist needs to be storing all of your important appraisal files to the cloud. Here are a few reasons automatic cloud storage is so important:

1. If roads are dangerous, you (and your assistant) can work from home as if you’re in the office.
   As a business owner, you don’t have the luxury of being able to take leisurely snow days. You have deadlines. If your files are stored to the cloud, you can easily open them from any PC with an Internet connection and continue working as if you were at the office. There’s no need to sift through a big pile of the paper MLS sheets you’ve been dragging on inspections or e-mail yourself all of your working assignments before the storm comes in. You’ll have it all.
2. You won’t worry as much.
   The last thing you’ll want to worry about when the worst happens is USPAP violations and lost work. With cloud storage, your files are stored completely off site (and out of the vicinity). You’ll know that a flood won’t take out all of your file cabinets or lightning won’t fry your external hard drive. With our product, Vault, all of your files are uploaded nightly or any interval you choose. They’re secure in our redundantly-powered, 300-server system. After all, hard drives are notorious for failing and file cabinets are bulky and prone to the elements.
3. If you end up buying a new replacement computer, you’ll have much less downtime.
   You’ve taken years to customize your software and there’s no reason a natural disaster should put you back at square one. With the Vault in particular, your formfiller (TOTAL or WinTOTAL) settings are automatically backed up including QuickLists, comps, contacts, signatures, etc. When you get a new PC, our Exact tool knows precisely where to install everything in your appraisal software. And unlike other systems, Exact backs everything up even as you have it open. Also unlike other backup solutions, you don’t have to wait days for a full system restoration. Vault with Exact will add everything to your new computer in a few minutes.

Obviously, there are more ways to prep your business for Mother Nature’s curveballs like having sufficient insurance, a communication plan, etc. Cloud-based storage is simply one of the easiest, most proactive things you can do right now. So no matter if your county is fire red like ours or green like our friends in Bismarck, your data will be secure.

To get started with Vault click here. More than 11 million appraisal files are stored along with thousands of office settings. Once you take a few minutes to set it up, you’ll have instant peace of mind.

To see photos of our infrastructure, along with all of the details about our preparedness, click here.

Providing relief in the aftermath
While we’ve built products like Vault with Exact and have invested millions in securing our systems, disaster still strikes. When that happens we step up like any privately owned, American family company that cares about their customers should. We have, and always will, provided financial relief and free services to our customers in the aftermath. For instance, some of our most recent efforts have been directed towards the 2014 tornadoes that ripped through the south and recovery from the Moore, Oklahoma devastation.

If you have real estate friends still struggling with rebuilding after a natural disaster, send an e-mail to relief@alamode.com.

After all, another aspect is that many real estate pros use their home as an office, which makes the impact even more devastating. They bear the burden of home damages and losing the tools needed to do their jobs. They need an office, technology, and data vital to earning a living. We can help.