I admit it, I am one of those people that logs in every day to check my bank account for cleared checks, see what charges have posted to the old AMEX card and how the family investments currently stand. Based on the increased use (and trust for) online banking and personal finance tools, I suspect I am not alone. Desktop software products like Quicken have been around for years to satiate the desire to know what your money is doing (I even had my free copy of Microsoft Money 1.0 back in the day) and now thanks to powerful web-based products like Mint, you can go online and do something very similar. In my opinion, having that kind of focus on personal finances is important in this era of increased dependence on credit.
But what if families applied the same principals they apply to their money, credit and retirement accounts to most expensive items they are likely to ever purchase, their homes and their vehicles? Corporate America has recognized the importance of applying this kind of focus for years to protect and value their assets, with fleet management software and asset tracking tools, but little focus has been placed on doing something similar at the consumer level. That is, until now.
With Ownersite and Home Ownersite, we are starting to get people to think more critically about the overall importance and value of their vehicles and their homes, a paradigm shift that we refer to as "personal asset management."
We all know that a vehicle immediately loses value when driven off the lot, yet we still continue to make payments on it for several years. How can we maintain as much value as possible, while at the same time keep it in peak operating condition. Ultimately, it is incumbent upon the owner to have maintenance performed, but Ownersite reminds its users of when and why, provides an online repository to store service information and ultimately makes it simple to share that history (and receipts) with a potential buyer online come resale time. Fuel economy tracking, trip logging and comprehensive reporting tools help manage the ownership life cycle.
For most of us, our home is the most expensive thing we will ever own, but few of us take the care to document all the important contents within the home. In the event of a flood, fire or break-in that makes recovering a challenging process. Thanks to Home Ownersite, it is easy to document, and ultimately share with your insurance agent, what was taken or destroyed and get on with your life as quickly as possible. But inventory is just one component of Home Ownersite, with task reminders (change those smoke detector batteries!), an online journal, photo and file store, mortgage and tax document repositories and much more, the product is intended for the complete ownership life cycle of your home.
And what if you are a renter or own multiple properties? It is important to keep track of all the assets in your life, wherever they are, especially if they are out of sight most of the time.
Let's be honest, some of us check the balance of our 401k every day, but we don't rely on our 401k to drive our kids to school or provide our family shelter. Thankfully, more and more people are understanding the importance of applying this mentality to their homes and vehicles, as evidenced by the number of products out there competing with Ownersite Technologies on the desktop, for PDA's and online.
Online banking has now become ubiquitous. Web-based tools to track our personal finances are gaining popularity every day. Our goal since 2001 is to educate consumers on the importance and value of "personal asset management" with Ownersite and Home Ownersite.
