Every Fire and Water Job Pays Less Than It Should. Here Is Why.
The carrier’s estimate is written by someone trained to leave things out. Detach and reset. Contents manipulation. Equipment days. Code upgrades. The crawlspace nobody entered. If it is not on your scope, it is not on the check, and the difference comes out of your margin on every job you already do.
This course is about the scope, not the software. You already know Xactimate®. What you learn here is how a carrier-side adjuster reads a fire and water estimate, what he is looking for a reason to cut, and how to build a scope that survives review with nothing left behind. Every restoration job you run after this class pays more, and that is a permanent change to the profitability of your business.
This course pays for itself thousands of times over, and you will see why on the very first loss you write in class. Every detail you miss is dollars falling out of your pocket.
One real loss, start to finish.
The second half of the course is a real large-loss fire: a rented split-level home where a garage door opener motor started the fire, and the crawlspace under the main floor filled with water and debris from the firefight. Brick and stucco exterior, laminate shingle roof, two floors of smoke and heat damage.
- Walk the property in a 3D virtual inspection, room by room.
- Work from real roof, exterior and interior measurements, floor by floor, crawlspace included.
- Sketch it, scope the fire and the water, apply the line items, and print the estimate.
- Leave with a complete large-loss estimate you wrote yourself, and the method to do it again on Monday.
Show, teach, observe: the instructor demonstrates, teaches the step, then watches you do it on your own laptop.
He wrote the carrier’s playbook. Now he teaches you what it leaves out.
Bruce Authement has been a Xactware Certified Trainer since 2012 and has 18-plus years as a property adjuster, appraiser, umpire and catastrophe manager. He served as Director of Training and Innovation at a nationwide catastrophe claims firm, where he built the large-loss fire and flood training and the adjuster skills assessments still used by multiple independent adjusting firms, and he managed a 35-adjuster flood team through Superstorm Sandy.
He has sat on the carrier side, the public adjuster side and the umpire’s chair. He knows what the desk adjuster is told to cut, what the field adjuster never scopes, and what a complete estimate looks like when it lands on their screen. That is the estimate you will leave this class knowing how to write.
- ✓Xactware Certified Trainer since 2012
- ✓Certified General Adjuster (CGA)
- ✓Certified Property Insurance Appraiser (CPIA)
- ✓Licensed adjuster and appraiser, Louisiana
- ✓Past President, National Association of Catastrophe Adjusters
- ✓Former Director of Training, national catastrophe claims firm
Walk Out Writing Scopes That Get Paid in Full.
A fast calibration. Then the fire.
The first block is not beginner instruction. It is a calibration of how you set up, sketch and scope, done Bruce’s way, so bad habits are gone before the loss. The second block is the real thing: a two-story fire with a flooded crawlspace, walked in a 3D inspection and written from real measurements on your own laptop.
- Desktop dashboard, local and cloud
- Claim info, coverage and loss pages
- Parameters, O&P, price lists, data transfer
- Practice: an interior and a roof estimate
- Rooms, walls, ceilings, room shapes
- Closets, subgroups, custom staircases
- Doorways, windows, missing walls
- Room variables that drive the math
- Category, selector, activity, calculation
- Remove, replace, detach and reset, install only
- Reference and keyword search
- Item information: what is and is not included
- Mark complete and submit required info
- Bypass inspection, change status
- Print a professional estimate
- Help, eService Center, Q&A
- Virtual onsite inspection
- Roof, exterior, interior and crawlspace measurements
- Scope the fire, then the suppression water
- Your finished estimate, reviewed
Approved for 14 IICRC continuing education hours.
Contractors Network and Training Center is an IICRC approved Continuing Education Provider. This course carries 14 IICRC CEC hours, the most the IICRC grants for a single course, and covers a technician’s full four-year renewal requirement in one class. Sign in each day and you leave with a certificate of attendance for your renewal file.
“The IICRC does not endorse any educational provider, product, offering, or service. The Institute expressly disclaims responsibility, endorsement or warranty for third-party publications, products, certifications, or instruction. The approved status does not award IICRC Certification, only qualified continuing education hours.”
Know the Standard Behind the Line Items.
Xactimate® water and fire items reference the IICRC S500 and S700 standards. Pair this course with IICRC WRT and FSRT certification, also taught in Rosemont, and you can write the estimate and defend it.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is this course for?
Restoration and mitigation contractors, their estimators and project managers, and public adjusters who already write in Xactimate® and handle fire and water losses. If you run the jobs and the carrier’s numbers keep coming in under yours, this is the class.
Do I need Xactimate® experience first?
Yes. This is not a beginner course. You should be comfortable creating an estimate, sketching a room and adding line items on your own. New to Xactimate®? Start with our 3-day Level I and II course, then come back for this one.
How is this different from your 3-day Xactimate® course?
The 3-day Xactimate® course teaches the software across every loss type. This course teaches the loss: how a fire and water claim is scoped, reviewed and cut on the carrier side, and how to write one that pays in full. Take Level I and II first if you are new, then this.
Does this count for continuing education?
Yes. Contractors Network and Training Center is an IICRC approved Continuing Education Provider, and this course is approved for 14 IICRC continuing education credit hours, the maximum the IICRC awards for one course. Attend both days, sign the IICRC sign-in sheet, and you receive a certificate of attendance to submit toward your certification renewal. IICRC technicians need 14 hours every four years.
What do I need to bring?
A laptop with Xactimate® installed. If you do not have a license yet, call us before class and we will tell you your options.
When and where is the class?
Rosemont, IL, five minutes from O’Hare. First class dates are being finalized. Join the wait list and we will send the dates as soon as they are set, with first access to seats.
How do I get on the wait list?
Click any Wait List button to send us your details, or call (773) 635-0099. Seats are limited to what one instructor can watch, so register early.