From a Black Box to Real-Time Insights: Unlocking the Next Frontier in P&C Loss Prevention

The Hidden Cost of Household Risk

Each year, the U.S. insurance industry pays out tens of billions of dollars in residential property claims. Fires caused by lint-clogged dryer vents. Water damage from aging hoses or unnoticed leaks. Structural issues from overgrown trees or failing sump pumps.

These incidents are widespread, yet many of them are also preventable.

Insurers have invested heavily in smarter pricing models, improved catastrophe modeling, and AI-powered analytics. These tools are powerful. But when it comes to what's actually happening inside the homes we insure, there’s still a major gap: We can’t see what’s happening until it becomes a claim.

A Familiar Challenge: Insuring What You Can’t See

For most carriers, each home in a portfolio is still something of a mystery. We may know the square footage, the year it was built, and how far it is from the coast. But we don’t know if the smoke detectors are working. We don't know if the dryer vent is at high risk for clogs and fires. We don’t know whether aging plumbing parts are quietly degrading behind the walls.

These kinds of home maintenance blind spots are often the root cause of costly claims, but they remain invisible in the traditional insurance model.

To move the industry forward, we don’t just need better data, we need more meaningful visibility into the real-time condition of the homes we insure, along with effective communication to the homeowner on how to prevent any safety hazards in their home.

A New Layer of Insight: Bringing the Home into Focus

To better manage loss, carriers need a view of the home that goes beyond one-time underwriting snapshots. That starts with two categories of insight that have historically been missing but are increasingly possible to surface:

Home Condition Visibility: What’s Happening Right Now?

This includes practical, safety-relevant signals that help answer key questions like:

• Are there visible safety risks like missing smoke detectors or aging water heaters that the homeowner needs to know about?

• Are the most common sources of claims (fire, water, freeze, intrusion) being proactively addressed?

• Are the correct preventative measures taken and the right support staff engaged to address issues?

These are missed opportunities to not only reduce insurance claims, but also to improve safety in the home. With the right support, many homeowners would take these actions happily. But without guidance, they often go overlooked.

Home Care Patterns: What Can We Learn About Behavior and Risk?

Just as important is understanding the context:

• What’s the general condition and age of key systems like HVAC, plumbing, or the roof?

• Has the homeowner recently completed work or maintenance on the home?

• Are there signals that the homeowner is actively engaged in keeping the home safe and well cared for? Has the homeowner been able to find the correct service providers for tasks?

None of this data needs to be invasive or overreaching. When structured and shared with care, it paints a fuller picture that benefits both insurer and insured. It enables smarter risk engagement, personalized service, and, ultimately, fewer claims.

What We’re Seeing in the Field

At Rafter, we’ve completed hundreds of in-home assessments, and the patterns are consistent:

These are risks hiding in plain sight. But they’re not the result of neglect or indifference. In nearly every case, homeowners weren’t aware of the issue, didn’t realize the risk, or didn’t have a clear plan for what to do next. No one had ever told them that dryer vents need annual cleaning, or that rubber supply lines should be replaced with braided steel. They didn’t know their fire extinguisher had a shelf life, or that the ivy climbing their exterior wall could increase fire exposure or compromise the structure over time.

This is the real challenge: not a lack of care, but a lack of clarity. And because there’s no infrastructure for preventive support, no consistent source of guidance, and no channel for structured visibility, insurers are left in the dark, unable to identify emerging risks or help homeowners reduce them before they escalate into claims.

It’s not just a data gap. It’s a service gap. One that costs both insurers and policyholders more than it should.

Why the Gap Persists

If homeowners want safer homes and insurers want fewer losses, why is so much preventable risk still in the system?

Because the infrastructure to prevent it simply doesn't exist yet.

• Homeowners are often overwhelmed by the complexity of home care

• Insurers lack channels to engage proactively before a claim arises

• The ecosystem is fragmented: a plumber here, a handyman there, and no one accountable for the big picture

• Even when incentive programs exist, they’re hard to access or understand
  
  

The result? Everyone is reacting to risk, rather than staying ahead of it.

The Opportunity: Illuminate the Risk, Empower the Homeowner

Now imagine a different future, one where homeowners are equipped with simple tools and trusted support to manage their home preventively. Where risk signals are surfaced and addressed before they escalate. Where insurers have meaningful visibility and homeowners have support to resolve safety risks.

This is the future we’re building at Rafter.

Rafter: Turning Visibility into Value

Rafter helps insurers and homeowners close the gap, together. Through a combination of in-home services, intelligent software, and guided support, we make it easy to:

• Surface and resolve preventable risks before they become claims

• Track and validate maintenance actions in a homeowner-friendly way

• Deliver a more proactive, trusted experience to policyholders

• Generate structured insights about home conditions across your portfolio

For insurers, this means lower loss ratios. For homeowners, it means peace of mind. For both, it means a more resilient, transparent, and trusted relationship.

Let’s make prevention practical. Let’s bring visibility to the places that matter most.

Let’s unlock the next frontier together.

Reach out to learn how Rafter can help.