Property Intelligence: Era Risks and Flood Zone, Without Leaving Your Report
Property Intelligence is a panel inside InspectorData that shows what a property's build year implies and which FEMA flood zone it sits in. Click Property Intel while writing a report to get era-based risk flags calculated instantly from the year built, plus a FEMA flood zone lookup for the address.
How Do You Open Property Intelligence?
Two entry points. Both read the property address and year built saved on the report.
Click Property Intel
In the AI report writer, a Property Intel button with a blue brain icon sits in the top header toolbar, immediately right of the Templates button. On View Reports, open a report's Actions menu and Property Intel appears in the secondary Quick Actions grid, immediately before Delete.
Read the Three Columns
The panel opens titled Property Intelligence, subtitled Era-based risks, flood zone, and permit history, with three columns: Era-Based Insights, FEMA Flood Zone and Building Permits. Three across on desktop, two between 601 and 900 pixels, one at 600 and below.
Close and Keep Writing
Close it with the X button, the backdrop, or Escape and you are back in the report where you left it. The panel is a reference you read, not something that edits your report.
What Are Era-Based Insights?
Era-Based Insights are computed instantly in your browser from the year built, with no API call. Seven fixed rules run against the build year and current age, and each match produces a prompt colour coded high, medium or informational.
Wording is inspector-facing. The lead paint flag reads "Built before 1978 federal ban. EPA-certified renovator required for disturbing painted surfaces." The polybutylene flag reads "Known to fail and cause leaks. May affect insurability." The electrical prompt tells you to look for Federal Pacific, Zinsco, or fuse boxes.
- Instant logic - Insights render before any network request, so the first column is populated the moment the panel opens.
- Colour-coded severity - High, medium and informational styling so the serious flags read first.
- Age-aware prompts - Roof, HVAC and electrical reminders are driven by the property's current age, which is printed in the text.
- Honest empty state - With no rule match the panel states "No era-specific concerns identified for this property age." rather than showing a blank box.
Which Rules Does Property Intelligence Check?
All seven, in full. Fixed conditionals, not predictions, so you know exactly what the panel will tell you before you open it.
| Insight | Triggers when | Risk level |
|---|---|---|
| Lead Paint Risk | Built before 1978. Cites the federal ban and EPA-certified renovator requirement. | High |
| Asbestos Potential | Built before 1970. Insulation, floor tiles, siding, pipe wrap. | High |
| Galvanized Plumbing | Built before 1960. Notes 40-50 year lifespan and symptoms to check. | Medium |
| Polybutylene Piping | Built 1978-1995. Flags failure risk and insurability impact. | Medium |
| Roof Assessment | Age 20-40 years, against a 20-30 year asphalt shingle life. | Info |
| HVAC System | Age 15-30 years, against a 15-25 year unit lifespan. | Info |
| Electrical Panel | Age 30-50 years. Prompts a check for Federal Pacific, Zinsco or fuse boxes. | Info |
How Does the FEMA Flood Zone Lookup Work?
The FEMA Flood Zone column queries the public FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer ArcGIS service by latitude and longitude, returning the zone code, a Special Flood Hazard Area true/false flag, and a plain-English risk description.
Twelve zone codes are mapped to written descriptions - A, AE, AH, AO, AR, A99, V, VE, X, B, C and D - so you read "High Risk — 1% annual chance flood (100-year)" or "Minimal Risk — Outside flood areas" instead of decoding a letter. Zone D returns "Undetermined Risk — No analysis performed".
- SFHA warning - When the property sits in a Special Flood Hazard Area, the panel displays "Flood insurance likely required (Special Flood Hazard Area)" with a high-risk badge.
- Automatic geocoding - The panel sends the property address. If no coordinates are resolved for it, the server geocodes the address free via OpenStreetMap before making the FEMA call.
- Six-month caching - Results are stored in a property cache table keyed by a SHA-256 hash of the normalised address, and the response reports whether it came from cache or live.
- No stale empties - The cache refuses to serve a row holding no flood or permit data, so a failed lookup is retried rather than returned empty.
Built to Degrade Honestly
Third-party data fails. What matters is whether the tool says so, or quietly shows nothing and lets you assume.
Independent Failure Handling
Each source is wrapped separately, so a failure in one still returns the others and a flood problem never costs you the era insights.
Explicit Unavailable States
Unresolved flood data shows "Flood zone data not available for this location." Unresolved permits show "Permit data not available." The panel never fakes a clean result.
Escaped Output
Every dynamic value in the panel, flood zone codes included, is HTML-escaped through a createTextNode-based helper before it reaches the screen.
Instant First Column
Era insights draw before any fetch begins; the flood column shows a loading state until its live result arrives.
What Property Intelligence Is Not
Know the limits before you rely on it in front of a client. Each point is a real constraint today.
- It is not a flood determination. The result is a point-intersect query against a single FEMA map layer - a screening indicator. No Base Flood Elevation figure, no elevation certificate, no insurance ruling. The "likely required" wording is a heuristic.
- It is not always current. Results cache for up to six months, so a recently re-mapped zone can show older data. Confirm anything consequential against the official FEMA source.
- It is not AI. The brain icon is decoration. The era insights are seven hard-coded conditionals - no model, no prediction, no learning.
- It does not write into your report. The panel is strictly read-only - no insert, copy or add-to-report control. You read it and write what you judge relevant, in your own words.
- It needs your data entry. Era insights require the year built on the job record; the flood lookup needs a resolvable address. A job with no year built shows "No era-specific concerns identified for this property age." - that means data is missing, not that the property is clear.
- Coverage is not guaranteed. If the FEMA layer returns no feature for a point, the panel shows that flood data is unavailable for that location.
- Building Permits depends on a third-party permit source. The third column requires a configured permit-data provider and a street address resolved for the property. Where either is missing, or the provider returns nothing, the column reports that permit data is not available rather than guessing. Treat permit history as best-effort, not a complete record.
Built by a Master Inspector With 11+ Years in the Field
The seven era rules are the ones a working inspector actually reaches for: the 1978 lead line, the polybutylene window, the panel brands you never want to find. InspectorData is built by a Certified Master Inspector with more than eleven years of field experience, which is why the feature stops where an inspector's judgement starts - it hands you context, it does not write your findings. Questions? Call 612-457-1021.
Try Property Intelligence Free for 30 Days
Everything InspectorData does for $79/month. Extra inspector seats $54 each. No contract, cancel anytime. Call 612-457-1021.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Property Intelligence in InspectorData?
A panel you open with the Property Intel button while writing a report. It shows era-based risks calculated from the year built and the FEMA flood zone for the property address. The modal is titled Property Intelligence, subtitled "Era-based risks, flood zone, and permit history", and closes via the X button, the backdrop, or Escape.