Beyond the Call Center: Your Path to Remote Auto Claims Work

Wondering how to land that dream work-from-home auto adjusting position? This episode unveils the pathways to remote work in the independent adjusting world that many aspiring adjusters don't fully understand.

I break down the crucial distinction between desk deployments (working at a call center or office) and genuine remote work (from your home or location of choice). For auto total loss adjusters, the typical journey begins with proving yourself in a controlled environment for 2-3 weeks before earning the trust to take your laptop home. The financial upside is significant - maintaining that $400/day rate while eliminating all travel expenses makes these positions incredibly valuable.

While competition exists for these roles, they're more accessible than most realize. Success hinges on two key factors: appropriate licensing in states with active claims and demonstrating competence that instills confidence in your ability to work independently. I also explore the alternative path through auto damage remote work, where adjusters write estimates from photos submitted from the field. This option typically pays per claim ($10-$20 each) rather than daily rates, creating different opportunities and challenges.

The choice between these paths involves important tradeoffs. Auto total loss remote work provides steady, predictable income but requires strict adherence to schedules with little flexibility during working hours. Auto damage remote opportunities offer more freedom but potentially inconsistent claim volume. Whether you're seeking a primary income source or supplemental earnings alongside field adjusting, understanding these distinctions will help you navigate toward the remote opportunity that best fits your goals and lifestyle. Ready to explore these options further? Contact us at 844-4-IAPATH or check out our certifications at iapath.com to build the experience requirements necessary for these positions.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro to Work-from-Home Auto Deployments
• 1:17 Desk vs. Remote Work Explained
• 2:30 Auto Damage Remote Work Opportunities
• 4:10 Comparing Total Loss vs. Auto Damage
• 5:46 Keys to Success and Final Tips

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:17

Hey, pathfinders, welcome back to the Independent Adjuster Podcast. This is your host, chris Stanley, and I am here today to talk about how to get work-from-home autodesk deployments. Now, last time I talked about how you get months-long autodesk deployments. You know, big answer to a big part, at least right now in our industry, is auto total loss deployments, especially when a big, big, major catastrophe happens. But maybe you're one of those people who are like, hey, maybe heard Matt Allen talk about I want to work from home. I'm asking my PJs, right? You've heard about those types of opportunities. How do we get those? In auto it's a little bit different but luckily it's kind of the same opportunity.

Speaker 1: 1:01

So with auto total loss you typically go to a cubicle, call center kind of place, a desk deployment, so that's desk. You're sitting at a desk and then once they're comfortable with you, sometimes they will give you the opportunity to take that computer home, your laptop home and work remotely. This is kind of the difference between desk and remote work. A lot of times they kind of get smushed together. Desk just means you're working behind a computer screen and you're not going into the field, you're not going to the car or to the home to deal with, you know, taking pictures and stuff yourself. You're sitting at a desk doing whatever it is that you do in whatever role you're doing, whereas remote work means, hey, I get to work from my home or wherever I want to work, right, that's kind of the difference between desk field and remote work. So if you're looking for remote work, a lot of times you will have to prove yourself in a desk environment with an independent adjusting firm working for a carrier, whether it's liability, it's total loss. You get deployed there. They like you, you prove you know the process, you prove you can do the job, and they're like, yeah, we can support you working remotely, you know enough, we're going to trust you with that. A lot of times that's two, three weeks, something like that, and then they want to keep you long-term. They say, hey, go home, go ahead and work from home, and so that's still that $400-ish a day setup typically. And so when you can go, do that from home and you don't have any expenses, that is a killer role. That is amazing, because you have nothing going out the door in terms of you know hotel or extra food or you know travel expenses, and so a lot of people really want to get into that role. So it is competitive, but it's not as competitive as you would think.

Speaker 1: 2:58

A lot of it comes down to licensing. A lot of it comes down to as you would think A lot of it comes down to licensing. A lot of it comes down to hey, you're actually good at doing the job and so we want to keep you, and you're so good at the job we think you're not going to have a billion questions, so you don't need to be in a call center tapping on my shoulder every five minutes, so we're going to let you go home. So if you're like man, I really want one of those roles. You need to get good at what you're doing. Man, I really want one of those roles. You need to get good at what you're doing. You need to get the license, get you deployed, which I think we're going to talk about the next episode and so working from home that's one of the major ways is auto total loss.

Speaker 1: 3:34

Another one is auto damage. I know some individuals who work for companies writing hail estimates or writing estimates remotely off of photos that are coming in from the field. Those are extremely competitive and the downside to that. So I am all about auto damage. I love auto damage. It's where I've spent my career, it's what I teach, it's what I know and love.

Speaker 1: 3:55

A lot of times auto damage is paid per piece. So you have to be available to write, but then you might only be making $10 to $20, depending on what type of claim it is or who you're working for and how easy the process is per claim. So if you only get five estimates to write in a day, you might be capped out at making $100, but you had to be available to write those claims. The bonus to that is if you're able to not be locked down to the desk and you can just do that as an add-on to whatever it is you're doing as an IA. That's cool too.

Speaker 1: 4:27

I've known some field adjusters who go in the field throughout the day, write their 10, 12, whatever, then go home and desk write for two hours and make sure a hundred or 200 bucks or whatever. So there are some pros to that. There are some people, I know, that do make great money consistently doing that, but it's not a large number of people. That's why I don't typically push that like hey, you could write estimates remotely from home in auto damage, because the opportunities aren't as vast, but they are out there. But you're typically paid per piece, whereas you have a lot of freedom, you don't, might not have a lot of volume.

Speaker 1: 5:03

And then, on the opposite side of the spectrum, the auto total loss or auto liability. You're going to have a guaranteed amount at least per hour that you're making. It usually comes out to about four hundred dollars a day or so. Uh, but you're tied to that desk. You are not supposed to leave, except for a short amount of time and lunch. Right like you're, you're working 10, 12 hours a day, six, seven days a week, and so they're very different, those types of home, remote deployment.

Speaker 1: 5:30

So that's kind of the two, three ways that I know that you can get an auto work from home opportunity. It all comes down to do. You know what you're doing, because people have to trust you, because you're not there to babysit, basically. And two, do you have the licenses in the state that are having damage or in the state that have claims that need settled? Keep those two things in mind. If you need help with any of that, you know us, give us a call 844-4-IAPAP, 844-4--iapath. And if you need help getting certified to get the experience requirements. Head to iapathcom check out our certifications. Uh, but until next time, keep walking your path and claiming your life.