Any input on the pros or cons of commercial work as opposed to residential?

Residential claims are typically quicker to close and easier to get into. However, you have to deal with many more insureds to make the same amount of money that you could potentially make working commercial claims.

Commercial claims usually requires having some experience working residential before anyone will hire you to work commercial, unless you already have some experience in commercial costruction or business management. Many commercial claims get into inventory and business loss of use. You have to know the difference in what to pay of not. For example, you don't pay for a monthly food order when the resturant is shut down due to the loss. You could also work only five large commercial claims in a year and make as much money as working several hundred residential claims. But these claims sometimes take up to a year to close.

They both have pros, they both have cons. It just depends on which you prefer.

In a flood claim, you don't have to deal with business loss of use so they are sometimes better to work than residential. Many times you just have too spend more time measuring and diagramming, but you end up with a much larger paycheck because there was a lot more drywall and paint. Commercial air handling systems are commonly very expensive, too, as are electrical systems and such. Itmay still take a bit longer to close, however, because you won't find an air handling system for a 250,000 square foot building in a typical database, so you and up waiting for contractors to provide their estimates. The up side to working general flood policies, (flood commercial) is they have to be closed within 60 days, so you can close the file and have the insured submit a supplement after he gets the actual invoice.