The Best Cheap All Insurance: homeowners insurance

Showing posts with label homeowners insurance. Show all posts

Monday, February 15, 2016

Affordable Home Insurance - Steps That Guarantee Cheaper Insurance Rates

Affordable Home Insurance -- Steps That Guarantee Cheaper Insurance Rates A fire-safe home exterior will help bring down your rates. You'll be doing the right thing if you ensure you don't have anything flammable close to your home.

Even though cutting bushes around your house looks simple... ...You will get lower premiums if you do keep them at a distance of at least 10 feet from your structures. The likelihood of a fire in a house is a very strong factor that determines your home insurance rate. It's more expensive and a waste of money to insure the land on which your house is built. Many people pay much more than they should on home insurance just because of this mistake.

You've made same mistake if you insured your home for the price you bought it without checking the cost of the land it's standing on and deducting it. If you made this mistake, meet with your agent quickly and go through your coverage. Subtract the cost of the land and you will discover that you'll need far less coverage. Your premium will drop and you'll still have sufficient coverage if you do it right. Since insurance is for things that can be lost, insuring the land which can neither be lost nor damaged isn't right.

Home Insurance Replacement Cost

Unknown at 12:45 PM No comments:

When you are buying a homeowners insurance policy the first thing you look at and have to think about, and make a good decision on is, what is the value of your home. Now, I say you make a decision; once again, you should be guided by the insurance agency you are dealing with. What you don’t do, is use the purchase price of your home. Sometimes a mortgage company may mandate that you insure your home at least equal to the mortgage.

That may be something you don’t have a choice with, but maybe your house needs to be insured for more than that. I will say though, if your agent is in to it, like we are, and your mortgage company is requiring you to have a higher value than what you really need to insure your home for, it’s worth taking a shot at to see if the correct value can be established. So what does that mean, “correct value?” Again, you don’t base it on the purchase price.

What you base the value of a homeowners policy on is what it is going to take to rebuild your home if it goes flat to the ground – burns down, blows away in a hurricane, however it gets damaged you have to build it back. Market value, as we know right now, market value changes. What happens is that based on the characteristics of a home from square footage to the type of construction - brick, block, frame, the roof, the garage, all the different factors that go into a home. These questions are asked and put into a computer model. These models are designed by insurance companies and will help determine what that value needs to be to replace your home in today’s market, obviously with new materials.

It is even sensitive enough, this computer model, to know what the cost of building is in your very zip code. The amount that you determine is a professional and accurate way to go about determining the value for your home. Heads up, if you ever get into a situation where someone says, “how much is your house” or “how much did you buy it for” and they go with that. It really needs to start right there, with getting the value established with what it would take to rebuild your home if it went flat to the ground.

Home Insurance Deductibles

Unknown at 4:38 AM No comments:

“This policy contains a clause which may limit the amount payable.” Have you ever wondered what this means? You’ll see it on the front page of most insurance policies. This refers to your deductible. When you suffer a loss, there’s almost always a deductible to be paid. This could range from $200 to $2,500 or even higher. Often earthquake deductibles will be a percentage of the amount of coverage on your home.

Deductibles help keep your premiums down. How? Well, deductibles prevent payments being made on very small losses. This significantly reduces an insurance company’s costs, thereby helping to keep everyone’s premium down. If you have a low deductible, such as $200, you may be tempted to make claims on very small losses. If you do, you could lose any “claims free discount” you may be enjoying. Also, after a few small claims, you’ll likely see your base rate go up, possibly costing you more than it would have cost to replace the small items yourself.

A number of claims could even result in the insurance company no longer offering you a renewal. If you opt for a higher deductible, you’ll see a fairly significant saving in your premium amount. Small losses may not be covered, but you’re really buying insurance to protect yourself from a catastrophic loss, such as earthquake, fire, windstorm damage, water damage, and break-ins. It may be worth your while to opt for a higher deductible. You’ll save money, and by covering very small losses yourself, you’ll keep your premium down. Your insurance will be there for you when you really need it!

How To Buy Homeowners Insurance - Understand Underwriting Goals of Homeowners Insurance

Unknown at 2:34 AM No comments:

I'm Romie Brown. On behalf of Expert Village, I'm here to discuss your tips and tidbits on how to buy homeowner's insurance. In this clip, we're going to discuss underwriting philosophies and eligibility for coverage for insurance companies. One thing that's very important is that you realize that there are guidelines to getting insurance. Just because you buy a new home doesn't mean that it is eligible for coverage. So some of the things we have to consider is: the age of the home. Are there any perils at home, any slip, trip and falls? See if there are any prior losses. You can get this by talking to your insurance agent about doing a report, like a clue report, on said property, to make sure there are no prior losses. Plus, that helps you in the buying process. If there were prior losses on that property, that they were properly repaired, so that way before you buy the home. This can help you in the negotiation process with the price, as well.

Prior losses are a huge thing in the insurance industry right now. Not only personally, but also for the house that you're buying. Insurance companies are very leery about houses that had, for example, water breakage in pipes on a constant basis. That means there's an underlying problem there that needs to be addressed. And until that problem is addressed, most insurance companies might back off that home, just because it's a loss waiting to happen. The average losses for homeowners is once every eleven years. That's taking into consideration the little old lady down the street who's been in her house for fifty years, who never had a loss. And then the young couple down the street who had two losses in three years. So the average is once every eleven years. So if an insurance company sees a house that's had a couple losses in the past couple years, that throws up a red flag. So it's very important to make sure you know the loss history of that home. And also protect your loss history to make sure that you're insurable.

Friday, February 12, 2016

Home Insurance Rates Soar After Brutal Winter

Unknown at 3:07 PM No comments:

Janet wu reports many lawmakers and many of you are not happy about it. Reporter: did you really think it was over? Andy hoffman knows better. We had an inspector come in with a water meter. We didn't think it was that much damage. He said there was damage throughout the entire house.

Reporter: 10 rooms, four months and multiple ice dams later he is still negotiating with the insurance company that offered him less than a 10th of what contractors tell him it will take to replace the walls, floors and the ceiling. This is a bathroom. You don't get much privacy. Reporter: insurers say it backs their request for 9% rate hikes that the insurance commissioner just approved. Is 9.1% increase justified? I don't believe it is. We had an unprecedented, profitable year. No storms that year.

Reporter: they agree that the homeowner claims jumped three fold and as many as 40% of the claims are still unresolved. But the 9% rate hike drives clients to competitors. Equally upset, one key beacon hill leader. I don't recall any public hearings or any public discussion about the proposed increase. And then we have one bad winter and it doesn't make they sense to me. He says he will have a chat with the insurance division, but for now? Generally speaking they scrub these hard to make sure they are appropriate. He refused to be interviews, but he released a statement that said they are not the only reason he raised rates, but, quote, because of anticipation for future.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

How Does Homeowners Insurance Work?

Unknown at 10:10 PM No comments:

I'm an insurance broker and what we are going to talk about today is how does homeowners insurance work. Usually home owners insurance is associated with people that live in condominiums as compared to mortgage insurance. Normally people have a mortgage and live in a home. With condominiums, home owners insurance is designed to handle something, if it breaks, the homeowners insurance will talk care of it.

It's like with any particular insurance policy.It will fill a void in an event something happens.Your homeowners can be obtained from any particular insurance company and the premiums are not that expensive. It is something that every homeowner should have.If something breaks, you want it fixed.Your homeowners insurance will take care of that in the event something breaks. Homeowners insurance is something that everyone should consider if they become involved in the ownership of a place.

Home Insurance Austin, Texas, United States of America

Unknown at 8:57 PM No comments:

Hi I'm Lucas with bound insurance, I'm the personal lines agent which means I work with home insurance, auto insurance, motorcycle, boats, things like that. I want to talk to you about home insurance and what coverages you should really worry about. I'm just going to run through the basics and kind of elaborate on what's important and what the main things you should focus on. First thing is going to be the dwelling itself, I want to say dwelling this is actually covering the structure, say there has been a fire, it burns down , this is going to rebuild your home.

The main thing to worry about on this is how it's valued. There is two different ways in the industry to value a dwelling, there is replacement cost which is the way to go and then there is actual cash value. Actual cash value is going to look on "Oh, your home is X amount years old, we are going to deduct some many dollars" whereas the replacement cost is what's going to get your home rebuilt to what your home was.

The next thing is going to be other structures, this covers your storage building, shed, and kind of out building or fence you have around the property. Personal property covers things that are not built into the house, your furniture, clothing, appliances, now if you have anything of high value you are going to want to list it individually, so anything that's over $5,000 say jewelry, furs, guns, be sure to let your agent know about these things, because if there is a fire your regular personal property coverage might not cover the high value items.

Loss of use, what this coverage is say if there is a fire while your dwelling coverage is covering the rebuilding of your home, you are going to have to find a place to stay, an apartment, a hotel or something for a few months while your home is in construction and this just covers those expenses that you really didn't think about.

Next thing you will probably see on your policy is liability and right under that is going to be your medical payments to others or none residents, say someone is over and they are visiting, they trip and fall and injure themselves, well medical payments is going to come up first and pay up to what your limits are in, $1,000, $5,000, whatever you might have on your policy. Now, once it goes past that, say if the person tries to sue you, then you have your liability to cover you, and that's usually in the 100's of 1000's.

Your liability also covers your pets, now what I mean by this is say if your neighbor is visiting and your dog bites them or the cat jumps on them and scratches them and they have to go to the hospital and injuries like that, it will pay for it. Now because of this, insurance companies are real strict on what animals they allow. Some insurance companies might not cover your animal liability if you have more aggressive breeds or breeds considered to be aggressive like Rottweiler, Pit-bull, Chowchows, things like that. The deductible on your home insurance policy is the amount that you are responsible for.

Now, when choosing how high or low you want your deductible of course the higher you go with your deductible will keep your premium down, it's a good idea to kind of go the higher one because really insurance is for catastrophic losses anyhow, but at the same time you don't want to go so high that it's going to break your bank if your roof blows off or if you have a fire or something like that. Be sure you know what your home insurance policy covers. It's always better to ask questions than to not know when you have a claim.

Learning About Home Insurance - Designing Spaces

Unknown at 5:33 AM No comments:

You have your home and you've put a lot into it, both time and money, but are you protecting your investment. Home owner's insurance can protect you in ways that are obvious and ways that you may not have thought of. The bottom line, how do you know you have proper coverage? Home owner's insurance is a policy that provides financial protection for you and your home in the event of loss.

Designing Spaces got together with Kimberlee Furcht from Westwood Insurance to find out exactly how homeowner's insurance works and how to determine what type of coverage is right for you. In this home, there are many art objects collected from around the world. I've been fortunate to visit some of the world's most interesting and exotic destinations, and during my travel, I've acquired some wonderful artwork and accessories for this house. Home owner's insurance is really important to me. Why is it important to have home owner's insurance?

Life happens, things happen, and unfortunately accidents happen. Your home owner's insurance is designed to provide coverage for your home in the event of loss as well as providing coverage if there were to be an accident either in your home or on your property. Why is it important to have adequate coverage? In the event of a total loss, you have the financial protection you'll need to rebuild your home. You'll also have the protection you need for your possessions so that you can replace them with items of equal value.

A great way to know you have adequate coverage is to touch base with your agent. Let them know if you've made any upgrades to your home, have made any changes to your home, or if you've purchased anything of high value recently. A great time to do this is at your policy renewal. What is the difference between market value and replacement costs? Market value is the worth of a home when buying or selling. Replacement cost takes into account the amount of money it would cost to rebuild your home if it were to be destroyed or damaged. What coverages are included in the standard home owner's policy? Included in a standard home owner's policy, you have coverage for your dwelling which is really just a fancy word for the home itself.

You also have other structures coverage which provides coverage for fences, a shed, or like Scott's beautiful pool outside. There's also coverage for personal property which would be the possessions in your home. Your policy also provides coverage for the cost of additional living expenses while your home is being repaired or rebuilt. And last but not least, there's liability coverage as well as medical payments coverage under your home owner's insurance policy. So, Nancy and I are on a trip and we're in Venice. We came upon this vase. It was magnificent. We loved it, we bought it. It's got great value, and therefore insurance is vital. What are some other options available?

Some options that are available in your homeowner's policy, you can increase your coverages for your personal property to provide additional protection, you can also schedule items under your insurance policy. So, if you've got high valued items like jewelry, fine art, Scott's art collection, a coin collection, you can schedule that under your homeowner's insurance policy. One thing you also might want to look into is flood coverage. It's not included under your homeowner's policy, but a lot of people find comfort in knowing that they have that protection. What is liability coverage and is it built into a standard policy?

Liability coverage is afforded under the standard homeowner's insurance policy. Your liability coverage provides you financial protection against bodily injury and property damage sustained by others while either in your home or on your property. I know that it's important to keep a record of all of the important items I have insured in my home. Not being a master at paperwork, what I've done is taken photographs. This way in the event, God forbid, there is a loss or a damage, I've got proof of what I have. Could you explain the term claims readiness? Claims readiness simply means being ready in the event of loss. There are a couple things you can do to insure thing. One, take inventory of the items in your home periodically. Two, take pictures along with serial numbers. And third, and lastly, keep receipts for any items over $200 in a safe place.

Homeowners Insurance Tips - Designing Spaces

Unknown at 1:22 AM No comments:

We're Designing Spaces, the show that's all about you and your space, your home and surroundings. I'm Debi Marie. Today we continue our smart home, safe home theme. We'll be presenting topics to help you live smarter and keep your family more safe.

We'll conduct a homeowners insurance checkup to see if all the right things are covered. Also, a fire-resistant building product, plus deep cleaning your carpets and upholstery. And we have an interesting project for all you do-it-yourselfers. So stick around and see it all right here on Designing Spaces. Maybe it's time for a homeowners insurance checkup. What's that? Well, it's an update on your homeowners insurance, making sure you have maximum protection. Want to know more? Then take a look. Homeowners across the country value what they have: their homes and what's inside them. Homeowners insurance protects your home and personal property. It also provides liability protection plus more. But over time, things change.

To better understand how homeowners insurance works and what you need to know, Designing Spaces met up with one homeowner and an Allstate agent. Meet Megan, a homeowner, and Allstate insurance agent Tim Waltrip, who will serve as our guide to better understanding homeowners insurance. So can you tell me why an annual homeowners insurance checkup is necessary?

That's a great question, Megan. The first goal of an annual homeowners review is to make sure that you understand and are comfortable with your current coverages, as well as to make sure we have adequate protection for your home, your contents, and the liability exposure you may have. What are a few things that are covered under homeowners insurance? Your homeowners insurance is designed to cover your dwelling, the home that you live in, as well as anything that may be attached to the home.

Say you had a deck or a garage. Another thing that it protects are the contents of that home: your clothes, your furniture, your appliances, your electronics, in the case they may be stolen or damaged. And the final thing that it covers is your liability for your guests. What are a few things that aren't covered under homeowners insurance?

The major things that your homeowners insurance generally doesn't cover is going to be flood insurance, earthquake insurance, identity theft protection, and a personal umbrella policy, or it's often referred to as excess liability. But the great news is, all four of those things can be purchased from your local agent. I've been in my house a really long time; what does that mean for my insurance policy?

Well, unfortunately, for many homeowners, it means your policy is outdated. And so that's another reason you want to do an annual insurance review. Let's say you purchased your home 10 years ago and you spent $200,000 to build it, and today it would cost $300,000 to rebuild it -- that could be a big gap in your coverage.

Other things that can happen from year to year is you may finish a basement, you may rebuild your kitchen. Those two things would increase the coverage amount that you would need on your home. Okay, so then do I need to purchase extended coverage? Extended coverage can be purchased for certain things that may exceed the limits of your normal policy. So an example of that would be an expensive wedding ring or expensive wedding set that is worth maybe $10,000. You may have an individual limit for an individual piece of jewelry of say $2,500. That could be a coverage gap that you would have. Or you may have an expensive set of golf clubs or something like that. Can you tell me what about liability and homeowners insurance?

That's a great question. The liability portion of your homeowners insurance really covers you in the event that you're sued for somebody being injured on your property or if you are responsible for destruction to somebody else's property. What do you say we go to your house, do a walkthrough, and I can illustrate some things that could affect your insurance rates and your coverages?

I think that's a great idea. One of the great things about doing an annual review is to make sure you're getting all the discounts that you qualify for. In fact, I see you have an alarm system here; along with smoke detectors and fire extinguishers, you could qualify for a discount just by having that. Other discounts you may qualify for would be a newer roof discount or you could qualify for a discount if everyone in the home is nonsmoking. You can even qualify for a discount by bringing your auto and other policies and bundling them with Allstate, and you can qualify for a discount for being claim-free. I do have a couple questions about some upgrades in the kitchen.

Oh yeah, that's great. If you have new appliances or finishings, you always want to update that because you may have inadequate coverage. Let's go take a look. Well, we recently had new countertops put in. This is a great example of an improvement that can really be important at the time of loss for a homeowner, and here's why: oftentimes, homes are built with standard grade finishes, and over time you may do a replacement or you may do an upgrade to semi-custom or custom. In that case, you would need to re-estimate the replacement cost of those finishings so you had adequate coverage at the time of loss. So even my bathrooms would have some improvements.

Oh, sure. You're going to want to list all the improvements you do with your agent every year. You know, like upgrades to your fixtures or your sauna. Wow. We did take the sink that was in here and we installed it in the basement, and then we made our basement into a rec room. Congratulations, that's an upgrade, Megan.

Making updates to your home like finishing your basement or your attic or structural improvements to your home can all have implications on your homeowners insurance policy. You're going to want to make sure you bring that to the attention of your agent, and then, for example, on your basement you finished, should you have water backup through the drain or the sump pump give out, you could have water damage down there, and you'd want to have an optional coverage called Water Backup. Actually, I can see right over here you've got your watches and some of your jewelry.

This could very well need to be scheduled. Anything that has a higher value in your home, you're going to want to bring to the attention of your agent. You simply get an appraisal of the watches, and then share that with your agent, and he'll schedule them for you. Oh, great. Good to know. Because we've also got some pens. Oh yeah, that's a cool collection. Yeah, again, just get those appraised, share it with your agent. In fact, that reminds me: what you can do is a 360. It's as simple as just having an iPhone or an iPad, and you just pan the entire room.

If you've got drawers or cabinets, what I suggest my clients do is just open the drawers, pan them real quick, and you can go to Allstate.com or DigitalLocker.com. But the idea is that you simply videotape everything you have in your home and you store it there safely and securely. Why do you want to do that? Because if you lose your entire home, heaven forbid, to a fire, you don't know what you had, and it takes months and months and months to recall all those things.

So you simply pan everything, you can review it with your agent, highlight some things that may need to be scheduled. Fine art, musical equipment, high end sports equipment. But your agent can help you get through all those different pieces. Well, we did recently purchase a new lawnmower, a riding lawnmower, a really nice one. Sure, we can schedule that too. As far as other things go in your yard, updates to landscaping, new trees, say you put in a new hot tub or change out your sprinkler system, these are all things you would discuss with your local agent and find out if your standard policy covers it or if you need to purchase additional coverage. Good to know.

Absolutely, Megan. It's important to have a local agent that you can work with and that understands the details of the coverage for your neighborhood and for your region, an agent that will grow with you and grow with all the changes of both yourself and your family. In addition to doing an annual insurance review, I always suggest that my clients do a little checklist to prevent losses in the first place.

A checklist that you maybe do twice a year. I always suggest you do it with Daylight Savings Time so you don't forget. For additional ideas on how to save money and to make sure you have the best coverage, go to Allstate.com and find an agent near you. Tim, thank you. I have learned a lot, and thank you for spreading the word on homeowners insurance.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Homeowners Insurance Explained

Unknown at 4:38 AM No comments:

KEITH: So some of the things that homeowner's insurance would cover you for is fire, lightning, windstorm, hail, vehicle, in case a vehicle comes and crashes - you see in the news where they'll come into your yard, somebody comes through the house - pipes breaking, theft, vandalism, malicious mischief.

KEITH: And then there's the liability component to it and that's in the event that anybody slips and falls, maybe somebody gets hurt in your pool, you have a dog that bites somebody.

KEITH: So some things that your homeowner's insurance may not cover, depending upon the endorsements that you might take under your policy, are: flood, flood is the big one; earthquake, that's typically if you live out on the West Coast; vermin, vermin is a big one where maybe squirrels get into the attic, do some damage, insects, so you have termite damage, wear and tear; mechanical breakdown. So these are some of the things that may not be covered that you want to speak to your agent about. Maybe you can add those on under a separate endorsement.

KEITH: One of the biggest things that goes overlooked is your jewelry or your fine arts and a lot of people, after the loss occurs - maybe it was that pipe break and it's coming down the walls and you had some Renoirs on the wall and people say I have the coverage, right, it's covered under my contents coverage or my personal property insurance? And that's not always the case.

KEITH: So make sure you do your insurance research when you're selecting an insurance carrier, an agent. There is many, many coverages that you need and some agencies don't provide and/or some insurance companies don't provide. And I always like to say just because you have insurance, doesn't mean you're properly insured.

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The Best Cheap All Insurance

Recent Post

Affordable Home Insurance - Steps That Guarantee Cheaper Insurance Rates

Home Insurance Replacement Cost

Home Insurance Deductibles

How To Buy Homeowners Insurance - Understand Underwriting Goals of Homeowners Insurance

Home Insurance Rates Soar After Brutal Winter

How Does Homeowners Insurance Work?

Home Insurance Austin, Texas, United States of America

Learning About Home Insurance - Designing Spaces

Homeowners Insurance Tips - Designing Spaces

Homeowners Insurance Explained