Shopping for homeowner insurance is one of those nagging details of home buying, sometimes manage to slip though cracks. It is not uncommon for insurance agents to get last-minute frantic phone calls from the title and / or escrow company to request home insurance binder. To save yourself the problem, it's a good idea to start the purchase of housing policy as soon as your purchase proposal will be accepted. Here are some tips on buying home insurance, which is designed to save you time and money:
Define insurance
Your insurance agent needs a great deal of information from you to quote you the best rate for your policy. To determine whether the insurance agent will ask:
* When the house was built?
* How many years of plumbing and electrical?
* What is the roof?
* What is the square?
* How many lawsuits have been filed over the past 5 years?
* Where is the house located?
If the house is located in rural areas without a nearby fire department or fire hydrant on the street, some companies may refuse to insure it. In this case, you can ask for in a specialty or surplus lines companies, and this quotation will take longer to obtain.
Franchises
You can save money with a higher deductible policy. Typically, insurance companies will provide discounts of $ 500 deductible and an increase in rebates as a franchise increases. Most companies offer a deductible up to $ 10000. Be careful, however, that many mortgage companies will not let you exceed the $ 1000 deductible, so check with your lender before choosing higher deductible.
How much insurance do you need?
Most agents use the cost estimator is the replacement cost estimates. This ensures that your home is insured for the correct amount. Insurance companies do not insure dirt. If you buy a house, which includes the major parties would not be surprised when you get an insurance policy for much less than what you paid for the house. This is because you are buying coverage for the home, rather than land.
In the past, a replacement cover was called Guaranteed replacement cost. There is no such coverage more. Today it is the replacement of the cost, which means each insurance company determines the percentage of additional lighting on the top of the sum insured. It is designed to protect homeowners who suffered losses because of the need to pay additional costs for the construction of the restoration. It may cost more to build due to inflation, or simply because material prices have increased. For example, if the residential coverage insured for $ 300,000, and the company has 125% replacement of the cost, a homeowner will receive an additional $ 75000.
I recommend 200% replacement cost coverage, which gives homeowners double coverage.
Policy options
Do you have other options in your home insurance policy, which can be adapted. Liability coverage is part of your homeowner insurance policy, which is often overlooked. This protects the insured against claims arising from bodily injury and property damage to others. For example, if five years of playing with matches and set your neighbor on the house fire, your liability coverage will pay for the damage. You may have to withdraw from the neighborhood, but your insurance will pay for your neighbor.
This is common to see $ 300,000 to cover the liability, but should raise it to $ 500,000 is about $ 20 more than a year. You can have up to one million lights on most policies. Moreover, you have excess liability policy or umbrella policy. Umbrella policies give you the additional $ 1000000 liability for $ 300 to $ 500 prize.
Available Discounts
Make sure that you get all those credits for which you are eligible. If you have an alarm system that reports to the central station (companies such as Brinks or ADT), in some cases, you can receive up to 10% discount. If you are over 50 and care to recognize it, you may be eligible for a discount. Companies have different names for the politics of age, the senior discount to mature policyholder discount.
The most common multi-policy discount offers. This will save money on your home and auto insurance. By combining the two policies in the same company, you get a certain percentage discount on both. The percentage of discount depends on the company, so it's best buy around.
Review your policy
Call your agent and review your homeowner policy, at least once every three years. Needs change, market changes and meet the changes. You must stay current on insurance, because you never know when you will need to rely on it.
Tips for buying homeowner insurance
Labels: Insurance