The best homeowner insurance is the insurance that best meets your needs. The insurance shopper that takes the time to understand the basic elements of home insurance will have much more confidence and sense of satisfaction when making an insurance purchase. The homeowner policy has been around for a long time and so most of us have a general concept on how the policy works. The more you know about the market value of your home and the approximate cost to rebuild it the better off you will be when shopping for the homeowner policy. This kind of knowledge is the foundation for determining what kind of policy to purchase. The age of your home has a direct bearing on the market value. The older homes built in the 1900’s have much lower market values today because most of them have depreciated. The market value for an older Victorian style home may be $50,000 but the actual cost to rebuild that home may be $200,000. The older homes that depreciate in market value are insured with actual cash value policies. They are often called market value policies. These policies will reimburse you for the market value of your home when there is a total loss. The market value policy is the best homeowner policy for the older home that has depreciated. The replacement cost policy is better designed for newer homes or homes under construction. The replacement cost of a home and the market value are almost the same. Replacement cost is applied to the dwelling and most often to the contents of the dwelling. Replacement cost will repair or replace any loss with like kind and quality of materials without depreciation. The best homeowner insurance for you will be determined by the age and market value of your home. The discounts for older and newer homes are the same. The protective device discount for deadbolt locks, smoke detectors, and fire extinguisher apply to both types of policies. Fire and burglar alarm systems are additional discounts that could be applied to both older and newer homes. Check our recommended insurers for more details.
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With all the rising costs in the world consumers are looking for ways to cut costs and save money. Americans spend billions of dollars every year on their home insurance policies. It does not take a genius to figure out that every homeowner needs insurance, most people consider their home to be their greatest asset.
Thousands of homeowners are reaping the rewards that comes from filling out a FREE home insurance quote. Many are receiving 25-30% discounts on their policies while becoming more educated about the home insurance that is right for them. Here are a few tips that might help you when you are shopping for that "Perfect" insurance policy. Increase Your Deductible Just like auto insurance, policies have deductibles, and the same rule of thumb applies--carry the highest deductible you can afford. The higher your deductible, the more premium credit you can expect to receive from your insurance company. Your savings could reach 25% by increasing the deductible from $100 to $1000. Improve Your Home Security Most insurance companies offer discounts for smoke detectors, burglar alarms, dead bolts, fire extinguishers, and Neighborhood Watch Areas. Homes with a fire and burglar alarm system hooked up to a third-party monitoring company receive higher discounts than homes with local bell alarms. Consolidate Policies Insuring two or more vehicles with the same insurance company can save you 10 - 15% on your premiums. If you cover your homeowners insurance and auto insurance together, you can reduce your premiums by another 10 - 15%. Construction Type Before buying a home, consider its construction type, such as frame or concrete block and steel (CBS). A wood frame house typically costs more to insure than one built mostly of concrete. Verify Distance To Fire Stations And Windstorm Areas If you live in the country, you'll probably pay higher rates for your insurance than if you lived in town. Why? It’s because of the longer distance to your local fire station. If you live more than 5 miles from the nearest fire station, and more than 1,000 feet from a fire hydrant, you will most likely pay a higher premium. Before purchasing your home, you may want to get a quote for both and flood insurance. Insurance companies may not offer you windstorm or flood coverage, depending upon the area in which you live. If your home is in a hurricane prone area and your insurance company offers windstorm coverage, then installing approved hurricane shutters should result in a premium discount. Claims Free Record And Renewal Discounts If you have not had a claim under your policy during the past 3 - 5 consecutive years, you could receive up to a 15% discount, depending on the insurance company. Plus, most companies will discount your premium if your policy has been in force for 3 straight years. Mortgage Free Discounts Some insurance companies target who have paid off their mortgage and offer them premium discounts of up to 5%. New And Renovated Home Discounts A majority of insurance companies offer a discount for new homes, and you may qualify if your home was built in the last 10 - 15 years. Also, a recently renovated home costs less to insure, so find out when the last major electrical, heating and plumbing update was completed on the home. Live-In House Keeper Some insurers offer up to a 2% premium credit if you have a live-in employee as they feel it could reduce the likelihood of burglary. Conclusion After reviewing the foregoing savings tips, you may think that if you added up all your credits you could receive a 70 – 90% reduction in your premiums. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Certain safety or other measures you take may qualify you for being placed with the "preferred" company of a particular insurance group. This "preferred" company will be able to give you more premium credits than a standard company is able to. You spend time shopping for lots of things because you are a smart consumer who wants quality at a good price. But if you are a person who is going to take the time to shop for a new smart phone or shoes, doesn't it make sense to take time to shop for car insurance? Homeowners insurance discounts. Don't be afraid to ask your agents if there are any available discounts that you can avail. Know the requirements and see if you are qualify for that discounts. Although nothing can be guaranteed, having good alarm systems can really offer you peace of mind when you're at home or while you're away. For instance, when you travel for long periods of time, you may have someone stop by and get your mail and check on your house. However, he or she cannot prevent a fire and that's where your fire alert comes into action. No matter where you are, if your home begins to burn, the fire department will arrive at your house in no time. Make the exterior of your home fire-safe and you will reduce your Home Insurance rate. Having things that are quite inflammable or that aid combustion around your dwelling will make you pay more expensive premiums. Bushes near your house should be cut and maintained at not less than ten feet from your structure. This is because how fire-safe a house is goes a long way in affecting what it will cost to insure it. You are done and now ready to move into your new home. Usually you will have about 30 days or until the end of the month to switch over water and electric in your names and out of the sellers name. If you have a a good length of time before that happens, please take your time. Get all your stuff in your new home, and everything up and running the way you want it before you switch over names. Heath Insurance- Right now, our Government is trying to pass bills that provide medical care to many of our fellow Americans that do not have appropriate coverage for their needs. This is not a political website, so we will not take a side as to if these new policies are right or wrong. We do however; want to stress that without good Health Insurance. Most of us could not afford to even get the medical care we need, much less purchase the thousands of overpriced prescriptions needed on a daily basis. To get rid of pot holes, tree limbs, icy side walks etc, do landscaping. Discussing with your agents would help you know how to make your landscaping effort more effective and profitable for you. Even though I've spent a lot of time researching online insurance I don't want you to simply take my word for anything. Instead I want YOU to get online and check out the savings you find yourself. The one thing I can promise you is that you will be amazed by how much you can save simply by buying your nursing home policy online. With the current difficult economic times saving money is a MUST for any family.and saving on your car insurance coverage is one of the easiest things that you can do.IF you know some of my tips. Take 2 minutes from your time to learn on how you can get discount auto insurance. There is now word there may be another hit - Home Insurance rates. It looks as if Home Insurance rates will be going up and this time it doesn't have anything to do with a big disaster that sent insurance companies panicking. Instead, it's investments gone wrong. Buying two or more of your policy from one source afford you discounts. So, if you need auto, and home or any other insurance, buying the two from an insurer will position you for saving. You can try this out. If the car is advertised as a "numbers matching" car, it really needs to be verified as such and it's not out of line to ask the seller to give you proof. In fact, you can ask the seller for all of the pertinent info ahead of time and verify it using a few handy resources like the Vehicle Information and Decoding page from Year One. Better yet, ask for the ORIGINAL documentation that came with the car (like a build sheet). You also need to choose what type you are going to install. There are several types available. Some of the most common types are the wood and gas fireplace. Many who have wood fireplace are upgrading to gas. So before you choose what to install, make sure that you pick the one with the best value. Some would pick one with a direct vent. In fact, vented logs are quite popular. When used, they give an effect similar to wood. In starting out (if you have yet to get a coverage), you need to do extensive shopping to find the package and offer that best suits your situation. We would have more on this later. Smokers get higher premiums. Ask everyone who lives in your home to quit smoking. Statistics indicate that about 23,000 residential fires result from smoking. Despite all, not all insurance companies may offer discounts for this. So for you to really get the best rate you'd have to obtain and compare quotes from five or more quotes sites. You could save hundreds and even up to a thousand dollars this way. One of the most disheartening moments in my life was working for an auto and home insurance company that clearly didn't care about its customers. Medical bills were put on the back burner by lazy employees. Total losses were purposely under paid. Property was overlooked in appraisals. And, phone calls from desperate insurance holders were ignored by employees. Thankfully, I don't work for them anymore, but it did get me to thinking about the average insurance buyer. Do they know what to expect after they put in a claim? Location of your house. The location of your house also helps in getting a discount for when the insurance policy see that you are in a safe location then they might give you a lower premium rate. On the other hand if the company sees that your house is in a location where typhoons usually occur then don't be surprised if they will give you a high premium rate. In finding ways to lower your Home Insurance costs, you should take advantage of available discounts. There are certain discounts hat available to you when you meet certain requirements and ask for them. A clear explanation of your coverage. Once you put in a claim, you should get a clear, up front explanation of your coverages. Your policy limits, deductibles and benefits should be told to you right away by your claims adjuster. If you can't get this information from anyone, it's time to file a complaint and change insurance companies. Not knowing what your home is worth is very bad because you could lose a lot of money while making a claim. It is either you meet a professional or you do your own research about the cost of your home. If there is a change in the value, it is best you tell your insurer. The name of the policy that you are getting depends on the state that you are living in. If it so happens that the state you are living in is prone to flooding that the other states, then the chance of you getting cheaper plans is more likely. 5) How far away is a home from a police station, fire station or fire hydrant? The closer a home is to these three; the easier it will be for you to get low cost home owner insurance. Therefore, buy or rent your home as close as possible to these. Despite the fact that each of the quotes returned will definitely give you the same main coverage; there may be several differences in the details of coverage. This makes it important that you find out if there isn't any exclusion you won't like. Don't forget to treat these no-obligation quotes just that way. Don't feel you have to pay until you've had all your questions answered to your satisfaction. You will prevent rude shocks down the road if you do this. Is there such a thing as cheap home insurance? There may be a better question. Is home insurance really that expensive? Homeowner’s insurance may very well be the consumer’s best buy when it comes to insurance. There are multiple benefits and features that make the home policy unique. Most everything that the homeowner owns including the dwelling can be covered in some way by homeowner’s insurance. When you think of the magnitude of the coverage afforded by homeowner’s insurance versus the premium paid then you would have to agree that homeowner’s insurance is a very good buy. The rates on property insurance in general, have increased over the last ten years. Much of that has to with increased catastrophes like the hurricanes in Florida. The toxic mold problem that originated out west has also caused premiums to increase on a national basis. The home insurance buyer really needs to focus on a few areas to get the most for the premium dollars paid. Accurate Dwelling Amount – This is the first most critical decision that you will make. The square footage of your dwelling has to be correct in establishing the replacement value of your home. The market value is of little use to you when you purchase insurance to rebuild the structure. Replacement cost is better for homes that have been built within the last 40 years. Check with your insurance company underwriting guidelines. Replacement Cost or Actual Cash Value – This facet of your home insurance policy should be clearly understood. Replacement cost insurance on both your dwelling and its contents means that the insurance company will rebuild or replace your loss with like kind and quality. Actual Cash Value will calculate the replacement cost and then subtract for depreciation. The actual cash value policy is cheaper but you will have to come up with the depreciable amount out of your own pocket. Deductible – Higher deductibles bring your premium down substantially. $500 to $1000 deductibles are common. This is a huge savings to you over the years and is your most valuable tool in lowering the cost. We have all heard about the impact that we are having on the world and the changes that are set to happen and indeed are happening, including changes to the weather. With more claims on home insurance policies being related to weather, it is now more than ever imperative to have home insurance in order to protect yourself from whatever Mother Nature throws our way. While there is nothing we can do to prevent Mother Nature from doing her worse there are many things which homeowners can do to prepare for what she offers and the damage it can do to the home. Making sure that your roof tiles are in good order, the chimney and roofing is in good order and cutting back any large and overhanging trees can all go towards getting cheaper home insurance cover and reducing the risk if making a claim. Even if you have adequate insurance to cover damage done to your home, in the majority of cases claims take time to pay out. Therefore it is essential that you have savings in order to pay for any major repairs that cannot wait until the insurance pays out. Of course you will eventually be able to reclaim any money you pay out for repairs providing the insurance company agrees to the work and damage and that it is covered under the policy. It is also essential that you keep any receipts for any work done. Another factor to take into account is if you have had major home improvements made to your home, this can add value to your property so should be included in your policy when you renew it. By shopping online or using a specialist independent broker to find your home insurance are the easiest and cheapest ways to protect yourself against what Mother Nature has to bring your way. When getting home insurance quotes, always compare policy terms and conditions and not just the premiums. And when comparing policies make sure that you check out at least four or five different companies and compare not only the cost of the premium but also what the policy entails. Some will ask that you pay up front for repairs and then reclaim, while others will provide you with a 24 hour emergency number and certain companies to complete the work needed in the quickest time possible. In 2004, the insurance industry estimated that about 45% of their settled claims were for damages caused by weather. This past January, that percentage climbed as high as 60%, with a possible £300 million worth of damages being claimed by homeowners for weather related incidents. Is your home covered against damage from high winds? Will your insurance company pay out to repair damage caused when your plumbing freezes? How much will you have to pay out of pocket for repairs if heavy snow takes out your rain gutters or damages your roof? If you’re not sure of the answers to those questions, it might prove enlightening to pull out your home insurance policy and have a read. According to an industry spokesman, too many homeowners find out what their buildings insurance does and doesn’t cover after they have incurred a loss and submitted a claim. That’s the case for many homeowners who suffered damage to their homes during the high winds of the past January who found, to their shock, that they’d be bearing the brunt of the repair bills from their own pockets. In fact, the most recent figures suggest that over one third of homeowners have no home insurance at all, and many more are paying out for policies that don’t adequately cover the damages that they might face from adverse weather. Home insurance policies vary widely on precisely what weather damage they cover, and how much you’re expected to pay out before the insurance company will pay its share. That’s why it’s important to sit down with your policy or your broker – or both – to discuss precisely how much coverage you have for weather-related damages, and if there are limits and exclusions to that cover. Some of the most common exclusions and limits include: Damage from floods If you live in an area with a high possibility of flooding, you may need to purchase separate cover to deal with damage from flooding. It’s vital that you not neglect this, say insurance spokesmen. The cost of repairing damage after a flood can easily run to £30,000 or more. Compare that to the average weather related claim of about £500. Water damage from burst pipes Watch for limits on the amount of damages you can claim if your pipes freeze and burst. A burst pipe in your loft can quickly damage walls and ceilings, and result in unhealthy growth of mold and mildew if not cleaned properly. The cost of all those repairs can easily and quickly mount above typical limits on damages. Contents cover If you only have buildings insurance, you may find yourself out of luck when damage to your roof results in the destruction of your expensive draperies, carpets and furnishings. Even if you carry cover for your home contents, you may want to carry extra insurance if you own expensive items like Oriental rugs or fine artwork. Outdoor and garden items Many policies only cover items inside your home from weather damage, while other policies will even pay to replace plants damaged by storms in severe weather. If you’re an avid gardener, or have outdoor patio and yard equipment, consider a policy that includes garden cover. Be sure to review your policy periodically to be certain that you’ve kept it up to date, especially when you make new purchases or add an extension to your home. By going with a specialist broker online you can get the best deal possible when it comes to buying your home insurance. The cost of the insurance can vary greatly as can the actual policies and buying the cover online offers many advantages, one of them being that you are to get an overview of the insurance quotes that are available and are able to get all the information you need regarding the cover. Going with a specialist broker is by far the most sensible way to choose adequate cover and you have the advantage of being able to compare the whole of the insurance market which means that you know without a doubt that you have the best deal possible. Any type of insurance policy has exclusions and terms and conditions and it is essential you understand them before you take out the cover, by going with an online specialist broker you have the best possible chance of finding answers to any questions you might have regarding the cover and access to the key facts of any policy you are considering. Almost all good specialist broker websites will have helpful information relating to home insurance, these come by the way of FAQ pages, hints and tips of what to look for when getting the best deal and articles relating to the cover. With their being many different factors to consider when looking for cover it is essential that you do take the time to read this information, otherwise you could be left without enough cover and not having the deal you thought you had. You should always beware of what seems to be too good to be true insurance, while you can get the cheapest deals for your insurance by going online with the specialist broker rushing into buying cover that is the cheapest could be a huge mistake. The majority of very cheap policies give only the very basic cover and often leave the homeowner under insured, which they do not realize until it comes to making a claim. It is essential when taking out cover that you have taken your time when it comes to estimating how much cover you need for your home, it can be surprising how much the little items add up to and making an inventory of your possessions before reaching a sum you need to insure for is essential. When taking an inventory people do not realize for example to take into account such items as those in the drawers of the kitchen cupboards, kitchen items and utensils can add up, the clothes in your wardrobe all add up too so when making an inventory remember to take your time and do not leave any stone unturned. Once you have determined how much home insurance you need then go online with the specialist broker as they are able to find you the best deals on your cover while at the same time giving you all the advice and information needed to make sure the policy you take is the most suitable. Did you know that according to the Indiana Department of Insurance (IDI), the insurance industry is one of Indiana's largest employers. That being said, that means there are many insurance options for homeowners in Indiana. Because the insurance industry is so large, there must be tough regulation to ensure the protection of the consumer. Here are some facts Indiana homeowners should be aware of when securing homeowners insurance: If your homeowners policy is being cancelled for non payment of premium, the notice of cancellation must be in writing and sent to you at least 10 days before policy cancellation. If your insurance company does not want to renew your policy, IDI requires the notice be sent to you at least 20 days before policy expiration. As a consumer, negotiate with your insurance company to extend the 20 days to 30 or 60 day notice. If your policy is being cancelled for a reason other than non payment, you'll need the extra time to shop around for replacement coverage. If your policy does not cover flood damage, it must be stated prominently on the policy jacket or, you must be given written notice that flood coverage may be available through the National Flood Insurance Program. In certain Indiana counties in southwestern Indiana along the Illinois Coal Basin, the insurance company must inform you of the availability of mine subsidence coverage (coverage for homes built over mines that may collapse or slowly settle) when they issue the policy. IDI also regulates how much an insurance company can charge you for an inadvertent bad check. Their charge may not exceed $20 (this is in addition to the charge issued by the banking institution). Please see our list of references below to find the lowest rate insurance quotes on the web. Along with low rate quotes this is a good source of insurance information. |
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