Insurance companies market to you night and day. Find out the truth about how to save money on homeowners’ insurance with these tips. Ignore the gimmicks and cheap ad campaigns.
Pay your mortgage down as much as you can to reduce the cost of your policy. Insurance companies make the assumption that people who own their homes will take better care of their homes than those who don’t. If you pay off your mortgage debt, then your annual premiums will go down.
To lower the annual insurance premiums on your home, increase your deductible amount. Although this means that minor claims such as leaky pipes, broken windows or the like will not be covered, these types of damage typically only cost a couple hundred dollars to repair, which will be less than you save.
If you have expensive landscaping around your home, consider purchasing separate insurance for it. Most basic homeowners insurance policies will not cover damage from wind or other environmental factors to landscaping. This means that if your expensive imported trees come down in the wind, your homeowners insurance policy will generally not cover it.
Keep a current inventory of your personal belongings to facilitate fast processing of your insurance claims. It will be difficult to recall your home’s contents after a disaster has occurred. The easiest way is to take photos of everything in the house, including opening closets and taking a picture of everything in there.
As your family changes in size and the number of material possessions alters, make sure you re-evaluate your homeowner’s insurance needs as well. It is wise to review the policy to make sure that you have sufficient coverage for valuable items. Do not hesitate to purchase an individual rider if you want to insure items that are not covered by your policy.
Flood Insurance
Some of your home’s features will impact your insurance cost. A swimming pool will automatically cause your rate to be more because of the liability. You will also see a difference in price depending on how close your home is to emergency services. Different things will determine the price you pay for insurance, and this is certainly not the only consideration when choosing which home to buy.
You may think you don’t live close enough to a body of water to have to worry about flood insurance…but think again. Before you decide you don’t need it, assess the flood risk for your geographical area. You will be surprised at the unexpected parts of the country which have experienced floods in the past year or two, and if you live in or near on of these areas, flood insurance may be right for you. FEMA.gov is one site that provides information on flood risks for all parts of the U.S.
When you are looking into homeowners insurance there are things that you can do to help with the costs of your premium. One of the things that you can choose to do is to make your deductible higher. It will lower your premium but you should keep in mind that smaller things such as a broken window may have to be paid out of pocket by you.
If you own your home outright, you may enjoy lower insurance premiums. This can save you a lot of money on your insurance premium. A home which is fully owned appears to be more cared for than one which is under mortgage to insurers.
If you own a very valuable object, you should consider getting insurance on it. Many insurance companies offer customized services and adapt to particular situations. You should get a professional to evaluate the value of your object; if your valuable possessions should be destroyed or damaged, the insurance would have to give you the equivalent of the estimated value.
Install a security system to help lower your homeowner’s insurance premium by 5%. Your security system must be watched over by a central station or tied directly to your local police station, in order to get this discount. Your insurance agent will want to see proof that your security system is being monitored.
Check any policy that you are interested in for a “guaranteed replacement value” and only accept the contract if it is applicable. This guarantee prevents your lost home from being replaced with a mobile home. Such insurance covers the full cost of a rebuild on par with what was lost.
Before a flood strikes, you need to know what to do to be sure that your home is insured against floods. The only way to insure against the risk of floods in the US is via the National Flood Insurance Program (NFID), administered by FEMA. Insurance companies work with FEMA to sell coverage to homeowners. Therefore, always have a plan in place to cover flood protection, and know whom to contact at your insurance company in order to arrange for it.
No matter how trustworthy a home owner’s insurance company is, they would like you to buy their most pricey policy. This is what keeps insurance companies afloat. To help ensure that you get the proper coverage and save money follow the advice above.
If your budget allows for you to assume the risk of a higher deductible for your insurance coverage, then your premiums can be substantially lower. This can really work to your advantage if you have the savings in place to cover smaller damage claims.