I decided to make a change my self. My prior company was charging about $600 a year for my homeowners policy. Basically the mortgagee would pay the annual premium every year and then charge monthly. I decided to make the change to American Commerce who was offering the same coverage for about half the price. During the policy upload process I requested the Insurer bill my Mortgagee. I then requested my current Insurer cancel the policy the date my new policy went effective. At that point my prior Insurer sent the unused premium refund check of about $500 to me. About the time I received the check I also received a bill of a little over $300 from my mortgagee for the new insurance policy. This move left me with a couple hundred in my pocket. Having an extra $200, before Christmas, is always nice.

Now Does this sound Complicated?

It may! But this is how I went about it because I’m an Agent. As a customer, your Agent should take care of all of this for you. The cancellation, issuing the policy, making sure the Mortgagee is in tuned with what’s going on. As a customer all you should need to do this is a copy of you existing declarations page, proof of ownership and the Mortgagee information. With these items along with the information about the house it shouldn’t be to hard at all for an Agent to request some quotes. You may also want to combine your auto and home with the same company. This will help with reducing the final rates. If you would like to request a quote from a local agent near you visit our homeowners insurance page found here.

Good luck with getting a better deal on your Homeowners or Condo insurance and I hope you have a great day.

There are many things that come with a homeowners policy. The first line of coverage will be directly related to the value of your home. This is also known as Dwelling A Coverage.

Your homeowners policy will also set an amount to cover your other structures such as non-connecting sheds and carports. The amount of coverage is usually set by a fixed percentage of the Dwelling Coverage A

So what else are you getting from your homeowners policy? You will be able to select personal liability coverage starting at $100,000 and going up from there. If your dog happens to go after someone jogging down the sidewalk, there’s a strong chance that dog may inflict injury onto that person which would result in a lawsuit. This is where your personal liability coverage would come into play. Your homeowners insurance will also pay for legal services needed due to a claim. That alone can get very expensive.

Getting Affordable Homeowners Insurance

The one thing that will increase a home policy is claims. If you have a history of claims, this shows the company you are a higher risk to insure. The best way to keep your homeowners insurance at a low cost is by avoiding any potential claims. Take a walk around your home and see if there is anything that can cause a future claim.

• Are there any large tree branches hanging over your roof?
• Is there an easy way for Fido to get outside his fence?
• Are there any dangerous tools laying out in plain site?
• Do you have a pool and how do you go about securing it from children?

Other toys may not be worth the risk. I recently made a visit to youtube and found 3,590 results after doing a search for “trampoline accidents”.

A few months ago I had a wasp nest just above my electric meter. I ended up getting a notice from the electric company that my new wasp visitors had stung a meter reader. Now if he were allergic, that could of ended up to be an ugly claim. Moral of the story, keep your eyes open for anything that can potentially turn into a claim.

Here are a few other ways you can lower your homeowners insurance costs:

• Combine your home and auto policy with a single company. Doing this will significantly reduce your auto policy premium. You will also save more by paying for the policy “in full” prior to the date the policy goes into effect.
• keeping your home’s electric, plumbing and roof updated. If you don’t keep your roof updated this can result in cracks that contain water. This can cause roof damage and if not taken care of, water damage. Update information will be asked during the quote process.

Another way to cut down your insurance rate is by minimizing risks. Having things such as smoke detectors, security alarms and dead bolt locks will help reduce your risk. Lower risk = lower rates. Research the value of your home and the cost of a rebuild. Many homeowners will insure the total mortgage amount. The mortgage amount includes the land that came with the home. If your home burns down your lands will still be there to rebuild on assuming it’s not a connected townhome or condo. If you’re in the market to buy a home consider the risks of where you’re shopping. Due to climate change, homeowner insurance rates on oceanfront property will continue to rise. This goes especially for homes near high risk hurricane zones. Read more information regarding Home Insurance

BEING UNDER INSURED

Over the past ten years in Arizona and California there have been several major forest fires that have destroyed dozens and dozens of homes. Unfortunately some of these homeowners discovered that their homes were under insured.

HOW CAN A HOME BE UNDER INSURED

The most obvious culprit when a home is under insured is simply that an agent and the homeowner did not review the insurance coverage over a course of several years. Just understand that what goes into building a home – lumber, labor, wiring, plumbing, flooring, counters, doors, windows (and more) has increased dramatically over the years.  A home that might have cost $80 a square foot to build ten years ago may cost $120 per square foot today. If you fail to update or review your homeowner policy it is highly possible that your home will become under insured as a result. The key to having the right coverage? Review your policy with your agent every one or two years, at most.

WHAT IF I BUILD ONTO MY HOME?

Many homeowners are discovering that it is better to add square footage onto their existing home that move into a larger one. When that happens, you have to notify your existing insurance agent and carrier. They will need to recalculate your dwelling coverage based on the new square footage and possibly increase your premium. Some optional items on a home policy to consider buying – water backup, jewelry coverage, and ID
theft. While optional, they are usually fairly inexpensive to add.