Home Insurance
Getting Covered: 1001 Home Insurance Options
Let’s be honest about something upfront. Talking about the basics of homeowner’s insurance is a bit like discussing the easiest ways to do brain surgery or explaining how to fly a commercial airliner. It can quickly become a bit overwhelming. Just when you think you’ve got the idea, it turns out there are a dozen other things to consider, often all at once and each one impacting all the rest!
The good news is that you’re not going to lose your patient or crash the plane. Just by paying attention, you’re ahead of the game. You’d be surprised how many homeowners just go along with whatever their existing insurance company or realtor suggests. Those are valuable opinions to consider, but for most of us, owning a home is the single largest investment we’re likely to make in our lives. How we protect that home seems worth a little more consideration, don’t you think? If all you do is acquaint yourself with general home insurance services and take a little time to understand what you’re actually comparing when you compare home insurance quotes, you’re taking more effective control of your home, your coverage, and your finances than most.
In other words, you’re already better off just by having read this far.
Even if you don’t master every detail of every option, there are some general things you’ll want to know going in. If something you’d like to know more about isn’t covered in detail below, try the Insurry blogs, which tackle specific elements of various home insurance options and the procedures involved – always in plain, simple English, no matter how much industry jargon or red tape is involved.
Insurry: Your Starting Point For All Things Home Insurance
At Insurry, we won’t make decisions about your home insurance for you. What we can do is make your decision-making process more manageable. How?
Our informative blogs and videos are easy to understand and accessible on any connected device, wherever you happen to be and whenever it’s convenient for you. You don’t have to spend the entire weekend trying to learn everything at once. Read a little each day or set aside an hour each weekend for a month. You’ll be far more prepared than you were before you know it.
We offer advanced homeowners insurance quote comparison. Browse our existing tools and connections, then watch this space for the next generation of home insurance technology. It’s a miracle of the 21st century that anyone can easily secure a home insurance quote online with a few clicks or swipes. Easy access to multiple home insurance services and homeowners insurance price comparisons make your decision easier than could have been imagined a generation ago.
The next generation of home insurance tools are almost here. Imagine the ability to not only compare home insurance quotes, but examine the pros and cons of home building insurance, mortgage hazard insurance, higher liability coverage, or changing your deductible – higher or lower – all as easily as you check your checking account balance or pull up a map to the closest coffee shop. Imagine the ability to compare warranty insurance packages or compare condo insurance without spending hours trying to get past the ads and links and pop-ups.
Home Insurance: General Guidelines
Although there are always exceptions (and the proverbial devil is in the details), here are a few general guidelines which apply to most home insurance packages.
+ Mortgage Requirements
If you have a mortgage, home insurance is probably required by your lender. You can choose more complete coverage than they require, but not less.
Even if you don’t have a mortgage, you should have homeowner’s insurance anyway. Seriously.
+ Homeowner's Insurance vs Renter's Insurance
Homeowner’s insurance is different than renter’s insurance. Generally speaking, your responsibilities as a homeowner are greater than those as a renter. Consequently, the best homeowner’s insurance covers a much wider range of situations than renter’s insurance.
+ Quotes
Many different factors impact any homeowners insurance price you may be quoted. Some are within your direct control; many are not. The average cost of homeowners insurance will vary with the age and condition of your home, the neighborhood in which you live, as well as the city and state. Your credit history and other personal information matter as well, along with any past claims you’ve made on the policy or similar policies.
+ Insurance Coverage
Home insurance usually covers more than just your home. Most homeowners insurance gives you both property and liability protection. That means your policy should partially or entirely repair or replace your actual property (your stuff as well as the house itself) if damaged or destroyed. (We’ll discuss more about personal property replacement cost below.) Most policies also include personal liability home insurance. This helps offset any expenses or lawsuits resulting from injuries on your property or damages done by your family or pets to the health or property of others.
Understanding in advance what is and isn’t covered by your policy is one of the most important (and sometimes most frustrating) parts of understanding home insurance. It’s essential, however, in order to meaningfully compare homeowners insurance options or make an informed decision about cheap home insurance quotes you may be offered.
+ Discounts
Most home insurance companies offer a variety of discounts based on the home itself, the property’s location, your history with the company, or other personal circumstances. You can’t control all of these factors, but you won’t get any of them if you’re not aware of them to begin with. Ask about them. Always.
+ Home Insurance Quotes Online
In the 21st century, there are numerous reputable options for home insurance. Some are the traditional big companies whose brand names we all recognize. More and more homeowners are also discovering online home insurance options. In turn, online insurers are forcing traditional providers to become more competitive. Every homeowner should get at least one home insurance quote online before making their final decision.
Comparing Quotes
It’s no use to compare home insurance quotes until you’ve compared home insurance features. It’s great that we have access to such a range of cheap home insurance quotes these days. It’s much easier to be a home insurance customer than it was even a generation ago. However, it’s just as important to remember that it’s not really affordable home insurance if it doesn’t cover what you need it to cover. The lowest homeowners quote might be perfect for you – or it might not. Understanding what is and isn’t covered is essential in any homeowners insurance quote comparison.
There are four general categories you’ll often see referenced when discussing home insurance or comparing homeowners insurance price points. (1) The actual home as a physical structure, (2) “Personal belongings” – the stuff inside and around the home, (3) liability protection, for harm or damage done to others or their property, and (4) additional living expenses, or ALE – yes, this one gets its own acronym. Let’s look briefly at what each of these generally involves. Remember – every policy is different. This summary is to help you ask better questions, not to eliminate the need to ask them!
+ Repairing or Replacing Your Home
This is the most obvious function of any home insurance policy. If your home is damaged (or destroyed) by severe weather, certain natural disasters, fire, etc., this coverage helps to repair or replace it. If you have a barn, playground, etc., these are usually covered up to 10% of the total amount insured. While we all appreciate the value of affordable home insurance, it’s a good idea to choose a policy that covers the full replacement value of the home should the unthinkable become reality. Note that this is not the same as covering the currently assessed value of the home. If something happens to your home, god forbid, you’re not then looking to sell it. You need to replace it. Those don’t always involve the same figures.
Most home insurance does NOT cover damage due to floods, earthquakes, war, terrorism, or “normal wear and tear.” Of those, you can only really control the last one. It’s not that difficult to keep your home in good structural and aesthetic condition if you focus on regular maintenance and care instead of waiting until things are bad enough to require serious repair or renovation. While there will still be necessary expenses due to natural wear and tear over the decades, these are out-of-pocket expenses – not insurance claims.
+ Replacing Your Personal Belongings
Do you know how much you own? How many outfits? How many Blu-ray discs? How many books, paintings, or collectibles? Can you name them all without looking? What make and model is your computer? Your entertainment system? Your refrigerator? What kind of water heater do you have, and how many gallons does it hold? What about your furnace? Your furniture? The stuff boxed and stored in the attic or basement?
Most personal items are covered in a standard home insurance policy up to a specified percentage of the total (usually 50% or slightly more). While their value can be generally estimated, it’s much better to maintain a home inventory for accurate reference. This will help you make sure your policy has sufficient allowance to cover full personal property replacement cost. It will also make it much easier to replace the items you care most about. It will take a little time at first, but it’s not difficult, and it’s a great project to combine with a general purging of extra junk or preparation for a garage sale.
You can find numerous preformatted checklists online. Some people simply have each family member take their cellphone and walk carefully through each room of the house videotaping closeups. Upload the videos to a central location and give them an easy-to-find name, and you at least have a reference point should it become necessary. Don’t forget to add anything you acquire after making your videos.
Many policies cover personal property even when it’s not in the house. This means that if you’re on vacation and have stuff stolen or destroyed, it might be covered. If you have a child in college, some of their stuff might be covered, even if they’re in another state. Some homeowner policies even cover unauthorized use of your credit cards. Pay attention to what is or isn’t covered before you decide.
+ Personal Liability Home Insurance
If you have auto insurance, you know that covering your property is sometimes secondary to protecting the health and property of others impacted by you. This is one of the least understood factors when trying to determine the average cost of homeowners insurance or compare home insurance services. Most homeowners insurance gives you both property and liability protection, but they don’t all cover the same issues in the same way or to the same extent.
If someone is injured on your property, whether by accident, the actions of a family member, or a pet, personal liability home insurance can prevent you from going bankrupt as a result. It can also cover your dog biting someone or tearing up the neighbor’s property. It often even covers your kids’ actions away from home. If they break a neighbor’s lamp or accidentally set their kitchen on fire, you won’t necessarily lose your savings or your own home trying to pay off the damages. It may even help defray some of your legal expenses if that neighbor takes you to court.
+ A Glass Of Additional Living Expenses (ALE)
Most policies will include provisions for additional living expenses, often simply referred to as ALE. If you’ve had a tree fall through your roof and it will take several days to make your home livable again, ALE can pay for your family to stay at a nearby hotel and may even cover meals and other normal expenses during that window.
Once again, the details are the difference. Some policies will cover up to a set daily limit for as long as it takes for the home to be repaired. Others limit the number of days or the types of expenses which qualify for reimbursement. You’ll want to make some decisions (or at least some best-guesses) about what makes the most sense for you, and keep that in mind as you compare homeowners insurance options.
+ Named Perils vs. Open Perils
Like any profession, the home insurance industry has its own lexicon. Often these are simply shorthand terms for larger ideas. They save time and allow for richer discussions in fewer words. Outside the industry, however, they can leave us feeling a bit confused and contribute to that sense of being overwhelmed by the whole thing.
The Insurry blogs are a great place to break down industry lingo in useful ways. There are two terms you’ll want to know before beginning, however – “named perils” and “open perils.”
At their most basic, these terms are used to clarify what is and isn’t covered by different sections of a policy. “Named perils” are lists of specific items or circumstances which are covered by the policy. If something’s not on the list, it’s probably not covered. “Open perils” refer to a more general coverage, in which anything not specifically listed is probably covered. If “perils” were items you could bring to a potluck dinner, it might look like this:
Named perils: “We need side dishes, especially those involving vegetables, more plastic silverware, and iced tea, both sweet and unsweet. Any of those would be great to bring.”
Open perils: “Bring whatever you like except meat, which we’re providing, or soft drinks – we have too many carbonated drink options already. Anything else should be fine.”
Our business model isn’t to direct your choices. It’s to give you more choices and more useful information. We have a crazy idea here at Insurry and across the Goalry family that most people are quite capable of taking more effective control of their personal finances if simply provided with useful information, opportunities, tools, and connections. We’ve built and entire unified finance virtual mall based on this conviction. We’ve rolled all of our dice on your potential and your success. So far, the feedback says we’re making the right call.
The best technology doesn’t make decisions for you. It provides you with the information you need, when and where you need it, with a powerful but intuitive interface. Knowledge is power, and there’s no reason not to access the available knowledge as conveniently as possible – especially when it can mean a difference of tens of thousands of dollars over the life of your home, or far more than that should ever need to file a claim.
We can’t make owning a home or choosing home insurance as easy as we sometimes wish. But there’s no reason for it to stay as hard as it’s often seemed in the past. And there’s absolutely no reason you should have to figure it all out alone.
Have a look around, and let us know if we can help.
