5 Tips For Getting The Most Out Of Your Homeowners Insurance
Unless you paid in full for your home, your lender most likely requires that you have homeowners insurance. Even if you aren't required to have homeowners insurance, you should definitely still consider it since you will want to be protected financially in case of an emergency. To ensure that you are paying for homeowners insurance that is worth the cost, you will want to know these five tips for getting the most out of it:
- Know What Kind of Home You're Buying: The first place to start is with the purchase of a home. When shopping for a home, you want to know what the history of the home is like and if there are any current problems with the home that can make your homeowners insurance rate increase. To find out this information, you will want your real estate agent to request a home disclosure report that will go over all these details. You also want to have a home inspection done before you purchase the home to ensure that it is in decent condition. At this point, you can request that the current homeowner resolve these issues before you buy or you can ask for a significant decrease on the price of the home.
- Keep Good Credit: Many homeowners aren't aware that their credit report will affect their homeowners insurance rate. The reason for this is that homeowners insurance companies prefer to work with those who have good credit because it indicates responsibility. Those with good credit are more likely to be taking care of their home instead of letting problems build up because they don't want to spend money on maintenance.
- Check Consumer Reports: The consumer reports on insurance companies are going to tell you which insurance companies have provided the best outcome when a homeowner has filed a claim. Each company will be ranked by a certain percentage that indicates the number of customers satisfied with how the homeowners insurance company processed their claim.
- Don't Make Unnecessary Claims: Whenever damage does happen to your home, you don't want to make a claim unless it's necessary. Damages that aren't going to cost you more than your deductible, for example, are not worth making a claim on because you are going to be paying out of pocket for the repairs anyway with no help from your insurance company. The reason this is important is because it ensures that your rates won't go up. The less claims that are made on your home, then the less of a risk your home is to the insurance company.
When you consider these four tips for getting the most out of your homeowners insurance, you can be sure that what you are paying is worth it in the end.
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