Do You Have Your Biggest Asset Covered?
June 3, 2011
In the current economy many people are looking for ways to cut costs. It makes sense to cut down on luxury items that you can live without – but can you live without your home? The most important number on your home owner’s insurance policy is your dwelling amount. If it’s not accurate you might be in for a heartbreaking surprise should weather or fire strike.
It’s easy to get confused by the dwelling amount. You figure that if you were to sell your house today you might get $300,000. So why do you need it insured for $400,000? It’s simple. If you had to rebuild that same house in today’s market, it would cost $400,000 to do it. Labour, material and energy costs are increasing even though market values are down. So forget about market value. It is not the right indicator when getting home owner’s insurance.
Do you think your children are going to give you an easy time when they find out their bedrooms are half their old size? Or what if – heaven forbid – they had to share a room with another sibling or worse – Great Uncle Morty is taking over the top bunk at Christmas?
So how can you protect your precious child from listening to Uncle Morty snoring all night? Be sure that you are getting current replacement cost analysis from your insurance agent. All carriers have a program they use to determine this amount. In some cases the amount of savings is very minimal in relation to the amount of coverage you are cutting back on, so if you need to lower your costs, it might make more sense to increase deductibles, but don’t go backwards on the replacement cost of your home.
Ways You Can Save
-Most insurance companies will offer substantial discounts for covering both your home and auto, so package these together if possible.
-Raise your deductibles -Work with an independent insurance agency, where one agent can shop with several top carriers and do the work for you
-Go without some of the “extra bells and whistles” before you lower your dwelling amount. In the end it would be better to have an uncovered $2500 piece of jewellery than to have 100,000 + of an uncovered home.
That is after all why we started covering homes in the first place…
Call Govea Insurance Agency for a free replacement cost analysis of your home today! 913-322-7785
Bo Govea “Covering YOUR Community”
