Importance Of Homeowner’s Insurance When Buying A Kansas City Home

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Jason Brown

Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

Getting homeowner’s insurance in place is usually one of the last things on the mind of our Kansas City homebuyers. While it’s understandable that MANY other important things are going on, getting your insurance in place is a critical step in the home buying process. You definitely won’t want to have to make the decision of insurance company at the last minute because they often leads to over-paying. So start the process of selecting who you’ll use for insurance as soon as you’re through the home inspection process. This will allow you plenty of time to get multiple insurance quotes. Rates are also fluctuating greatly and the difference in rate quotes may surprise you.

Some important considerations when getting insurance quotes include… how high of a deductible are you willing to accept? Are you getting guaranteed replacement cost coverage? Is the outbuilding, detached garage or swimming pool covered? Do you have sewage backup coverage? How about the contents in the home? If you have lots of valuable “stuff”, this is even more important. After you buy the home, be sure you let your insurance agent know if you finish your basement. If you don’t, will it be covered if you incur a loss?

Sometimes getting insurance quotes is like getting quotes from moving companies… how expensive it is can vary greatly depending on the day and whether the company is aggressively seeking new business at the time. It’s possible you could get quoted a high rate in an attempt to run you off or worse, accept over-paying. To avoid this, be sure you shop insurance rates with several reputable insurance companies. Here’s a few places you can get started… State Farm Insurance… All State Insurance… Farmer’s Insurance… GEICO Insurance… Nationwide Insurance… American Family Insurance.

Posted by Jason Brown

Get A Hazard Insurance Review And A CLUE Report Before Closing On Your Kansas City Home

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Jason Brown

Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

Homeowner’s insurance is often one of the last things a buyer considers when purchasing a home. This is even more true for home buyers who have already had insurance in place on a previous home. But taking for granted that you’ll have no problem with getting homeowner’s insurance in place – and maintaining it after closing – could be a huge mistake. So consider the following measures to help ensure you’ll have insurance in effect on your home for year’s to come.

A very basic step is to have the insurance company go to the home and inspect the property for insurability BEFORE closing on the home. It’s not unheard of for an insurance company to put a policy into effect, let a home close and then come out later to inspect the property. If it’s determined at that time that the roof is not insurable, the insurance company could cancel the policy on you. That would be terrible. There are also many other insurance issues that could also be detected up front by simply asking the home seller to provide you with a CLUE Report. What’s A CLUE Report? CLUE stands for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange and this report is designed to organize the insurance history on a given property. This is not a report on an individual’s history of claims, rather it’s on the specific home in question.

Whatever history shows up on a CLUE Report can stay on the report for up to 5 years. The report is likely to include the dates of any prior claims on the home, the insurance company who paid out on the claim, the amount paid on the claim and the general cause of the loss. But to get this report, you’ll have to ask the seller to get a copy of the CLUE Report for you — because only the property owner can request and receive a copy of the CLUE Report. If a seller refused to provide a copy, run the other way. Do keep in mind that a seller can only get a free copy of the report once a year, so if they pulled one 11 months ago you may have to make do with that report – or reimbursing the seller $20 for a current CLUE Report would be a good option.

Items that may show up on a CLUE Report could include basement flooding issues, siding claims and plumbing claims. Similar to how those involved in a car wreck are more likely to have another wreck (than someone never involved in wreck), home’s that have claims on them are more likely to have another claim in the future (than a home that’s never had a claim). So if the home you’re buying has claims on it in the last five years, odds are you’re going to be paying higher insurance premiums on the home — if the insurance company agrees to insure it at all.

Some items that show up on a CLUE Report can be disputed. Just like checking your FICO score on occasion to be sure the info being reported is accurate, you can check the CLUE Report to ensure the information on a particual property is being portrayed accurately. You may even see simple notes from when you (or a previous owner) called in simply to DISCUSS the possibility of making a claim – even if a claim was never made. And you can bet that any notes present are having an affect on a property’s insurance rates.

Posted by Jason A. Brown

Are You Adequately Insured Should An F-5 Tornado Rip Through Your Kansas City Neighborhood?

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Jason Brown

Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

Getting homeowner’s insurance in place is one of the important aspects of buying a Kansas City home. I always remind my home buyers early on to shop carriers and insurance rates because they can save a lot of money by doing so. But in most cases the response is they’ll just contact their current insurance agent and have them get the info to their lender. At this point I mention that since they’re already going to have to go through the process of setting up a new policy, there’s no time like the present to check out the insurance options available — and with rates fluctuating greatly in recent years, it makes a lot of sense to shop around.

Getting at least 3 quotes is advantageous because all insurance companies handle insurance quotes differently. I’ve been there and at times it can feel like you’re comparing apples and oranges, so asking questions whenever you don’t understand something is also important. At one point I found out that my insurer would no longer cover roofs for wind and hail damage… yes, I switched companies at that point. “Replacement coverage” is very common and is designed to cover the replacement cost if you had to rebuild the home from scratch — including personal property in the home. This may seem like common sense insurance but there are varying degrees of under-insuring and over-insuring, so be sure you understand just exactly what you’re getting.

Other common considerations include making sure you add coverage for outbuildings, detached garages, barns and pools. Also be sure you have coverage for luxury items in your home, like a diamond ring or a fur. If homes in your area are appreciating at a great rate (something they used to do – and will again at some point), you need to make sure you’re amount of coverage is keeping up with the appreciation rate. One item I’m sure many homeowners often overlook is that if you finish your basement, you need to contact your insurance agent to increase your coverage.

I’ve seen quotes that are double from one insurance company to the next and you never know the motivation (or lack thereof) of any particular insurance company. They could be looking to add policy holders or they could be constricting. As with auto insurance, the higher you’re willing to go on your deductible, the lower your annual policy premium will be. So if you want your policy deductible to be low enough to cover a broken window, you shouldn’t expect you’re annual premium to be low as well. You can find reductions in insurance premiums by having your vehicles with the same insurance company and by installing a security system. There are many other ways to get reduced premiums, so be sure to ask what the options are. Oh, and your credit scores is likely to play a role in how much your policy will cost you. Insurance companies have found a link between homeowner’s with high credit scores making fewer claims. So there’s all the more incentive to improve that credit score when buying a home.

If you’re shopping for homeowner’s insurance, here’s a few insurance companies you can check with…

State Farm Insurance

All State Insurance

Farmer’s Insurance

GEICO Insurance

Nationwide Insurance

American Family Insurance

And here’s an interesting site for comparing insurance companies that I’ve seen receive some good online reviews…

2Insure4Less.com