Home Insurance

Picture of a house - Home Insurance

Types of Insurance

Types of Insurance - Home Insurance

Glossary

Glossary - Home Insurance

Discounts

Discounts - Home Insurance

Types of Home Insurance

Low Home Insurance

Created for those who don’t worry or have a tight budget

Property

  • Actual Cash Value
  • Other Structures: 1%*
  • Personal Property: 25%*

Loss of Use

  • None

Liability

  • Personal: $100,000
  • Medical Payments: $1,000

Deductible

  • $2,000+
  • or Co-Insurance

Standard Home Insurance

The “just right” insurance plan

Property

  • Actual Cash Value & Some Matching
  • Water-Backup Protection
  • Other Structures: 10%*
  • Personal Property: Replacement Cost

Loss of Use

  • 30%*

Liability

  • Personal: $200,000
  • Medical Payments: $2,000

Deductible

  • $1,500

Premium Home Insurance

Takes away the worry and protects your highest assets

Property

  • Matching & Additional Replacement Cost
  • Water-Backup Protection
  • Other Structures: 50%*
  • Personal Property: Replacement Cost & Special Items Coverage

Loss of Use

  • 40%*

Liability

  • Personal: $300,000
  • Medical Payments: $5,000
  • Personal Injury

Deductible

  • $1,500

*Percentages are of the replacement cost of the dwelling

Glossary

Liability

Personal

Pays for property damage and injury costs to others on your property or adjacent and for legal defense costs due to getting sued.

Medical Payments

Similarly to personal liability, medical payments pays for medical bills for those who are injured on your property. Hence, the difference is the medical payment limit will be used before the personal liability limit. In fact, the personal limit may not be used at all unless the injured sues the insured.

Personal Insurance Protection

This Pays for damages to someone's name including:

  • Defamation of name
  • False arrest
  • Libel
  • Malicious prosecution
  • Publication that violate's privacy
  • Slander
  • Wrongful conviction
Business Pursuits

Protects your home business from liability charges. Examples of a home businesses could include daycare, renting out a second home, and dog sitting.

Building

Dwelling

This includes your home and anything attached to it. The cost to reconstruct it is the dwelling limit. Therefore, it includes electrical wiring, plumbing, and anything else needed to duplicate the structure. It is also the value insurance companies use for your home. So, the dwelling cost can vary greatly from the market value (how much you bought your home for). 

Examples of attachments: Attached garage, awning, ceiling fan, towel bar, mirrors.

Other Structures

This includes any structures not attached to the home. It may include a driveway, fence, and shed.

Additional Replacement Cost

This is an extra coverage you can endorse onto your policy.

Example: If your current home’s reconstruction cost is $300,000, and you had this endorsement at 25%, then the insurance company would pay up to $375,000 (300,000 x (1 + 25%)). You would want this because the original estimate was enough for your home.

Additionally, you can add ordinances & laws for the replacement cost.  Regular home insurance doesn’t cover the extra cost to build your home up to code. As a result, insurance would not cover those extra costs. This is a valuable endorsement to have if you have an older home.

Matching

This applies to the roof and sides and is not normally included in home insurance. If hail hit half your roof and damaged only 1/4 of it, then the matching endorsement would pay to replace the whole roof instead of just the 1/4 that was damaged.

Personal

Personal Property
This includes property not attached to the building, such as furniture, kitchenware, appliances, electronics, pictures, books, toys.
Normal covered perils included:

  • Accidental discharge of water or steam
  • Air-Conditioning
  • Aircraft
  • Burglary Damage
  • Civil Commotion
  • Collapse
  • Electric
  • Electrical Current
  • External and Internal Explosion
  • Falling Objects
  • Fire
  • Freeze
  • Glass Breakage
  • Hail
  • Heating
  • Lightning
  • Malicious Mischief
  • Plumbing
  • Riot
  • Sleet and Snow
  • Smoke
  • Sudden tearing
  • Vandalism
  • Vehicles
  • Volcanic Eruption
  • Wind
  • Weight of Ice

Add the special coverage endorsement to get your personal property coverage to include all perils except for:

  • aircraft
  • earthquake
  • flood
  • governmental
  • seizure
  • intentional loss
  • nuclear
  • ordinance or law
  • war
Actual Cash Value

Actual cash value is the value and method used to replace your personal property. The insurance company inventories your lossed personal property and calculates the current value of it (Purchase Price – Depreciation).

Replacement Cost

This is a coverage you can have instead of actual cash value. Instead of the insurance company only paying the depreciated value of your personal property they will pay the amount it would cost to replace your personal property today.

Special Items Coverage

You can create limits on specific types of items. For example, jewelery, art, firearms, etc. This ensures that the insurance company will pay for a specific group of items on top of paying a general sum of everything which may not add up to the cost to replace your special items.

Other

Loss of Use

In the event that you cannot live in your home, this will pay for expenses incurred outside the homes. Examples of this includes eating out and hotel stay.

Deductible

An insured will pay up to the deductible amount before the insurance company will pay any money for your policy. A deductible is usually a dollar amount (eg. $1,500) but also can be a percentage of the dwelling limit (eg. 1%- A dwelling limit set at $300,000 would make the 1% deductible $3,000). In some states you may have a seperate deductible for damages from wind and hail.

 

 

Normal Exclusions You Can Add

Water Damage

From Sewer backup to water leakage, water damage can create a whole lot of problems.

Flood

Any damage from a flood or water coming in from the side walls would be covered by flood insurance.

Equipment Breakdown

This pays for the cost to replace or fix the sudden breakdown of specific equipment in the home. The Equipment Breakdown includes items such as the washer, dryer, dish washer, oven, water heater, refrigerator, air-conditioner, and heater.

Utility

Damages caused by utility companies are covered through this endorsement. This can include electrical, gas, and water. Different insurance carriers have different variations of this endorsement.

Earthquake

Any damages caused by an earthquake would be paid for by earthquake insurance. For example, if an earthquake destroys your home, your home insurance would give you money only if you had this endorsement.

Discounts*

  • Multi Policy
  • Claims-Free
  • Loyalty
  • Green Home
  • Home Improvements
  • Burglar Alarm
  • Fire Alarm
  • Smoke Detector
  • Sprinkler System
  • Smart Home
  • Water Sensor
  • Automatic Water Shutoff
  • Low-Temperature Sensor
  • Senior
  • Military / Serviceman
  • Married / Widowed
  • HOA
  • Gated Community
  • Paid in Full
  • Early Payment
  • Automatic Payments
  • Bank or Card Payments
  • Paperless

*Different carriers use different discounts

Frequently Asked Questions

Do we insure people with multiple claims?

Of course! We have select carriers for people who have many claims or a bad record

Do we insure wood shingle roofs?

Absolutely! We typically use Safeco and Encompass for these roofs.

Do we insure home sharing or home renting?

Indeed! If you rent out your home or part of your home with Airbnb, HomeAway or some other service we got you covered.

What payment methods do we accept?

Payments through a mortgage, direct billing through mail, EFT (Bank Account), debit and credit cards.

How can I file a claim?

Call us about your claim before your carrier. You may not want to file a claim because that will damage your insurance score. We will assist you in filling the claim and make sure  and make sure it is filed in the best way. After talking with us, you can call the insurance carrier or let us call them for you.

 

If you can’t find your answer here, please don’t hesitate to ask a representative through our messaging system or email