How can one find a cheaper homeowners insurance policy? What are some things to do to get the cheapest homeowners insurance rates? Finding cheap home insurance while still maintaining adequate coverage is important to all homeowners and is certainly becoming an increasing priority in high cost homeowners insurance states like Texas, Florida, Louisiana, California, and Arizona. Read on to learn some ways to find the cheapest homeowners insurance rates no matter what state you live in.
Every expert agrees that the cost for homeowners insurance has gone up dramatically in the last couple of years. The higher costs are due to the increasing number of natural disasters in the United States as well as environmental pollution that in turn affects the long standing of buildings. Because of those same two reasons however, it has become necessary to purchase homeowners insurance for your office building, condo or home. Homeowners Insurance protects you from the risk of financial loss if your home or property is destroyed or damaged by fire, lightning, smoke, and many other natural disasters.
The good thing for homeowners is that now they can get some low-cost homeowner insurance if they do their shopping right. With the invention of Internet came websites that allow the customer to compare between the rates of many insurance companies. There is no need however, to be afraid or intimidated by the word low-cost (sometimes associated with bad coverage), simply because all the agencies in the market are out there competing for the exact same thing; that of customers. Hence, there are many different homeowner insurance companies that will try to offer the lowest rates possible with excellent coverage.
If you decide to shop around online it is necessary to make sure and view quotes from at least 3 different companies. It is also of note that online sites might give you excellent discounts toward your rates, sometimes exceeding 10% on the rate price. Apart from this, when you go online and request and online insurance quote you will be told how to get more discounts!!
If researching homeowners insurance online is not the right thing for you, then you can always visit your local homeowners insurance agency. They will definitely be able to help you and most agents will go above and beyond to give you discounts, so that in turn you choose their company. The lowest rates for homeowner insurance vary from company to company and because of this it would be good to visit not just one, but many other insurance companies around your area.
People that benefit the most from lower rates are retired people, unmarried couples and best of all non-smokers. This last one is an obvious one since cigarettes can spark a house fire in a matter of seconds if they are smoked inside and not handled properly.
Before applying for your home insurance you must know some important facts about your residence that will ease the quoting process and some of them can even give you a discount in premiums. Please note that not all companies will give you the discounts mentioned below:
The type and amount of coverage that you want to apply for: For this part of the process is always good to make an inventory of your possessions just to see about how much coverage you are going to need.
The deductible you want to apply to the homeowner insurance policy: A deductible is the amount of money you will have to pay when a claim is made, before your insurance company puts money in. This is important because the higher your deductible is, the lower your premium will be. It is important not to exaggerate on your deductible however, because if something was to happen to your property you would not want to pay a higher deductible than what you can afford.
The security devices you have in your home: Security devices refer to the number of smoke alarms, security alarms, deadbolt on the doors, sprinkler systems inside the house. Having this installed in your house can lower your premiums by 5% to 20% and that will make a big difference. It is also important to note the distance from your home to the nearest fire station and to the nearest hydrant, this can also give you a discount in case your company offers it.
The footage of your residence and the year it was built: Although some companies don't really look at this, the ones that do pay very much attention to it. The bigger the house the more maintenance it's going to need and the older houses usually require more work put into them than relatively new homes.
Another great thing that is worth mentioning before closing this article, is that bundling up your services with one insurance company will more than likely pay off when it comes to discounts. If you have the same insurance company for both your car and homeowners insurance you can sometimes get discounts from 5% to 15% off the selected premium. When doing this however, it is important to make sure that the rate you will be paying is not more than if you bought both types of insurance from different companies.
Now that we know the things that can give you an advantage in the homeowner insurance business it's important to put them into practice. Don't be sucked into the first company that gives you a good price and now that there might be many out there that can offer you better services for the relatively same rate.
And the most important thing is to always shop around, think about it this way, the more you look, the bigger the chances that you will receive a low cost home insurance rate from an insurance company with excellent coverage. Get started finding cheap homeowners insurance today!
