Whether you are a first-time home buyer or a regular homeowner, there will probably come a time when you realize your home insurance rates are a bit expensive and you’d wish you had bought a more affordable home insurance policy. Hey; the past is the past and you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself: the important thing is that you have your homeowner’s insurance protecting your real estate, right? But thinking about the future, if you can have a more affordable home insurance policy… why not? Our team at RealEstateAgent.com has compiled some real estate tips on how to lower your home insurance rates for all the homeowners out there with the rope around their neck!
But first…
How much is home insurance?
A straightforward answer to this question does not exist because there are A LOT of factors that go into calculating how much will your homeowner’s insurance cost. It will depend on several aspects relating to the location and the value of the materials used on the construction of your real estate, your credit score, your choice of homeowner’s insurance coverage and the business competition of home insurance companies in your real estate market.
However, the average home insurance cost, according to the Federal Reserve Bureau, is something between $300 and $1,000 worth of premiums. If you are a first-time home buyer wondering how much will your prospective home insurance quote be, a good general math to estimate the annual cost of a homeowner’s insurance policy is dividing the value of the real estate property by 1,000 and then multiply it by $3.50.
If you are not satisfied with just an estimate and wants to get as close as possible to the home insurance rate of your real estate property, there are some easy-to-find apps out there that work as a home insurance calculators. You could try those, or just call one or two insurance companies and try to get a homeowner’s insurance quote from them with no strings attached.
How to get a more affordable home insurance?
There are several real estate tips that can make your home insurance rates drop significantly.
Install a reliable home security system
It’s all about lowering the risks of your real estate property being damaged. Burglars are listed as a peril, and can affect all 4 types of coverage: they can crack the windows to get inside the house (dwelling insurance) to rob valuable objects (personal property insurance) and hurt someone while doing it (liability insurance). All of that will hurt you financially, bringing you additional living expenses until you recover the stolen objects. So, if you install a reliable home security system, the insurance company will likely give you a lower home insurance quote, because the house is better equipped to prevent this kind of peril.
Modernize the structure
The older the home, the less affordable home insurance gets. That’s because your policy will state anything must be replaced by the exact model or better. If the house is made of an out-of-fashion material it will be hard to find it in the market. So, having easier to find materials make it less risky for the companies, which will gladly lower your premiums. Plus, just like adding a reliable home security system, modernizing the plumbing and electrical wiring will do you good for the safety of the house – preventing short circuits and leaks (that cause mold etc.) – and will increase your house’s value for a future sale, so it’s a win-win situation; we see no reason not to do this investment. It definitely pays off!
Pro tip: renovate your roof. Add protection to it; make it fire resistant. This is the area of the home that makes most companies lower its home insurance quote.
Don’t file a claim!
Yes, you read it right. We know the reason behind having homeowner’s insurance is to have someone else pay for damages to your house, but hey; you wanted to know how to have a more affordable home insurance, right? Well, a homeowner’s claim history is one of the things that spike up home insurance rates. So, if there’s one minor damage that you can pay for yourself, maybe you should consider not activating your homeowner ’s insurance policy. If a burglar entered your house and robbed just a TV… can you get a newer one on your own? Or maybe read some books instead? It’s just like with cars: if you hit yours, depending on the damage it’s better to resolve everything with the other driver paying damages out of your pocket. Once a claim is filed, your premium skyrockets!
Work capitalism to your advantage!
Don’t settle for your first home insurance quote, even if it’s reasonable. Shop around all the competitors with it, asking them if they can get theirs lower. Also, a great tip for homeowners is bundling insurance policies. Most of the times, big companies also provide car, health and life insurance; the more you get from them, the more they will lower their prices individually.
But that’s a good idea when you’re a first-time home buyer. If you are already stuck with a homeowner’s insurance policy, use the one you have to shop around other insurance coverage companies, or just call your own once a year asking them to lower it. They don’t want to lose any clients, so you might get lucky. Plus, most companies will give you a discount if you pay it the full year upfront. Your cash flow will suffer a bit, but in the long run you will have saved money, so… yay!
Raise your deductible
It might not be the ideal way, because only really expensive damages will be covered and you’ll have to spend money in case something happens, but the fact is that: the higher your deductible, the lower your premium.
As you’ve seen, there are a lot of ways homeowners can get affordable home insurance. It may require some spending (however contradictory), some crying and some wisdom on your part, but, in the end, your monthly expenses will be lower.
