Investing in homeowner insurance has plenty of benefits, especially if you live in areas prone to natural disasters. Your home is more than a place where you return after a hard day of work, but one of the largest financial and emotional investments. Even so, investing in homeowner insurance might be necessary no matter where you live, since your property can be vulnerable to vandalism, natural disasters and various liability injuries.
Of course, investing in a homeowner's insurance isn't a requirement in many states but most banks and mortgage lenders may stress the importance of insurance.
1. Protects Your Home and Other Structures
The main reasons why more and more people choose to invest in homeowner insurance would be for loss protection. In case your home is damaged or destroyed by fire, hurricanes or tornadoes, the insurance may help you replace or repair - and allow you to save your money for the more unplanned circumstance. Those living in Florida know very well what such events require and how many insurance companies have withdrawn due to the high cost of hurricanes. Fortunately, you may find reliable and affordable insurance quotes in Florida that you can rely on to offer you high-quality services and reasonable coverage. Remember that when signing homeowner insurance, you'll need enough coverage to replace both your home, its contents and other structures. But this also may depend on the type of policy you choose.
2. Includes Essential Allowances and Protects Your Liability
Because not only our structural issues may require coverage, some homeowner's policies are known to protect you in case of a lawsuit. Most probably you've heard it before, lawsuits due to injury on a property are extremely common. For instance, someone comes unannounced or unvitiated on your propriety and they slip on the deck or get bit by your dog, thus you'll be held responsible.
In this case, liability insurance may be exactly what you need, to avoid medical bills and legal fees. Liability insurance may also come in handy if you wish to maintain your home equity, so when you'll make updates and renovation in your home, the value will increase.
3. Satisfy You Mortgage Lender
As we've stated before this won't be required everywhere. But most banks and mortgage lenders would be more than happy if you carry the insurance. Most mortgage lenders will appreciate if you have insurance since this may cover the lender's investment in case the propriety has been damaged. Additionally, most lenders will want you to carry sufficient insurance cover the amount of mortgage, but in case you simply can't purchase insurance, both the bank or the mortgage company will offer you a policy named forced coverage which isn't the smartest move. In contrast with your own homeowner insurance, forced coverages are hugely expensive and will only protect the mortgage company's interests and not your family's or your stuff.
4. Replace Your Things
That's one of the most common reasons why people invest in homeowner insurance. In case your items are destroyed, the insurance should compensate you for the value of your home, meaning your furniture, appliances, clothing and other belongings. There are various ways on how to ensure your possessions. You either choose to get the actual cash value or get a replacement cost coverage.
When it comes to valuable items, you should take into consideration that most items may depreciate over time. While the actual cash value allows you to recoup the amount you know you'll get if sold the items, adding the depreciation while the replacement costs help you replace the insured belongings on your property for how much it would cost to buy them.
5. Protects Equity
Because our home is one of the biggest investments in our lives, we want to make sure it stays that way and homeowner insurance is the right tool for that. The equity is the value of your home above mortgage and other liabilities related to your propriety. How does it work? Most probably you've planned renovations and other small refurbishments that will add value to your home as soon as you've brought it into the market.
As you undergo small modification and renovations, the equity of your home increases. The homeowner insurance is very handy if you've made all these modifications, so in case something happens, you won't have to start from scratch with your equity.
6. Protection Against Robbery and Theft
A basic reason one should not overlook when buying homeowner insurance, it's the peace of mind. However, in case someone would be smart enough to break into your home and steal all of your valuable items, the homeowner's insurance will come handy. A homeowner policy will reimburse the actual replacement costs and cash value. To make sure everything goes as planned make sure you have an inventory with every expensive item in your home. That means you'll have to have documented proof, such as receipts, lots of pictures and even videos if possible.
A common reason why many individuals rely on home insurances, it's because they wish for peace of mind. No matter where you and what difficult experiences you've encountered, having homeowner insurance will offer you the certitude that both your home and family will be protected from financial and natural disasters. However, it might be necessary to think twice before excluding coverage if not required.
An uninsured home is more likely to lose both the building and the place to live in the event of a natural disaster. But since a home is one of the biggest financial assets in every individual's life, losing it can lead to serious emotional, physiological and financial issues. So regardless of the nature of a disaster, losing a home is more than shocking for someone, so even though homeowner insurance can't entirely save a home, it can reduce the emotional and financial effects a disaster may have on us.
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of realtytoday.com
