Reprinted Articles

Arizona homeowners’ insurance: You are totally free to NOT insure your home unless it is being financed and you still have a mortgage on it. Nevertheless, many folks will rather do without most necessities than to stay without home insurance.

For most of us our home represents our single most important investment and/or property. Therefore, we really don’t mind the extra expense that buying protection against its loss entails.

However, everybody would still be joyous if they are to find a means to take care of this most valuable investment without the usual high cost involved.

I’ll teach you how to do just that with time-tested steps you can take to ensure you get the best home insurance coverage for you at the best rate possible…

1. Do NOT insure your house along with the land it is built on as this is more expensive but needless. People do this ignorantly. Insuring your home for the purchased price without deducting the value of the land it stands on is a very costly mistake.

If you made this mistake quickly meet with your agent and review your coverage. Deduct the cost of your land and use only the cost of your home and its contents.

This implies that you’ll pay far less on home insurance. No matter what you do and who you meet, bear it in mind that the only things you insure are things that can be stolen or destroyed and your land is not one of such.

2. You will pay more or less depending on your credit rating. People who have excellent ratings spend far less than those who have poor ratings. What your credit rating shows is how you have handled your bills and it speaks negatively about you if it is a poor one.

An insurer takes this to mean that you’re not financially very responsible and will possibly default in paying your premiums. If you are considered a regular defaulter, it makes you a bigger risk and draws much higher rates than otherwise.

It will, therefore, be a right step to do something about improving your credit rating. Apart from the other benefits in doing so, it will help you get cheaper home insurance rates.

3. You will pay more affordable rates if you elect to pay your rates annually and not every month. This is because sending you twelve bills by mail monthly costs your insurer a lot.

If you add to the fact that each check you give is considered a transaction by their bankers, you’ll see that they still pay some more on transaction charges for each check you pay in.

They pay transaction charges twelve times instead of once a year for monthly payments. And as with everything else, it’s you the end user or policy holder who bears the cost.

Therefore, you’ll get lower rates if you decide to pay your rates annually. The actual amount you could save may differ but you may be able to save up to a month’s rate worth with some insurers if you choose this option.

4. Make the exterior of your home fire-safe and you will lower your home insurance premium. Do you have things that could easily aid combustion close to your structure? They’ll make you pay more.

Even though it may look very insignificant, cutting back bushes and keeping them up to ten feet from your structures will help reduce your rate. Fire-safety is a major factor that determines what you your rate will be.

5. Motion-sensitive lighting lowers your home’s risk of burglary and, as a result, makes it easier for you to get lower home insurance rates. Burglars will avoid any place where their activities will be easily noticed. And motion-sensitive lighting does this precisely.

Your rate will be lower because you’d have lowered your home’s risk of burglary with such lighting.

6. Getting dead-bolt locks on every exterior door will bring down your home insurance rate. It’s more difficult for burglars to break into homes that have these locks.

It is very clear that the risk of burglary is a key factor in checking a home’s risk to an insurance company and, by extension, your rate.

7. Window locks on all windows will save you a little since they reduce your home’s risk of burglary. You will save even a lot more if you go further to have burglary-proof bars fixed on all of them.

Even though most people do not like this because it makes them feel like a prisoner in their own house, it really does lower your premium by a good amount. Therefore, if you don’t mind having burglary-proof bars in your home, have them fixed and you’ll be billed much less for home insurance.

8. Installing advanced security and fire systems that are monitored 24/7 is a wise move. Apart from the peace of mind you will have in knowing your house is watched regularly by competent personnel, you’ll get more affordable home insurance premiums.

Notwithstanding that the discount this will attract will vary from one insurance company to another, you can expect to reduce your home insurance premium by as much as 25%.

9. Do you have smoke and fire detectors installed? You will get more affordable rates especially if you have fixed enough for your size and type of home. And, remember to change their batteries as stipulated by the manufacturers.

Detectors mean fires are easily noticed and extinguished before much damage is done. And because the risk of fire in a home is important in working out home insurance rates, you’ll pay far less by taking this step.

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Tags: Homeowners Insurance