When most people buy a home they get a home owners insurance policy based on what their house is worth on the market. It’s called “Fair Market Value”.
But what if you had a fire and had to completely rebuild your home? There is a good chance that with inflation, contractors would charge you a lot more than what you paid for your home -especially in today’s housing market.
Your home is the single most valuable asset you own. The biggest mistake home owners in Atlanta make is just getting the cheapest insurance they can find. You could save a lot more money in the long run by being savvy about home insurance policies and going with one that protects you the best.
There are basically three types of home owners insurance policies. Unless you have requested otherwise, you probably have the standard market value home owners insurance.
Types of Home Insurance:
Market Value (Actual Cash Value)
This type of home insurance pays for the cost to replace damaged property while factoring in depreciation amounts. This is the bare minimum and often the standard required when purchasing a house. This insurance policy is based on the fair market value of your home or, what a buyer would pay for your home in today’s market.
Replacement Cost
This home insurance policy will cover the cost of rebuilding your home, up to the amount that you choose with your insurance policy. So, if your policy is for $200,000, and you have a total loss, you’ll get $200,000 to rebuild and no more. If you have underestimated the repair and rebuilding costs -which is often the case, any remaining expenses will be on your dime.
Guaranteed or Extended Replacement Cost
This is the most coverage you can get for you home. To protect yourself against inflation and construction demand, you can buy a policy that pays more than the policy limits. An extended replacement cost policy will pay an extra 20 percent or more above the limits. This type of policy is the only one that will pay to completely rebuild your home in the case of a fire or other natural disaster.
If you live in the Atlanta suburbs like Lawrenceville or Duluth where land outside the perimeter is cheaper, the cost to rebuild your house could be higher than the cost to buy –especially if your house has pricey features, such as plaster walls, detailed woodworking and hardwood floors. Failure to cover your home at full replacement value can be a nasty shock in the case of a major loss.
Don’t wait for a major disaster to look into the details of your home insurance policy. Ask your insurance agent about your current coverage and how you can improve the protection of your home and possessions.
Watch the video related to home owner insurance
This clip of The Future of Real Estate features Darryl Baskin of mcgraw Realtors and Mike Tedford of Tedford Insurance. Darryl and Mike discuss limitations you might find on your homeowners insurance policy. For more information on Oklahoma homeowners policies and limitations, call Mike Tedford of Tedford Insurance at 918-299-2345 or www.tedfordinsurance.com. For all your Tulsa, OK area real estate needs, contact Darryl Baskin at 918-258-2600 or www.darrylbaskin.com.
Help answer the question about home owner insurance
Is my home owner insurance will go up? Is there an rental insurance for tenant not paying rent?My property has let live for free last two years to a friend and now he is going to leaving for a new job. So I consider to rent it out. Read so many bad tenants stories, I'm scared. For home owner insurance, if I rent the townhouse out, do they cover the damage that tenant may make? Does the premium will go up? Thanks
This is annoying… I'm a registered independent, and I can't even believe the bull that gets thrown around like it’s a matter of fact or something.
First of all, your little article is bias because it is not an article, but a blog post by Dick Morris, an outcast former democrat, who's bitterness towards the Clintons overshawdows all of his opinions. Second of all, the blog is not fully researched and only picks and chooses the information he wishes to share. Like the so called "study" conducted by Alan White, cannot be located anywhere. How can the claims of a study conducted by him be used if no study can be found? Read any typical news article that references a study, you can often find the footnotes at the bottom showing where they pulled their information from or you can easily search for the study and find the original publisher and verify the information, including how the survey was conducted, what sampling methods were used, etc. You can find nothing about it, so how can you trust a mouthed off blog with no verifiable information to back up the rant? And lastly, Rome wasn't built over night, the Great Depression wasn't fixed over night, and the Great Wall of China took more than a couple of months to built. Why all the impatient ramblings about how horrible Obama is doing? Think you can do better? Prove it! Run for office, let see how many well rounded educated Americans actually vote for you.
My suggestions, fully do your research and then mouth off, otherwise you can end up sounding like an baboon.
Good copy paste and edit. The Dems are trying their best to fix this country. Show some support. Don't be like the conservative un Americans who want to boycott GM and Chrysler.