How Can I Buy Homeowners Insurance?

By Velox | February 18, 2021

Most people considering buying homeowner’s insurance struggle with their first steps. They simply do not know where to look and what to consider. Your home is probably the most valuable asset. Therefore, it makes logical sense to give it all the protection you can.

Whether you are a first-time buyer or looking to switch the existing policy, this post will offer extensive insight into how you can buy homeowners insurance.

7 Steps to Buy Homeowners Insurance

While you are eager to get adequate protection coverage for your home sweet home, here are seven basic steps to follow when buying homeowners insurance.

1. Knowing Your Needs

The first step when buying homeowners insurance is to understand your needs. This will give you a general idea about how much insurance coverage you need. You must consider the value of your home as well as the cost of each of the assets that you will include in the insurance coverage.

You will also need to factor in the liability coverage, emergency living expense coverage, and potential lawsuits. The last one is only if a visitor suffers an injury on your property or you damage someone else’s property by mistake.

2. Knowing Your Options

Now that you know your insurance needs, it is time to figure out how you would like to shop for your homeowners insurance. While you can always go to an independent agent, they can give you unrealistic expectations about the coverages.

The best way to buy homeowners insurance is to go online and compare as many policies as you can find in your local area. In case you already have coverage and wish to cancel or upgrade it, you can speak to your current insurance company.

You can even give yourself an even better bargaining position if you can find similar coverage at a cheaper rate elsewhere. The chances are that your current homeowners insurance provider would offer you the same or even cheaper rate to retain your business.

3. Keeping Your Information Ready

Keeping your information ready while shopping for homeowners insurance helps you save time. The more detailed information you have about your home, structure, and other assets, the more accurate the quote will be.

However, if you are simply renewing or upgrading the policy, most of the details will remain the same as the old policy. That said, the information you must keep handy when contacting an insurance provider is as follows.

Your home address
Insurance appraisal – this will determine the full value to rebuild your home in case of damage or destruction. You can hire an appraiser to assess the value of individual assets and components of your home.
You can also keep your previous insurance inspection reports to determine what type of coverage you may need now.
If you had homeowners insurance, you could look into it for information such as square footage of your home, age of the roof, heating type, electrical and plumbing specs, and distance from the fire department.
If you apply for a mortgage and the lender requires you to get any additional insurance such as flood insurance, let the insurance company know about it.
You will also need to provide information about who will be living in the home after insurance. Moreover, you must let the insurance company know if you will be renting out the home and whether this will be your primary and secondary dwelling space.
You will also need to provide personal information, i.e., full name, date of birth, SSN, occupation, previous address history.

4. Selecting the quotes

Once you have collected all the information mentioned above, you can now start shopping online or calling homeowners insurance company. Get as many quotes as you possibly can and start comparing.

Remember, it is not about comparing which one is the cheapest but which offers you the maximum benefits. A homeowners insurance coverage offering the most benefits at a slightly higher cost is worth it in the long run.

5. Closing the Deal

Once you have compared all the quotes, it is time to finalize the deal. You will also need to agree on the policy’s deductible. Here is a tip, if you are looking for a lower monthly premium, you can choose the higher deductible.

The last step would be to set the homeowners insurance coverage’s effective date.

6. Get Ready for Home Inspection

This is the last step when buying homeowners insurance. Your insurance company will most likely perform a thorough home inspection to determine that all the details you provided online or over the phone were accurate.

The inspector/adjustor will take notes if they find any changes and readjust the quote according to their findings.

7. Letting the Experts Help You

Do not just pick any insurance agent to get you mediocre protection coverage for your home. Instead, it would be better to let industry leaders in homeowners insurance help you. With Velox insurance, you can now get an online quote in 60 seconds, and you can purchase online – You can contact Velox Insurance and buy with an agent over the phone.