First-Time Homeowner Insurance
Are you Faced with purchasing your first home? If you are, you also have a fear of homeowners insurance to overcome. Take it from us; Insurance can be simple and Easy. The Key to success is finding the right Independent Insurance Agent in South Dakota.
8 Key Steps to Selecting a Policy
- Find an Agent
Buying homeowners coverage online sounds simple. From our experience, it can be; however, you need to ensure that you have a real live agent on the other end of the transaction. As an independent insurance agent in South Dakota, we understand your communities and lifestyle.
2. Gather some Information
-How old is the roof? If you are looking for savings, look no further than a new roof. Insurance carriers know that modern shingles will hold up better than some previous three-tab shingles, for instance. It’s essential to ask your realtor how old the roof of your new home is.
-Mechanical updates- how old is that furnace and AC? Also, ask if there have been updates to the circuit breakers.
3 Understanding the value of your home.
-Purchase Price, assessed price, and Appraisal don’t often match. Now, if you throw in the cost to rebuild, you will find this number can be drastically different.
-Expanded or Guaranteed preplacement cost endorsements are a must. We work in several smaller communities throughout South Dakota in towns like Madison, Redfield, Huron, and Dell Rapids, where the price is far less than what it would cost to rebuild. Ask a Meyer Insurance or Roerig insurance Agent to explain why these endorsements differ for each insurance Policy.
4 Special Form or Broad form Coverage?
You need to insure your home with Special Perils; there are still companies that sell broad form coverage.
- Special Form (aka Open Perils or Named Exclusions) offers to pay for ANY loss experienced unless the loss is excluded. Common exclusions are:
- flood, water back-up, earthquake, latent defect, wear and tear, etc.
- Broad Form states that the carrier is ONLY obligated to pay should the loss be the result of one of the Named Perils listed on the policy:
- fire or lightning
- windstorm or hail
- explosion
- riot or civil commotion
- aircraft
- vehicles
- smoke
- vandalism
- theft
- volcanic eruption
- falling object
- weight of ice, snow, or sleet
- accidental water overflow or steam
- sudden and accidental tearing apart, cracking, burning, or bulging of specific household systems
- freezing
- sudden and accidental damage from artificially generated electrical current
- Beware of the anything that says ACV; when you have a claim you get paid, you will get reimbursed for your loss on an Actual Cash Value basis. If the roof is older than 15 years, most carriers will change the coverage from Replacement Cost to Actual Cash Value. This allows the carrier to use depreciation at the time of loss. Once the roof exceeds 15 years, roofs will diminish in value, and your insurance carrier will depreciate the roof cost.
5 Deductible
You get to decide how much you want to pay with every claim. We recommend you not select a deductible of no less than 1000 dollars and no greater than 2500. Don’t be fooled with a 1% or 2% deductible. For example, if your home is worth 400K, a small hail storm can leave you with paying the first $4,000 or $8,000 damage. We don’t think you need to settle for a high deductible just to have a reasonable premium.
6 Water/Waste line coverage. If water or waste line collapses between the house and city hook up. This loss would be the homeowners’ responsibility and generally has a cost of between $5,000-$10,000.
