4 Ways to Lower Your Homeowners Insurance Premiums
If you are like many Americans, your home is probably one of your biggest investments. Home insurance protects your investment, but that doesn't mean that you have to pay high premiums each month. Use the following tips to reduce your homeowners insurance premiums:
Make Your Home More Secure
Making your home more secure from intruders as well as natural disasters can make it a lower risk to insure, which results in lower insurance rates. Simple things, such as installing heavy-duty deadbolts and locks on your windows, are easy to start with. You may also want to consider having a monitored alarm system installed in order to lower your insurance rates and protect your home. Home improvement projects, such as updating the wiring in an old home, can also cause your rates to drop. Protecting your home from natural disasters by having storm shutters installed on all your windows is another way to get your homeowners insurance rates lowered.
Quit Smoking
Not only is smoking bad for your health, it can also lead you to pay higher homeowners insurance rates. Many house fires are caused by cigarettes not being put out properly, so homeowners insurance can be more expensive if smokers live in your home. If you quit smoking, your body will thank you and you can lower your home insurance premiums.
Avoid Things That Insurance Companies View as Risky
There are many things that make your home a higher risk to insure in the eyes of the insurance company, so if you avoid these things you can get lower rates. Having a trampoline in your backyard can result in higher premiums because many people get injured while playing on them. Owning certain breeds of dogs, such as pit bulls, rottweilers, or doberman pinschers, can also lead to high rates since these dogs have a higher incidence of injuring humans compared to other breeds.
Don't Buy More Insurance Than You Need
Homeowners often get the market value of their home and the actual cost to rebuild confused with each other, which can cause them to buy a larger policy than needed. The larger your insurance policy, the more you will pay; don't base the size of your policy on what your home is currently worth-- instead, purchase a policy that is enough to cover the expense of actually rebuilding your house and replacing all of your belongings. Home worth often includes the land that the home sits on, so the home value is almost always higher than the cost to rebuild.
To create a home insurance policy that meets your needs, contact a representative from an establishment like the Gayler Agency.
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