Homeowners Insurance Shopping

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by Julie Gallegos64 views·Updated Jul 9, 2021
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  1. Hi, I'm jennifer.
  2. I'm with the Liz Hogan agency and I'm here today
  3. to talk to you about homeowners insurance and particularly about
  4. shopping for insurance.
  5. Where do you go to get a policy?
  6. There are independent agents or brokers and they represent several
  7. companies. Exclusive agents can only sell one insurance company and
  8. then we have direct internet mail or phone companies.
  9. The first thing you want to do is ask and
  10. check around with your friends and family.
  11. They're going to be a good resource for you because
  12. if they've had a good experience, you'll probably have one
  13. as well.
  14. You may have car insurance now and you could use
  15. your current provider and they may offer discounts for doing
  16. so because you'll have your home and car insurance there.
  17. You also want to buy from a financially good company
  18. with an A rating and a good reputation for paying
  19. claims. Mhm.
  20. First you want to gather information, complete an insurance shopping
  21. checklist that we have about your personal and home information.
  22. So we can, you'll be prepared when you make that
  23. call. When you get insurance quotes, you want to get
  24. at least three and you want to compare apples to
  25. apples. So if one insurance company has one coverage, you
  26. want to make sure that the other insurance company has
  27. the same coverage and compare those.
  28. If you complete the insurance checklist, that will help you
  29. to get prepared for that, you may ask yourself how
  30. much coverage do I need.
  31. Well, insurance companies have what's called a replacement cost estimator,
  32. a tool that we use Insurance companies use to estimate
  33. how much it would cost to rebuild your house.
  34. This depends on the market.
  35. You live in the cost of materials and also labor.
  36. Your agent should ask you specific questions and understand your
  37. home to make a proper assessment.
  38. It is not necessarily the same amount as the market
  39. value or your loan value.
  40. The price per square foot.
  41. What that is is a good check to make sure
  42. that you have enough coverage.
  43. What you'll do is you'll divide the dwelling coverage uh
  44. by the square foot above ground and that will give
  45. you a good indication of your price per square foot.
  46. For example, for Boulder County, the low end construction costs
  47. might be 100 and 75,000 per square foot and the
  48. high end would be about 300 per square foot.
  49. If you had more amenities in the whole house with
  50. a 1200 square foot.
  51. Uh The house with 1200 square feet um With an
  52. average construction cost of 225 per square foot, you would
  53. need 270,000 to replace it.
  54. Yeah. Now your lender may have requirements um that you
  55. need coverage equal to your mortgage.
  56. Your land is not included in the replacement cost coverage.
  57. Well, thank you and I appreciate your time.