?Car seats have been designed to protect a child from injury and death when the vehicle they’re riding in is involved in an accident. Since their introduction, car seats have saved thousands of children’s lives.
This past week I helped a new client with condo insurance for his new home. The condo is in a high rise condominium tower located in the Turtle Creek area of Dallas. It’s beautiful and the view is amazing. He’s very excited and has been wonderful to work with. There was one little issue we had to work through involving the amount of insurance for his new home and what the mortgage underwriters would approve. It was an interesting conundrum.
I talked with three people who are buying homes in the Dallas / Fort Worth area in the coming weeks. There are a number of questions I ask anyone buying a new home or rental property. In addition to discussing the finish out of the home it’s important to know about the updates the home has had and when they occurred. This is especially true if the home is over 10 years old. The updates insurance companies want to know about and that I discuss are in four key areas: plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling, as well as the roof.
What do you look for when you go car shopping; the model, styling, or color? Maybe it’s the options such as blue tooth, navigation system, heated seats, and moon roof. Or will you decide based on how you’re going to use it; shuttle kids, haul tools to a job site, go camping, or just to and from work? I’d like to suggest you add safety equipment to your evaluation criteria too!
New home mortgage guidelines went into effect on January 10th. The new guidelines were drafted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and they are designed to protect consumers from some of the lending abuses that led to the financial meltdown in 2008. Lending practices were relaxed prior to 2008. This enabled some people to qualify for home loans who would not have qualified under the previous and stricter guidelines. When the market imploded, millions of people were unable to make their mortgage payments and lost their homes to foreclosure.
“Will a claim cause my car insurance rate to increase? “ This is one of the most frequently asked questions I hear when talking with a client about an accident. The short answer is yes. I don’t always know how much of an impact an insurance claim will have on any person’s specific renewal premium, but claims do have an impact on their rate.
zle, Texas has been in the north Texas news a lot lately. The reason is earthquakes. In the past 12 months, the residents of Azle have experienced 33 earthquakes, with 30 of them happening since November. The quakes have registered anywhere from a 2.1 to a 3.7 on the Richter scale. Mineral Wells, a town to the west of Azle, has experienced 3 earthquakes within the same time period.
The Detroit auto show started last week and runs through January 26th. There are the debuts of new models from domestic and international car manufacturers, concept cars, and lots of new technology. Chief among the new offerings arriving in cars are those technologies that are grouped in a category referred to as advanced car safety systems. They aren’t quite as sexy as the new Corvette, but if they better protect us from accidents, we’ll be just as appreciative of them.
John Hooper’s story hit the internet last week. He was the proud owner of a 580 horse power 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. John took his Camaro to the local dealership, First State Chevy in Georgetown, Delaware, for warranty work on an issue with the car’s paint. One of the dealership’s employees took his car for an unauthorized joy ride on a Sunday in December when the dealer was closed.
A family was referred to me last year to review their policies. They had home insurance policies on two homes, car insurance for all their vehicles, and an umbrella policy. Everything was straight forward with one exception: the second home. It was originally a barn that had been converted to a home.
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