One of the sayings I heard after moving to Dallas was, “If you’re tired of the weather in Texas, just wait a few hours and it will change.” That may not be entirely accurate, but our weather does tend to be filled with surprises. 2017 held a couple of major surprises for Texans and its effect on home and car insurance will be felt this year. Let’s look at what happened and how it will impact home insurance this year.
2017 is winding down and 2018 will be here before you know it. Various web sites and blogs will soon be posting articles and tips on end of year financial planning and moves to make before the new year arrives. Some will address tax moves you can make now, while others address rebalancing your portfolio, opening an IRA, and steps to improve your financial position for 2018.
While Dallas is renowned for tearing down old homes and replacing them with new ones that are “bigger and better,” there are some areas in east Dallas, Lakewood, the Park Cities and parts of Fort Worth near TCU that have some beautiful, stately homes built at the turn of the past century. Some of the homes appear on National and Texas historic home registries and more reside in historic districts. How does writing a home insurance policy for a home in a historic district or on a registry differ appear from writing one built in the 1950’s or that was just finished?
Sheri and I had dinner Saturday night with a friend. It was a delightful evening as we caught up with what has happened in each other’s lives. Our friend had a couple of questions about her home and car insurance and was concerned her home may not have enough coverage to cover a total loss. After all, prices for homes in her part of the metroplex have risen sharply in the past few years.
In early October, Equifax announced another 2.5 million consumers’ data was stolen bringing the total to 145.5 million people. The data stolen includes names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, credit card numbers, and in some cases driver’s license numbers. Chances are, most adult Americans were victimized by this data theft. Let’s look at what’s changed, what to do, and how this relates to your home and car insurance.
A friend of mine who’s in the water, fire, and smoke damage servicing business asked me to talk with one of his client’s last week. The client was a first-time home buyer and needed some advice on how to deal with a home insurance claim for 6 leaks beneath his slab foundation. His homeowner’s insurance policy was woefully inadequate to deal with the claim as it didn’t have the right coverage added to it.
There are several dog breeds home insurance carriers will decline to write a home or renter’s policy for. These breeds may also result in the insurance company canceling or not renewing the policy if they are acquired after the policy goes into effect.
Over the past two weeks we’ve examined how you and your home impacts what you pay for home insurance. Your home policy also impacts what you’ll pay, so let’s delve into four common areas that lower or raise your rate.
Last week we looked at how you, the buyer and homeowner, impact your home insurance rate. The second broad category impacting your home insurance premium is your home itself. There are several factors and none of them include your home’s purchase price, what you could sell it for, nor what the local appraisal district sets the value at. Let’s look at what does count.
Most people don’t realize there are many factors which impact their home insurance rate; some are related to the home and some are not. In fact, you may have as much to do with what your home insurance rate is as your home does. There are three broad areas which impact your home insurance rate including you, your home, and the insurance policy itself. This week, we’ll examine four ways how you, the homeowner, impact the rate and examine the other two areas over the next two weeks.
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