Say the word pet and most people think dog, cat, hamster, gerbil, fish, or bird. Some will think of turtles, lizards, or sugar gliders. In Texas, we may even think in terms of horses. Other people think in terms of more exotic animals such as …
Every week we talk with people about home insurance. Two of the people I talked with last week included a young couple buying their first home in Fort Worth, the other was a long time homeowner in Frisco, Texas who was concerned they were paying too much for home insurance. The conversations about the homes were not that much different and focus on two broad areas…
?On Friday, January 25th, an earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale occurred in the east Texas town of Timpson. Timpson is about 172 miles south east of Dallas. The earthquake occurred at 1:01 a.m. and was felt in east Texas, southwest Arkansas and western Louisiana. No injuries or damage were reported.
Over the weekend, a group of us from Dallas went camping. We spent Friday night at Eisenhower State Park in Denison before backpacking in a different area on Lake Texoma. After the tents were set up and everything was organized, we all sat around the fire talking. I took the opportunity to do an informal survey of our friends. I asked each person how many computers they have. I added to that printers, software, tablets and readers. What I didn’t ask about but could have been added to the list was gaming systems (Nintendo, Xbox, etc.), data storage, or hard drives.
There’s one more type of water peril that’s different from leaks. Homeowners and renters need to be aware of this peril. It’s sewer and drain back up. Leaking pipes and appliances are certainly a nuisance, but at least the water is clear and clean. Much more foul is a sewage and drain backup.
??When it comes to water leaks, most insurance companies and their policies classify leaks into two categories;
Sudden & accidental
Slow drip or slow leak
Sudden & accidental: This type of leak is characterized as being sudden; it quickly materialized or occurred and it was unintentional.
One of the questions I’m asked about a home policy is whether or not it has foundation coverage. If you’ve lived in the Dallas / Fort Worth area, or many other parts of Texas, you know our soil moves. This seems to affect north Texas more than any other part of the state. The reason is our homes are built on “blackland prairie.” This is an ecoregion that runs from the Red River to San Antonio. The soil has a high clay content that contracts and expands. This “soil movement” can either …
?Early in my career I met with a client to review the changes we’d made to her homeowner’s policy. She’d completed a remodeling project so we updated the amount of coverage on her home. She gave me a tour of her home and then we sat down at the dining room table to review the policy changes. There were 4 beautiful paintings hanging on the walls and I asked her if they were originals. With pride, she beamed they were. The value of the paintings was about $32,000.00. We had discussed everything else except the artwork.
Two weeks ago, we looked at the importance of having a home inventory. Having one helps any insured renter or homeowner be fully and accurately reimbursed for their contents if they’ve been burglarized or experience a loss from a fire or natural disaster. We followed up that post with what to do if you’ve been broken into. Avoiding being broken into is better yet.
Here are 14 steps you can take to reduce your odds of being burglarized by making it harder for a burglar, as published by the Dallas Police Department.
At the end of a long day at work, you arrive home ready for a warm meal and a little down time. Instead, you find you’ve been broken into. Think! What do you do?
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