Quik Fix: Life Hacks for the New Home Owner: Before You Buy
by A. Montalbano on 04/07/19
Initially, the new home buyer is plugging away alone. Homework is more than merely searching through the many real estate listings to find the right community. When looking for the right home, whether it is newly built or previously owned, there are considerable choices. Spend time on the informal homework because in the long run, you will be glad you did.
Homework #1: If looking at a previously owned home, make sure a CLUE Report is pulled. This report will show how many claims the home has experienced. A CLUE Report is essential when searching for insurance so be ready to issue it to the agent of your choice.
Homework#2: when you find the right community, get the address and obtain a home insurance quote. Most realtors will tell you not to run an insurance quote until after the loan processor has run your credit score. This advise is detrimental to your home owners insurance rate. So I tell all my customers, do it before your credit score is run by the loan processor because here is where your chunk of score-cookies will be eaten up by THE COOKIE MONSTER! Cookie monster is going to take all your credit score cookies and because insurance carriers look at your score(not take a piece, but merely look at the rating score) cookie monster has already gobbled it all up. So shop for home insurance before cookie monster ruins your chance for a better than average home insurance rate.
Homework#3: What is the "within 5 miles" fire department rule? Every community is assigned to a certain fire department. If your fire department is located further than 5 miles, your home insurance rate is higher than those homes located within a 5 mile radius. So make this a key factor.
Homework#4: Fire Hydrants. If not fire hydrants near your home, this is another surcharge to your home insurance rate. Drive around in the community to pinpoint where they are located.
Homework#5: Sweat the small talk: Most buyers rely on the realtor, this is a good aspect if they have lived in the community. But a better way to get solid unbiased information about a community is to talk to a resident. Don't forget to ask about the cons: floods, construction, traffic since the realtor has probably given you all the pros.
There are many more areas to cover, but because our customers are more than merely policyholders to us, we want you to be a smart shopper and be in the know when it comes to home owners insurance. We are on your side,
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