By Barbara Lehrer
Real Talk
Barbara Lehrer
As you enhance your property, you must make sure that the replacement costs through your homeowners insurance protects your investment. In other words, insuring your home to its current value takes into account renovations, additions and expensive upgrades.
Your insurance professional may need to add more coverage to your insurance, but with new programs that serve the community better you will not necessarily have a greater cost.
Diane Eger, vice president of the Orange Insurance Center, says, “Your insurance agent is your partner in taking care of protecting your property. You need to be due diligent to protect and preserve the monetary value of your home over time.”
You need to have a relationship with your person in the insurance industry. He or she can assist you with changes, opportunities for programs and, of course, if ever there is a need for any replacement. Asset protection can only be accurate when everyone has made a diligent effort to keep up with the contracts and information necessary.
There are various replacement cost estimates used by a homeowner company when changing a policy or putting in a claim. Learn about the process by calling your insurance agent. If you have been laying low on paying the same premium with old information for 20 years and you now have a finished basement or an additional two-car garage, wouldn’t you want that protected in the event of a catastrophe?
Eger points out that you want to replace property with something of like quality. How will the company know if you do not share your information?
Another reason to keep your insurance current is the normal cost of inflation, which means that the homes in our area have increased in value over time, so perhaps you need a little more coverage anyway.
Just as every other industry has learned over the years to expand their expertise and tweak their client needs, so has the insurance industry. When purchasing a home today this information is there and current. Still, unless you jump in to learn what’s important with typical renovations you can still neglect this part of homeownership later on.
My job is to protect the real estate community from making mistakes. You should get moving to shop for information, analyze your insurance history and make sure you are doing your best. We are glad our homes maintain value and go up in value – let’s keep up with the times.