Homeowners Insurance Calculator

Written By: Stacy Fox on December 8, 2009 One Comment

If you are looking for a homeowners insurance calculator, there are some questions you need to answer before plugging in the numbers.

First things first. How much would it cost you to replace your home, your outbuildings and fences, and all of your personal property if they were destroyed by a disaster such as a fire or tornado? You need at least that amount of homeowners insurance. Two thirds of Americans are underinsured by an average of 18 percent. That means that if they had $500,000 worth of damage, they would only recoup $410,000 from their insurance company leaving them to hold the bag for $90,000 in rebuilding their life.

Even if the home itself isn’t destroyed, you still need property insurance in the case that a burglar cleans you out.

You should know that there are two types of insurance that cover your possessions: replacement value and actual value. For instance, if you bought a couch for $900, replacement value would give you $900 to buy another new couch of similar value. Actual value would say that there had been depreciation and you would only get the money to buy a similar used couch on Craigslist. Actual value policies are quite a bit cheaper, but if you get this coverage and something were to happen, you’d be re-furnishing your home from garage sales.

The next piece of information you will need to collect before using a homeowners insurance calculator is how much you have available to you if a tragedy were to strike. That’s because you need to determine what your deductible is going to be. Deductibles range from $500 to $5000 on most policies and you will pay a much lower price for higher deductibles.

Floods, hurricanes and earthquakes tend to not be covered by your typical insurance policy. The final piece of information you will need before using a homeowners insurance calculator is what riders you will need. All homeowners are advised to get coverage under the National Flood Insurance program, Californians should get earthquake insurance, and Floridians should consider hurricane protection.

If you are going to use any homeowners insurance calculator, you will need to gather that data first.

If you are looking at using a Homeowners Insurance Calculator, you should read more about homeowners insurance at http://homeInsuranceProvider.net