Thread: help please! home insurers give tips?

I'm writing a talk to give a bunch of HIs, and I was wondering how many have experienced insurance companies give tips on things that can be done to a house to lower the premiums. Examples: cutting down trees or limbs, putting downspout extensions on, upgrading your wiring, panelboard, or plumbing, etc. I'd be especially interested if they mentioned issues that are safety hazards to the occupants.

A related question is how many of you have had an insurance representative come to your home for the purpose of looking at it to identify hazards and/or replacement costs, or know of someone else who has.

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Probably no revelation to industry pundits, but in today's market replacement costs are significantly higher than the value. Security systems. Fire suppresion systems. Fire, smoke and C/O detectors.

Thanks, Garry. How true that replacement costs are often higher than market value! Estimating replacement cost is part of my job, and sometimes it works out to ten times or more what has just been paid for a home.

Security from fire and theft is indeed a big issue. However, I'm looking more for things about individual properties that a company has deemed a hazard that when fixed will lower premiums. I often wonder whether the info I collect will ever be passed down to the HO, since I'm not allowed to do it.

(As an aside, only one company I provide data for is concerned about whether there are CO detectors. For underwriting purposes, insurance companies are more interested in the health of the "risk" [home] than its occupants.)

Another question is whether you guys have the impression that insurance inspections (onsite surveys of the home) have become more common?

I called my insurance agent last week and asked if there was a way to cut my premiums.
He asked me "Why do you want to do that?"
I said that times are hard and I need to save money anywhere I can
He said, "Well, you could drop that $500,000 death policy your wife took out on you 2 weeks ago, that's costing you a fortune."

Yikes

Originally Posted by Kristi Silber

I'm writing a talk to give a bunch of HIs, and I was wondering how many have experienced insurance companies give tips on things that can be done to a house to lower the premiums.

How about a house with no electric, no fireplace, no gas, no basement, no stairs, built where there aren't floods, severe storms, earthquakes, volcanoes etc. That oughta knock a few bucks off.

Hee hee, coupla wise guys, eh? Well, considering this thread has gotten 154 views, I'd say that it's pretty uncommon for insurance companies to inform their policyholders what they could do to lower the risks to their homes. Not surprising, I'm sorry to say.