Category: Home Insurance


3 Things To Know If A Reverse Mortgage Is For You

Filed Under: Home Insurance by Don Weststein — Comments Off
August 20, 2011

Are you thinking about getting a reverse mortgage?  Their may be many reasons for this such as a supplemental retirement income, to pay for medical bills, or even just because you want the extra money.  However their are 3 things you should know before you do get a reverse mortgage.

Do you know how a reverse mortgage works?  A reverse mortgage works the exact opposite of traditional mortgage instead of you making a payment to them they will make a payment to you.  How this is done is they will assess the total value of your home and once they do this they will set up payment plan that is very similar to an annuity in that they will continually make payments to you until you pass away.

Second, do you have equity in your home?  In order to get a reverse mortgage you cannot have a no equity home loan.  The reason for this is that in order to pay you every single month your are going to have to have some sort value in your home and if you don’t have this you will not get a loan.  On top this you also have to be at least 60 years of age to open a reverse mortgage as well.

Third, how do you plan to pay off the reverse mortgage?  While your receiving payments you won’t have to make any payments towards the debt that will be owed but once you pass away the debt will have to be paid.  One way to do this by selling the home.  However, not all people want this to happen so another way to pay off the debt is by setting up a second to die life insurance policy.  This is a policy that will pay out after the second spouse has passed away and can be put towards the home to pay off the loan.

In the end a reverse mortgage is a great way to get additional money in your older years, however before you make a decision contact a reverse mortgage representative to learn how this option could benefit you situation.

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Some Tips For Buying Investment Property

Filed Under: Home Insurance by Don Weststein — Comments Off
May 5, 2011

Buying investment property is attractive to people for different reasons. Some people are purchasing a home for the first time and may look for a house with a guest room, basement or attic to lease out and help with mortgage payments. Having tenants living in such close proximity gives the owner more control over the way the property is being used and treated.

Buying investment property especially a rental property is almost like letting a third party pay off your debt. When managed properly it can be a very lucrative investment vehicle, but there are risks involved. You must locate a responsible tenant who can afford to make payments on time and can be counted on to stay for the duration of the rental agreement. Maintenance and repairs are the sole responsibility of the owner, so it is important to find a renter that will not trash the property.

First, make sure that you have the proper temperament to be an effective landlord. You must be willing to make repairs in a timely manner and be prepared to interact with tenants even when they are difficult to get along with.

Investors have the option of hiring a property management company to handle maintenance issues and collect rent. The cost will eat into your profit but it will free up your time to do other things. Hiring an outside agency will be necessary if your property investment is located far away from where you live.

Carefully consider how long you intend to keep the property. The longer you hold onto it, the more you will make off of it when you sell. On the other hand, older homes require more maintenance and expensive repairs that can add up to a lot of money. These costs should be factored in for the length of your mortgage.

If you want a short term investment, there is a higher risk the property will lose value. The economic trouble from 2008 to 2009 caught a lot of people off guard. Many short term investors were hit with major financial losses.

The most important thing is to plan for every situation. Consider these tips when deciding whether you should purchase investment property.

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Black Walnut Flooring – Ideal Flooring Option For Home Improvement

Filed Under: Home Insurance by Don Weststein — Comments Off
December 6, 2010

When considering flooring installation for home improvement, one of the best choices is black walnut flooring. This flooring option is the true definition of natural wood with its distinctive colors and features. It comes in rich dark brown color mixed with purple and lighter shades, if it is unfinished whereas a finished black walnut floor comes in a radiant shine, smooth and will still look best over time. It adds stunning elegance to both classic and modern homes. It is extremely durable as well so it will definitely add to the resale value of your home. It only requires little maintenance and it has anti – microbial properties which makes it safe for the members of the household who have allergies.
Black Walnut is naturally grown in the United States. In fact it is the only dark hardwood grown and manufactured in the U.S. If is still young, its outer sapwood is nearly white but its inner heartwood comes in chocolate brown mixed with purple colors. When the walnut trees are older, their heartwood becomes darker and rich in color. When manufactured, they can be found in straight grain and swirling grain patterns. These patterns make the walnut floors naturally exotic and exquisitely unique.
Maintaining the natural beauty of black walnut floors is easy. Because of the fact that they come in very rich colors, they don’t need to be painted or stained. However, coating them with clear polyurethane is a good idea. This finishing will protect it from water and moisture. It will also keep it smooth and radiant over time. Cleaning it is easy and maybe done when it is necessary however it must be kept from spills and too much heat. Moisture and sunlight exposure can damage a black walnut floor. Installation of this flooring can be expensive, so if you do not want to waste a huge investment and kept it long standing, be sure that you use a little effort in maintaining so that it will always look and perform best.

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Rental Market Grows as Cincinnati Home Sale Prices Slump

Filed Under: Home Insurance by Don Weststein — Comments Off
November 17, 2010

Cincinnati real estate may be down at present but the same is not the case with rental alternatives be it half million dollar mini-mansions, newly built riverfront condos or single-family homes in the suburbs.

Unable to sell their homes, more and more landlords are turning to rental options. New occupants are probable home purchasers who are not prepared for it yet due to job losses, foreclosures and tight lending standards.

Bruce Hager’s $600,000 four-bedroom home in Mount Adams was for sale for over a year. In spite of slashing the price three times, he wasn’t getting any buyers. In August, he made up his mind to test his luck at renting and within two weeks, he had a signed agreement with tenants prepared to pay $2,900 a month as rent.

Joe Price, the chief operating officer of Huff Reality, a Fort Mitchell based company, said that his company is currently involving a lot of employees to reach out to renters directly. This section of the real estate market was never touched before both nationally and locally, he said. A member of HomeServices of America which is one of the prime settlement service providers in the country, Huff has recently started a new website called huffrealtyrentals.com. This site allows property owners to connect with an agent who will list their property on the site and show their homes to potential renters. This site also allows likely renters to search up to 4,000 rental property listings.

With uncertain prospects for the housing market, many Cincinnati home buyers feel it is not the right time to invest in a house. Former homeowners who’ve lost their jobs or homes through foreclosure and potential buyers who are unable to obtain a mortgage due to tightened loan procedures form the new rental group.

Last month, Bekah Karschner, her family and parents signed a two-year lease agreement for a four-bedroom home in Florence that was planned to be sold for over a year. Karschner contacted Johnny Hodge, an agent with ReMax Affiliates of Florence to facilitate their search. “It was definitely a good experience. I never in a million years thought there would be a Realtor out there that would help you find a home to lease instead of buy”, Karschner said.

So far, Hodge has helped out 10 homeowners in renting their property this year. “This is more than I’ve seen in the past decade”, he said. Commissions on home sales are usually 3 percent of the sale price, whereas commissions on rental listings are just one month’s rent for the listed property. “This new business is a welcome and a likely permanent addition to my portfolio, but it’s not as lucrative as selling”, he added.

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What’s The Right Way To Compare Home Insurance Policies?

Filed Under: Home Insurance by Don Weststein — Comments Off
November 9, 2010

If you are going to purchase a home insurance plan it would have been suggested that you should compare home insurance policies. This is a vital part of the selection procedure to look for the best insurance plans. Why is this step crucial?

The answer lies in the fact that most of the insurance companies guise their insurance plans to make them more lucrative and even though all claim to provide you with the best insurance plans, you know better that there will be more to these plans than just claims and all of them will not have the same premium amount.

This is why there is a thumb rule in the selection of the right insurance plan for you. The rule says that before you opt for an insurance plan, always look for and research on many others so that you are able to identify the features of each of the plans and accordingly be able to choose one. Also it is suggested that after lining up the top three, compare home insurance plans with the knowledge of the factors that affect the premium amount so that you be able to get the best deal. Churchill home insurance quotes could offer you a great deal, get a quotation now.

There are many ways to look for insurance plans and put all the information together. The first method calls for the services of an insurance broker who will be able to look for the right plans for you and also will assist you in completing the formalities by its purchase. He/she can also explain why a plan is good for you. The best way to do is to compare home insurance plans and the nuances of each plans once identified, help you in choosing the right plan.

If you do not want to employ the services of a home insurance broker, then you can use the internet. There are web portals called insurance supermarkets where it is easy to look for the plans and side by side compare home insurance. This is because these portals have all the plans from various insurance companies in one place which helps you save a lot of time and efforts.

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Flood Insurance and Carpet Water Damage

Filed Under: Home Insurance by Don Weststein — Comments Off
November 1, 2010

If you ever suffer from carpet water damage, then check if you are insured to help cover the cost of putting things right.

Suffering a flood of any kind is an expensive business, as in most cases of serious water damage, the carpet will need to be replaced. If you have to foot the bill yourself, it will pay you to shop around for deals or carpet remnants to help cut the cost. However, if you have the budget for it, then it may be time to think about replacing the carpet with another type of flooring.

Not everyone has flood insurance in their home owner’s policy, but if you have had any flooding, it is a good idea to add it in case the flooding happens again. Then you will not need to worry about how much replacement carpet costs because the insurance company will pay for it.

Most companies also send a professional water damage company to take care of the problem for you. If you do not have flood insurance, you will have to do all of the cleaning and repair by yourself, and this can be quite a difficult job to do although you could pay for a professional carpet cleaner if you prefer.

There are also flood specialists who help home owners with carpet water damage. They usually dry out the area and then roll back the carpet to allow the area underneath to dry. Then they make a decision whether or not the carpet will need to be replaced. You can trust their advice in most cases because they have no interest in selling carpet. Their fees for clean-up are often paid by insurance companies.

Remember to take photos of the water damage before cleaning in case you need to show your insurance company that the damage really did happen and contact them first before organizing any clean up.

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The Basics Of Catering Insurance

Filed Under: Home Insurance by Don Weststein — Comments Off
October 24, 2010

As you get into planning your wedding celebration, one of the first items on the agenda is your meal. The last thing on your mind is food poisoning or a catering van crash, but these things can happen. What follows are some basic coverage plans needed by your food providers catering insurance.

Most pros will carry basic wedding liability insurance. This will cover them in case someone gets hurt due to their equipment or utensils. Catering liability insurance is typically carried to cover one million in damages, which is more than you will need, but this is the normal amount.

A basic business insurance policy will cover your vendor in case they run into hard times and claim they can’t afford to provide services for you and can not afford to pay you back your deposits. This should kick in to either help keep that business going or allow your previous caterer to find an acceptable replacement.

Product insurance is similar to the above indemnity but on a smaller scale. Appliances break down all the time, and if your caterer is unable to buy that new crock pot, you might not get your BBQ meatball appetizers! See that they have some kind of insurance for business products.

Many caterers are mobile, but won’t be if they crash their vans. See that they carry catering vehicle insurance for just such an emergency.

Next, have them show you proof of an HACCP Plan. This is a Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points policy that conveys proper food handling and storage, sanitary-wise and temperature-wise. This will keep the salmonella away! If your caterer is new and still doesn’t have all of this coverage, you can get your own small business insurance quote and cover your wedding yourself. You’ll be surprised at how low prices are when you get a public liability insurance online quote. When you absorb the cost of catering insurance into your budget, you’ll find that it is simply a drop in the bucket–but worth it.

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What is Commercial Umbrella Insurance?

Filed Under: car insurance, Home Insurance by Don Weststein — Comments Off
April 19, 2010

Generally business insurance policies have an upper limit that applies to each claim.  This means that a claim or payout that exceeds the upper limit of the policy (usually set at about one million dollars) will not be covered above the limit by the insurer.  The additional cost could leave a business owner with significant losses.  A commercial umbrella insurance policy, also known as excess liability insurance is taken out to protect a business against this occurrence.

An umbrella policy is an optional policy that can be taken out to cover this excess.  Usually available in three amounts, two million, three million and five million dollars, although it is an additional payment, umbrella insurance is usually not an expensive add on as insurers will seldom have to pay out for this type of settlement.  It is rare that a claim will go over the standard limit.  For the business owner this is a valuable addition as it gives added security to their business.

This type of policy is not essential, however it is a wise investment, while these extremely costly claims are rare it is best to protect your investments against every eventuality.

Some of the additional benefits of excess liability insurance are personal injury insurance, advertisers liability insurance and worldwide coverage.  In some cases an umbrella insurance policy will also cover gaps in the underlying insurance policy but usually these can only be met once a certain limit has been met, this is known as self insured retention.  If you decide to take out excess liability for your business it is wise to read the contract terms in full to find out exactly what areas of your underlying policy are covered and which, if any are not covered.  Umbrella insurance can vary from insurer to insurer and as with any policy, thorough research is advised before entering into any contract.

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House Insurance Quotes – Tips on how to get cheaper cover

Filed Under: Home Insurance by Don Weststein — Comments Off
March 30, 2010

When looking for home insurance quotes you might find some of the following money saving tips useful when trying to get cheaper cover. Before you go searching around getting lots of quotes you should read these tips you find that they can save you a lot of money.

The first thing to do is decide on the level of insurance coverage that you want. Do you want to include home emergency cover? Do you require accidental damage coverage for contents with in your home and garden? Do you need legal protection and assistance with legal expresses? Do you need personal possessions cover?

What voluntary excess contribution do you want to give? How much cover do you want for rebuilding your home? How much money to protect your contents such as clothing, electrical items and furniture?

It’s true that there are many features that you can get cover for. But the question is which ones you really need. In order to save money you should only get the cover that you need and not add additional features that you don’t and will only increase the price of the premium.

Contents insurance is important if you want to protect your clothes, furniture, jewellery, money in the home, garden contents and electrical items. If you do have certain items that are valuable then you will need to list them on the policy.

You’ll find that some suppliers offer free contents insurance if you also buy their buildings insurance policy. Offers like these are great and can save you money so look around for incentives like these.

One method that is some homeowners use is to increase the excess on the quote. Paying a higher excess level will reduce the annual premium, but if a claim is to be made then homeowners will need to pay the excess to the provider before a claim can be processed.

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