Home Safeguards

If you are looking into purchasing a new home you are going to need homeowners insurance to protect your finances in case of damage.

Like with car insurance homeowners insurance will cover the cost of damage received to the home if it is covered under your chosen insurance plan. How much you pay per month with homeowner insurance is based on where you live and the building materials your home is made of, that combined with the amount of coverage you purchase.

When purchasing homeowners insurance you want to get enough coverage to protect yourself financially in case of an accident while not going to in depth and making thousand dollar monthly payments for coverage you won’t need. If you live in areas of high natural disaster such as tornadoes when living in tornado alley, or with floods when living near the cost you are going to end up paying more per month than someone living in a home located in a relatively natural disaster free area. Living in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida are going to cost you the most per month for your homeowner insurance due to their location being near the cost and Texas being both near the cost and located in tornado alley. California also has relatively high homeowner insurance payments due to it having fault lines and its dry forest area that catches on fire every year.

Besides where you live your materials used to build your house will also influence your insurance payments. An example of a building material that will influence your monthly payments is wood. For example log cabins built with natural oak are going to be able to withstand earthquakes so if you want a home built in an earthquake prone area look into log and natural wood materials to help build your house. On the other end if you build a log cabin in a forest area that is prone top forest fires, or you build your house in an area where fires are a possibility you will end up paying way over budget on homeowner insurance payments than if you were to go with a fireproof material.

Now that you’ve taken a look at how location and building materials effect your homeowners insurance you want to decide how much coverage you are going to need. Like with building materials you want to get coverage that supports those common natural occurring disasters that happen in your area of living. If you live near the cost you are going to want to bulk up on flood insurance and hurricane damage insurance if it is offered, or if you live in California you want to make sure you are fully covered with fire and earthquake damage. What you don’t want to do is buy a bulk load of insurance that you really don’t need, although it may make you feel extra secure it will end up costing you more money in the long run.

So overall if you are looking into purchasing a new home do some back research on the homes location and building materials before you end up spending too much for homeowner insurance when you realistically only need the basics.

Modern home security has advanced well past a good sturdy bolt lock on the front door and Fido. To find the right security system requires some research and comparing packages from various systems that best meet your home and lifestyles needs. There are two basic systems to choose from.

The older unmonitored system emits a loud alarm noise that in addition to scaring off the intruder also alerts most of the people on the block that your home has been broken into. This is both a positive and negative based on how often your system has false alarms. No one likes the house that constantly cries wolf. The alarm usually will continue until manually shut off or sometimes there is a preset duration.

A monitored home security system sends an electronic signal to the monitoring service’s call center where the home owner and police are notified that there is an apparent break in. The home owner has the ability to let the service know if it is a false alarm and its stealth nature allows police the chance to respond without alerting the burglar increasing the chances he will be apprehended.

When selecting a specific system there a several components you have to choose from. The more elaborate, the safer, but also the more expensive. The first decision you will need to make is if you want a hardwired system or wireless. The hardwiring tends to be less expensive but can be more difficult to install, especially if trying to conceal the wires and cables from running all over your house. Despite costing a little more, most people opt for wireless to avoid their house looking cluttered with the wiring and the relative ease of installation.

You will then need to decide on the actual components for your system. The first choice is your control panel. This is the mother station of your system and it is important to read and understand the operating system as this controls the whole security system. Next you will have to decide your specific security needs. Basic equipment includes motion detectors that detect suspicious movement in your house. These have settings so Fido won’t trigger false alarms. These can also be located inside and outside the house. Another basic component is magnetic locks. These are pairs magnets place on windows and doors that when the magnetic seal is broken the alarm is triggered. A more expensive addition is security cameras but many homeowners find great comfort in being able to record activity at their homes when they are away. These are placed strategically around the house and provide the eyes to the security monitoring company. These can also be discreetly placed as is popular with nanny cams.