The tornadoes the Midwest is currently experiencing are scary and dangerous. Unfortunately, they also aren’t something that a homeowner can really guard him or herself against. While building code compliance can ensure that you are less likely to lose your roof in a fierce storm, tornadoes are so destructive that often, there is absolutely no offensive measure for a homeowner to take.

Recent storms in the US have caused many homeowners to suffer some damage from flying debris and fallen tree limbs. But if a tree falls on your home, what should you do? And does it matter whether it is one of your trees or a neighbor’s?

You might think that once you’ve bought your home insurance policy your work is done. But there are a few other things you need to do to get ready for the possibility of claims.

You have home insurance.

You’ve read the policy and you know you can afford the deductible.

You know what your home and property are worth, so you know that the limits on the policy are acceptable.

You can afford the premium and you have already paid the policy up for the entire year.

You are safe and your family is protected.

Or is it?

Often, policyholders don’t realize that having a home insurance policy alone is not enough to actually protect their home and possessions from all the perils they face. Why? Because home insurance policies do not cover certain perils like earthquakes, landslides and floods.

In order to ensure you have coverage in the event that a natural body of water overflows and floods your home, or an earthquake occurs and shatters your home’s foundation, or a landslide ruins the walls, windows and security of your home, you need to either cover these perils through an additional insurance policy or talk to your agent about having additional coverages added to your home insurance policy in order to give a wider range of protections.

But in addition to the uncovered perils listed above, you may also need additional coverage for other small things that you might not even have considered – and that your policy doesn’t necessarily point out as missing. Like debris removal for taking out fallen trees and other debris after a hurricane, collapse and sinkhole damage coverage, insurance for building additions and more.

If you aren’t sure what your policy doesn’t cover, and reading the policy doesn’t help you understand, then you should call your insurance company. They will be able to explain to you the perils covered based on your insurance policy class. And if you are just now getting insurance quotes for rates on a home insurance policy, then be sure to consider including these coverages in your quote request.

Every year, each of us gets a choice to either pay our insurance premiums by month, quarter, or year. Whether it is your life insurance policy, auto insurance policy, or home insurance policy – you get that bill every year with a large amount to pay in full, or itty bitty amounts to pay monthly.

Do you know what one of the worst ways to experience the effectiveness of your home insurance company’s claims process is? With the personal injury claim against you because someone slipped and fell on your walkway after a winter storm.

If you are like most consumers, you do not read your home insurance policy for the heck of it. You find no fun in curling up with a stack of insurance policy documents on a rainy Sunday afternoon, and you wouldn’t miss out on a dinner date so that you could study your policy spec pages. While this is certainly understandable, neglecting to look over your insurance policy each year when it is renewed could result in your overpayment of premium.

To determine what kind of perils or incidents are covered by your home insurance policy, your insurance company assigns a set class to your policy. The various classes that could be assigned range from class HO1 to HO6, and each one has a different set of incidents that are considered insurable. Following is a general guide to these classes. For specific information about your policy, be sure to check with your insurance company.

With unemployment rates reaching an all time high and economic recovery that brings in new jobs slow to appear, freelancing and working from home are becoming more and more popular among the recently laid off.

There once was a time when flipping a house was no big deal. You simply bought the second property, took a few months to redo the cosmetic damage and create the home of someone’s dreams, put it on the market for way more than you paid for it and more than you paid to fix it up, and then it sold. No muss, no fuss and, for some property flippers, no need for homeowners insurance.

Whenever you work with a real estate agent to by a new home, townhouse or condo, there is one real estate truism that consistently bursts out their lips: Location, location, location! From the real estate agent’s point of view, the location of your home is the most important aspect to consider when buying because everything else about your home can be changed.

You might think that once your home is paid off you can drop your home insurance and live a carefree life with no insurance premiums. But just because there are no state requirements to hold home insurance on your house, that doesn’t mean that this useful coverage should be ignored after your home is paid off.

One of the best ways to keep your home insurance premiums low is to never have a claim against the insurance that was preventable. Sure, accidents and mother nature happen but that doesn’t mean that you can’t help reduce the number of claims you experience by reducing the risk you are exposed to. Follow some of the tips below to help you reduce your likelihood of claims and increased premiums.

When people think of home insurance, they often picture the actual structure of their home and nothing else. This leads many individuals to purchase insurance for their dwelling but not for all the contents they have within their home.

There’s one sneaking, creeping, crawling, biting, whimpering consideration you have probably not made when looking into your home insurance quote, and that is the impact that your pet might have on your home insurance quote. You see, depending on the type of pet you have, you may find that the price of your home insurance rates are affected by the furry little beast you call family.

Buying home insurance is just the first step in protecting your home and your family against home insurance claims. But there are many other things you should do to protect yourself before you have a claims.

If you pick up your home insurance policy some lazy Sunday or if you get a home insurance quote then you will notice you can get home insurance on both your dwelling and on your “other structures.” Typically in a home insurance policy, other structures refers to any building or structure that does not share a foundation with your home.

There are times when financial or medical hardships make it impossible for us to get insurance coverage. There are also times when unforeseen disasters wreak more havoc than we, or our insurers, are able to pay. It is during these times that state and federal funds can step in and make all the difference.

Your home is not just a residence-it’s an investment that can make you a profit in several different ways. By selling your home at a higher price than you paid for it or by repurposing your home into a money-making building, you could turn your home into cash. But if you make these changes without getting a proper home insurance quote, you could be in for trouble.

When it comes to home insurance, the weather is responsible for many expensive and unpreventable insurance claims. Looking back on Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many have wondered how home insurance policies can continue to guarantee reimbursement after all the severe weather perils consumers have faced. Katrina was one of the most devastating hurricanes of all time and it forced Americans to take a more detailed look at who should pay for losses when the weather causes insurable incidents.

The question of, “How much insurance is enough insurance?” has no single right answer. It depends on your individual circumstances. But there are a number of guidelines you can use to help you find that magically right number for you when you get your home insurance quotes.

A home is made up of more than just the rooms within the structure; it is a living history book containing all those memories you’ve created over the years. Over time, you probably forget what you have in cupboards but if something happens you’re suddenly aware of the loss. When you take out your first home insurance policy, you’ll almost certainly give a low estimate of the value of the contents of your home.

When you look over your life, the odds are that buying a home will prove to be the single biggest investment you’ll make. As a homeowner, you need to protect the money you have tied up in that dwelling and the personal property it contains. Your first action in protecting these hard-earned assets is to get home insurance quotes.