Friday, June 19, 2009

Home Inventory On TV!

It's On The Television, So It Has To Be True: Tallahassee's WCTV has a recent story about the start of hurricane season that includes, you guessed it, the need for you to complete a home inventory.

Keep Me In The Loop: I found an article from a paper called the (Suburban Chicago) Daily Herald that spurred my thinking about home improvements and insurance. In my experience, people have been sometimes reluctant to let their insurer know about home improvements, because they felt that the insurer was just wanted to raise their rates. Not true my friends! Your agent wants to make sure you are getting the best coverage for your money. You should never intenionally put yourself in a postition of being under-insured, and improving your home by X dollars without increasing your coverage at least a corresponding amount does just that and frankly isn't very smart. Look at this excerpt:

To illustrate, say you obtained $200,000 in coverage several years ago but the remodeling job you completed in '07 and the work that you're planning now would add another $75,000 to the cost of rebuilding the house if it was destroyed. The insurer would likely be obligated to pay a maximum of $200,000, less any deductible the policy includes: You would then have to pay the rest of the reconstruction costs from your own pocket.

Why would you do that? Call your agent, raise your policy amount, and quit your whining! (Of course I'm joking about the whining part.) The other place where people are most likely under-insured is personal property (contents) coverage. In order to know that you are adequately insured there, you need a home inventory, and we can help!

A. J. Farley runs Farley Home Services (www.EverySingleItem.com). Farley Home Services produces home inventory documentation for cheapskates and big-spenders alike. You can reach A. J. at information@farleyhomeservices.com. Thanks!