Instant Vacant Home Insurance Quote Estimates

Vacant Home Insurance Now (.com) a website that is used to put those in need of vacant home insurance together with an agent and insurance company that specializes in providing vacant home insurance, announced today that they will be able to provide a quick quote estimate if visitors to the website will complete the new contact form.

The new contact form takes about 3 minutes to fill out, and asks a lot more questions, but if visitors complete the full contact form, they will be able to get a price estimate that should be accurate to within 5% to 10%. To get an exact quote depends on their State, the exact situation, and the results of a 12 to 15 minute phone interview where details on the vacant home are collected (including an assessment of the vacant home value) and put into a computer program.

However, getting a quote estimate that will be 90% or greater in accuracy on the vacant home, by just spending 3 minutes inputting information into an online form is probably unmatched in the industry. It will give people an idea of what is covered and how much it will cost because they will need to budget properly. Vacant building insurance is more expensive than regular homeowners insurance, there is just no way around it. People should be prepared to spend 3 times to 5 times as much on vacant home insurance as they did on "regular insurance" when they were living in the house.

Even providers in the market that offer very limited policies with limited coverage are still at least 3 times as expensive and the coverage these plans offer is extremely reduced. We suggest spending a bit more to secure full coverage. Anything less is self insuring your vacant home.

The estimates do not mean that underwriters will eventually approve and offer coverage. Of course, the home needs to qualify for insurance and that is why this is called an estimate and not a quote.

Insure for Full Rebuild Cost on Vacant House

When a house becomes vacant or empty and vacant homeowners insurance is needed, one of the most important things to remember is the home needs to be insured for the true rebuild and reconstruction cost.

Often, even after someone understands the need for vacant home insurance, they ask to be insured just for the amount they owe on a loan, or if they are selling, they want to insure for a low value in order to keep their premium payment lower because the cost of vacant home insurance is much more than regular homeowners insurance.

This practice is dangerous. First, any reputable insurance company needs to insure a vacant home for the full rebuild cost assuming there is a total loss. Most people don't realize if this is not done, there can be severe penalties at claim time if an insurance claim is filed on a vacant house.

Any company willing to insure you for less than the true rebuild cost using like or the same materials should be avoided.

Note to Estate Executors, Do Not Forget the Vacant Home Insurance

Vacant Home Insurance Now is reporting that a much larger portion of inquiries and recent requests have to do with insuring the home of a deceased relative. This is very important information for anyone that could be in that position someday.

Family members acting as executors of an estate need to understand the responsibilities they have with a vacant home, and most do not understand if the house sits empty for over 30 to 60 days, the "existing" homeowners insurance policy may begin to reduce or totally eliminate coverage. One of the first thing executors should do is investigate vacant homeowners insurance, and communicate the fact that the home is empty or vacant to the existing homeowners insurance company.

They will soon get a termination notice from the insurance company, but that is actually a good thing! How can this be? An estate executor that is holding a termination notice that says the insurance will be cancelled in 30 days due to a vacant building, at least knows coverage is in place for 30 days on the vacant property and has time to secure vacant homeowners insurance.

People that let months go buy or simply "hide the fact" from the insurance company are probably in for a rude awakening if there is a claim on the vacant home. Being an executor is a difficult and stressful time. What a catastrophe when the executor has to report to other family members that there has been a homeowners claim, and they failed to properly protect the interests of the family through vacant home insurance

Why a Seasonal or Rental is Not a Vacant Home

Isn't a seasonal property or a beach property a vacant home, and why do some homes need vacant home insurance coverage and this is not required on vacation homes or homes rented out?

First, the word is just beginning to spread that if you have a house that is empty or unoccupied for over 60 days, chances are you are losing or have lost insurance through your regular homeowners insurance company and you need to put vacant home insurance or vacant homeowners insurance coverage on the home. Those that don't realize this are risking much.

However, someone that owns a property on the ocean, say at the New Jersey Shore, may watch it sit empty for 10 months a year, and these properties do not need a vacant home insurance policy in most cases. Investment properties that are rented for part of the year can be covered under standard landlord/tenant dwelling policies. Insurance companies do not see these properties for rent as the same risk as a vacant home. Properties that are for rent are kept up well, and may often get visitors from owners, realtors, cleaning people etc.

A "second home" also may sit empty for 10 months a year, yet rarely requires a vacant homeowners insurance policy either. In fact, in most cases, the same company that provides homeowners insurance on the primary home will also extend "all risk" insurance to a seasonal or second home. We admit, this is a bit of a paradox. One home is empty or vacant and only expensive vacant homeowners solutions can be offered. Another home sits unoccupied in Scottsdale AZ as a second home and there are no problems securing good coverage at a lesser price. We will continue examining this one.

Vacant Home; Don't Trust Your Agent to Get It Right

Too many people have been burned by trusting their insurance agent when they have a vacant home or vacant property. Sometimes the insurance agent does not even know the terms of the vacant homeowners insurance policy he or she recommends and just get's it wrong, telling the client that they do not need to secure special vacant home insurance coverage.

However there are times, and we hope this is the rare exception, where an insurance agent will tell a client that it's OK to leave the home empty or vacant with the existing policy because the agent knows the insurance company he or she represents does not offer a vacant homeowers insurance policy and they would lose the business and thus their renewal commission.

Whether mistakes are legitimate or on purpose does not matter. We always recommend that the insured get something in writing from the agent stateing that they understand the house will be vacant for a period of time and the insurance will continue without lapse. When asked to put it in writing, the chance for error goes down by a factor of 10.

Vacant Homeowners Insurace Refund

Hi, one of the big things you want to look at when you go out and purchase a special vacant home insurance policy or vacant dwelling policy, is to make sure you understand the refund provision. For example, if you have moved out of your home and buy coverage for 90 days, and then unexpectedly, the home sells in 20 days, how much will the carrier refund back to you? This can vary among carriers.

One carrier advertises you only need to buy 1 day of coverage, but all will have minimum premium amounts that cannot be refunded.

Most companies do a nice job returning "unearned premium" but this is a provision you should understand before you do business with a specialty insurance company that provides insurance for vacant homes and vacant buildings.

Mark

Vacant Home Insurace: Be Careful What you are Buying

A big difference in the quality of policies is the difference between a policy that pays on a actual cash value basis "ACV" and one that pays on a replacement cost basis. ACV is defined as replacement cost at the time of loss minus physical depreciation. Replacement cost is the amount it would cost to replace the property at the prices in effect on the date of losss. Depreciation is the cost of wear and tear on the property.

A policy that pays on a replacement cost basis will replace damaged property wtih like kind and quality without taking into account depreciation, and is therefor superior.

A policy may also call for losses to be paid on a functional replacement cost basis. Functional replacement cost is just an alternative form of valuation of property that is used in some insurance policies. It is used when the original insured property can be replaced with a functionally equivalent property, but not physically idential, at a lower cost. This is a step up from ACV but not as good as a full replacement cost policy.

Most vacant homeowners (or vacant dwelling) policies are ACV and the buyer must be wary.

Parent in Nursing Home Don't forget the Vacant Home Insurance

When we recently put mom and pop into the Menonite Home in Lancaster PA, the house in East Petersburg was sitting empty for several months while we decided what to do with it and while we were selling the furniture and giving other items away to family and charity.

A friend who is a real estate agent informed us that the home was probably without insurance coverage because it had been sitting empty for so long. We called our agent, and to our horror the house would have been totally exposed if there was a total loss because the house was no longer being lived in.

We acted quickly and had to find another carrier that would take the vacant homeowners insurance risk but we had no idea that the house was sitting without any insurance coverage because we knew the policy was paid in full for the year. A major claim like a fire would have cost us almost $350,000.

Lesson learned.