Homeowners insurance is often something that is overlooked until the last minute by the home buyer and all too often by their agent as well. Homeowners insurance is something that should be lined up prior to submitting an offer rather than after. There are many reasons why.
First is affordability. If you get an offer accepted on a home and then check into insuring it you may find that the insurance is significantly more costly than you thought. The age, type, and location of the house can affect how much your insurance will be. The cost of your insurance can also be affected by your credit score, marital status, age, and other personal factors.
Another reason for checking on insurance first is to see if the property will be covered without any exclusions. If the house is in need of repair your insurance company may not cover the house or may not cover all aspects of a house. If the roof is damaged your insurance company may cover the house but exclude the roof.
A third reason to look into insurance before writing an offer is to find if there have been any insurance claims made on the property that have not been fixed. For example if there has been hail damage to the vinyl siding and the current owner made an insurance claim but pocketed the money instead of fixing the siding, then you should ask the seller to make the repair or to hand over the money that was received from the insurance company.
Most real estate agents in Omaha do not give homeowners insurance any consideration, but in order to properly represent a buyer an agent has to know the above information.
Trumm Team - Alliance Real Estate, Omaha, NE
Your Home Sold within 120 Days or I will Buy It!
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Troy , That is some sound advice. Every company has underwriting guidelines that also could cause some problems. Shelter, as an example (the company I represent) will let us write a NEW clients if they have had only 1 weather related claim in the last three years and the client must be claims free for the last five years for non-weather related claim.
Customers can transfer their policy(Shelter to Shelter) if the house meets the underwriting guidelines (fire protection, handrails on three step or more, and other satisfactory liability risk).
Anyhoo, good advice.
Andy Jones