Preparing for Home Insurance While House Hunting

Don't wait until you have found the perfect home to start thinking of home insurance. Buying a home is an expensive venture that requires your full protection. Buying appropriate insurance is one way to protect your home, but you shouldn't overpay for the protection. These tips should help you prepare for home insurance while hunting for your home.

Clear Mistakes in Your Credit Score

Many insurers consider credit scores when calculating rates. The carriers use your credit score to assess your credit stability and financial reliability. Both determine how risky you are, which is essentially a measure of how likely you are to file a claim. The rationale is that a homeowner with a good credit score is likely to maintain their home and avoid frequent damages.

Thus, evaluate your credit rating and clear issues that might lead to an erroneously low score. These measures should help you clear any errors you might identify:

• Raise a dispute with the party that reported you.
• Submit a dispute ticket to the credit bureau that issued the erroneous report.
• Make a goodwill request or pay-for-delete offer to the creditor (that entails you settling your credit account).
• You can, but don’t have to, use a credit repair company to clear such errors.

Choose a Low-Risk Property

Insurance companies evaluate properties based on their risk of damage — specifically damage that might trigger insurance claims. Low-risk properties attract low rates. Thus, you should also hunt for a low-risk property in addition to improving your credit. A low-risk property should:

• Be relatively new
• Have a structurally sound roof
• Be code-compliant
• Should have high-quality construction or craftsmanship
• Should not have dangerous conditions or attractive nuisances, such as abandoned wells

A property inspection will help you confirm the structural conditions of all the properties that interest you. That way, you can eliminate properties with underlying conditions that insurers might be wary of, such as water damage histories.

Mind the Neighborhood

Apart from the structure, your potential home's location also affects insurance rates. Some neighborhoods are more prone to disasters than others — such homes expose insurance carriers to higher-than-normal rates. Low-risk neighborhoods should:

• Have a good-quality fire department nearby
• Not be extremely close to water bodies
• Not be prone to natural disasters, such as floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes
• Should have low crime statistics – especially property crime

Research potential neighborhoods online, conduct physical visits, and talk to others with good knowledge of your prospective neighborhood. That way, you will have the data to determine whether an area is an insurance risk.

Scrutinize the C.L.U.E. Report

Once you have identified a prospective home, scrutinize its comprehensive loss underwriting exchange (C.L.U.E.) report. A C.L.U.E. report contains a property's insurance details (such as claims and policy types) in the last few years. For example, the report will show if a property has suffered wind damage in the past and the owner filed an insurance claim.

The information in the C.L.U.E. report is significant because your home insurance company will also scrutinize the information. For example, an insurance carrier might be wary of insuring property with a lengthy history of claims.

Consult an Insurance Agent

Lastly, consult an insurance agent before you start the home purchase process. The agent will consider all the above information to determine the property's insurability. The agent can also give you rate estimates on the properties that interest you. That way, you can include insurability when comparing homes.

You can rely on Illinois Insurance Center for free insurance quotes. The free quotes mean you can compare multiple homes without extra expenses during your home buying process. We will also help you get adequate coverage once you settle on a home. Contact us for a quote on home insurance or any form of insurance you need in Chicago, IL.