Do You Need An Insurance Broker?
An insurance broker is a person who acts as an intermediary between consumers and insurance companies. Insurance brokers have a lot of information about insurance companies and policies, and can help consumers find the best policy for their needs.
Overall, insurance brokers can help consumers save money. Most consumers will spend less when they use a broker compared to a captive insurance agent.
Why You Need Insurance When You’re Buying a Home
Homeowners insurance is almost always a good idea because insurance provides financial protection when a covered event occurs. Standard homeowners insurance policies cover a variety of events including fire, theft, vandalism, lightning strikes, windstorms, and hail.
Note: Some natural disasters, namely earthquakes and floods, are not covered by a standard homeowners insurance policy. To protect your home from these events, you’ll need to purchase a separate policy.
Benefits of Homeowners Insurance
There are many reasons to get homeowners insurance for your home.
Peace of mind. Many homeowners are able to sleep better at night knowing that if a covered event occurs, they’ll have the protection of their homeowners insurance to help with the recovery and rebuild.
Financial protection. Many homeowners are unable to afford a rebuild if something happens to their home. Insurance companies offer financial protection that can save you from financial ruin if an event like a fire occurs.
Covers main structure, detached structures and possessions. Homeowners insurance policies are designed to protect more than your home’s structure: they also protect detached structures and the possessions in your home.
Your Mortgage Company Will Likely Require a Homeowners Insurance Policy
One of the requirements of getting a mortgage is protecting the structure with a homeowners insurance policy. Your mortgage lender will not allow the sale of your home to finalize until you have proof of homeowners insurance.
If you allow your homeowner’s insurance to lapse at any time while you have a mortgage, your insurance company will alert your lender. The lender will contact you to request new proof of insurance. If you do not have proof of insurance when your lender asks to see your proof of coverage, your lender will require you to start paying for their homeowners insurance. Mortgage lender homeowners insurance is almost always very costly – far more than standard homeowners insurance.
If you pay for your home in cash, you will not be required to buy homeowners insurance.
Difference Between an Insurance Broker and Captive Agent
When an insurance agent works for one insurance company, we call this a captive agent. Captive agents can only sell the insurance policies available from the insurance agency they work for, regardless of whether that insurance policy is best for the consumer.
Brokers are able to sell policies from a variety of insurance companies. When a consumer needs a more specialized policy or has a specific budget that they can’t go beyond, a broker can help that consumer find the right policy for their needs.
Why Use an Insurance Broker For Your Homeowners Insurance
Everyone who wants to save money on homeowners insurance can benefit from using an insurance broker. In addition, some people are far more likely to benefit from using an insurance broker than others. People who most often need a broker include:
- People who have multiple cars or homes
- People who want to shop around but don’t have time to do it themselves
- People who want to ensure that their insurance agent is going to sell them the best policy for their needs
Why Use an Insurance Broker When You’re Buying a Home?
There are many reasons to work with a broker when you’re trying to buy a home.
Brokers Know a Variety of Insurance Options
Brokers make it their job to know a variety of insurance options, so they can help their customers find the right insurance policy for them. Brokers know insurance options intimately and can help consumers choose the right policy by providing information about those policies.
Brokers Make Shopping Around Fast and Easy
When you’re buying a house, you’ve got a lot to get done in a short period of time. You may be in the process of packing up your possessions, looking for movers, inspecting your new potential home, working with your mortgage lender, and doing a lot of other things to finalize the sale of the house.
This does not leave time to shop for insurance. When you work with an insurance broker, the broker does the work for you. Your broker will ask you a variety of questions about the home you’re buying, your budget and other variables, and then they’ll go out and find you an insurance policy.
You Don’t Have a Lot of Money to Spare When Buying a House
When you’re buying a house, you may not have a lot of money to use to buy extra expensive insurance. It’s more important than ever to ensure that the homeowners insurance policy you get is relatively inexpensive. Working with a broker can make that happen.
Need a Broker to Buy Homeowners Insurance? Call Today!
If you’re trying to buy a home, then it’s a good time to start shopping for homeowners insurance. Contact Centennial State Insurance Agency to learn more about our homeowners insurance policies and how much money we can save you on your homeowners insurance.