12 Factors That Determine the Cost of Home Insurance Quote in the United States
The age, security features, and susceptibility to natural disasters are some of the basic factors that will determine the true cost of your home insurance quote.
It is typical to get a home insurance quote before buying a homeowner’s insurance policy. Find out the factors that determine the cost of home insurance quotes in the United States.
Before that, let’s look at what a home insurance quote is. Thereafter we will discuss why your home insurance is so high.
What is a Home Insurance Quote?
A home insurance quote (sometimes called homeowners quote) is an estimate of the amount of money you will pay for a home insurance policy.
There are a couple of factors that determine how much a home insurance quote will cost. These factors include:
- The size of the house to be insured
- Where the house is located
- How close a fire station is to the house
Homeowners insurance companies have varying methods of calculating the cost of homeowners insurance hence the reason why the cost of home insurance varies.
Your chance of getting cheap homeowners insurance is by comparing insurance quotes from different home insurance companies.
It is important to note that a home insurance quote is an estimate of what you would pay for your policy. What this means is that you may not end up paying the amount given to you by a company as an insurance quote.
The price of your home insurance policy may change from the amount given in the quote when an inspection officer from the insurance company comes to your house to determine the amount of coverage you need.
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12 Factors That Determine the Cost of Home Insurance Quote?
Home insurance companies charge you for home insurance depending on a number of factors. Additionally, companies determine the cost of home insurance in different ways.
For some companies, your credit score may not be a deciding factor. To some, your swimming pool may grossly impact the cost of your insurance.
I have highlighted some of the factors that determine the cost of home insurance quotes in the United States. They include:
1. The Cost of Rebuilding Your Home
Your homeowner’s insurance quote will definitely be high when the cost of rebuilding your home is high. When labor costs, building materials, etc. are taken into consideration, the impact on the cost of a homeowners insurance quote.
In fully articulating the cost of insuring your home following this factor, the size of your home is a determining component. It will cost more to insure a 2,500 square-foot house than a 500 square-foot house.
2. The Age of Your Home
It will cost more to insure an older house and this is because the building materials used in the house would have degraded over time and may not meet current building standards.
3. What The House is Made of
It will be cheaper to insure a house made of brick-and-mortar than a house made of wood. The house made of wood is susceptible to fire outbreak than a house made of brick. Thereby making insurance for the wooden house more costly than the brick house.
4. What Security Features Are in the House
Your home insurance cost will be reduced when your home is secured to a certain extent. Having deadbolt locks, smoke detectors, alarm systems, and other security infrastructures can help reduce the cost of your home insurance quote. To get the best home security alert system at an affordable price click here.
5. How Close is Your Home to a Fire Station
The closer your home is to a fire station or a fire hydrant, the better your chances of getting cheap home insurance quotes. A person who lives close to a fire station is more likely to enjoy cheaper insurance quotes than someone living in a remote area.
6. The Susceptibility of Your Home to Natural Disasters
There are certain areas known to be susceptible to natural disasters. If you live in any of these disaster-prone areas you most definitely would be dealing with high insurance quotes. Houses located in areas prone to earthquakes, wildfires, tycoons, tsunamis, hurricanes, etc. will have to pay more for home insurance.
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You will learn more about how being prone to natural disasters can affect your cost of home insurance in the United States, the UK, Canada and other parts of the world in this article we talked about the interesting facts about flood insurance.
7. Crime Rate in Your Area
If the area where you live in have a high rate of crimes such as break-ins, theft, vandalism, and so on, chances are that you may have to pay higher to be insured.
This does not just apply to homeowners alone – even car owners have to pay more for their car insurance. A quick way to reduce your car insurance rate is to install anti-theft devices. This will go a long way to protect your car.
8. Credit Score
Although this factor is sometimes neglected by some homeowners insurance providers, it still remains a factor determining the cost of a home insurance quote whether you are getting it in person or on the insurer’s website. In a number of states, a home insurance quote will be higher for someone who has a bad credit score.
Why is the cost of home insurance more expensive for individuals with a bad credit score? The reason is simple. Evidence from many insurance companies has shown that people with a bad credit score are more likely to file home insurance claims.
However, in states like California, Massachusetts, and Maryland, insurance companies are not allowed to use credit score as a factor for determining the cost of a home insurance quote.
9. Presence of Pets Especially Dogs
House insurance quotes can become higher when the insurance supervisor finds that you have a dog breed that is considered to be aggressive. This is because an aggressive dog is going to cause liabilities when it bites someone and chances are that the victim may sue you and charge you for damages.
Most companies will be unable to provide coverage in such a situation. You should have pet insurance coverage in place from a reliable provider before getting a home insurance quote online or on the phone so as to receive a lower rate.
10. Your Belongings and Properties
Expensive properties can increase the cost of a house insurance quote. If you have expensive pieces of jewelry, costly musical instruments, and valuables, your insurance policy will be more expensive. Having a pool in your backyard or a trampoline could also increase home insurance costs.
Also, a wood-burning stove could be seen as a fire hazard and consequently influence the cost of your home insurance policy.
11. Running a Home-Based Business
Using your home to run a business will necessitate adding some coverage options to your homeowner’s insurance policy and this would impact on how much your home insurance policy will cost. In most cases, it is advised to have a business owner’s policy (BOP) to reduce the cost of your house insurance policy.
12. Number of Claims Filed in Recent Times
Insurance companies will see you as a high-risk client and charge you higher premiums if you have filed numerous claims in the past.
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Conclusion on the Factors that Determine the Cost of Home Insurance Quote
The factors that determine the cost of home insurance quote in the United States varies from one company to another. For instance, an insurance company may not use your credit score to determine the cost of your home insurance quote while another will give it due consideration.
Overall, the factors that I have outlined are the basics when it comes to estimating how much a home insurance quote will cost. If you would like to learn how to reduce the cost of your home insurance irrespective of where you live in the world, we have put together an article to guide you. You may also need to check out another interesting blog post where we shared how to protect your yacht and decrease your insurance cost.
