*** Do you have enough Home Insurance coverage??? ***

chernmax

NOT Politically Correct!!
OK, how many of you still have the same home owners insurance coverage since you moved into your home???

After 2+ years in our home, our property was recently reassessed at twice the purchase value. So accordingly we adjusted our home insurance coverage.

Recently, a coworker at our firm had a house fire and she learned the hard way that her homeowners insurance coverage to reimburse for the damages to her home was undervalued by: $275,000 dollars. Needless to say she learned a very hard lesson.

There is a great website www.zillow.com that you can find out the current market value for your home. Just enter your home address, zip code and press enter. Your current fair market value (and your neighbors homes) will be displayed as well as the highest value it may be worth due to home improvements or upgrades...

Just an FYI...
 

Nickel

curiouser and curiouser
chernmax said:
Too new???
Half is new, half is 7 years old. The 7 year old half of the street is there, but none of the houses are listed. My part of the street apparantly still doesn't exist. :lmao:
 

chernmax

NOT Politically Correct!!
Nickel said:
Half is new, half is 7 years old. The 7 year old half of the street is there, but none of the houses are listed. My part of the street apparantly still doesn't exist. :lmao:

Odd, I see two year old homes listed for our subdivision???
 

pixiegirl

Cleopatra Jones
The info on my house was out of date. The addition wasn't on so the square footage was low. I updated the square footage as well as input the beds and baths (which weren't even in there) and it bumped me up $70K to a very unrealistic amount. If my house is worth $340something. I'll sell it right now for $325K. :yay:
 

chernmax

NOT Politically Correct!!
pixiegirl said:
The info on my house was out of date. The addition wasn't on so the square footage was low. I updated the square footage as well as input the beds and baths (which weren't even in there) and it bumped me up $70K to a very unrealistic amount. If my house is worth $340something. I'll sell it right now for $325K. :yay:

Zillow has a function to customize your residence by manually adding upgrades and home improvements. A new estimated value will be displayed when complete. Once complete you can print the update, however at this time Zillow will not save the info...
 
C

czygvtwkr

Guest
If you buy a replacement policy it will cover the cost of building a comparable replacement. Just dont buy a policy by price.
 

Hessian

Well-Known Member
Neat site!

Just spent a 1/2 hour rummaging around Lusby...and my property up in NY's Mohawk valley. Got the assessment on my neighbor up there...got 40 sales of homes in my Lusby community over the past few years, updated the assessed value of my home with the two additions we have finished...I am now certain that our humble abode is worth nearly 250,000.

I feel better regarding that now that I only owe less than 88K.
(bought it for 55K in 1987)...paid for additions & northern land using equity.
 

Nickel

curiouser and curiouser
Hessian said:
paid for additions & northern land using equity.
I'd like to do that in the next few years, but I'd like to purchase rental property. We've only been in our house for about 7 months though, so we're gonna have to wait on that. :lmao:
 

Hessian

Well-Known Member
The good & the Bad...

I was told by my addition builder: If you move to NY...DO NOT SELL your Lusby home...rent it. It will appreciate at 5-8% per year and the rental will cover mort & insurance. Pretty good advice but I was listening to a financial program on the AM dial and they cautioned that after 2 years...the Fed taxes jump in...got to watch that hidden stuff that pops out of the IRS. So...If you add the risk of a renter who doesn't maintain very well...then it could end up a disaster.

Better to own land with access to bay, river, mountains...and put in a few three room cabins-rented by the week to a limited number of behaving renters. ($1,500/week in summer? or hunting season? Yeah...that is good money!)....rental 8 weeks out of the 52 week year?: $12,000. :jameo:
 
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czygvtwkr

Guest
Hessian said:
I was told by my addition builder: If you move to NY...DO NOT SELL your Lusby home...rent it. It will appreciate at 5-8% per year and the rental will cover mort & insurance. Pretty good advice but I was listening to a financial program on the AM dial and they cautioned that after 2 years...the Fed taxes jump in...got to watch that hidden stuff that pops out of the IRS. So...If you add the risk of a renter who doesn't maintain very well...then it could end up a disaster.

Better to own land with access to bay, river, mountains...and put in a few three room cabins-rented by the week to a limited number of behaving renters. ($1,500/week in summer? or hunting season? Yeah...that is good money!)....rental 8 weeks out of the 52 week year?: $12,000. :jameo:

In my opinion renting out your house is the biggest pain in the butt there is. First off most people do not value your stuff and will pretty much destroy it without regard. Secondly it is very hard to kick out a deadbeat.
 

Nickel

curiouser and curiouser
czygvtwkr said:
In my opinion renting out your house is the biggest pain in the butt there is. First off most people do not value your stuff and will pretty much destroy it without regard. Secondly it is very hard to kick out a deadbeat.
One of our neighbors had to move due to a job transfer shortly after purchasing his home. He decided to rent it out, and the real estate agency that sold the home to him handles all aspects of the rental. I'm not sure how much they get out of the deal, but I'm sure it's worth it, since he lives five hours away and can't come by the house at the drop of a hat. I was just inside the home a couple months ago, and it is still in nice condition, and the tenants keep the yard looking nice. I think the area, price, and how you handle renting (checking references, etc. vs just renting to anyone with first and last month's rent and a deposit) greatly affects the experience.
 

Lilypad

Well-Known Member
czygvtwkr said:
In my opinion renting out your house is the biggest pain in the butt there is. First off most people do not value your stuff and will pretty much destroy it without regard. Secondly it is very hard to kick out a deadbeat.
Got that same problem here-had a tenant for 4 yrs.-all was good till "his soon to be bride" moved in. Going to court this month to try and re-coup some of the losses due to damage and distruction. I asked my tenant-"When did it become okay w/you to trash and destroy my house"? He just doesn't get it.
 
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czygvtwkr

Guest
Nickel said:
One of our neighbors had to move due to a job transfer shortly after purchasing his home. He decided to rent it out, and the real estate agency that sold the home to him handles all aspects of the rental. I'm not sure how much they get out of the deal, but I'm sure it's worth it, since he lives five hours away and can't come by the house at the drop of a hat. I was just inside the home a couple months ago, and it is still in nice condition, and the tenants keep the yard looking nice. I think the area, price, and how you handle renting (checking references, etc. vs just renting to anyone with first and last month's rent and a deposit) greatly affects the experience.


Its pretty hard to go beyond a credit report, else you can get in trouble for discriminating against someone for just about anything.

I have seen walls urinated on, toilets clogged, water lines to the refrigerator cut etc all because I had to kick someone out for not paying the rent. There isn't much recourse you can take against someone who has been kicked out and destroyed the place in the process.
 

itsbob

I bowl overhand
chernmax said:
Zillow has a function to customize your residence by manually adding upgrades and home improvements. A new estimated value will be displayed when complete. Once complete you can print the update, however at this time Zillow will not save the info...
The assessed value, and replacement value should be VERY different. You never have to replace the land the house sits on, so you don't have to insure it, 1) you need to differentiate the assesed value of the land apart from the house 2) just because your house value on it's own is worth 350K it doesn't mean it will cost 350k to build a replacment.. if it cost 350k to build a house, houses would cost 350K from coast to coast. 3) would agree to keeping your home owners AND your life insurance up to date.. If you are younger and have kids, you should be insured for 10 times your yearly income.. and if you haven't updated your insurance in 5 years, you may want to take another look at it. 35 - 50k in life insurance doesn't help much more then paying the funeral expenses, after that whichever spouse is left has to replace the lost income or they lose the car(s) the house, and have to make drastic cuts to the household expenditures.
 

itsbob

I bowl overhand
Nickel said:
One of our neighbors had to move due to a job transfer shortly after purchasing his home. He decided to rent it out, and the real estate agency that sold the home to him handles all aspects of the rental. I'm not sure how much they get out of the deal, but I'm sure it's worth it, since he lives five hours away and can't come by the house at the drop of a hat. I was just inside the home a couple months ago, and it is still in nice condition, and the tenants keep the yard looking nice. I think the area, price, and how you handle renting (checking references, etc. vs just renting to anyone with first and last month's rent and a deposit) greatly affects the experience.
I had a property management company take care of my rental house. They charged 6 or 7% of the rent, less if I wanted to find replacment renters if the current renters wanted to move out. They did the property showing, the interviewing, and then gave us a list of "best possible renters" for us to choose from. We actually went with a section 8 family and it was PERFECT. I lived 3 states away, and they took care of collecting rent, checking the property monthly or more, and took care of any property maintenance. Refrigerator broke they called me, listed the options (I had 48 hours to het a working fridge in the house) the company went and picked up the fridge and installed it for me at not additional cost.
 
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