Six Great Upgrades To Your Home & Why You Should Alert Your Agent

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Six life changes that impact your home insurance in Seattle, WAMany homeowners upgraded their homes in the last 18 months. Whether it was bringing a furry friend into your home, updating a kitchen or bathroom or adding additions like a swimming pool, trampoline or detached structures, these upgrades make living in your home more enjoyable. If you completed any of the following updates or additions to your home, contact us!

Kitchen or Bathrooms

If you have made significant upgrades to your kitchen, bathroom or other rooms in your house, you’ll want to share this with your insurance agent. Your current home insurance is based on the value of your home. When you make significant updates to your home, your home value will increase. In the event you have a home insurance claim, you want your home insurance to cover any losses. If you made significant updates to your home but failed to tell your insurance agent and experienced a home insurance claim, you may not be covered for what your home is actually worth.

Detached Structures

Similar to upgrading your kitchen, bathroom or adding square footage to your home, it impacts your home insurance policy. If you added a detached structure to your property, relay this information to your agent so we can update your home insurance policy.

Swimming Pool

Swimming pools do increase your liability and it is important your pool has all the safety precautions in place. Does your swimming pool have proper barriers or fencing around the pool? Most insurance carriers require a fence of at least four feet to be present around your pool. Do you have floatation devices for young children? Lastly, be sure to regularly inspect items used in or around your pool. For example, slides, diving boards or floatation devices.

Trampoline

Be sure to read your current home insurance policy before purchasing a trampoline. Home insurance coverage for trampolines vary both by state and insurance carrier with some not wanting to insure them at all. Talk to your insurance agent about coverage options if you are considering buying a trampoline.

Dog

A furry friend can be the perfect companion and a great addition to your home. It is important to tell your agent if you have a new dog in your home. Many insurance carriers do consider certain breeds higher risk and as a result, your home insurance policy premium may increase. Breeds such as Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Huskies, Doberman Pinschers, Akitas or Great Danes may not be insurable by all carriers. While we never want to assume your dog will ever injury someone, it is important to always be properly covered. If you do not report owning a dog to your insurance carrier and you have a claim against your dog, you risk not being covered.

Contact our agency if you have made any of the following changes to your home life. We will be sure to inform your insurance carrier to ensure your home insurance policy is up-to-date and you are properly covered.

Do You Have a Personal Insurance Agent?

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Personal Insurance Agent Seattle, WAWhen it comes to buying insurance, you can purchase it online yourself through a well-known insurance carrier, a captive agent or you can buy it through a local insurance agency. When you buy it online yourself, you may find it can be more challenging to manage your insurance policy. When you have to call an 800 number to ask a question about your policy or make a claim, sometimes you may feel like you aren’t receiving a personal touch.

As a local insurance agency, we want to share the benefits of having a personal insurance agent when it comes to purchasing insurance.

Do you have a professional insurance agent you trust?

Just like having a doctor or dentist, we want to be a professional you can trust when it comes to buying insurance. Insurance can be tricky and difficult to understand. We are here to explain the differences in insurance coverage to ensure you have the right coverage for your specific needs.

Have a quick insurance question? Email or call your agent directly.

We love answering all your insurance questions. We get questions all the time from our customers.

  • Do I need to buy rental car insurance for my upcoming vacation or will my personal auto insurance cover me?
  • I am renting a U-haul, do I need to buy their coverage?
  • Do I have any gaps in my insurance coverage?
  • I just purchased a boat, does my homeowner’s insurance cover me or do I need additional insurance coverage?
  • Should I purchase flood or earthquake insurance?
  • Should I increase my limits on my umbrella insurance? I just purchased my first investment property.
  • Should I have life insurance at my age? What are the benefits?

Questions like the ones listed above are easily answered from our agents! We are here to answer all your questions. With a simple email or call, you can get an answer from your insurance agent directly.

My insurance premium increased significantly and I haven’t turned in any claims. Help!

If you purchase insurance from a well-known insurance company directly, it may be hard to find a better rate at renewal without having to sacrifice insurance coverage. Luckily, local, independent insurance agents represent several companies instead of just one. If you find your insurance premium is too high for your budget, reach out to your agent at renewal. We can shop similar coverage with a different insurance carrier. You might be surprised to find several quotes to choose from!

If you don’t have a personal insurance agent, reach out to our agency. We’d love to review your current insurance coverage, answer your questions or simply be the personal, professional agent you need in your life. Our agency can help you with all your auto, home, business or life insurance needs.

Driving Habits That Are Bad for Your Car

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Think you’re a good driver? No matter how safe you are behind the wheel, you’ve probably done things like:

  • Shift into drive while the car is still rolling backward.
  • Ride the brakes on steep hills.
  • Roll into the gas station on empty.

If so, you may not have even realized you were doing everything wrong. After all, most everybody has a bad driving habit or two. But, most everybody doesn’t have to pay for your auto repairs. You do.

So, take a look at these seven driving habits that are bad for your car and learn why you should avoid them. It may be time to change the way you drive!

  1. Running on empty. You might enjoy living on the edge, but driving around without much gas can put your car’s fuel pump on edge, too. That won’t necessarily ruin your car, but having to replace your fuel pump probably will hurt your checkbook. Keep your tank at least a quarter full.
  2. Shifting too soon. If you have an automatic transmission, it’s easy to pop the car into drive while it’s still rolling in reverse. Don’t! Unless you want to put additional stress on your transmission, that is. Come to a stop, then shift.
  3. Braking too much. Following other cars too closely can wear your brakes and rotors out more quickly, because you’ll probably have to use them more than other drivers. (Of course, you should maintain an adequate following distance for safety reasons, too.) But, even in situations where braking seems unavoidable, such as going down a steep hill, you have another option: Shifting into a lower gear will slow you down without riding the brakes.
  4. Gunning it. Maybe you drive a fast car. Or, maybe you want to feel like you drive a fast car. Whatever kind of car you have, punching the gas from a stop can be hard on it, even more so if the car is cold and the oil hasn’t fully dispersed throughout the engine. Those fast starts mean faster wear on your tires, too.
  5. Forgetting the parking brake. Do you know what holds your car in park? One small piece of metal in the transmission. Not using the parking brake puts more stress on that bit of metal. So, use it.
  6. Packing on the pounds. Just like with your body, extra weight puts stress on several different areas of your car. So, clean out that trunk and remove unnecessary items from the interior. Your suspension, brakes and transmission will thank you. Thanks to better gas mileage, your bank account will, too.
  7. Holding down the clutch. Have a manual transmission? Keep the car in neutral at intersections so you don’t need to press the clutch until you’re ready to roll. Riding the clutch is a great way to burn it out eventually.

Even if you don’t do anything on this list, you’re still not out of the woods. (But you’re probably closer than most of us.) Keep your ears and eyes open for strange noises, warning lights or anything out of the ordinary — and don’t ignore them. Inspect the issue, or get your car to a mechanic, before it becomes a bigger problem.

Reposted with permission from the original author, Safeco Insurance®.
Top image by Flickr user Elliott P. used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Image cropped and modified from original.