Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Things To Know About Renters Insurance

Damages/Losses covered Under Renters Insurance
Renters insurance covers all your possessions from various disasters that are covered in the policy. It claims your possessions from damages/losses like, fire, theft, accident, explosion, vandalism, windstorm, and etc. It even provides coverage for your personal liabilities that covers the occurrence where anyone injures while visiting you. It doesn’t claim the damage caused by the earthquakes or floods. People who live in the places where regular floods or earthquakes occurs, needs additional insurance to cover those disasters.

Find a Reliable Insurance Provider
An easy way to find a reliable insurance company that gives you good services is to visit the website of insurance department of your state and determine the proportion of complaints against these companies. You can choose the company that has few complaints filed against them. Renter’s insurance rates may differ a lot from one company to the other. You have to spend certain time for comparing various service providers and select an efficient one.

Understand Your Requirements
The amount of coverage depends on the property you own. You have to evaluate the prices of all your belongings and choose the suitable policy that covers all your belongings. The sum of prices of all your belongings will be the amount of your required coverage for your personal property. If there is a need of excessive coverage, you can purchase the umbrella policy.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Buying a Home With Resale Value


Homes with a pleasant view of the horizon often sell at a premium above similar homes without the view. However, if a view is important to you, buy it mostly for your own pleasure and not as an investment. Though you may place a considerable dollar value on the view, future buyers may not be so like-minded. It may take you longer to find a buyer when it comes time to resell the house. Or you may end up dropping your price to more nearly match other sales prices in the neighborhood.

In short, if you are buying a house with a view, try to pay as little extra as possible. Otherwise, you might not get your money back.

Lot and Landscaping

Even though most real estate value is usually concentrated in the building, the lot is important, too. Obviously, it should be as level as possible. Assuming the property is in a typical neighborhood, the lot should be rectangular – no odd shaped lots or oddly situated lots.

Yard sizes are smaller in modern homes than in older homes, but there should still be a decently sized front and back yard. Do not buy a house where the entire back yard is taken up by a swimming pool, for example.

Do not purchase an over-landscaped property, either. You would normally pay a premium for that, which you may not be able to recover when you sell. You will get your best value if the house is moderately landscaped or under-landscaped for the area. You can always improve the landscaping during your ownership by improving the grass and adding bushes and trees. Just do not spend too much.


House Size

In each residential neighborhood, houses will vary in size and rooms, but they should not be too different. If resale value is an important consideration, you should not buy the largest model in the neighborhood. When determining market value, the homes nearest to yours are most important. If most of the nearby houses are smaller than your house, they can act as a drag on appreciation.

On the other hand, if you buy a small or medium house for the neighborhood, the larger homes can help pull up your value. This is one of those times where determining your "wants" versus your "needs" can be extremely important. Buying what you need in a more prestigious neighborhood may provide more financial reward than getting what you want in a less desirable neighborhood.


Bedrooms and Bathrooms

Three and four bedroom houses are the most popular among homebuyers, so if you can stick in that range you will have more potential buyers when it comes time to resell. Five is okay, too, as long as you do not have to pay too much extra for the additional bedroom.

There should always be at least two bathrooms in a house, preferably at least two and a half. One bathroom with a place to wash up for day-to-day visitors, one for the master bedroom, and at least one to be shared by the other bedrooms.


The Kitchen

Family activity centers around the kitchen, so this is the most important room of the house. Larger kitchens are better, and they should be provided with modern appliances. Obviously, the dining room and breakfast nook should be located adjacent to the kitchen. In newer houses, the family room should also be extremely close to the kitchen.

There should be easy access to the back yard, as there will be occasions for barbecues and outdoor entertaining. In addition, it should be a short trek between the garage to the kitchen so hauling groceries in from the car does not become a horrendous chore.