This notice, issued on January 28, 2020, explains certain obligations of housing providers under the Fair Housing Act (FHA) with respect to animals that individuals with disabilities may request as reasonable accommodations.
It’s possible that you’ve been told by friends, family, realtors, or an article you saw online that most home sales occur in the spring and summer. While that is true, the implication is that it’s hard to sell a house during the fall or winter. In some cases, sellers even take their homes off the market during the colder months and wait for warmer weather. However, this isn’t necessary. Although it’s a less traditional time for real estate, the fall and winter months can offer a great window to sell your home. Here’s what you need to know.
The Advantages of a Fall or Winter Selling Strategy
Why sell your home in the winter? Obviously, there are people looking to buy a house from October through February, but the volume isn’t as great as the rest of the year. While this means fewer possible people to see your home, they tend to be more serious about making an offer. And since many people yank their listings during this time, you will have less competition on the market. Winter is also the time to show off your home’s ability to stand up to winter, and any cold-weather features (fireplaces, for example) will look all the more appealing. Also, with fewer total transactions happening during the winter months, the whole selling process — from loan approval to closing — will likely go much faster.
How to Make Your Home Sell This Fall or Winter
Even with all those advantages at your disposal, you have to do some hard work to ensure your home flies off the market. Here are some things you can do yourself or hire professionals to help you achieve before you list your home:
● Focus on curb appeal. Making your yard and landscaping look great is easier in the blooming seasons but totally doable in the fall and winter. Add potted winter plants to the front door area (juniper, holly, etc.). Consider tasteful decorations — either autumnal or holiday. They make a home appear more inviting (as long as it’s not overdone). You’ll want to hire professionals to help spruce up your entire yard.
● Make your home warm and inviting. One universal truth during winter showings is that a cold home equals cold buyers. Turn up the heat. Also, utilize festive fragrances and make sure you have some holiday decorations but, once again, don’t go crazy with it.
● Improve your lighting. This is a good tip for showings and for when you have someone take photos of your home to list online. Brighten things up with floor lamps, wall-mounted lighting, and under-cabinet kitchen LED lighting. More than likely, you’ll want to have some help installing this should you go this route.
● Get clutter out of the home entirely. For some reason, houses accumulate more clutter and often appear more cluttered during the fall and winter months. Cluttered homes are unattractive to potential buyers (clutter can “ruin the illusion of open space”). Shoving every excess item in the closet is fine, but a garage is better. Better yet is an off-site storage unit, which can house your stuff until you’re ready to move. Remember that buyers often look inside closets and garages to gauge storage capacity.
● Make sure the home is safe. Get some help deicing, shoveling snow, or removing fallen, slick leaves from your porch, sidewalks, and other walkways. This is a good idea for seniors at any time, but especially when you’re trying to sell a house!
● Consider pricing your house to sell. Don’t make the mistake of an exorbitant listing — you simply don’t have the competition during the fall and winter to justify this.
The holiday season is not known for its spike in real estate transactions, but that’s because the volume of for-sale homes drops significantly — the desire to buy doesn’t. In fact, it goes up. You should take advantage of this underutilized listing season and do what you can to make your home the prettiest property in the entire neighborhood.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Article written by Winterize Guys
When shopping for renters insurance, the most important thing to understand is what’s covered under your policy. That might sound like rather simplistic advice, but each insurance company has different exclusions and coverage limits you need to be fully aware of. Not understanding what’s excluded, what’s covered, and for how much could lead to problems and frustration down the road when you have to file a claim.
When comparison shopping for renters insurance, there are four essential types of standard coverage you should expect:
This is anything and everything that belongs to you, from furniture and appliances to electronics, clothing, kitchenware, and decorations. In some cases, your pet(s) can even fall into this category. Essentially, anything that belongs to you that isn’t part of the physical structure of the apartment—which belongs to your landlord and should be covered by their insurance. The best part is that it covers your stuff even when it’s outside of your home.
This refers to how you might be responsible for accidental or unintentional damage or injury to someone else’s property or their person. This includes guests slipping and injuring themselves while at your place, or your pet biting the neighbor’s child.
In the event that your living space becomes unlivable, through fire or water damage, for instance, renters insurance pays for the living expenses of staying at a hotel for a set period.
As the name suggests, medical payments to others cover the medical bills of those riding in a different vehicle involved in an accident or collision with you.
As we’ve mentioned, all insurers, brokers, and agents should cover these four basic areas. The extent of coverage, however, can vary from company to company.
For example, one company might include all of your electronic equipment and devices as part of your personal property coverage, while others might completely exclude them or offer them as add-on coverages.
Almost all insurance providers offer add-ons and extras. Some extras have become industry standards in the form of “riders,” “endorsements,” and “floaters.” They are used to cover pricier items such as expensive jewelry, electronics, art, collectibles, and musical instruments.
For example, personal property coverage of $10,000 is designed to cover a variety of personal property (furniture, appliances, electronics). Still, within a particular category, your insurance might only actually cover $1,500 worth of electronics damage. If you have, say, a $2,000 television screen that gets stolen, the insurance will only cover $1,500, minus your deductible.
Another common example is with jewelry. Regular jewelry is covered under personal property, usually, again, up to a limit of $1,000-1,500. If a $1,000 worth of jewelry is stolen from your home, you are covered and you only pay your deductible. However, if you have expensive jewelry like engagement rings or family heirlooms that are valued at well more than $1,000, you would not be covered unless you had a specific add-on for that item.
Riders, endorsements or floaters are category add-ons that can be applied to property, such as the examples mentioned above, or for specific situations like backed-up sewer water damage or earthquakes.
Not all insurance companies offer the same riders and endorsements or refer to them by the same name. In essence, the purpose of riders and endorsements are for you to increase the amount of coverage of a particular category.
Thinking about the electronics example mentioned before, let’s say that you don’t have a television that’s worth $2,000, but you do have over $2,000 worth of electronic equipment (tv, laptop(s), computer, DVD/Blu-ray player, sound system, game station, smartphone). If all of that was stolen in one fell swoop, how much would it cost to replace?
The insurance category will still only cover up to our hypothetical $1,500, even though your entire personal property coverage is of $10,000. That’s where the rider/endorsement comes in; you buy additional protection because you, in particular, own very valuable electronic equipment, and you purchase enough to cover all of it.
Keep in mind, of course, that this will raise your premiums. On the other hand, the cost of a slightly higher premium does not come even close to the potential loss of thousands of dollars in the long run.
Floaters are very similar to the riders/endorsements but instead of applying to an entire category, they apply to specific items. Returning to our electronics example, you might have less than $1,500 worth of electronics overall except for one particular thing that is (like a television or a custom gaming laptop). To safeguard your investment, you purchase (add-on) a floater for that item on your insurance policy.
The same principle applies to all other categories: if you have a lot of expensive jewelry that amounts to over the coverage limit, get a rider. You have one single piece of jewelry that exceeds the coverage limit, you get a floater (or, by extension, several floaters, depending on your property).
NOTE: Riders, Endorsements, and Floaters all have limits too! If you own a priceless diamond valued at millions of dollars, no renters insurance will cover it.
As the Insurance Information Institute puts it, “Sharing, or pooling, of risk is the central concept of the business of insurance.” That means that the more money in the pool, as it were, the more the insurer can assure customers that they can cover their losses. This is why, for instance, it’s good when companies are reinsured (it means they have an extra back-up).
When it comes to natural disasters, insurers and carriers have to be careful about what kinds of losses they can conceivably cover too. This is why, almost universally, companies will not directly cover flooding; the kind of economic loss from mass external (or subterranean) flooding is too costly to be sustainable.
According to the standard ISO homeowners forms (specifically the HO4, which refers to tenant’s insurance), there are 16 named perils:
It should be understood that these perils are not blindly covered either; conditions can be placed that determine how claims are processed. For example, theft is generally covered as a “named peril.” However, if you leave your front door unlocked every day when you leave and someone goes into your apartment and steals your stuff, your insurer might interpret that as negligence on your part and not cover your claim. Similarly, if you have a property that you are renting but which you mostly leave vacant during the winter, make sure to take the necessary steps to avoid pipes freezing and bursting. If you don’t shut off the water, for instance, you might be considered to have been negligent.
As mentioned above, though, there are certain perils that are not covered at all (or by many insurers). Damage caused by a flood or earth movement is not typically covered in your average renters insurance. Some insurers only offer earthquake coverage in select states (such as Lemonade, which offers it in California and Arkansas), as an add-on (Liberty Mutual), or with a separate cover (State Farm).
When it comes to flood coverage, however, it almost universally needs to be acquired separately through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is offered by FEMA. Several insurance carriers, such as Liberty Mutual, Allstate, American Family, Nationwide, Travelers, Amica, offer flood insurance coverage through the NFIP.
There are many factors that affect a client’s premiums and coverage, meaning that two people living in the same building, with the same insurance company, can easily end up with different bills each month:
Choosing the best coverage starts with knowing what you own. There comes a point where speaking in hypotheticals doesn’t work anymore and that’s when you have to get right down to choosing your policy. In order to get the best coverage for your money, you need to know what you’re covering.
This may seem obvious, but oftentimes we might be tempted to eyeball it: “Let me just get the $20,000 insurance coverage. That should be enough!” Don’t.
The first step that almost every insurance company recommends (and, note, it should ring warning bells if any insurance provider does not make this recommendation) is inventory. You need a detailed record of your stuff, with as close-to-accurate estimates on 1) Your priciest items, and 2) The value of broad categories (like all of your books, films, clothing, and kitchenware, etc.).
Although it may seem daunting at first, doing an inventory can be quite easy when you divide it into categories, and take it one step at a time. There are some insurance providers that offer inventory calculators (like Allstate’s “What’s Your Stuff Worth?,” Geico’s “Cost Calculator,” or Liberty Mutual’s “Coverage Calculator,” which gives you premium estimates), but ultimately, your inventory is unique to you (which can make using calculators that cater to a wide range of people frustrating).
Starting a custom-made list by hand or on your computer might be more useful. Then, instead of doing an inventory of your belongings your entire house or apartment, start with one single room and a single category.
Start with rough estimates, but see if you can dig up some receipts for the pricier items later on to make your list as accurate as possible. Don’t force yourself to do your inventory in one go; pace yourself.
Several articles on renters insurance and inventories recommend that you keep your inventory on the cloud, an online drive, an inventory mobile app, or in a safe place (like a physical safe or a bank safety deposit box). We recommend that you check out QuoteWizard’s article on creating an inventory and important areas to watch out for.
The reason for this is that, in the event that your computer is stolen or damaged, or your belongings are catastrophically destroyed, you can have the peace of mind that you know exactly what you owned and can file accurate claims.
By the end, you should have a working estimate of your personal property, which gives you an idea of how much coverage you need. This inventory should also give you an idea of whether or not you will need to get add-ons (riders, endorsements, or floaters, discussed above).
Bottom line: You save and wisely manage your money when you know what you own.
It’s important that you neither overvalue or undervalue your property.
Overvaluing can be a needless waste of money. It means you will end up paying higher premiums than you need. Although renters insurance is relatively inexpensive, no one wants to pay more for something they literally don’t need. If your property amounts to about $15,000, there’s no reason to invest in a $30,000 policy.
Bottom line: You save money when you choose a cover that fits the value of your property.
Undervaluing, however, can be risky. Even if you are tight on money and are looking for ways to cut down on premiums, it’s not a good decision to undervalue the price of your belongings because, in the event of a disaster, it will be far more expensive to cover repairs and replacements.
Bottom line: You save money when you make sure your property is sufficiently covered in the event of a disaster.
As you are no doubt aware by now, deductibles are the amount you pay after you have filed a claim and the insurance has been approved. The insurer puts in a particular amount (based on the value loss incurred and up to the limits of your coverage), and you pay a set difference.
Deductibles can range from as little as $250 to as much as $1,000 (or even $2,000). This is the amount you would pay before the insurance kicks in when a situation occurs.
Your premiums are your monthly (or annual) payments for the insurance coverage policy. This is the regular amount you pay to ensure you are covered when a situation occurs.
The catch is that the lower your deductible, the higher your monthly premiums. Conversely, the higher your deductible, the lower your monthly premiums. It comes down to a question of “when do you pay? Regularly throughout the year(s) or in one go when a claim is filed?”
Choosing a higher deductible and lower premiums can be a wise option if you are looking for ways to lower your monthly bills. However, this option should only be chosen after considering the following factors:
Given the general affordability of renters insurance, it may be a wiser option to go for the higher premium now but have the peace of mind that you’ll easily be able to cover your deductible at any time if a situation arises. This is particularly true if you can’t afford to set $1,000 aside for a rainy day. A lower deductible makes sure that your stuff will definitely be covered and you won’t be left to foot a huge bill of hundreds of dollars.
Your inventory can help you make this choice. For example, if you are a college student with a few possessions, a lower deductible might be the safest option. Say your television is one of the cheapest on the market (Amazon’s >$130 screens for instance), your laptop is similarly low-cost, at $200, and your smartphone is another $200. Together, that’s less than $500. When calculating your inventory, you will, of course, own much more than this, but if a thief were to break into your apartment, the tv, laptop, and phone are much likelier to be taken than your couch or your fridge. If your deductible is $1,000, you will have to replace your lost electronics on your own.
By comparison, typical renters insurance reaches an average high of $360 per year (lower than what it would cost to replace the TV, laptop, and phone). Thus, paying a slightly higher premium but having a lower deductible can be a smart choice.
Note that deductible and premium costs are ultimately set by your insurance provider, so while some might be able to offer lower deductibles, others might not. This is why it’s important to get at least three quotes.
Also be aware that whichever option you choose, it’s particularly important to still make an effort to save up the amount of your deductible (in a savings account, for instance) in case of any situations that would require it.
Bottom line: You save money when you carefully think about your individual situation and manage your policies accordingly. Pay more now and save later, or save more now and pay later; use your inventory and consider your finances when making this decision.
When choosing your coverage and looking for ways to save money, it’s important to consider the difference between cash value coverage and replacement cost coverage.
Although this seems like a bad deal, it does mean lower premiums.
Although this seems like a nice arrangement, it does mean much higher premiums.
It’s, therefore, definitely worth considering the replacement cost coverage for the peace of mind. According to InsuranceQuotes.org, replacement cost premiums usually cost “about 10% more each year”. Even with a high annual premium of $300, that only comes up to an extra $30 (or less than $3) per month.
Bottom line: Although replacement cost coverage = higher premiums, in the long run (and especially in that awful moment when disaster strikes) it’s the coverage that saves you money!
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Although warm temperatures continue to linger in some areas of the country, winter will be here before you know it. Many homeowners dread the colder months due to increased health issues, pest invasions, and the need for necessary repairs.
Before winter arrives, it’s essential to conduct a quick audit and ensure your home is prepared. After all, this may be your last chance to do so before the colder weather sets in. As you plan to winterize your home, consider some budget-friendly solutions. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to spend top dollar to keep your home cozy and your family healthy all season long.
Here are some quick ideas that won’t break the bank.
Heating Your Home
Your first priority this winter is keeping your family cozy and warm. Like most homeowners, you probably want to heat your home on a budget. Although you might be tempted to crank up the heat, doing so is bad for your budget and your family’s health.
Cleveland Clinic warns that “dry winter air can cause respiratory problems — from bronchitis to nosebleeds.” Additionally, dry air has been linked to a wide range of skin conditions, such as eczema and psoriasis. So, to keep heating costs low and health issues at bay, you might try one (or more) of the following options.
● Use a fan. Although using a ceiling fan might seem counter intuitive during cold months, fans help push warm air down from the ceiling. According to HomeAdvisor, switching your ceiling fan’s rotation helps warm your home by moving the air downwards; this DIY trick saves you up to 10 percent off your heating costs. When using fans in the winter, dust them regularly to avoid allergy attacks, dry skin, and respiratory health issues.
● Clean the chimney. Does your home have a working fireplace? If so, it’s best to hire a professional chimney inspector to clean your fireplace and chimney before wintertime. During the cleaning, the AARP also recommends removing “animal nests or other blockages” that could lead to potential house fires.
● Seal any cracks. If your windows are drafty or you’ve noticed one part of the house is colder than other rooms, cracks may be the culprit. Warm air leaving your home can increase the costs of your heating bill. Repairing these issues before cold weather sets in can save you from having to crank the heat up all winter. Weatherstripping, caulk, or DIY vinyl seals can help lower your bill and keep your family comfortable.
Preventing Pests
One winter threat many homeowners overlook is pest control. When the weather gets colder, many pests are drawn to the warmer indoor temperatures. Luckily, you don’t have to let insects, rodents, or other creepy crawlers get cozy in your home.
BobVila.com recommends hiring a local energy service provider to audit your home. In addition to saving you money on your heating bill, these professionals can find and seal tiny cracks or holes that pests might use to enter your house.
While you’re at it, fix any leaky faucets. Plumbing issues not only increase your utility costs, but they also provide a damp environment that bugs love.
Repairs to Consider
While prepping your home for the winter, US News advises adding insulation, cleaning your gutters, and hiring a professional to inspect your HVAC system. These essential repairs are cost-effective and will help prevent hazards or loss of heat during the winter.
Every homeowner wants a warm, cozy home that will keep them safe and healthy throughout the winter. Instead of waiting until the cold weather arrives, now’s the time to get a head start on winterizing your home. By prioritizing simple steps like sealing cracks and utilizing ceiling fans, you’ll save money on utility bills. Best of all, you’ll reduce your family’s chances of experiencing certain illnesses, like respiratory issues and skin conditions. The steps you take now will not only save you money, but they’ll also keep your family warm, healthy, and happy all winter long.