Survey: 60% of homeowners are under-insured for damage
If there is one good thing to come out of the recent storms, it's that all that damage might make us look at our homeowner's insurance.
Multiple surveys by Marshall & Swift/Boeckh over the years have found that as many as 60% of homes are under-insured. Chances are your home costs more to replace than it did when you bought your insurance policy and stuffed it into a drawer.
"Insurance is not sexy. You want to put it on autopay and be done with it," Michael Turner of Classic Urban Homes said.
But he knows why you shouldn't put your insurance on autopilot. We recently toured one of his custom home job sites.
He pointed to a pallet of limestone: "In ten years, the cost [of that] has doubled."
Just about every construction material he works with has gone up in price. We admired the wooden plank ceiling inside the home as he estimated, "for the kitchen and dining room area, that is probably a $1,500 increase...[over] five years."
We went into a room being painted, where Turner told us that roughly 10 years ago, the paint cost $5.
"Now that same gallon of enamel is probably $30."
Then, there are the laborers. There's a shortage of them, so they cost more, too.
"They are like free agents and can pretty much name their prices and what they want to make," Turner said.
In fact, Turner said just about every week, someone stops by one of his construction sites trying to poach his workers for their own construction projects.
This is a good time to check out your insurance policy and see what you are and aren't covered for.
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Even homeowners who are adequately insured often have to fight with their insurance company over claims.
The fast-talking insurance agent who sold you the policy isn't likely to warn you about some of the language buried in the fine print.
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