Ways To Lower Your Vacation Home Insurance Premiums

There are ways to save on your house insurance rate, even though having a vacation home frequently comes with a proportionally larger price tag. In most cases, the expense of upgrades to a second property will surpass the premium savings, even though they can lower your premiums.

For instance, policyholders receive a discount for a home with a central alarm system, although the premium discount is significantly less than the subscription charge for qualified plans. This does not imply that there is no benefit to establishing a central alarm system, especially in a primarily uninhabited property. It would be intelligent protection against the risk of burglary.

Improving the security of a vacation property minimizes the danger of something occurring to it and the policyholder having to file a claim - this is an essential benefit. Maintaining a claim-free record is vital to keeping your second-home insurance rate low. For instance, if you have been a State Farm policyholder for less than two years and have filed one claim, your premium will increase by 15%. If you rub two necessary claims within three years, your premium will increase by 35%.

In addition to the reductions that a policyholder for a typical house would receive, a policyholder for a vacation home typically qualifies for a bundling discount.

Additional Protections You May Need to Acquire

In addition to purchasing a homeowner's insurance policy for your second property, you must evaluate if you need flood and earthquake insurance. Your average homeowner's insurance policies do not cover flood and earthquake damage, which could pose a significant threat to your holiday home, depending on its location.

For instance, suppose you own a beach house on Florida's east coast. A hurricane's surge (an extraordinary rise in tide) might quickly flood and damage your property. Or, your Southern California vacation may be in an earthquake-prone region.

Before purchasing a seasonal or holiday property, you should consider this, as the cost of either insurance above policies might be relatively high. The average price of earthquake insurance in California is $1.75 per $1,000 coverage. Thus insuring a property worth $250,000 would cost $437 per month. Remember that this monthly fee would be in addition to your usual homeowner's insurance rate.