Owning a second home can be great. Whether it’s a vacation home, apartment in the city or a rental property, an extra home is often a bonus. However, homeowners need to be aware that each of their properties needs reliable and accurate insurance. When it comes to finding quality insurance for protecting your investment, seasonal homes can pose unique challenges you’ll want to consider.
Issues like the following will impact how much you pay to insure a second home, as well as the type of coverage your carrier is willing to provide.
You keep your vacation home stocked with a few necessities, whether it’s sun loungers or snowboards. You’ll want to cover as much of your personal property as possible under your vacation home policy. Create a separate home inventory for your second home and update it as you add new belongings or move items out. Knowing the value of your possessions can help you select the right level of personal property coverage on your policy.
It makes financial sense to rent our your property while you are not using it to generate some extra income. However, your insurance carrier may not cover damage while the home is being occupied by anyone other than yourself. Before you list your vacation home for rent, be sure you understand whether or not you’re covered. In some cases, you may need to purchase additional coverage.
When you’re not living in your property, you aren’t there to check up on it often to ensure all is well. For this reason, you may want to purchase additional cover in case something does happen – and it gets quickly out of hand. For example, a flood or earthquake can damage a property within minutes. These two perils are often excluded from standard coverage so be sure to take out separate policies to protect your property.
Need help finding adequate insurance? Contact Abatelli Group, Inc., serving Whitestone and neighboring cities in New York with the right and reliable coverage.
The summer months are carefree, warm, and the ideal opportunity to jet set to foreign locations and fun spots. Who doesn’t love going on vacation? Before you enter R&R mode, however, it’s important that you take the necessary steps to protect your home from a break-in or accident while you’re away. While your homeowners insurance in Whitestone, NY will work to help you in the event of damage or theft, preventing such incidents are important. Check out these tips on how to protect your home when going on vacation.
Simple tips to protect your home:
Ask someone trustworthy to check on your home:
Review insurance:
Need help finding adequate insurance? Contact Abatelli Group, Inc., serving Whitestone and neighboring cities in New York with the right and reliable coverage.
Spring cleaning tasks that prevent insurance claims.
Our job as independent insurance agents is to help you mitigate the risk that exists in your life, whether that applies to your possessions or your well-being. A spring cleaning checklist is likely to be on every homeowner’s to go list with spring arriving just a couple of days. Checking off these tasks while you’re cleaning can help to prevent costly insurance claims.
Change the batteries in the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Spring is a good time to change the batteries in your home smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. It’s also a good idea to test these units (once a month is recommended) while you are replacing the batteries to ensure they are still working correctly before it’s too late.
Clean the dryer. It’s a good idea to check that the dryer’s hose is free of lint. While you may clean the lint trap after every load, some lint can get past the filter and into the hose. If the hose is clogged with lint, it could spark a fire when creating heat for the dryer.
Change your air filters. A clean air flow reduces the efforts of your air conditioning and heating units in performing their functions. In turn, this simple task can extend the lives of the units motor.
Seal windows and doors. Check that all the seals on windows and doors are in good condition. Fill in any gaps that you see and replace worn or dried out caulking. Where there are gaps, leaks can form and cause damage.
Clean out the gutters. Debris and dirt from winter can clog up the home’s gutters and downspouts, which could cause the gutters to break and allow water to seep inside of the home. A good clean out of the gutters can keep the water flowing away from your house and prevent the possibility of water damage and leaks.
Trim the trees early. Keeping dangerous branches at bay can limit your exposure to potential car damage and personal injury, not only to you and your property, but that of neighbors and visitors.
One of the most important parts of protecting your home is securing homeowners insurance policy, which can provide the right amount of protection to fit into your lifestyle and property. Contact Abatelli Group, Inc., serving Whitestone and neighboring cities in New York with the right and reliable coverage.
Homeowners need to consider the risks of frozen pipes in their homes, especially during this winter in Illinois. A 1/8-inch crack in a pipe can spew up to 250 gallons of water a day, causing flooding, structural damage, and the immediate potential for mold.
Frozen water pipes can occur all over the country, affecting both plastic and copper pipes. It’s all too common, especially considering this damage is largely preventable.
Prevent Freezing Pipes
If Pipes Freeze…
One of the most important parts of preventing disaster is to make sure that you have the right homeowners insurance policy, which can provide the right amount of protection to fit into your lifestyle. Contact Abatelli Group, Inc., serving Whitestone and neighboring cities in New York with the right and reliable coverage.
Now that the cooler weather is coming, that means more time spent indoors cooking up hearty meals and turning on the heating (now and again). While our winter homes should be places of comfort, there is one silent killer that could be lurking in your home – carbon monoxide (CO).
Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas that is produced when fuels such as wood, oil, natural gas, and propane are not efficiently burned. In essence, your generators, lawn mowers, barbeques, furnace, and cooker could be harboring a deadly gas.
Common symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include:
As the symptoms can be mistaken as other concerns, such as a cold or the flu, it’s important to stay on top of when you feel these symptoms coming on. If you leave your home for a couple of hours and the symptoms subside, only to come back when you return home, it is well worth getting your home checked for a carbon monoxide leak.
To help prevent carbon monoxide poisoning, follow these tips:
With a little preparation, your home can stay safe from CO! Fortunately, it takes just a simple phone call to secure the right homeowners insurance protection for your property. Talk to the professional team at Abatelli Group, Inc. to determine the right homeowners insurance policy to suit your needs and home today.
The start of summer means people are readying themselves for upcoming vacations. Every year, between June and August, families, couples, and individuals opt to enjoy their summer in a foreign location. While you may be packed and ready to go, do you know to protect your home while away on vacation? A few safety precautions and quality homeowners insurance know-how will help to leave your home safe while you’re out of town.
Put these do’s and don’ts into practice so that you can kick back and relax on your vacation knowing that your home is safe and sound.
Do:
Don’t:
These tips can help assure you that your home is ready for you to head out on holiday. Make sure that your home is protected with the right home insurance policy. Contact Abatelli Group, Inc. for a proper policy on your insurance needs in Whitestone, New York.
Home insurance has very specific and unique vocabulary that can make understanding it fairly difficult. Policies can vary to fit the needs and budget of every policy holder, so coverage can vary widely between policies. If you have never read your policy from cover to cover, it’s recommended you set aside some time and do so. Here are a few tips on what to look for when you review your home insurance at renewal.
When it comes to your homeowners insurance, make sure that you’re protected for everything you need. Make sure that your home is protected with the right home insurance policy. Contact Abatelli Group, Inc. for a proper policy on your insurance needs.
After another long and hard winter, spring has arrived. The days last longer and the temperature is increasing a little bit each and every day. But as the temperatures shift, so does the weather. It may not be snow, but rain can affect your home in more ways than you may think. Here are a few home maintenance tips to help your home welcome the new season.
These tips can help assure you that your home is ready for the spring showers and sun. Make sure that your home is protected with the right home insurance policy. Contact Abatelli Group, Inc. for a proper policy on your insurance needs.
Personal liability insurance protects all of your assets by paying claims and damages made against you in case you injure other people or other property.
The good news is that if you have auto, renters, or homeowners insurance, you already have some coverage.
If you hit someone with your car your auto liability insurance kicks in to pay for the damages to the car and the other person’s bodily injuries. If someone falls down your stairs and breaks their leg, or injures themselves in some other manner, your homeowners liability insurance will cover the medical bills. These are all, of course, up to a limit.
But what about everything else that is not covered by your home or auto insurance? Or the amount for which you are liable surpasses your covered amounts? This is where umbrella insurance can step in to cover the gaps that are not covered by your home and auto insurance.
If your limit on your homeowners insurance policy is only up to $500,000 and the accident which you caused leads to being a $1 million dollar lawsuit, you are going to be in trouble. About half-a-million dollars in trouble. An umbrella policy can cover that amount, but only after your home/auto insurance policy is tapped out.
This is one reason that umbrella insurance policies are inexpensive. And their price is one of the reasons you want to take advantage of an umbrella insurance policy and be covered for any possible accident.
Make sure that you are protected with the right umbrella insurance policy. Contact Abatelli Group, Inc. for a proper quote on your insurance needs.
A changing climate means more severe weather, which includes heavier snow storms. The power of snow storms can stop entire cities from operating as snow covers the roads and deters people and companies from getting from Point A to Point B. Before one strikes the Whitestone, NY area and leaves you stranded in your own home island covered in a sea of snow, make sure that you prepare with time. Here are a few tips on how you can prepare for a snow storm.
Listen to Your Weatherman (or Weatherwoman)
Your weather station will surely warn you of a possible snowstorm days in advance. If your weather station has a snow storm alert, make sure to prepare for it if you haven’t already.
Prepare
Emergency Kit
Protect your home from the dangers of winter. Make sure that your home is protected with the right home insurance policy. Contact Abatelli Group, Inc. for a proper policy on your insurance needs.