Moving and Selling Your Home? What To Do When Your House Is Vacant
Selling your home can be a stressful process, especially when it doesn’t move quickly. With a new job looming, you may have no choice but to leave the home vacant for a short time until it sells.
So is there a problem? Truthfully there can be. When you have a homeowner’s policy, on of the insurance company’s requirement is that the property is “Owner Occupied.” Since you no longer occupy the property, generally these now vacant homes fall under different insurance rules and can leave you at risk. Homes are typically considered vacant when the utilities are shut off and/or furniture has been removed.
Insurance companies view a vacant home as a higher risk. There are more opportunities for vandalism and no one living there to protect the home from fire or storm damage should they occur.
So what should you do when moving?
First you need to talk to your insurance agent and get the details on your policy. Since policies vary by state and insurance company, there is no single right answer.
Explain the situation to your agent. Ask what coverage is included and what is excluded (specifically for vandalism as well as water damage). And find out what changes can be made to protect your home.
Selling a home doesn’t always follow a quick timeline. If you’re facing the possibility of leaving your home vacant, contact us first and find out how to best protect yourself and your property.
We are always here to answer your questions. Call 816-795-5977 or email anytime-jolson3@farmeragent.com
Why is Life Insurance Important to Me?
I’ve seen firsthand how important it is to have life insurance. My grandpa was always a hard worker, he saved and saved his whole life. He bought a house got married had kids and like most young people he didn’t think about how his life would be when he got older. He never thought that something could happen and take his life. He just lived his life to the fullest. My grandpa like most people had life insurance through his job. In 2007 my grandpa found out he had prostate cancer. They removed the mass hoping to have caught it early enough, but it had already spread to his bones. My grandpa already had polio from when he was a child so to add bone cancer on top of that was awful, he couldn’t walk he was always in pain, so he didn’t work and therefor he no longer had life insurance through his job. Last year I lived with my grandpa because most of my life he took care of me and in return I took care of him. When my grandpa finally passed in March of 2014 the cost of his funeral landed on me and my husband as a couple with a child in our 20’s to come up with $10,000 to get my grandpa cremated and to have a proper service. Thankfully we were able to get help paying for it. If we would have had to pay for it ourselves we wouldn’t have been able to celebrate my grandpa’s life the way we did.You never know what life will throw at you and even though you think even if your young or you have no kids nothing will happen and you don’t need life insurance, it can and you do! My husband was 26 when he got pneumonia. He was in the hospital for three months and the only thing keeping him alive was ECMO. Thankfully in our case he pulled through, but if he didn’t, as a single mom I would not have been able to afford a funeral or medical bills for him much less been able to keep the same standard of living without his income. It is seriously so important to make sure that the ones you’re leaving behind can have time to grieve and not worry about getting money to bury you. Life insurance isn’t for you it’s for the ones you love.
This is why I have life insurance
Jon Olson Agency-Farmers Insurance 