If you’re in the 
market for homeowner’s insurance premiums, it’s wise to have a good understanding of the replacement cost for your home. One sure way to pay more than you should for homeowners insurance is to over value the replacement cost of your home.
- Utilize one of the free online replacement cost calculators. Homeinsurance.com offers a simple straight forward calculator using the cost/per square feet. All you need to have is your zip code and the square footage of your home.
- Visit the Xactware.com website. They create software that helps homeowners calculate the amount insurance they’ll need to protect their home. The cost for new users is currently $8.95, but it’s a small price to pay for ensuring the proper insurance value of your home.
- Insure to Value is another website that provides replacement cost calculators for homeowners insurance. They have three products that range in price from free to $15.95.
- Use the step by step building cost calculator to rebuild your home using today’s material costs. The calculator offered at Building-cost.net is free and detailed. When using this calculator, make sure you have a little extra time on your hands to insert the necessary information to get as accurate a quote as possible. Their report breaks out the costs by material, labor and equipment.
- Select a coinsurance percent. When you finally determine the true replacement cost of your home, it’s common practice on homeowner’s insurance policies to insure 80% to 90% of the full replacement value of your home. The thinking behind such a coinsurance clause is that it’s unlikely that 100% of the building will be destroyed (foundations are usually left standing), why pay for more insurance than necessary.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Felicia A. Williams is a freelance writer and webmaster of this website, Visit Hudson Valley.com and No Job for Mom.com. She is also the Insurance Feature Writer for Suite 101.com
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