Insure your home for the replacement cost, not its current market value.
Before buying a homeowner's insurance policy, realize that the replacement cost and market value of your home are not the same. Although the market prices may rise or fall, building costs only change as the cost and availability of labor and materials change. Therefore, you must insure your home based on the replacement cost, rather than the current market value. Use one of the free or paid homeowners replacement cost calculators available on the Internet to arrive at a realistic replacement value - but before doing so, carry out a detailed inventory of your home's existing attributes, accessories and appliances. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Refer to your home's building plans and count the number of inside and outside corners around the perimeter of the building. Ignore small insets that don't affect the shape of the roofline. Most homes have four, six, eight or 10 corners; however, some luxury and custom homes have more than 10. Total construction costs depend on the complexity of the home's outside perimeter and roofline; the more corners, the higher the per-square-foot cost.
2. Rate your home's quality class. Homes with more than 10 corners are considered either Luxury Quality or Custom Quality. Homes with four to 10 corners fall into one of the following classes: Best Standard Quality, Good Standard Quality, Average Standard Quality or Minimum Standard Quality
3. Refine the above by assigning a quality rating to the following features: foundation, exterior walls, exterior finish, windows and doors, roof and soffit, interior finish, floor finish, bathrooms, kitchen, plumbing and electrical.
4. List the total living area of the house as shown on the building plans.
5. Measure and calculate the square footage of the following areas by multiplying length times breadth: finished attic area with more than 78-inch headroom; finished attic area with 60- to 78-inch headroom; unfinished attic area with more than 78-inch headroom; unfinished attic area with 60- to 78-inch headroom. In addition, if you have a living area above the second floor, make a note of its square footage.
6. List the square footage of any balconies where applicable. Make a note of the type of floor, supporting structure and railing.
7. Note the square footage of the basement if applicable. If the basement is finished, list details of any paneled walls, acoustic ceiling tiles, flooring, switched lighting and downstairs bathroom if applicable.
8. Calculate the square footage of the garage. Note whether it has finished walls, whether it's under the main roof or under a separate roof connected to the main building, and whether the outside walls are in vertical alignment with second floor walls. Make a note of the details if you have a detached garage separate from the main house.
9. List details of the porch if applicable, such as square footage, whether or not it has a ceiling and a separate shed roof, or whether the porch is recessed under the main roof with a finished ceiling.
10. Make a detailed note of the home's heating and cooling systems. List the number of units, types, tonnage, outputs and arrangements of the following: furnaces, central ducted air conditioners, baseboard electric heaters, zone heaters, under-floor heating and window or through-the-wall refrigerated room coolers.
11. List the numbers and types of fireplaces in the home.
12. Log into one of the free or paid homeowners replacement cost calculators, such as Buildingcost.net or AcuCoverage. Fill in the relevant square footages and answer the questions by clicking on the correct radio buttons. After that, enter your location and zip code, together with whether the home is in a housing tract or outside the metropolitan area.
13. Click on the "View Report" button. This page gives you a detailed breakdown of all the costs involved, including final cleanup, insurance, permits, utilities, plans and specs, and contractor markup.
Tags: square footage, your home, replacement cost, 78-inch headroom, area with, attic area, attic area with
