[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house. When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know.

[00:00:30] Eric Goranson: Education. Thanks for joining us today. Happy midweek special man. I had a great time this last weekend over in the Tri-Cities, Kennewick, Pasco, Richland, Washington for the unlimited Hydroplane racing. And a special thanks out to my friends at six 10 K one a, one of the affiliates of Around the House through Talk Media Network.

[00:00:48] Eric Goranson: Wanna appreciate you guys for hanging out and, uh, letting me come on the air with you and spend some time on Saturday. That was a lot of fun. Doing some live radio. So that was cool. [00:01:00] Well, today I wanted to talk about homeowner's insurance and some of the issues that you have to be careful with with it.

[00:01:08] Eric Goranson: And what got me kind of talking about this is that I was looking at my homeowner's insurance and I'm like, you know, I've been doing a lot of work on my house, so I wanna make sure I'm covered. Because the more work I do, the more value I get. Right? So these things kind of climb up. I found out when I got ahold of Geico, who is my company I've been working with, and they're not an endorsement, they're just somebody.

[00:01:29] Eric Goranson: I jumped online and got a thing, so I'm actually talking to some other people about my insurance right now. But I found out I'm insured for the max that I can be on my house through them, and then I realized that I was still underinsured. So this becomes an issue because if. I had some kind of catastrophic problem.

[00:01:53] Eric Goranson: I wanted to make sure that I was covered, you know, 'cause all the time I'm adding new things to the house, fixing this up, [00:02:00] new garage door, new front door. These are all things that add up quickly and are quite frankly, pretty dang expensive if I was gonna have to go buy one. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, um, really some insurance basics here.

[00:02:15] Eric Goranson: So, you know, a standard homeowner's insurance. Depending on what state you're in, but here in the US typically they cover things like windstorms or, you know, hail, fire and lightning, you know, uh, a vehicle hitting it, smoke, fire, theft, vandalism, you know, um, and even things fallen from the sky. Uh, maybe an accidental discharge overflow from a water or stream, you know, that's, That's something done, not a flood, but basically a, a, um, storm drain issue or something like that.

[00:02:52] Eric Goranson: Uh, burst pipe, um, all these kind of things. So, um, even aircraft sometimes can be [00:03:00] covered or usually recovered, you know, if somebody was to crash into your house, super rare again, uh, you know, in my area, volcanic eruption is a big one, but here's what you gotta be careful with is the exclusions. Many home insurance have significant gaps when it comes to natural disasters.

[00:03:20] Eric Goranson: Do you have flood insurance? Do you have earthquake insurance? Do you have hurricane insurance? These are things you know, and I, and I've talked about on the show before. These are things you gotta be careful with because if you call up and let's say you had a water pipe break in your house and you call up your insurance company and say, Hey, I had a flood.

[00:03:38] Eric Goranson: Ooh, never use the flood word unless. A river has gone over banks and is coming into your house. Flood is a word that you never use when talking to your insurance company unless a river flooded and got your house, because many times a flood is not covered. But a water break is, you see where I'm [00:04:00] going here.

[00:04:01] Eric Goranson: So make sure that you know which words you're using and choose them carefully and. You know, there's a lot of things like that, you know, the accidental roof leaks, that kind of stuff. You know, um, water damage is complicated and anytime you have water damage, be very careful with how you report it so you do it correctly and use the correct terms.

[00:04:23] Eric Goranson: So there's a, a huge tip right there that can get very expensive for you. Now, anytime that there's water damage, and I've talked about this in the past, one of the biggest things that you have to watch out for is neglect. I've seen it recently where we had some very big issues. Um, and I did, I was surprised it was covered by these folks because it seemed like there was significant neglect, but the insurance company grabbed it, which means they were good.

[00:04:49] Eric Goranson: But you think about it, uh, I saw this statistic. I don't know where it came from, so I can't really claim it, but, uh, basically the average claim, um, [00:05:00] for water damage or even frozen pipes is about 12 grand. And, um, I think that was like the insurance. Uh, I think it was those guys, the Insurance Information Institute, but I could be wrong.

[00:05:13] Eric Goranson: Sorry about that. Well, anyway, here's the thing. Other problems that insurance won't cover if you have an Airbnb or one of those kind of things not covered. So make sure, 'cause that's a business, so make sure that you are, you know, you're sharing or home sharing. Company that you're working with is insuring your house because it's not covered usually when other people are in there.

[00:05:41] Eric Goranson: And things to be careful with is gonna be damaged by that. Or even in a worst case scenario is what happens if a somebody brings in bedbugs into your residence, who's paying to have that place baked out, cleaned up thousands of dollars to get rid of them? 'cause that's not an easy one. [00:06:00] So, and then another thing too that be careful with.

[00:06:05] Eric Goranson: You know, theft of high priced items. If you have an art collection, if you have a tool collection like I do, or things like, you know, in your backyard, if you've got the trampoline, the diving board, the the water slide, be very careful with, uh, those liabilities there, because make sure you've got writers for all this stuff, you know.

[00:06:31] Eric Goranson: You've got lots of jewelry, maybe you got your grandma's jewelry. Make sure that's covered. And then the other one that's big too, is making sure that certain dogs, some dog breeds they do not like. And so be very careful with that. Make sure you're covered. So that's another one that you need to be very careful with.

[00:06:50] Eric Goranson: And then, you know, here's the other thing that you gotta be careful with. You know, if, if you're getting [00:07:00] crazy outside, Like you're doing YouTube tricks or stuff like that. Anything that purposely happens, or I think what they actually call a, uh, intentional loss, you're not covered. Um, many times power failures are not covered and anything considered, um, you know, if you've got a, you know, 50 year old pipes that are, that are bad because they're well outdated, they haven't been maintained, you know, you haven't been working on it.

[00:07:30] Eric Goranson: A lot of that stuff can happen that you gotta be very careful, very careful with. So really think about what you're covered with. What are the weak points of your home? And this even goes for renters, for all our renter friends out there. Do you have renter's insurance? Is all your stuff covered If, uh, your apartment or condo or, or duplex burned down, could you go out and replace everything you have?

[00:07:56] Eric Goranson: There's a key right there. So what is that worth? Now [00:08:00] optional coverages are, uh, are something that you should think about, you know, like we talked about earlier, flood insurance, earthquake insurance. Um, you know, any of those kind of things are big. Um, mold damage that gets to be a gray area. You know, asbestos gets to be a gray area sometimes.

[00:08:20] Eric Goranson: So if you have asbestos in the house, are you paying for that? If you have a big thing, who's paying for that asbestos cleanup. Then, uh, water backup. You know, if you've got a sump pump or sewage line issues, is that covered? Make sure that these things are covered and that you're gonna be okay. So one of the biggest problems I see is people being underinsured.

[00:08:43] Eric Goranson: And when in doubt, if you've got a coverage issue, if you've got something that's going down in an area that you're like, oh my gosh, this is gonna be a problem. There are independent adjusters out there that you can hire. To bring on to help represent you up against the insurance company. And [00:09:00] sometimes that can be smart, especially if you've got an older house and you've got stuff that you're trying to keep it where it's restored or you're trying to keep a certain look, um, or you don't want them just to, to barely replace it.

[00:09:13] Eric Goranson: You've got some bigger issues. And that can be a problem sometimes where you have a. Hardwood floor that, uh, goes throughout the house and they're gonna have to refinish the entire hardwood floors, but are gonna try to send somebody in to patch that area. All of these little things happen and I've seen 'em all happen, but just make sure that you know what your risks are in your area, you know?

[00:09:34] Eric Goranson: 'cause not everybody's gonna have a chance of a hurricane, but do you have hurricane insurance if you have a chance? You have flood insurance, you know all of these things, so just make sure that you're covered. When was the last time you followed up on this? This would be something if you don't have a regular insurance agent, if you're just jumping online like I do.

[00:09:53] Eric Goranson: Which I'm gonna probably change here. Make sure that you've got it covered and uh, you've talked to somebody and that you're following [00:10:00] up on it. 'cause a lot of these online companies, they don't know what your house looks like and you don't have an agent that's gonna follow up with you and go, Hey, how's that house remodeling coming?

[00:10:08] Eric Goranson: Should we change your coverage? These are all things you should take a look at and, uh, make sure that you're covered. Alright everybody, well have a great rest of the week. This was my tip for our midweek special to make sure that you are. Dialed in and, uh, if something bad happens to your house that you are covered and it's not as big a loss.

[00:10:27] Eric Goranson: I mean, it's gonna be a big loss because it's gonna be a pain, but are you financially gonna be able to get back to where you were to start? That's all up to you and what your insurance policy says. Thanks for tuning in around the house. We'll see you on Saturday