Name:	lakngulf -	Reply
Subject:	Insurance
Date:	10/18/2016 4:46:56 PM

So many ads on TV of this company or that one can save us $$$ on insurance over that company or this.  I know that one policy is not exactly like the other but what annual premium do you pay for insurance on Lake house and what deductible?

Name:	Mack -	Reply
Subject:	Insurance
Date:	10/18/2016 4:56:10 PM

State Farm   Coverage for $380,000 and $2000 deductible. Premium is $1450 annual. Think fire protection is an issue.

My home in Bham? State Farm Covered for $560,000 and $3000 deductible. Premium $1300 annual.

Name:	lucky67 -	Reply
Subject:	Insurance
Date:	10/18/2016 5:04:41 PM

st farm $50k--$2000 ded ; $1880 year--BUT i have 4 autos with them also

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	Insurance
Date:	10/19/2016 8:32:20 AM

I have Liberty Mutual with $350K coverage, $1,000 deductible and the premium is $1,100 per year.

Name:	HARRY -	Reply
Subject:	Boathouse insurance
Date:	10/19/2016 10:10:09 AM

My boathouse is currently uninsured due to ridiculous premium increase on new boathouse. Anyone else have this problem?

Name:	Lifer -	Reply
Subject:	One way to reduce
Date:	10/19/2016 12:39:42 PM

When I first bought my lake house and got an insurance quote I was shocked. Most of us suffer due to lack of adequate fire protection also. The mistake I xmade was giving the insurance company the total appraised value. Then it dawned on me that almost half the value was the lot. So I gave them just value of the structures without the price of the lot.  Of course it cut premiums about in half. I realized I had no need to insure dirt.  The chances of anything Destroying the lot is miniscule. On off water homes the lot price is usually a fraction  of the total value so it is not such an issue.

Don't expect your agent to suggest this plan for obvious reasons. Hope this helps some of you guys save a dollar or two.

Name:	Toni -	Reply
Subject:	Insurance
Date:	10/19/2016 2:25:46 PM

Different Insurance Companies use different methods to determine rates based on fire coverage.  Some companies (State Farm is one) use zip codes.  Some others use the ISO (Insurance Services Organization) rating of the local fire department.  For the last 3 years, our fire department has had an ISO "blanket" 4 rating. The higher the number, the worse the rating.  A 4 is very low!  This has meant a substantial savings in our Homeowners' Insurance. 

Name:	alatraveler50 -	Reply
Subject:	Insurance
Date:	10/19/2016 6:07:30 PM

That's for Alex City, right?  Wonder what it is for Dadeville, Tall. Co, Elmore and Coosa Counties.

Name:	Mack -	Reply
Subject:	One way to reduce
Date:	10/19/2016 6:41:27 PM

Lifer, My agent at that time advised me to do just that and saved me a bunch over the years. She therefore got ALL my insurance business, not just Lake Martin.

Name:	Lifer -	Reply
Subject:	Insurance
Date:	10/19/2016 7:03:28 PM

Dadeville is 6 or 7 and Jackson's gap is 7 also I think.

Name:	Lifer -	Reply
Subject:	One way to reduce
Date:	10/19/2016 7:17:39 PM

You found a good one then. I had to convince mine at the time,  but that relationship ended after six months. I gave them all my business,  two houses and four cars. Houses were annual but cars were 6 month policies.  After 8 or nine months it dawned on me I had not gotten renewals so I walked the two blocks from my business to theirs and ask the secretary who I dealt with the whole time.  She told me that my mail had come back as no such address. So of course I ask her what address she had and she told me whatever I gave her.  She pulled it up and said Diane Dr. I told her it is Daine Dr. And she said on yeah,  I remember when I put that in the computer she thought the letters were transposed and changed it.  Talk about furious.  Like I said I worked two blocks away, had known her for years.  We took some classes together at CACC several years before and were in a study group together at the time,  and to top it off I graduated high school with the actual agent. So I spent several months with my whole family driving uninsured. And to add insult to injury I had to pay extra to the next company because I was uninsured.  They didn't care what the reason was. Every since then I make sure I spell the address anytime I give it to anyone and sometimes it actually gets read back as Diane instead of Daine.

Name:	LSUboy -	Reply
Subject:	Boathouse insurance
Date:	10/20/2016 6:27:43 AM

 Boathouse question. I built my dock before a house.I had no dwelling to insure it under so I used my home policy in Ga as a policy to get the dock insured under my homeowners. If you have a house already,then you should be able to bundle it into your homeowners there. Not sure if this helped.

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	One caveat to this approach
Date:	10/20/2016 9:13:41 AM

One thing to look very closely at is the actual cost to rebuild a house from the ground up.  When I insured my primary residence they had an appraiser determine exactly how much it would cost on a per square foot basis (~$130 psf) to rebuild and I was shocked.  Then I started to look at comparable new homes and the cost per square foot (when you remove the cost of the land) was about the same as they came up with.  And the real shocker is the cost to rebuild is more than the value of the home and lot combined.  Not sure if these economics hold true in the Lake Martin area but it is worth a look.  So my strategy if my house were to burn to the ground is to take the insurance money and buy another existing home and sell my lot.  Just doesn't make sense to rebuild.

So my lake house is 3,200 sf in size which using $130 psf to rebuild comes to more than the house is actually worth in the current market, including the land.  If you go on google and do a search you will see Alabama costs range from $80 to $200 psf depending on the contruction quality.  Unless you are going to be your own general contractor you can expect them to add around $15 psf for their services. 

Name:	Lifer -	Reply
Subject:	One caveat to this approach
Date:	10/20/2016 12:19:22 PM

Good points, but think about insuring replacement costs plus the land value on Lake homes and it get pricey very quickly. On another note,  it's pretty much a given in our area that if one's house catches fire it will almost to a certainty burn to total loss. We should push for a couple to wide paid fire Dept to protect our investments. The AC city Dept budget and all the of the volunteer depts would be a big start to total funding. I know I would pay an extra mill or two on property taxes if it was earmarked for fire protection.  The current volunteer equipment and station could be utilized with some upgrades. The insurance savings we would receive would offset the increase in taxes. 

Name:	Toni -	Reply
Subject:	Insurance
Date:	10/20/2016 2:05:12 PM

Pace's Point VFD - Pace's Peninsula of Co.Rd 34 West, south of Dadeville.

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	One caveat to this approach
Date:	10/20/2016 2:52:45 PM

That's the crap shoot with homeowners insurance, right?  Do you set the coverage to pay for a complete rebuild and pay the extra premium or do you hedge your bets recognizing that in the event of a total loss you won't have sufficient funds from insurance to do a complete rebuild?  As you said, given the fire department situation a fire would probably be a total loss.  

A lawyer friend of mine's family had a home on Lake Burton that was in the midst of renovation when it burned to the ground.  The insurance did not pay for a complete rebuild so the family elected to get an additional loan to rebuild the house to meet their needs.  For them it made sense because home prices on Lake Burton are out of this world when compared to Lake Martin.  My home on Lake Burton would be worth three times what it is on Lake Martin, if not more.  So it made sense for them to make this investment but I'm not so sure for Lake Martin.

Name:	GoneFishin -	Reply
Subject:	Insurance 80%/20% Rule
Date:	10/21/2016 10:31:35 PM

Why it important to keep up with the replacement value of you home as stated in your homeowners policy.

"The definition of home replacement cost coverage states simply that “Replacement cost is the amount of money it would take to repair, replace or rebuild your home with materials similar to the kind and quality used in constructing your home”.

An important piece to replacement cost is something called the 80/20 rule. What this means is that your home must be insured to at least 80% of the determined replacement cost for your home in order for you to be fully covered. If you fail to insure your home for at least 80% of the replacement cost, your insurer will not cover the entire cost to rebuild the home and will even assess a penalty on partial loss claims."

Name:	roswellric -	Reply
Subject:	Insurance
Date:	10/23/2016 9:01:34 PM

Unless things have gotten crazy since I moved that sounds really high. I got much better rates with Geico. You don't have an agent to hold your hand but it was much cheatper than Allstate or State Farm with lower deducts.