First time buyer home insurance explained

Buying your first home can be a daunting experience and with a million and one things to do; it’s easy to overlook the basics. However, no matter how hectic things get it’s essential to arrange the right home insurance; otherwise if things go wrong you could be left seriously out of pocket.

Recent research has thrown light on the lack of understanding amongst first time buyers surrounding certain aspects of the purchasing process. Nearly half of those questioned admitted they hadn’t budgeted for buildings insurance when calculating costs and a third were unaware that buildings cover was needed to get a mortgage.

When it came to getting an insurance quote over half ‘guessed’ vital property details and more worrying still one third arranged cover with inaccurate details. Estimating rebuild costs proved a common area for misunderstanding with a quarter of first time buyers simply using the purchase price. 

It’s an expensive mistake to make as rebuild costs are usually significantly lower than the property price and that means lower insurance premiums. An accurate calculation of your property’s rebuild costs should be included in your surveyors report.

First time buyers often assume their mortgage provider is best-placed to arrange home insurance, and are surprised to find how easy it is to find great deals elsewhere. As with all financial products it’s important to shop around and if you choose a reputable broker they’ll do all the hard work for you.

While buildings insurance is a prerequisite to get a mortgage; contents insurance provides a cost-effective way of protecting your possessions against fire, flood and theft. Buying your first home can be financially taxing and nearly half of those questioned didn’t have contents cover, saying they either couldn’t afford it or they didn’t need it.

Again the figures point to an unfortunate lack of understanding, and perhaps if first time buyers knew that the average home contained £55,000 worth of contents and the average policy cost just under £2.50 a week, they might think differently.

If you are a first time buyer looking for a great deal on your home insurance, you’ll have to go a long way to beat Quoteline Direct. With over 45 years’ experience we’ve got access to some great deals and our experienced consultants can help with any tricky questions.

[Source: http://homeinsuranceindia.tumblr.com/post/132662311452/first-time-buyer-home-insurance-explained]