Category: Home Insurance

As the seasons change, so do your home’s maintenance needs. Keeping up with these tasks can help you avoid unexpected insurance claims. At Ingram Insurance in Cheraw, SC, we want to ensure your home stays safe and sound all year round.

Spring: A Fresh Start for Your Home

Spring is the perfect time to inspect your roof for any damage from winter storms. Check for missing shingles and clear out gutters to prevent water damage. Thoroughly cleaning your home’s exterior, including windows and siding, can also reveal any necessary repairs.

Summer: Keeping It Cool and Secure

In the summer heat, schedule a professional service to ensure your air conditioning system is in top shape. Trim trees and bushes away from your home to reduce the risk of storm damage. It’s also a good time to check for cracks in your foundation that could lead to water intrusion.

Fall: Preparing for the Cold

As temperatures drop, ensure your heating system is ready for the winter months. Have it inspected and serviced to avoid breakdowns. Clean out chimneys and fireplaces to prevent fire hazards. Inspect and seal any gaps in windows and doors to keep your home energy-efficient and cozy.

Winter: Prioritizing Safety

Winterize your plumbing by insulating pipes to prevent freezing and bursting. Regularly check for ice dams on your roof, which can cause leaks and water damage. Ensure walkways are clear of ice and snow to prevent slips and falls.

Protecting Your Home

By taking these preventative steps, you can reduce the risk of damage to your home. For more tips on protecting your property or to review your home insurance policy, contact Ingram Insurance in Cheraw, SC. We’re here to help you safeguard your home.

Homeowners in Cheraw, SC, are not legally required to purchase home insurance. That said, if you hold a mortgage on your home, your lender will mandate that you maintain home insurance until the loan is paid in full.

What are the Requirements?

The requirements for a mortgage loan can vary depending on your lender. However, nearly all lenders require you to have replacement cost coverage. This type of insurance policy ensures that you will receive compensation for rebuilding a house that has been destroyed by fire, natural disaster, or vandalism. Your lender will likely also specify a deductible limit for this policy to ensure that you are not risking a substantial out-of-pocket expense.

Many lenders also necessitate liability coverage. This covers you if a visitor to your property experiences an accident or sustains property damage. If you have "hazards" such as a pool or trampoline, the liability insurance cost is typically higher than a more "safe" property. Once again, your home lender will likely determine how much liability coverage you need to prevent the financial burden in the event of a lawsuit.

Reach Out to Ingram Insurance for More Information About a Home Insurance Policy

To secure a mortgage loan, you need to meet the basic insurance requirements laid down by your lender. While minimal coverage protects you to an extent, it’s worth exploring other options to ensure your home is fully safeguarded in the event of an unfortunate occurrence. At Ingram Insurance, we pride ourselves on aiding Cheraw, SC homeowners in understanding various home insurance policies and selecting the ones that best cater to their needs. Connect with us to explore more or get policy quotes.

Whether it’s an old or new home in Cheraw, SC, you will need home insurance coverage. However, you may wonder if your newer home comes with home insurance considerations specifically because it’s a newer home. At Ingram Insurance, we want you to make an informed home insurance choice. To that end, here are a few things to consider regarding home insurance for newer homes.

Why Newer Homes Might Have Different Insurance Needs

A newer home typically involves improved, modern building techniques, safer construction methods and materials, and a likely increase in safety-based technology options. All these things can affect an insurance premium.

For example, modern building techniques can mean an inherently safer structure or capable of dealing with extreme weather conditions. You may expect your insurance premium to decrease somewhat in such a case. By contrast, adding technology to the structure can increase its value, potentially increasing the insurance premium.

What Matters When It Comes to Home Insurance Coverage

Your premium will depend on a host of other factors far beyond the year of your home’s construction. For example, does your home have amenities that create liabilities? Swimming pools and outdoor kitchens add value to a home but can also add more potential risks. Then, there are the typical considerations such as location, size, and personal belongings to cover.

Ultimately, the amount of home insurance coverage for a newer home will depend on your personal needs, unique situation, and goals. Just as an older home may have specific insurance coverage needs, so does a newer home. However, in both cases, those needs will depend entirely on a full suite of considerations, not just the property’s age.

Work with a reputable insurer to find the coverage options most suitable for your home and your budget. If you’re looking for home insurance for a newer or older home in Cheraw, SC, contact Ingram Insurance today.

Many home renovations can impact the value of your property and increase or decrease the cost of your current homeowner insurance policy, while others may not have that much of an impact. Ingram Insurance in Cheraw, SC is here to help you navigate your options. 

Here are four popular renovations that may affect your insurance policy:

1. Increasing the Square Footage of Your Home

Regardless of its intended use, adding living space to your home increases the square footage and its replacement value, which is a factor in your property’s value. Your homeowner’s insurance cost is likely to rise in accordance with the amount of the addition’s new square footage.

2. Adding Major Outdoor Installations

Many of life’s most memorable moments are spent in the backyard where you can be stress-free and enjoy privacy. Two additions that are often called “attractive nuisances” can pose certain safety risks, especially for children. Two of the most common backyard additions are swimming pools and trampolines, both of which are likely to increase coverage costs.

3. Installing a Security System

Homes with security systems (either monitored or unmonitored) enjoy greater protection from criminals and increase the owner’s peace of mind. Burglar alarms, water leak detectors, steel doors, and deadbolts can help lower home insurance premiums.

4. Renovating a Bathroom or Kitchen

Kitchen and bathroom remodeling are two of the most costly home upgrades owners can make and be both risky and challenging to navigate. Making certain that you have proper amounts of insurance coverage in place can minimize any unexpected issues or mishaps that arise during the project.

Call Your Agent About Home Upgrades & Your Home Insurance Policy

Before making renovations, you can contact your insurer about potential policy increases or decreases, but you definitely need to let them know immediately afterward to ensure you’re covered. Let us be your home insurance provider of choice at Ingram Insurance in Cheraw, SC.

When you are a homeowner, it’s important to have home insurance from the day you buy your home. It’s required for many people to keep a policy. Any lender will have you get this insurance and keep it. HOAs and other community organizations may also require it. When you have home insurance, it protects you in various ways against the many risks your home and belongings may face. When you are in need of a home policy, call us at Ingram Insurance in Cheraw, SC. 

Home Protection

One of the biggest ways that home insurance protects is by giving protection to your home against many different accidents and incidents. Specific disasters and calamities can happen to a home and cause it a great deal of damage. This can be extremely expensive to get fixed if you don’t have a home insurance policy. If you do have home insurance, the policy can take on the repair bills. This can save you an enormous amount. 

Items Protection

In addition to protection for your home, this insurance also supplies protection for the items you have in your home. The coverage protects your belongings against the same type of damaging events that it protects your home against. It can pay for replacing your items so you can get back to your life again after so much damage has happened. 

Liability Protection

These policies also have an amount of coverage for liability. This covers you against medical bills and other costs if someone has an accident on your property. Those medical bills and other expenses, like lost wages, can be high. Don’t go without the protection you need to pay those bills. 

Get Your Home Insurance Policy

When you need home insurance, don’t wait. Call us at Ingram Insurance in Cheraw, SC to get started. 

If you own a home, you need home insurance. Insure your home in Cheraw, SC with the insurance coverage we offer at Ingram Insurance.

There are plenty of good reasons to carry home insurance.

The following are four reasons why carrying home insurance is a priority:

You have to carry home insurance.

Most homeowners are required to carry home insurance because they are paying off their mortgage loans. If you still owe money on your mortgage loan, you have to carry home insurance. 

Your home is your most valuable possession.

You have to invest a lot of money in owning a home. In fact, a home is the most valuable possession of many consumers. That’s why consumers need to insure their homes and protect their value to keep themselves in good financial condition.

Being uninsured is a cause for concern.

You could be leaving yourself at risk of financial problems without home insurance. It can be stressful to own a home, but carrying home insurance can help to minimize the risk. Homeowners can enjoy peace of mind if they carry home insurance. 

You face liability risks as a homeowner.

Homeowners shouldn’t assume that they’ll never face a lawsuit due to an accident in their home. Lawsuits are more common than you may expect.

Home insurance is important for covering any costs you incur as a result of a lawsuit against you. If you don’t have home insurance, you’ll have to pay out of pocket for all these costs. 

Reach Out To Us

Get in touch with us at Ingram Insurance to get the home insurance coverage that you need. We’ll provide you with a quote for coverage on your home in Cheraw, SC. 

Your home insurance policy needs to be reviewed on a regular basis. Just as you change over the years, your home insurance needs change as well. At Ingram Insurance in Cheraw, SC we are here to help with any questions you have about your home coverage. 

When your policy renews 

When your home policy renews, it is the perfect time to take a look at your declaration page and make sure that all the figures make sense. Is your deductible right? Do you have the endorsements you need to protect you against things your policy might exclude? All the figures will be right there for you to look at. 

When you make major changes

Have you made any major changes to your home? Added square footage, added another bathroom, finished the basement or attic? All of these can increase your square footage and increase the value of your home at the same time. Give your insurance carrier the information they need to give you the coverage that is right for you. 

When your income changes

It is one of Murphy’s laws that the more money you make and the more assets you have, the more people will sue you for. If your income has risen significantly since you took out your home insurance policy, consider upping the liability coverage and maybe consider an umbrella policy. 

When your liability changes

Have you added a swimming pool to your home?  Gotten your kids a trampoline? Found a four-legged friend you can’t live without? These are all things that can raise the risk of your being sued and needing more liability coverage. Talk to your insurance agent asap. 

Reach Out To Us!

Contact the office of Ingram Insurance in Cheraw, SC and let us help you to review and make adjustments to your home insurance coverage. 

It’s important to secure the proper insurance for your property so that, in the event of an unforeseen circumstance, you may receive the reimbursement you need. Homeowners insurance is not a requirement under Cheraw, SC law, but your lender will usually require it until your balance is paid. 

What Types of Hazards Does Homeowners Insurance Commonly Not Cover?

Flooding is a common occurrence that can be devastating to your foundation and frame, creating vast water damage and eroding the structural integrity of your home. This hazard is one that was covered in decades past, but that became too expensive for insurance companies to continue including. 

There is now a national program that handles situations involving flooding, and your Ingram Insurance representative can help you obtain specific indemnification to protect against these events. Mudflow can also potentially fall under your flood insurance hazards. 

Earthquakes are another peril that will need its own separate dedicated policy, particularly if you live within the state of California. This is categorized under the movement of the earth and can also extend to situations like sinkholes.

Residents of other states besides California can sometimes purchase an add-on or an endorsement, but it is nevertheless a coverage type that cannot be assumed to be part of a standard homeowners policy.

Other problems that are usually exempt are overflowing sewage systems or sump pumps and malfunctions that occur due to owner neglect. Rot and mold as well as insects and pests, chewed wires, termite infestations, and rusting are, likewise, often outside the scope of coverage. 

Ingram Insurance Can Help You

We are specialized in providing superior insurance products and services to our clients, and we invite you to reach out to us by phone, internet or stop by the office to discuss your needs. Ingram Insurance serves those who live in and around Cheraw, SC. 

South Carolina regularly incurs hurricane damage and although Cheraw, SC lies 102 miles inland, the winds and rains of hurricanes still reach it. We just don’t incur the wrath of tidal surges.

Does my home insurance cover hurricane damage?

Your home insurance covers wind damage, but you may want to check your policy to ensure it provides enough coverage. Your policy protects your financial investment in your home by insuring it against damage from named perils, such as hail, fire, etc. This differs by state, so if you recently moved to South Carolina from a state that required a separate hurricane insurance policy, you only need your home policy in SC.

A hurricane includes wind, tidal surge (flood), rain, lightning, and frequent hail. Your home policy protects you financially against damage from all of those perils except the tidal surge flood. (That’s a rising water flood and only covered by flood insurance.)

The damage from a hurricane can include water damage though. Let’s say a tree gets struck by lightning and falls on your home. It knocks a hole in your roof that allows rain to enter. This type of water damage from a hurricane your home policy does cover.

At Ingram Insurance, we encourage home buyers about to become homeowners to buy their policy before June, when hurricane season begins. If you already own your home, think about increasing your insurance coverage before June, so you can better protect yourself financially through the hurricane season’s end in November.

Give Us A Call

Contact us at Ingram Insurance serving the Cheraw, SC area to learn more about hurricane coverage in your homeowners’ policy. We’re happy to answer your questions and help you obtain or update your home insurance so you can viably protect your financial investment in your home.