Kitchen islands...

When it comes to home improvements, there are few things that are requested more often than kitchen islands. Having a kitchen island can totally change the way that you work in your kitchen, and in some cases they can even add new functionality that you might not have had before. Because they’re such a hot commodity in a lot of homes, having a kitchen island in place can even increase the value of your home if you decide to put it on the market!

So what makes for a good kitchen island? Long gone are the days when a kitchen island was just an additional surface to set things on while working in the kitchen. If you’re thinking about installing a kitchen island of your own, here are a few things you could consider adding to it to make it a modern, functional island.

Cooking Surfaces

Many modern kitchen islands contain burners, full stove tops or other cooking surfaces. Some even contain griddles or electric grills, giving you cooking options that your standard cook top might not offer. This both allows you to cook in different ways and gives you more surfaces and heat sources to work with when you’re fixing a large meal. Depending on the design of the kitchen island and the specific cooking surfaces added, you can either give the island an electric connection or hook it up to an existing gas line.

Island Appliances

Cooking surfaces aren’t the only things that people include in kitchen islands. You might also see appliances such as ovens, mini refrigerators or dishwashers included in the island as well. In some homes you might see less common appliances included as well such as a steamer, warming bin or wine cooler. If there are electrical outlets built into the island, you might also include countertop appliances such as a stand mixer, toaster or can opener.

Kitchen Prep Areas

One common reason for installing a kitchen island is to add a prep station to the kitchen that is separate from other kitchen surfaces. This can involve adding additional features, such as a small refrigerator to keep prepped items cold until you’re ready to cook. Some must-haves for a prep area on your kitchen island include a sink and some form of cutting surface. Ideally the sink should be deep enough to wash vegetables and other food items and should have both hot and cold running water. The cutting surface can take a variety of forms, though butcher block is a popular option. Having a rack or storage for cutting boards and possibly a built-in knife block are also popular options.

Additional Storage

If there’s one thing that almost every kitchen needs, it’s more storage. Your kitchen island can help with this, giving you a place to add additional drawers, shelves or cabinets. Spice racks or other ingredient storage is also a popular option to add. If you want to make the most use of your kitchen island space, you can also add a hanging rack above your kitchen island for pots, pans and other cooking items.

Stow-Under Seating

Some people want to be able to use their kitchen island as a place to enjoy a quick meal, especially at breakfast or lunch. Stools or other small seating options that store under a lip on the kitchen island can make this happen, providing easy access seating that stores out of the way when not in use. A seating space can be added on top of other features, typically by letting the side of the island that faces away from the main kitchen be used for seating while the interior-facing side is more functional.

Ready to Build Your Island?

If you want to find a pro to build your kitchen island or hook up your various fixtures, trust in HomeKeepr. Sign up for a free account today and start connecting with the professionals who can make your dream kitchen island a reality.

Top things to do to prepare your house for sale

When you put your home on the market, you obviously want to get as much as you can for the property. A lot of things can affect your home’s value, including many items that are largely out of your control. That’s not saying that you can’t do anything to bring the value up before listing your home, however. In fact, there are some things that you absolutely need to do before you even think about sticking that “For Sale” sign in the yard.

Depending on what city, county and state your home is in, there may be code requirements you need to address before you’re allowed to list or sell your property. On top of that, however, here are five fixes that you can make to help get the most from your home when you sell.

Water Stains

If you’ve got water stains on the ceiling or walls, they tell potential buyers that there are leaks somewhere. It’s possible that you already took care of the leak, but a buyer isn’t going to know that, and will likely assume that there’s still a nasty surprise waiting for them somewhere. You obviously need to track down the leak and repair it, but after that’s done you should do something about the water stain as well. Don’t just slap a thin coat of paint on them and call it a day, either; take the time to do it right so that the stains don’t reappear.

Slow Drains

If you have slow drains in your home, this can be a big red flag for some home buyers. They might ask about the plumbing, or even want to run more water to see what the water pressure and drains are like everywhere else. To head off potential problems it’s important to do your best to take care of the issue. In many cases it’s a relatively easy fix, though there are some causes of slow drains that will take a plumber to straighten out. Still, the effort you put into it now can result in a higher selling price once someone buys the house.

Switches and Outlets

People don’t want to buy houses that have electrical problems. If your switches or outlets look discolored or beaten up, this can lead people to assume that there are problems even if there aren’t. Take the time to replace any damaged, discolored or malfunctioning switches and outlets, along with any non-working fixtures or “mystery switches” that you might have around the house. Even if it’s not a very big job, it can have a major impact on how potential buyers view your home.

Trip Hazards

Are there any loose bits of carpet or wood on your floor that you’ve learned to just step around? Fix them before you have people in to look at the house. You might have gotten used to them, but a potential buyer won’t be. They’ll see potential tripping hazards as something they’ll need to fix, and they’ll negotiate the price down as a result.

Walls and Ceilings

Are your walls drab, dull and damaged? Take the time to fix any holes or dings before you list the house. A little bit of drywall repair can go a long way, and this can be a perfect time to update the look of your rooms with a fresh coat of paint as well. Don’t neglect the ceiling either, since those little issues that you’ve learned to overlook will stick out like a sore thumb to potential buyers.

Need Help?

If you have some repairs to make before listing but don’t know where to start, HomeKeepr can help you find the pro you need to get your home in tip-top shape. Sign up for a free account today to find pros in your area that come recommended by people you know and trust. They’ll get your home ready to sell and won’t cost you an arm and a leg to do it.

New Trends in Outdoor Kitchens

Outdoor kitchens have been popular for years. Not only do they give you an excuse to enjoy beautiful weather outdoors but they’re also great for entertaining. Having a nice outdoor kitchen can even improve the overall value of your home! While these kitchens were once thought to be a fad, they actually seem to be getting more and more popular as time goes by.

If you’re thinking of adding an outdoor kitchen to your home, you might be wondering how to make sure that your new kitchen fits with the current trends in outdoor kitchen design. While the final decision comes down to you and your tastes, here are a few hot trends to help form the design of your new outdoor kitchen.

Rustic Looks Are King

Once upon a time, outdoor kitchens were little more than blocks of brick and mortar with an oven or grill built in. Now they’ve really grown, and their overall look has grown as well. One of the really popular trends in outdoor cooking spaces is to give them a rustic or even semi-rustic look; brick and stone still play a part, but so do aged wood and similar accents like corrugated metal. Brick flooring and rustic whitewashing are also fairly popular, as they give the whole kitchen area a very part-of-the-home feel.

Semi-Outdoor Chic

While some outdoor kitchens are completely separate from the home, one growing trend is to build them into a covered deck area or other space that connects to the home. Adding a bit of roofing and a few partial walls or supports capitalizes on the outdoor feel of the space while still giving you a bit of privacy and control over the space you’ll be cooking in.

Accessible Food Prep

When outdoor kitchens first started becoming popular, the usual approach was to do all the food prep inside and then bring things out to cook. Over time, though, homeowners have shifted toward wanting to do some if not all of their prep outdoors as well. This means that modern outdoor kitchens provide access to counter-space, butcher block cutting boards that are built in to the surface, and other prep-area essentials. They also offer up sinks and other sources of water, and many include mini-fridges to keep fresh ingredients cool until they’re needed as well. Some outdoor kitchens even come equipped with dishwashers to provide beginning-to-end cooking solutions!

Pizza Ovens Remain Popular

A lot of outdoor kitchens got their start as an excuse to install brick pizza ovens, and these outdoor ovens remain popular today. The types of pizza ovens that people want have evolved a bit, however. While you’ll still see plenty of very basic brick pizza ovens, clay ovens and more traditional gas or electric ovens are also gaining popularity. The type of pizza oven you choose depends largely on personal preference, just so long as there’s a place for you to cook a pizza out there somewhere.

Outdoor Storage

One other major trend in outdoor kitchens is an increase in available storage space for various tools and other kitchen implements. Some of these spaces are simple, with shelves or reclaimed crates as a place to hold items temporarily. Others are much fancier, including “windows” attached to the house that open to reveal service settings and everything else you need to enjoy a good meal outdoors. There are lockable storage solutions, open-air storage solutions and just about everything else that you can think of available. Basically, it’s a good idea to include all the storage that you would want in your regular kitchen when building a kitchen outdoors.

Building Your Dream Outdoor Kitchen

Are you loving the idea of an outdoor kitchen but aren’t really sure where to start? Let HomeKeepr help! Sign up for a free account today to find a contractor who can take your outdoor kitchen dreams and build them into reality.

Automatic Attic Vents-How Do They Work?

Keeping your home cool in the summer and warm in the winter is one of the big goals of most homeowners. There are a number of ways to do this, including upgrading the windows to more energy-efficient models and performing seasonal maintenance on heating and cooling systems to keep them operating at peak condition. One thing that’s often overlooked however is the influence that attic temperatures can have on the temperature of your whole house.

You may have seen suggestions about installing automatic attic vents to help regulate the temperature in your attic. Is there something behind this, or is it just another upgrade to your home that provides very little benefit? You might be surprised at how effective automatic attic vents can be.

Hot Attic, Cold Attic

It’s pretty common knowledge that hot air rises. The question is, where does all that hot air go? If your attic isn’t well vented, it can build up within the attic itself and increase the temperature of your attic space significantly. The problem with this is that future hot air won’t really have anywhere to go, causing it to linger in the house itself for longer. This is great if it’s the middle of winter and you’re trying to keep your house warm, but you can see how it might be a problem during the heat of summer.

You can run into the opposite situation as well if you have open vents in the attic. Heat can escape more easily, but if it’s cold outside you’ll find all that heat escaping much faster than you would like. This in turn causes heat within your house to escape faster, making it harder to stay warm in the depth of winter’s chill.

Regardless of the situation you find yourself in, the end result will be the same: higher energy costs to keep your house cool in the summer or warm in the winter.

Proper Attic Venting

Attic ventilation is part of the key to solving this issue, but there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. During the summer, you want open attic vents to expel heat and keep your attic as cool as possible. In winter, you want attic vents to be closed to hold heat in for as long as possible. You can open and close these vents manually as part of your seasonal preparations, of course, though this won’t be a perfect solution. The truth is, unless you open or close the vents to account for all the temperature fluctuations during the year, you’ll still be losing money to unnecessary heating and cooling.

Automatic Attic Vents

This is where automatic attic vents come into play. These vents are connected to thermostats (and sometimes even humidistats) to monitor the condition of your attic and open or close the vents as needed based on what things are actually like in the attic. If the temperature goes too high during the summer or if it becomes too humid, the vent opens and lets that unwanted heat and humidity escape. If temperatures drop, the vents close to prevent outside heat from coming in. The opposite happens during the winter, keeping the vents shut to keep warm air in your attic.

Some automatic vents function as simple ventilation units, possessing little function beyond opening and closing. Others include connected fans to force air in or out of the attic to even greater effect. Regardless of the vent type you choose, however, adding one to your attic can make a notable difference in how warm or cool the attic air gets during the year.

Installing New Vents

If you want automatic attic vents but aren’t sure where to start, HomeKeepr has your back. Sign up for a free account today to connect to pros who can install the automatic vent unit that will be the best fit for your current attic setup. All you have to lose is all of that unwanted energy waste.

Should you hire a house cleaning service?

Cleaning up around the house isn’t a task that a lot of people enjoy. It can be especially harrowing if you have a big family or just have a schedule that seems constantly packed. There are probably times when you’ve thought that it would be so much easier to just hire somebody to come in and do the cleaning. And you totally can! There are a number of cleaning services that can provide you with the cleanliness and sanitation you require. The question is, should you hire someone?

There are several factors that can go into the decision to hire a cleaning service. If you’re not sure whether you actually want to call in a cleaning service or not, here are a few things to consider.

How Much Cleaning Is Needed?

The first thing that you should consider is exactly how much cleaning there is to be done. If you only have a small amount of cleaning that’s needed at any given time, there may not be much of a benefit to not just doing it yourself. If you need more cleaned up, though, the benefit obviously grows with the workload.

How Often Is Cleaning Needed?

Another factor in how much of a benefit there is to hire a cleaning service centers around the frequency with which cleaning is needed. If you find that you really only need things cleaned up once every month or two, that probably isn’t an insurmountable task and there’s relatively little benefit based on frequency. If your home could use a good cleaning every week or possibly even a few times a week, however, there could be a huge benefit to hiring it out.

Of course, this should also be weighed against the amount of cleaning required; needing a significant amount of cleaning once a month might still provide a strong case for hiring a cleaning service. Even if cleaning amounts differ, such as one large cleanup followed by periodic maintenance cleaning, the overall benefit could still be substantial.

Do You Have Time to Clean?

The amount of free time that you have can affect the degree of benefit you’d see from hiring a cleaning service. If you’re constantly busy and have very little free time, having someone else do the cleaning would provide a significant benefit. On the flip side, if you find yourself with hours of time in which you don’t have anything to do, you could put some of that time toward cleaning tasks; this would reduce the benefit of hiring a service.

Can You Afford a Cleaning Service?

After you have an idea of how much benefit there is from hiring a cleaning service, compare that against the cost of bringing cleaners in. Look up prices or request quotes from some cleaners in your area to figure out how much of a financial burden the cleaning service would be. You might even want to develop a few different cost models, figuring out how much it would cost to bring them in weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or even on demand.

Should You Hire a Cleaning Service?

Once you have both your approximate benefits and costs figured out, it’s time to compare the two and make sure that there’s enough benefit to justify the cost. If the cleaning service would cause you a financial strain, then there would obviously have to be a substantial benefit for you to hire them. If it would be easy enough to fit their services into your budget, however, the requisite benefit to make it worth your while will be much less. Comparing these two factors will make your decision much easier and can provide insight into how often and to what degree you’ll want their services as well.

Finding the Best Cleaner for Your Needs

If you decide that you do need a cleaning service, you’ll obviously want to get the best one in your area. HomeKeepr can help! Sign up for a free account today and find a cleaning service that will do a great job for a great price, based on the recommendations of people just like you.

Debt Consolidation

If you’re carrying around a lot of debt, the number of payments and the various interest rates you have can make managing it quite difficult. Some people choose to get this under control through debt consolidation. By consolidating your debts, you can reduce multiple items to a single payment with a single interest rate, making your finances easier to manage. Before rushing into debt consolidation, though, it’s important that you take the time to understand exactly how it works and what its benefits are.

Consolidating Your Debt

As its name implies, debt consolidation is the process of combining multiple debts into one that is (theoretically) easier to make payments on. Debt consolidation can even combine different types of debt such as loans and credit cards into a single debt. At its most basic, debt consolidation establishes a new loan or line of credit and then uses that to make payments against the other debts to pay them off. This leaves you with a single remaining debt. Depending on how you manage your consolidation, though, there may be a few differences in your experience.

Consolidation Loans

Taking out a loan to consolidate debt is one of the most common forms of debt consolidation. These loans are typically pretty straightforward, since the borrowed money is used to pay off existing debts and you simply need to pay off the loan after that point. In some cases, you may even be able to piggyback debt consolidation on top of a loan taken out for a purchase, borrowing extra to pay off existing debt. Just be sure to check with your lender to make sure this sort of use is okay before borrowing the money for it.

Credit Card Consolidation

Credit card consolidations typically occur when taking out a new card, using balance transfers to consolidate your existing balances to a single card. This is especially useful if the card has an introductory interest rate such as a 0 percent APR for six months or some other promotion. The theory remains the same, however; instead of having balances across multiple cards, you have only one balance to focus on and pay down.

Debt Management Programs

Though not necessarily a true “consolidation”, debt management programs are another way to get debt under control. These programs can negotiate with debtors, allowing you to make payments on a negotiated schedule without worrying about late fees and other costs piling up. You may have restrictions placed on you such as not being able to take out additional loans, but you will have the advantage of not having to work through getting your debt under control by yourself.

The Effects of Consolidation

Debt consolidation can have a major impact on your financial health, both improving your credit score and helping you to pay down your existing debts faster. It can also save you time and money, since you’ll only have one set of interest charges instead of multiple to keep track of. Best of all, most forms of debt consolidation won’t have a negative impact on things like buying a house since there isn’t a special classification to the loans or transfers in most cases. Even debt management won’t necessarily interfere, since its restrictions are usually focused on unsecured loans instead of secured ones like a mortgage.

What to Watch Out For

There are a few things that you should be careful of when looking into debt consolidation. Perhaps the most important is to avoid getting yourself even deeper in debt once you pay off the balance of your credit cards or other lines of credit. The goal is to pay off what you owe, so hold off on using your cards again until you’re more financially stable. You should also watch out for predatory lenders and fraudulent debt consolidation companies that will charge you a significant amount for things that you could manage on your own for free.

Is Consolidation Right for You?

If you aren’t sure whether debt consolidation is right for you, HomeKeepr may be able to help. Sign up today for free and get in touch with loan experts who can advise you on getting your finances in order without having to sacrifice your big dreams like owning your own home.

Staging Your House to Sell

If you’re planning to sell your house, proper staging can make a huge difference. It’s important to keep in mind that tastes change over time, though, and the staging techniques that were popular when you bought the home might not impress buyers today. If you really want to get the most value out of your home when you sell, it helps to employ staging that will appeal to buyers in the current housing market. Fortunately, there are many ways you can stage your home so that it draws in modern buyers. The goal is to help them see your home as a place they could inhabit and fill with their own style, and these suggestions will help you to achieve this even if tastes have changed since you last decorated your home.

Maximize Your Lighting

A lot of modern buyers are looking for function as well as form when they’re looking at houses. One example of this comes in the form of good lighting. Make sure that the windows are clean and that your window dressings allow natural light to come through. Check that you have sufficiently bright bulbs in your fixtures, and double check that none are burned out. You might also consider adding spotlights or other accent lights in places like the kitchen and bathroom where the potential buyers might want additional light. If you really want to wow people, you could even install smart bulbs that can be controlled from a smartphone or smart speaker.

Keep It Earthy

Color trends change over time. At the moment, warm colors are hot. When staging your home, work with accent colors such as chocolate, olive green, beige and wine to tie your various decorations together. This will add splashes of warm, earthy color that’s neither too bright nor too dark. As an added benefit, these shades go well with a wide range of wall and floor options, so you can add some nice earthy accents without having to completely redesign your home beforehand.

Touch Up the Walls

If your walls are too mild or too wild, consider adding a fresh coat of paint before you get ready to sell your home. There are several colors that are popular right now, including a number of shades of blue, gray and green. You can usually get away with some light pink and gold shades too, as well as the occasional off-white. You don’t want anything too bold in most rooms, just something that will give a bit of color to the room. But feel free to skew a little darker if you’re painting a bathroom or bedroom.

De-Personalize the Place

You may have heard that it’s a good idea to make your home look lived in, since that can help potential buyers see it as an actual living space instead of just a showcase. This isn’t bad advice; having some unique decorative items and other accents can really help buyers to picture their own stuff in the house. Just make sure that you take out anything that’s overly personal, like family photos, items with your family name and other keepsakes. Leave your decorations a little sparse, too. The goal is to inspire potential buyers and help them picture where they would put their belongings and their own pictures, and it’s hard to do that if there are pictures of your family everywhere or decorations filling every available space.

Finding the Right Look

If you’re not exactly sure how to stage your home, don’t be afraid to bring in a bit of professional help. HomeKeepr is here to help you with that, too. Sign up for a free account now and you’ll be on your way to finding the decorator or professional stager to assist you in getting just the look you need to really make your buyers want to sign.

February newsletter

Happy Valentine's Day!

In the spirit of this amorous season, we have BIG news! Last month, our very own Thea Charnas was taken on a surprise trip to Cleveland (her hometown) where her boyfriend Michael proposed to her on their college football field surrounded by family and friends (hiding in the stands) as he got down on one knee in an empty and quiet stadium with the lights shining bright and asked her to marry him! We couldn't be any happier for Thea and Michael!! Her ring is stunning! They are planning a wedding for this summer. When you see Thea next, be sure and wish her congratulations!! She is SO excited...and so are we!!

We hope this finds you off to a great start for 2020-The Roaring 20s! February is an interesting and eventful month in many ways-between the palindrome 02-02-2020, which apparently hasn't happened in over 900 years...to this being a leap year and we get an extra day on February 29th...to Groundhog Day and we find out if we will have 6 more weeks of winter...to Valentine's Day...to President's Day...to Black History Month...and let's not forget the Super Bowl! Whew! That is a LOT going on in one month!

Speaking of the Super Bowl, did you watch? Do you care? If you did watch, it was quite the game until the end. And, let's not forget the incredibly controversial halftime show! The ads, which is always a favorite didn't seem to be as funny or memorable this year with two notable exceptions for me: 1) the Jeep commercial with Bill Murray and Groundhog Day and 2) Ragged Old Flag. Did you see those? What did you think? Hopefully, if you placed any wagers, the fates were shining upon you. :-)

Kylie is doing great and keeping our team running smoothly. She tracks everything and is doing a great job ensuring we are hitting our goals and providing higher and higher levels of service.

Patti has been working hard on some new marketing programs for our clients and referral partners. We are always looking for new ways to provide value to our clients and referral partners. Look for a cool video campaign where we spotlight some of our most recognized referral partners so you can learn more about them. They keep us looking good for our clients! Patti has also been hard at work studying for her real estate exam. It is a LOT of classwork and studying, but she is doing great and is looking forward to being the 4th licensed team member.

Jack and Mary Anne helped us celebrate Tali's 10th birthday last week. It is hard to believe both of our kids are in the double-digits now! She is doing so well in school and has been doing great competing at the next level up in gymnastics. She still practices 4-days/week and loves every minute of it! Ana is loving Guerin High School! It was quite a change from Westfield High School, but she only attended 1 trimester there before transferring to Guerin. She is working harder now than ever before, but is enjoying her new friends and a much smaller school. Brigid has been doing quite a bit of traveling for her job lately and we are always happy to have her home!

Steve will be headed to Dallas on Valentine's Day to attend the annual Keller Williams convention called Family Reunion. This will be the first time since he joined Keller Williams 7 years ago that he went, and is looking forward to it. It is 4 days jam-packed with seminars and workshops on how to improve your business and service to your clients. There will be a lot of ideas to implement upon his return! Steve also celebrated in November 20-years in real estate! It is hard to believe it has been that long. Time flies when you are having fun!!

The real estate market is already off and running! With the record-low inventory, houses in certain price ranges and areas are selling in hours with multiple offers already! The continued record-low inventory is the main issue stifling the real estate market right now. There just aren't enough houses on the market to satisfy the demand.

Steve attended a meeting with some of the heads of the largest real estate companies in the state speaking. They were all in agreement that 2020 would be another extremely strong year in real estate. They were predicting relatively flat growth, but that is flat at a very high sales pace, so not bad. More inventory would do wonders for our market. So, if you or someone you care about is thinking about selling this year, please give us a call. We have a unique marketing plan that has propelled us to one of the top teams in the city with one of the lowest days on market and highest list price to sales price ratio. We would love to show you how we do it! Call us at 317-573-1880.

Below, please find the December 2019 compared to December 2018 MIBOR market numbers. They are showing the effects of the low inventory with higher sales prices and low days on market.

Median Sales Price-UP 6.4% to $190,500
Closed Sales-DOWN 0.4% to 35,474 units
New Listings-DOWN 2.2% to 41,590 units
Pending Sales-Flat at 35,825 units
Days on Market-DOWN 8.3% to 44 days
Price per s.f.-UP 5.7% to $112/s.f.
% of Ask Received-DOWN 0.1% to 97.6%
Active Inventory-DOWN 11.1% to 5,695 units
Absorption Rate-DOWN 17.4% to 2.3 months

We are SUPER excited to announce that we have WON the Angie's List SUPER SERVICE AWARD for the 5th year in a row!! This is awarded to the top 5% of companies in each category. We are honored and grateful as your stellar reviews got us here. Please keep those reviews coming! They are most appreciated!!!

Happy Hour for February is Thursday, February 20th from 5-6:30pm at Matt The Miller's in Carmel. We would LOVE for you to join us! FREE drinks and appetizers and tons of laughs and good times. Please stop by, even if only for a few minutes as we would love to see you!

Are you or someone you care about thinking about buying a new home this year? If so, and especially if this is going to be your/their first home, please plan to attend our first Homebuyer's Workshop THIS Thursday, February 6th from 5:30-7pm at the Westfield-Washington Public Library located at 333 West Hoover Street. We will be walking you through the process of how to buy a home as well as The Top Ten Mistakes Buyers Make and How to Avoid Them. There will also be a lender there to answer any questions you may have. Come join us and bring your questions! We won't leave until every last one of them is answered! Bring your friends as everyone is welcome.

Thank you for reading this far! :-) We hope you enjoy your Valentine's Day and do let us know how we can help you or someone you care about, whether it is buying, selling, or building (yes, we help a TON of clients with new construction-both custom and production and you don't pay a dime for our professional services and advice!).

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Happy Valentine's Day!!

Your Friends in Real Estate,

Steve, Kylie, Patti, & Thea

P.S. Please don't keep us a secret!

Umbrella insurance policies

Insurance is important, especially for homeowners. There are a lot of things that can go wrong around the house, and having a good insurance policy helps to guard against unexpected problems or accidents that can occur. What happens when your homeowner’s policy isn’t enough, though? There are some instances where you may find yourself in need of a bit more coverage than your current policies offer. This is where an umbrella policy comes in.

Umbrella insurance policies provide you with additional liability protection on top of your existing insurance coverage. If you’re like a lot of homeowners, though, you might not be sure whether you need an umbrella policy and may not even know exactly what coverage it provides. If that’s the case, here is some information to help you decide whether you need an umbrella over your head.

What Is an Umbrella Policy?

Umbrella coverage is known by a few different names: personal umbrella policies, umbrella insurance and even umbrella liability insurance. Regardless of what it’s called, though, the coverage is designed to protect individuals from large liability claims and judgments. These policies cover some of the biggest causes of liability claims including bodily injury, property damage, landlord liability and similar situations. As the name implies, they are intended for personal claims and won’t cover liability due to contracts (beyond property rental agreements in the case of landlords) or business losses.

How Umbrella Policies Work

An umbrella policy acts as additional insurance coverage once the primary insurance liability limit is reached. For homeowners, this means that if someone is injured on your property or you face some other significant liability, the liability coverage in your homeowner’s insurance or other policy will be used to cover the cost first. If the liability is substantial and requires a larger payout than what your policy limit covers, the umbrella policy will take over to cover the additional amount.

It’s worth noting that umbrella policies aren’t just for homeowners. They can provide coverage over other types of insurance as well. Many homeowners also use umbrella coverage to protect against automobile accident liability as well, since a car accident could easily cause property damage or injury that exceeds the liability coverage offered by a lot of car insurance policies.

Why Get an Umbrella Policy?

Having the extra liability coverage provided by an umbrella policy is a good way to put your mind at ease. Not only does it ensure that medical and other costs that can result from accidents will be taken care of, but it also provides additional protection against lawsuits that might arise from those same accidents. This becomes particularly important if you own a fixer-upper or are in the process of slowly remodeling your home, since the little imperfections and other problems that you hope to eventually fix can increase the likelihood of accidents or other damage. While it’s possible that your existing insurance will cover your liabilities, the umbrella coverage gives you an extra layer of protection.

Is an Umbrella Policy Right for You?

Whether you need an umbrella policy depends on your current lifestyle, the home you live in, its state of repair and even the coverage limits of your existing insurance. In most cases you won’t be required to have umbrella coverage, unlike a homeowner’s policy or mortgage insurance often required by lenders. You should take the time to consider your situation, shop around for umbrella policy quotes and think about whether an umbrella policy will give you a little more security.

Finding Your Perfect Policy

If you decide that you need umbrella coverage, the next thing you need to do is make sure that you aren’t paying too much for the coverage that you get. HomeKeepr can help. Sign up for a free account today so you can find an insurance agent who has the perfect umbrella policy for your needs without you getting left out in the rain.