What to Think About When Getting Home Insurance

Home insurance is a necessary expense when purchasing a house. A home or a house is a valuable investment, and it is important to protect it. Home insurance covers a number of different events, from natural disasters to theft. In the event a homeowner experiences any of these events, the cost of rebuilding the home or replacing the stolen items is not wholly the homeowner’s responsibility. Home insurance, in essence, provides a great deal of peace of mind to the homeowner. 

The Basic Requirements and Offerings

Anyone who has a mortgage is required to carry home insurance, so any home purchase will come with this requirement. Beyond this basic requirement, there are many different levels of protection. There is one level of protection that insures the home in the event it is burglarized or damaged in a fire. More protection is offered for additional expense and will cover problems such as those caused by ice and snow accumulation, or problems with the water heating or plumbing systems. These levels of protection can be as comprehensive as the homeowner wants, but it is important to remember that those who live in areas where floods or earthquakes are common will have to purchase separate insurance policies to guard against these disasters as standard home insurance does not cover these events.

Do Research Before Deciding

The process of choosing a home insurance policy will require the homeowner to make a list of all of the valuables in their home that they would like replaced in the event of a loss. Taking photographs of these items to document them is recommended. It is also important for the homeowners to familiarize themselves with the different policies that exist and to have a conversation with a knowledgeable insurance broker. If the homeowner finds that there is a good insurance policy available through their current auto insurance company, they can often get a discount by getting both insurances through one broker.

Questions to Ask

During this meeting with the insurance broker, the homeowner should find out as much as possible, including the process for reimbursement for those items claimed to be lost due to theft or disaster, the amount of the deductible, the rate of personal liability coverage, and the cost of adding on additional coverage. Learning about special circumstances, such as the potential for reimbursement if the homeowner needs to call Portland pest control, is also a good idea. It is also important to learn more about the customer satisfaction rates of the insurance company. Homeowners should find out about complaints filed against their insurance company through their state board.

Home insurance is a necessity, and purchasing it can be confusing. Homeowners should educate themselves about the amount of insurance they need, and find out which company can provide it at the lowest costs. It is important to be as informed as possible about what each insurance policy covers in order to avoid unpleasant surprises or unexpected expenses later on.

Pick the Right Domain Name for a Successful Website

Domain Names (Photo credit: ivanpw)

Having the right domain name can be exactly what you need to gain exposure for your online business and increase sales. A catchy or familiar online name can make it easier for customers to remember who you are and what you do. When they need to buy your products or services in the future, they will be sure to come back to you because your site is easy to find.

What's In A Domain Name?

Domain names can be important pieces of the SEO puzzle. What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the act of optimizing content to be found equally appealing by people and robots. Human readers want content that is worth sharing while robots want to find keywords and good meta descriptions that make it easy to rank your page high on the search results. By putting good keywords into your domain name, your site will be easier to find through search engines.

Domains Are Cheap To Acquire

The nice part about buying a domain name is that they are not expensive. In some cases, they will cost a penny per month or will be given away for free. If you are in the business of buying and selling domain names, you stand a good chance of finding a quality name, keeping it for yourself and then selling it when it becomes popular enough to fetch a high price. Buyers who are willing to pay top dollar include people who want to use their own name as their domain name or those looking to use hot search terms in their domain name to drive traffic to their site.

Your Domain Name Should Not Have Any Slang Or Misspellings

The last thing that you want to do is take a domain name that uses slang, misspelled words or poor grammar. This will only serve to turn off customers who may have been interested in buying what you were selling. Remember, you only have one chance to make a great first impression on your target market.

The next time that you need a quality domain to call your own, you can buy a domain at NetworkSolutions.com. It will only take a few minutes to make the purchase and get the site up and running.

The 5 Best Apps for Finding a New Home

House hunting is a long and difficult process, but it doesn't have to be if you're equipped with the right technology. With a smartphone and a helpful real estate app, you'll find your new home faster than you can circle the neighborhood in search of "For Sale" signs. With that in mind, here are the five best apps for finding a new home:

1. Trulia Real Estate (Free for Android and Apple devices)

Image via Google Play

The Trulia Real Estate app combines high-resolution indoor/outdoor photos, interactive maps, and adjustable listing filters to help you find the perfect home. It also has a convenient graphing feature that compares other home prices in the area. 

Not only that, the Trulia app provides users with GPS locations of recently sold homes, schools within the area, and a list of the nearest grocery stores, pharmacies, and restaurants in the neighborhood as well as real-time listing updates.

2. ZipRealty (Free for iPhone and Android)

Image via Google Play

With the ZipRealty Real Estate App, you can browse interactive listing maps, select houses of interest, and save all search results. As an added convenience, once you've found a house with curb appeal, the app provides one-touch access to local real estate agents. 

Another great feature of the ZipRealty app is it provides WalkScore results for every home you search. WalkScore rates the walk-ability of the neighborhood in relation to nearby restaurants, grocery stores, and other activities.

3. Houston Homes For Sale (Free for Android and iPhone)

Image via Google Play

The Houston Homes For Sale app provides accurate, up-to-date real estate information for the greater Houston area. So, when it comes to finding new homes in Houston, this app provides information on price, taxes, square footage, and estimated mortgages. 

In addition, the Houston Homes app makes emailing or texting listings to friends and family as easy as using the listing share feature. And, when you're ready for a walk through or have any questions, the "Call" feature instantly connects you to a Houston Home representative.

4. Homes.com Real Estate (Free for iPhone and iPad)

Image via Google Play

The Homes.com Real Estate app provides all the same great features as the other apps above, but it takes house hunting a step further with in-depth financial features. 

The app has a built-in mortgage calculator to help you decide whether your dream home is a reality. Likewise, Homes.com includes an instant credit check feature, loan pre-qualification applications, and monthly loan and interest payment information.

5. Rightmove (Free for Android)

Image via Google Play

Taking interactive house hunting to all new heights is the Rightmove app. This app not only incorporates Google's Street View as built-in feature, but when you do find that perfect home, you can share the listing with friends and family via Facebook and Twitter. 

Another great Rightmove feature is the floor plan view. With this feature you can get a feel for the home before you even walk through the front door by viewing full-screen, up to date floor plans as well as property lines. 

When it comes time to find the perfect home, a multitude of listings are only a search away with the apps above.

Sources: http://appcrawlr.com/app/search?topic=house+hunting&topicId=1

Author Bio:
Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including real estate and family.

Save Money Simply: Tips on Finding the Best Online Coupon Codes Fast

Amy's Kitchen Freebie Coupons (Photo credit: iateapie)

As you probably know by now, taking a little time to get organized can save you a lot of money. At first, activities like coupon cutting or searching for coupons online, may seem like a waste of time; but the truth is, coupons can actually cut your expenses by at least 25%, and who doesn't want to save 25% or more. That could be lunch! Haven't you seen the reality TV shows where the coupon lady ends up spending $0 amount of dollars for hundreds of dollars worth of groceries? I'm sure most of us don't want to go to that much trouble when collecting coupons, but we do want to save some money, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to use easy-to-find online coupon codes.

What Are Online Promo Codes?

These are coupons, just like the ones you find in the newspaper, but virtual. Meaning you don't have to cut them out and take them to the store. You just copy the code and place it in the coupon code box offered by the retailer where you shop. Retail businesses use these codes to promote their business and bring in more traffic.

Where Do I Find the Best Promo Codes?

According to a report offered by Good Morning America, all it takes to find substantial savings for online retail stores is a search on any of the search engines. Visit websites like Google, Yahoo, Bing or any other search engine you prefer and type in the term coupons to get a list of sites with thousands of different coupon codes.

Specific Searches

Conducting generalized searches for coupons is fun, but probably not the most practical way to search for coupon codes for a particular store. In this case, you want to be more specific in your search. For example, you might type in the name of the retailer, followed by the term coupon or promo code. So if you were looking for a discount for Target, you would search for the term, "Target promo codes," or "Target coupon codes." A large list of promo code websites will appear. Then you would click on any of these and browse through the available codes for that retailer to find the one you want.

Specific Websites

Once you realize coupon codes save you a lot of money, and don't require a lot of effort to find, you'll want to keep a few of the best coupon code websites in mind when you make future purchases. Select a few good coupon websites and bookmark them so you can access them quickly the next time you shop online.

Bottom Line

Before placing an order, make it a habit to look for a good coupon code. You may not always find one, but when available, you can save on shipping or on the overall cost of your purchase. All you have to do is find the code, copy it and paste it in the coupon box located at the retailer's website, usually on one of the checkout pages.

Jeremy S is a personal finance consultant. He shares his tips on saving money by blogging for a wide range of money and lifestyle sites. Click the link to save with Upromise.com.