Once you have your custom-built home, you need to ensure that you have it protected properly. This, of course, means the proper insurance coverage. Because you have a custom-built home, insuring the home is slightly different from insuring a “standard” property.
Replacement Costs
Because you have a custom home, the cost of replacing some items if they break could be far more significant than a standard home. You also need to take into account how much it would cost to have to rebuild the entire home in the event of a mass catastrophe, such as a hurricane or mass flooding. You should sit down with your insurance agent and builder to work out an accurate estimate for these costs.
High-value Home Insurance
Because the home is custom-built, you may need specialized insurance to ensure complete coverage. This is especially the case when you have luxury amenities in the home. This will require higher replacement costs over the standard insurance policy.
Itemized Coverage
You likely have at least once specialized feature in the home that will need to be itemized and extra insurance added. For instance, a gourmet kitchen or wine cellar. This inventory could be ever-changing in the case of a wine cellar as you rotate bottles in and out. Again, discuss this in detail with your insurance agent.
Liability Coverage
Did you add features such as a swimming pool or home gym to your custom-built home? If so, you need to add liability coverage in case someone is injured while using these features of your home.
Natural Disaster Add-ons
As we noted above, due to the special features of the home, you want to make sure you have full coverage, which means you may need special add-ons that are not included in standard insurance because of the location of the home. For instance, a shore community may require very specific flood insurance over and above the norm.
Reassessments
It is not unusual, even with a custom-built home, to have add-ons or renovations that take place over time. After doing an upgrade, it is imperative that you have the home reassessed so you can add the proper insurance coverage to ensure these upgrades have been covered.
Bundling
This is a great way to save money on policies. While you want to check other providers as well, always talk to your current agent about bundling home insurance with your other policies, such as auto and life, to get a better rate.
Document
If something ever happens and you need to cash in on that policy, you want as much documentation as possible. Receipts are a must, but so is video and photographic evidence of the items being insured, especially your itemized coverage. Take a picture of the items when they are brand new and store the video, photos, and receipts away from the property (a safety deposit box is a good idea). This way, in case something happens and you lose everything, you still have the proper documentation to ensure you are covered when it comes time to cash in that insurance policy.