Not all home insurance policies are created equal nor are they priced the same. While anyone can legally own a home with out it, your mortgage lender probably won’t grant you a mortgage without you purchasing it. Home insurance protects your investment in the event that disaster –such as wind, fire or volcanic eruption – strikes.

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Standard homeowner policies usually cover:

Structural damage to the home
Pays to repair or rebuild the home if damaged by any of the disasters listed in the policy (which won’t include earthquake and flood unless purchased separately). Don’t base rebuilding costs on the price you paid for the home, nor include the price of the land when estimating coverage. You’ll need an insurance amount sufficient to rebuild at the going rate of construction in your area. This amount can be estimated by multiplying the home’s total square footage by the square foot cost of local construction-- numbers that can be gathered from building associations, realtors and insurance agents.

Loss of personal items
This includes up to 70% compensation for furniture, clothes and keepsakes that have been stolen or lost due to disaster. Keep an inventory of possessions (on video if you’d like) and store it safely off-premises.

Liability
Financial protection against third party bodily injury or property damage you might cause. Court costs and damage awards are usually covered up to the policy limit. This coverage typically begins at about $100,000, but most experts recommend carrying at least three times that amount. Check into umbrella policies. These provide broader liability coverage and higher compensation limits.

Additional living expenses
This coverage picks up your hotel bills, restaurant tabs and other miscellaneous expenses should you be forced to live elsewhere while your home is rebuilt or repaired. But prior to purchasing a policy, take time to ask about time frames and the specific limits of what is and isn’t covered.

Homeowner policy costs are determined by many factors, such as square footage of the house, neighborhood crime rate and how prone your neighborhood is to natural disasters. The level of coverage also makes an impact.

When buying a new policy or renewing a current one, you will want o obtain quotations from a variety of insurance company agents and independent brokers. When dealing with independent brokers, it is important to know which companies they represent and where they place most of their business. It can pay to consult brokers who represent different groups of companies as well as agents employed by individual insurers and also companies which sell direct to the public.