You’ve got your loan, you’re buying your house, and now comes the tricky question: how do I want to handle my house insurance?

If you have a mortgage, home insurance is not an option.  Even if your house is paid off, you still want to keep your insurance.  But there’s a fine line between making sure there’s enough coverage to replace your house without paying high premiums for that coverage.  Here’s a few tips.

*Have a higher deductible.  This will lower your payments and save you money in the long run.

*Keep all your insurance in one place.  Have car insurance?  You’ll get a discount for keeping your insurance business with one agent.  Same goes for life insurance.

*Keep an inventory of your house’s contents, especially for big ticket items.  This includes any jewelry, furs or expensive electronics you possess.

*Make sure you insure those big ticket items.  Sure you want to replace the house, but you’ll want to replace the furnishings also.  Floors get mighty hard and cold at night.

*Make sure you let your agent know if you do anything to increase the value of your house, like a remodeling job, adding a pool or tacking on another room.

*Shop around.  You put a lot of time and energy into picking the house.  Give the insurance the same diligent consideration!

Now that the insurance is settled, time to sign the contracts and handle the big task.  Moving in.