Homes or houses are the biggest investment choices an average middle-class individual might make in a life-time. Naturally, it becomes the most important thing in anyone’s life and maximum care has to be taken to protect this prized possession. Hence, a family home insurance policy is utmost essential for all those who care for their homes.

This policy protects the home owner from many disasters like burglary
Fire, flood, earthquake, storm, cyclone, terrorism, riots, explosion, lightening etc,

Home Insurance, as the same suggests, covers homes belonging to individuals. It has a little bit of personal insurance coverage too and covers almost all of those things pertaining to one's home like the contents of the home, the structure and sometimes even pets. There are also options like covering your house when you are out of station and other such covers as one finds appropriate. The premium would be a factor of the amount it actually takes to reconstruct the house, in case of structure and the cost of replacement of the contents of the house.

The home owner is required to take out an family home insurance policy to cover for any possible damage not just from the cover point of view, but also as a mandatory requirement by the creditor or the banker who would obviously not want the home to be damaged at least until the total credit on the asset or property is paid up. There is also an option for the automatic pay-up of the left-over credit to the bank, with regards to the bank loan on the said property, in case of a severe disability or death of the individual.

Like most other policies in the general insurance or non-life insurance genre, Home insurance policies are a term contract, they are valid for only a certain time and the individual who is taking the contract is not mandated to renew the policy unless he took the policy as a requirement to fulfil his home loan or mortgage requirements. The insurance company charges a 'premium' to have the risk associated
with the property upon itself and is usually less for cases where there is little probability that something is bound to happen to the property in question.

The first step in determining how much insurance you will need is to make an analysis of the value of your home (excluding the value of your land) and your personal property within it. In determining the value of your home, you must calculate how much it will cost to replace it if your home were totally destroyed. You can enlist the help of your insurance agent in determining this figure. In fact, most insurance companies make a physical inspection of your home when they first insure it. Using formulas that take into account whether your home is of brick or wood frame construction, total area, number of floors, number of rooms, etc., the company will be able to give you an accurate replacement cost value.

As a consumer, you should realize that insurance companies compete for your business on the basis of price, quality and service and use various marketing methods, such as the telephone, mail, television advertising, Internet Web sites, agents or sales offices, to make you aware of their products. Many insurers use independent agents to sell their products. An independent agent may represent one or more licensed insurance companies, and when you deal with an independent agent, you are, in effect, dealing directly with the company.

There are many insurance companies with different options providing family home insurance policies. Careful selection of the right kind of policy is necessary, as it involves lots of things to be considered.