A major investment for families and most people is the purchase of a house. Life's savings or major loans go into this investment and protecting that asset is a necessity. Home insurance coverage is one means of protecting your home. Choose a home insurance policy from the several available policies in the market. Getting the right home owners insurance is difficult. Most standard home insurance policies provide coverage for damage to your home and items in your house.

Cover is provided if damage occurs due to Fire, lightning, smoke, frozen pipes, Snow, Ice, and theft. The most common liability cover is around $100,000. You may need much more and some policies cover for medical payments and liability claim to their parties as well. You need to take note of valuable and other items that will not be covered by your home insurance policy. Diamond, priceless artwork and other valuable are not covered under house insurance policy. There are special insurance types that cover these valuables.

Are Calamities included? There are many reasons cited not to include calamities into home insurance. But the fact remains that calamities are major incidents and it is not profitable for the insurance company to include these in the policies or else they will have to settle claims for everyone which may result in them going bankrupt. However these are offered under special endorsements.

• Some home insurance policies exclude natural calamities. So do not be surprised if a flood or earthquake is not there in your policy statement. You need to get additional or separate cover for these events. Check with your policy to see that in the event of a calamity whether only the home is insured or even the house hold articles are insured.

• Calamities caused by humans are also excluded. Terrorism, damages caused by an act of war, nuclear accident is not covered under most home insurance policies.

Cover and choices
Getting the appropriate cover and finding the right insurance type is possible if you prepare a home insurance checklist and compare quotes to identify the policy good for you.

• Most homeowner's insurance policies are due to mortgage lenders requiring you to take a minimum amount of homeowners insurance. This minimum amount is usually an appraisal of the present value of the house. It is not the minimum cover that you should look at. You could consider purchasing replacement cost coverage so that your damaged property could be replaced. You could also consider finding out the cost of rebuilding your house and insuring it for that amount rather than the usual cover.

• Insurers value your property differently. One method is they give you a replacement value minus the depreciation for the years you own the item. The next method is replacement costs which pays you the present cost of the item if it were to be purchase today, so that you can replace the old one with the new one. If the second method is used the home insurance is costlier.

• Choosing a larger deductible will require you to pay this amount out of your pocket in the event of a loss. This will save on premium charges.

• Premium is also lesser if you have a safety system with fire alarm or fire resistant materials or even a fire hydrant close to your home.

• Premium is less if you have a home security system installed to prevent burglaries and alert you in times of emergency.

• Premiums will be still lesser if you get your other insurance needs by the same company. (For example: auto insurance)

• Lowest premiums are not always the best deals, Cover and other factors make the premium rates. Check with your state department to evaluate your insurance company and the policy offer.