If you are thinking about purchasing or building a log cabin home, there may be some things you need to know to have it properly insured. The cost to ensure a log cabin home is very similar to insuring a normal home, and will offer a lot of the same coverage. The bigger insurance providers will offer log home insurance, but other companies may not. The reason is that some insurance companies have little experience with log homes, or they decide there is not a big enough market to offer it with their insurance plans.
The process for getting insurance on a log home is about the same as a regular home, as long as the insurance provider offers that type of insurance. When choosing and insurance company for you log home, you should seek out multiple carriers in case one of them does not offer what you need. Finding an insurance company to cover the log home can be half the battle. You still need to go through insurers and find one that will offer you the best coverage for your money. Since the market for insurers that cover log homes is smaller, you may not be able to get everything you need out of your policy until you do some deep researching.
If you are planning to build your own log home with a kit, then there is insurance you can have while building the home itself. That way if something goes wrong when you are building the home, you will be covered for any accidents. Some insurers will offer coverage for a kit from when it is delivered to when it is finished. From that point they can issue a homeowners policy that is similar to a policy for a normal home.
When you purchase a log cabin with a mortgage the mortgage company will require you to have the insurance on the home so that their investment will be protected. Generally, the log home insurance required by the mortgage company will just be a basic coverage policy. However, some people will want more coverage to protect personal items if they are not already covered in the required policy.
You can research information on the different types of log home insurance to find companies that will offer more extensive coverage to keep all of your belongings safe. If you want to build your own log home from a kit, you should research and know what you’re getting into, so there will be no surprises with anything once you start.
I’m not sure that it’s always true that the cost for insuring a log home will be similar to the cost of insuring other homes. I just bought a log home, and the cheapest I’ve found after checking with several companies is about $1300/year. Obviously it’s not a direct comparison, but checking with other homeowners in the area, they all pay between $500 and $800/year. The agent I ended up going with said that she was surprised at the high cost as well, so she asked the underwriter about it, and was told it was because it was a log house. Once I found out that all the companies are quoting me that high, I did some internet research. I’ve seen articles and forum posts from several people that say their rates are about the same as for any other house, but I’ve also seen quite a few from people in a similar situation to me.
I’m not sure, maybe it depends on the area? Maybe in areas where log houses are more common, insurance companies don’t charge as much of a premium? The one I’m buying is in southern Indiana, just outside Louisville, and there really aren’t many log homes around here.