Help Me W/ Renters' Insurance

meltoine

We have a personal property policy with USAA currently for $25,000. I'm wondering if we need more. We have a second Valuable Personal Property for my jewelry and H's big computer. How do you estimate the value of all your stuff? Do I really have to look up the value of every.single.thing. we'd have to replace and add it up? Plus, I have some other stuff that would need to be appraised (antique crystal, antique trains, etc). With the TX wildfires getting closer to us, I'd like to be prepared.

MrsOjoButtons

When we rented, we estimated our property to be $34,200. We did write an inventory and take photos, not just for the insurance, but as proof of ownership/condition for all the household goods/TMO moves we do.

ericandmarie

We have our renters insurance at $35,000 and also have valuable personal prop insurance for my jewelry and his guns. Do we have $35,000 worth of stuff in our house? Not likely, but I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry and the payment monthly isn't much at all. I know that wasn't much help, but I just went through a list of the 'big items' in my head and how much they cost and went from there. 

meltoine

MrsOjoButtons:

When we rented, we estimated our property to be $34,200. We did write an inventory and take photos, not just for the insurance, but as proof of ownership/condition for all the household goods/TMO moves we do.

Good point. I've been meaning to take photos of our important stuff since so much of it didn't come back from Cairo. 

shan87

We have $30,000 but that does not include valuable jewelry. Which reminds me we should up it since we put some serious $ into a new TV.

 

From what I understand is they will give you the used value of the item, not necessary what you paid for it, but most the of time they will give you what it would cost to get that same item again (not an upgrade). 

blueshirt2003

Whenever I was discussing the value of different things the USAA rep didn't say to look up anything. They said "If you had to buy what you lost in a fire/flood/whatever today, how much would you pay". That was a good starting point.

Then, go room by room figuring up the various things.

 

crownsuperstar

blueshirt2003:

Whenever I was discussing the value of different things the USAA rep didn't say to look up anything. They said "If you had to buy what you lost in a fire/flood/whatever today, how much would you pay". That was a good starting point.

Then, go room by room figuring up the various things.

 

 This is what I did.  The USAA person was so helpful!

Kendraish

MrsOjoButtons:

When we rented, we estimated our property to be $34,200. We did write an inventory and take photos, not just for the insurance, but as proof of ownership/condition for all the household goods/TMO moves we do.

 We did this too and ended up raising our amount too.  But I can't think of the amount off the top of my head, but add up all your big ticket items. 

ragavkasi

All you need is best renters insurance that covers your belongings. The landlord insures the dwelling. Life insurance for homeowners is an extra that pays off the house if the owner should pass away. It does not apply to rental property.

ragavkasi

All you need is best renters insurance that covers your belongings. The landlord insures the dwelling. Life insurance for homeowners is an extra that pays off the house if the owner should pass away. It does not apply to rental property.

LuluP82

Don't forget about things like clothes... we have quite a bit of renter's insurance, and a giant itemized list of everything, including approximate replacement value of clothing. I have a pretty extensive professional wardrobe that would be expensive to replace, and would interfere with my ability to do my job.

Our insurance covers replacement value, not used value. Our list has the replacement value of everything.

I did have a necklace stolen, and we did receive the replacement value of it, not what we paid for it.

The whole reason we have renter's insurance is that we want to be able to replace all our stuff if something bad happens...not just the TV and computer, but everything else we own.