Your home is your safe haven, the place you can go that is all yours to escape the chaos of the outside world. But just how safe is your home? There are always risks in life and in your home, there are plenty of serious risks to consider. Many risks you can prevent or even eliminate entirely. Keeping your home in good repair with regular maintenance will help you identify potential life-threatening issues such as faulty wiring or loose railings. Don’t leave poisons where small children can access them. Make sure you have working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors on every level. Invest in a good home security system…the list could go on and on. Check out this quick video about home safety or, download the SafeWise Home Safety Checklist.

If you are purchasing a new home, or you have lived in yours for a long time and it’s well overdue for a “checkup”, I would HIGHLY recommend you hire a home inspector. Some of the most serious environmental hazards and risks in real estate are lead, asbestos (which causes mesothelioma), carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, radon (second leading cause of lung cancer), and underground storage tanks. A qualified inspector can check for all of these as well as any maintenance items that pose safety risks. How much will a home inspection cost you? Use this tool by my friends at Heartland Home Inspections to determine the cost based on any additional testing you would like to do.

Thanks to modern technology, you can quickly and accurately check on your property’s (or a property you are considering buying) risk for a wide variety of concerns, many of which are insurable. I’d love to introduce you to some tools I use personally as well as those I recommend as a real estate agent to my clients. Get ready to deep dive into your home’s risk factors!

Online Risk Assessements

First, let’s start with some general searches I love a lot. The first stop is with Young Alfred. They offer a free risk assessment that is completely free and fast. All you need to do is input an address and BOOM! A sample report of my home is shown below. To check yours, visit: https://www.youngalfred.com/risk

Another one I love that is completely free and only requires an address is RiskFactor. Here’s what their report looks like for my home.

You can check your property by visiting: https://riskfactor.com

Radon Risk Assessments

To learn more about Radon, what it is, and why it is so dangerous, check out this blog post I wrote Radon: What Is It And Why Do We Care? Remember, an online assessment is NOT a substitute for a radon test that is done correctly.

Interactive radon map for Minnesota

Interactive radon map for Wisconsin

Fires, Mold, Theft, Flooding, Tornados, Hail, and More: Is Your Home At Risk?

CrimeGrade.org has a helpful “heat map” for researching areas based on property and violent crime and is also completely free and doesn’t require any registration. Search areas by visiting https://crimegrade.org

Nothing is ever completely safe and that, my friends, is why we have insurance. It’s important to find a good balance between having enough insurance to protect yourself, your assets, and your family, but not more than you can afford. You’re not required by law to have home insurance, but banks do require it as a condition of your mortgage. Home insurance can help you protect yourself from enormous financial loss. It can also help cover the cost of paying for bodily injury to others or damage to their property.

But not every risk is covered. Learn what is not covered on a standard homeowner’s policy here. Your best bet is to check with a local insurance agent who specializes in the area in which you live. They will have the latest tools, tech, and info on what risks are most important to your home to cover. Find a local insurance agent here.

That’s it for this week!