Buying your first home and getting your first home insurance policy

It’s an adventure when you go out to buy your first home. I’ve bought a few houses since I’ve moved to California and I learned something new each time. Are there always surprises along the way? Heck yeah! But your home insurance shouldn't be one of them.
I bought a total fixer upper for my first house. The house had good bones but overall it was a dump. The walls and ceilings were all tobacco yellow. The house smelled like an ash tray. It was dirty, the pool was green, cloudy and I'm sure infested with mosquito's.  The prior owner had also put a dog run by the ac unit which meant that all the lines and hoses had been used as a place to pee or poop. Everything was dated to the 1960's. Did this stop me, hell no! Should it have given me pause, heck yeah! But, I was convinced the nice sized lot, the pool and the bones of the house were good so why not buy it and make my own.
After buying the house I spent the first few days putting a thick coat of primer on everything, tearing out all the floors and getting an exterminator in to kill all the uninvited friends. The exterminator was so helpful, he actually told me the roaches that were living in the house don’t really like being inside. So, I guess that was good to know. After about a week of working on the house it was finally habitable. I would still wake up early to pick up dead roach bodies but at least it had new floors paint and was clean.  
I spent every weekend working on that house. And it became a beautiful little cottage style home by the time I was done. I learned a lot fixing up that house. I literally touched every square inch of that place inside and out. Good thing it wasn’t too big.
One fun thing I learned involved how the dishwasher drained. I always wondered why the water from the dishwasher would shoot out the air valve. It seemed like an odd fountain effect. I only later realized the prior owner had never knocked the plug in the garbage disposal out. So instead of draining through the disposal and down the pipe it would shoot out above the sink and into the drain that way. The things you learn along the way.
The same can be true for home insurance. This is a subject that you don't learn in school. You are kinda on your own to figure things out. And when escrow tells you need to get a home policy you get online and look for a company to call. Hopefully, you find an agent that will do a good job explaining what your insurance options are and what the coverage does for you. There are a lot of options that you can add to a home insurance policy. Since we were talking about water squirting out of the sink above there are several optional water coverage's you can add to your Homeowner's policy. Water Backup is an available option. It comes in handy if your drain line to the street gets blocked and water backs up into the house and floods. Another option is Water Seepage. That would cover if a pipe or ac unit slowly leaked water and caused rot to your home. Basic water coverage is included with your home insurance. An example of that would be you are hanging a picture and you put a nail through the water line. The sudden discharge of water is covered under your policy. But those other two options are not standard. In my case say the water instead of going in the sink shot behind the cabinets and got into the drywall. I could have filed a claim under home insurance because that would have been a sudden and accidental discharge of water. Fortunately, I never had to do that.
Insurance can be complex but working with a professional they will help explain what your options are and work to get the best policy that fits your specific needs. Find an agent that will spend the time to tell you what the coverage does for you so that you can learn how the home insurance policy works. Call me at 951-395-0754 if you are buying a home and need some insurance.