Are you 55 or older? Are you retired? If so, when you purchase a new home you may be able to qualify for lower insurance rates simply due to age. Insurance companies often provide what is called a maturity insured credit (basically an “age discount”) to people who are retired and insuring the home that is their primary residence.

The logic is simple: Retired persons are, on average, more likely to spend more time at home than younger people, and as a result are more likely to detect a problem like a broken water pipe, smoking electrical panel, chimney fire, etc. The sooner those problems are caught the less damage typically occurs – and the less the insurance company may have to pay on a claim.

By the way: If you will work from your new home, like in a home office, ask about a discount. The more you’re home the more quickly you can catch a disaster in the making.