"It's difficult - and expensive -- to find insurance for my log home. Why is that?"

Here's the situation: Log homes are often considered to be specialty construction by the insurance industry. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that log homes have unique construction and repair considerations. That translates into costs that may be above and beyond those associated with modern, conventional home construction.

It's also often the case that log homes are in rural or remote areas where such structures are allowed. That can mean longer response times for firefighters, who may have fewer capabilities than an urban or suburban fire department. All of that means that your homeowners insurance may be more expensive or harder to find.

And these challenges are not unique to log homes, by the way. These same challenges often apply to other specialty structures, such as domes, wood/earth mixed construction, subterranean structures (looking at you, old missile silo owner...), and some types of experimental construction.

Here's our advice: If possible, before you buy one of these types of homes, or decide to finance and build it yourself, please be sure to talk to an insurance agent about the availability of coverage. This can be very important, because if you have a loan on the home, your lender will no doubt insist on proof of insurance coverage in order to protect their interest in the property.