Make sure you have replacement value, and read your policy. Many people were underinsured after the Cedar Fire, and could not rebuild their homes.
You need coverage for the dwellings only, not the land. If your home is worth $900K, then $600K is the dwelling. Insure that, at replacement value, with code upgrade coverage. When we rebuilt, we needed to do 10% of our construction in additional items, that were not part of the original house. New code for fire hydrant, fire alarm, fire turnout, sprinklers, roof, water tank, insulation, and much more.
Don’t get stuck with a 1-year cost of living policy. Allstate pays only 1 year living expenses, but it takes about 2 years to rebuilt. Heck, it took 6 – 8 months for the adjusters to finish their jobs, and then we had 2500 people trying to rebuild their homes at once. We were in rental housing for 2 years after the fire.
The best company: ZC Sterling. They were generous, paid promptly, and even raised our policy after we built a bigger house. Meanwhile, many people were cancelled by their insurer. As a bonus, they covered 150% of my policy! Plus they paid half my mortgage for 6 months, and threw in extra money for the cleanup crew after the fire.
Farmers was terrible to my neighbors. They refused to pay so many items. One neighbor had $10K in costs from mud falling in the pool. Farmers said they pay only a fraction of that for the pool. The deductible on landscaping meant they had to pay all the damage themselves. My two neighbors were very disappointed with Farmers.
