Homeowners Insurance Recommendation

[PerryChase]

Year after year, I’ve been facing big homeowners insurance increases. Does anyone have any recommendation on inexpensive but good insurance companies?
Thanks in advance.

[sdrealtor]

I’ve always used the AAA (i.e.auto club). Good claims resolution for autos, good service and reasonable/stable rates

[Critter]

AAA is good but won’t insure houses of a certain age (last I checked it was homes built before 1950 but that could have changed). I went with State Farm, had auto with them so got a multi-line discount. You might want to check with your auto insurer, or perhaps change your auto insurance once you find a home insurer to get a better rate on both?

USAA is great if you have that military affiliation.

[no_such_reality]

PC, what kind of policy do you have?

Replacement cost? Market value? or Defined value?

If you have replacement cost or market value, you big increases correspond with the big increase in underlying replacement or value. Keep in mind during the boom, cost per sq ft of construction went through the roof too.

[PerryChase]

I have replacement cost. Everyone I know has had large increase in homeowners insurance in the last few years. That’s prompting me to look around rather than just paying the renewal policy.

[mrquoi]

We did all our insuring (house, car) through State Farm, but recently switched to the maximum deductable to lower the costs. It made a significant difference. I’ll probably use them for Renter’s Ins. if they offer it.

[powayseller]

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.

[PerryChase]

powayseller, thanks for the ZC Sterling recommendation. I checked them out and they’re much lower than Farmers. I’ll go with ZC Sterling.

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