Homeowners Insurance

[racsan]

could you lower the insured amount? Even if it was worth more, Id think as long as its insured for the balance of the outstanding loan the bank wouldn’t care. Hope that doesn’t happen to us. We’ve been trying to pay more so this place is paid for in the next 10-12 years instead of 28 so we can retire.

 

[jballard81]

I just paid my premiums. Last year's home insurance was $1200, this year $1600.


I shop around every renewal. I hate it but it has saved me $$ almost every time. No such luck this year.

 

[Jim Oaks]

I'm going to see if I can have the amounts changed.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I'm going to see if I can have the amounts changed.

Definitely shop around.

 

[Jim Oaks]

I've always used an insurance agent that shops around for me.

 

[Rick W]

I've always used an insurance agent that shops around for me.

Agents earn a commission. If you go directly, you might save a couple bucks.

I just changed to Kin.

When they run the standard form 5 homeowners insurance (They all use form 5), possessions are a percentage of the house value. They’re also a big part of the premium. Even if you have replacement insurance, if you have a loss, they first pay the depreciated value. Then when you actually replace the item, they pay you the difference. If I lost it tomorrow, I wouldn’t go buy furniture at Macy’s, I’d go to Goodwill and buy some quality wood pieces and do a little refinishing. My point is, think about what you have, and look at the insured amount of the possessions, and maybe reduce that number. It made a big difference in mine.

The tax appraisal is usually lower than the actual sales appraisal. The insurance company uses the sales appraisal estimate. The insurance companies only have to insure the physical house, not the piece of land. The insurance amount should be what it cost to rebuild the house. Now, having said that, I had that when I got hit by the tornado, and what you don’t consider, is that you have to do 20 or $30,000 of demolition before you can rebuild. The rebuild cost on my house is probably 300 K, and the land is twice that. The garage is just a plywood box on two by fours, no finishing on the inside, probably 30 or 40 to rebuild it with a contractor. So I haggled with them a little bit, and I got the rebuild cost down. But you don’t want to squeeze too hard on that one. You can live without a couple extra pieces of furniture, but you can’t rebuild the house without the doors and the windows, roof and staircase…

And if by chance it ever catches on fire, and you can’t put it out in a minute, go to the best restaurant in town and have a seven course meal and think about whether you should call the police first or the fire department first, and once you decide, call them. I’ve dealt with a couple of half burned down investment properties, and it’s the worst nightmare…

Hope it helps

 

[Jim Oaks]

My policy is $3,116.00 and I checked online, and Progressive quoted me $1,806.00. I sent my agent an email to see what's up!

 

[sgtsandman]

So far my insurance has remained relatively stable. Property taxes on the other hand, have nuked my mortgage payment. I believe my payment was about what yours was at the beginning and now it's $1,100 a month because the local and county taxes have had a massive increases.

 

[Corey H]

I'm here in South Florida and not a home owner but work in condominiums on recertifying the safety of the buildings and the amount i have heard of insurance going up by double or even more is crazy. Their are buildings that have to assessment home owners for the increase. Some people here are selling and moving out just because of insurance.

On top of that when i got my renters insurance I went through 7 or 8 companies before one said they would offer it.

 

[Rick W]

My policy is $3,116.00 and I checked online, and Progressive quoted me $1,806.00. I sent my agent an email to see what's up!

FYI, Progressive and GEICO are extremely hard to deal with if you have a claim. You end up with a choice of having them lowball you or hiring a lawyer who ends up taking any difference anyway. That’s been my experience.

 

[Roert42]

My insurance company upped the coverage on both my house and my rental house this year, total premiums for the year went up a few hundred for the year.
With the cost of everything going up these days. I’m not even going to argue, for what equates to $30 a month or so.

 

[Jim Oaks]

I signed with Farmers today.

I changed Dwelling A to $170k and Dwelling B to $25.5k (was only $16k). Changed my % from 1% to 2% and my new premium is $1,109. My current renewal was going to be $3,116.00. My last premium was $1,600. So this new policy is actually $494 less.

Instead of it going going up $481 it should actually drop $41. Thank God!

 

[RobbieD]

It pays to shop around.

Why does everything have to be such a damn racket these days?

 

[Jim Oaks]

IDK. Other companies were valuing my house at $180k. Safeco (Who I was with) was the only one quoting me at $193k. Up from $161k. Maybe they were trying to earn back the $7k they paid out from my roof damage claim. That's the only homeowners claim I've ever had after paying probably $30k+ in homeowners premiums since buying my first house in the 90s.

 

[Shran]

Farmers was the company who doubled my policy over the course of 2 years. FYI. I have never had an insurance claim with any company.