Home insurance advice?

[Desolet]

I am in the process of closing on my first home, and while doing so was put in contact with some different insurance agencies through my buying agent. I was given some really low quotes by a few insurance companies I have never heard of before, one of which I am really considering.

Basically I was wondering what advice others could give me on what type of home insurance they have had experience with and any pointers in picking out the actual agency I will go with. The one particular insurance agency I am looking at (Unitrin - anyone ever heard of this?) quoted me at a total insurance price of 115 a month for 2 cars and our home combined - that's only 3 dollars more a month than I was paying through State Farm for JUST our auto insurance.

Is there any major setbacks in going with a smaller agency compared to a larger one other than not having the convenience of more office locations?

[Mr Bacon]

I find cardboard boxes much cheaper than actual housing.

[Chidoro]

Is there any major setbacks in going with a smaller agency compared to a larger one other than not having the convenience of more office locations?

I don't know, solvency?

[Sirensa]

My home insurance is through State Farm, same as my car. Was just easier and I didn't shop around. Have had the house for 7ish years and haven't needed to file a claim yet, so while it's working fine, I wouldn't know if it wasn't. I've readjusted the amount once since getting it to account for increase in property value + personal property value.

[Voronwë]

go to http://www.ambest.com and find the rating of Unitrim (or whatever).

DO NOT BUY INSURANCE from a poorly rated company. where will they be in 10 years if you need to make a claim? Go with highly rated companies (A++ or whatever). You house is your single number one investment at this stage in your life. Protect that investment with the priority it deserves.

what if a tornado comes through and destroys tons of homes in your area, and they can't make the payments. they go bankrupt?

being price concious on insurance is one thing. being cheap is another. you can still get good rates by pitting insurers against each other and you should.

also you dont have to insure the total purchase price of the house. if the square of land costs $100K and the cost to rebuild the house is $200K, you only need $200K of insurance. Even if you paid $300K for the house.

now that approach would fuck you if the earth opened up and a hole swallowed your house and your lot was unbuildable, therefor unsellable. you tell me what the chances of that are =).

[Chidoro]

What Vor is trying to say is, just cover your ass with someone that can afford the losses, even if they're catastrophic. Bill and Ted's ins co. may not have the reserves to cover such situations even if they're required by law to do so. Think about it, a number of companies can just pick up and close shop when they have no reasonable out yet still run business, hold parades on 5th avenue, etc.

Short of being in a flood zone (50 year and under), home insurance is pretty reasonable.

As someone who is closer to being a FSA (even though I stopped persuing that career some 10 years ago) than the majority of insurance estimators, just cover yourself. If that take riders, than do it. My wife has her engagement ring and a watch a gave her on riders. We aren't going to fuck around with over 20k of potential losses

[Boogahz]

Keep in mind that most Homeowner's policies don't cover floods!

[Mr Bacon]

Volcano Insurance?

[Truant]

now that approach would fuck you if the earth opened up and a hole swallowed your house and your lot was unbuildable, therefor unsellable. you tell me what the chances of that are =).

I smell a summer blockbuster in the making!!!

[Chidoro]

Keep in mind that most Homeowner's policies don't cover floods!

Actually, I don't think any homeowner policy covers floods. Flood insurance is federally run and mandated in certain risk areas. It's also about five times as expensive than most standard P & C policies.

[Bubba Grizz]

We've been in our house for just over a year now. We went with the company that handles all our car insurance and previously our renters insurance. We did this mainly because they tend to offer discounts the more you do business with them.

[Neost]

State Pharm here also. Same reason's Bubba cited pretty much. Had auto insurance through them for years, then added renter's and eventually home owners. Discounts have piled up pretty good for having multi-vehicle and home owners.

They got into the banking and investment business some time back and I think there are discounts you can get for doing banking and/or investment with them. Not really sure since my agent is an oily smoozer. I typically only talk to him when he wants to try to sell me some new service.

Oh, and there was that one time that he threw the amount of the fire claim in my face after I told him to stop trolling for more business from me.

Y'know, now that I think about it, it may be time to change insurance...or at least agents.

[Boogahz]

Keep in mind that most Homeowner's policies don't cover floods!

Actually, I don't think any homeowner policy covers floods. Flood insurance is federally run and mandated in certain risk areas. It's also about five times as expensive than most standard P & C policies.

I didn't say all because there are some carriers that do provide Flood Insurance. I only know that because I used to work for a Mortgage company and had several people in the Carolinas that didn't have their own coverage and had to settle for the FEMA coverages. There are not many carriers that provide it though.