Home Owners Insurance

[jiveturkey]

Does anyone have any good recommendations for home owners insurance?

I use USAA for our cars but they're $1000 a year more than our current insurance on the home side. It's still something I'm willing to consider though. We've been with the cheapest for a while (SafeCo) and I'm slowly realizing that cheap isn't the way to go.

[RedandGold]

As someone who lost his home in the Joplin tornado, and has had friends and neighbors go through the same, State Farm and American Family are the two companies that really stepped up down here. The people that I know with Shelter have had a terrible time dealing with them, and they all plan on switching after everything is settled.

We have AAA for our home, and they have been more than fair even though it took a while to get the contents settled. We also have State Farm for our Auto Insurance, and they have been oustanding. If AAA hadn't taken care of us after the tornado, we would have taken on the extra cost and switch the homeowners to State Farm as well.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by RedandGold

As someone who lost his home in the Joplin tornado, and has had friends and neighbors go through the same, State Farm and American Family are the two companies that really stepped up down here. The people that I know with Shelter have had a terrible time dealing with them, and they all plan on switching after everything is settled.

We have AAA for our home, and they have been more than fair even though it took a while to get the contents settled. We also have State Farm for our Auto Insurance, and they have been oustanding. If AAA hadn't taken care of us after the tornado, we would have taken on the extra cost and switch the homeowners to State Farm as well.

A good point. Look up the AM Best financial rating of the insurers you're looking into. Especially for homeowners. I believe there are several smaller insurers that are struggling to keep their promises after the recent string of disasters. You want to know your insurer has the financial strength to be prepared for the absolute worst.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

A good point. Look up the AM Best financial rating of the insurers you're looking into. Especially for homeowners. I believe there are several smaller insurers that are struggling to keep their promises after the recent string of disasters. You want to know your insurer has the financial strength to be prepared for the absolute worst.

well, this may sound odd, but you probably don't really need to check AM Best ratings unless you are in Florida or if you get insurance from some obscure company that you have never heard of before. Every major insurance company is A or stronger. Many are A+. If it is A rated, you are good.

If you live in Florida and want hurricane insurance, you will probably not be able to insure your home with an A rated insurer, or even a B+ insurer (unless you are grandfathered in to a big insurance company that has closed itself to new business). In Florida, at least try to find someone with a B- rating.

[alnorth]

I'm bored, so I'll look most of the big home insurance companies up now. Keep in mind that an A rating is good enough to pay out claims even for a year that is the worst hurricane/earthquake/storms/snow/wildfire combined year in modern american history, anything higher is essentially for bragging rights. An A++ company might get wiped out by a freakish one in 100,000 year type of biblical disaster.

A.M. Best rating (not including Florida subsidiaries if they have one).

Company - rating (outlook, which basically means probability of a one-notch downgrade next year)

Shelter - A (stable)
Nationwide/Allied - A+ (negative)
Travelers - A+ (stable)
State Farm - A++ (stable)
USAA - A++ (stable)
Safeco - A (stable)
Allstate - A+ (stable)
Hartford - A (stable)
American Family - A (negative) (huh, didn't think I'd see this, one big insurer might slip into A-, which is still pretty good)
Liberty Mutual - A (stable)
Chubb - A++ (stable)

[Rukdafaidas]

Originally Posted by RedandGold

As someone who lost his home in the Joplin tornado, and has had friends and neighbors go through the same, State Farm and American Family are the two companies that really stepped up down here. The people that I know with Shelter have had a terrible time dealing with them, and they all plan on switching after everything is settled.

We have AAA for our home, and they have been more than fair even though it took a while to get the contents settled. We also have State Farm for our Auto Insurance, and they have been oustanding. If AAA hadn't taken care of us after the tornado, we would have taken on the extra cost and switch the homeowners to State Farm as well.

I live in Joplin as well. We didn't have any claims from the tornado, but know a few that did. My sister-in-law has had some problems with State Farm. They have asked that she itemize everything that was in her house, down to the spices in her cabinet. After working her tail off to complete all of the forms, they came back and offered half of the amount that she was insured for to deduct for depreciation. After 4 months of negotiations and hiring an attorney, they came to an agreement.
Meanwhile, a good friend of mine that lived next to the high school had his insurance adjuster come out days after the tornado and wrote him a check for the maximum coverage...pretty much no questions asked, no itemization, nothing. My friend was thrilled at the check amount. He had American Family and said he would never switch.
I currently have State Farm and I'm thinking about switching to American Family after all of this. The people around here are definitely learning about insurance coverage.

[SLAG]

I have Shelter and when I lived in JOCO I had my home owners with them (now I rent the house and its not full homeowners but covers the house but not my tenants stuff from what I understand) and I still do.

They replaced my roof when I asked them to come check out the gutters and were very helpful and worked with me quite a bit when a pipe burst in my house last winter.

I have them for my auto as well even after I moved to IL.

My dad has had them as long as I can remember and my grandparents too.

check em out

[Mojo Rising]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

We used to be big fans of USAA, but they were absolutely terrible to work with when we refinanced our mortgage a couple of years ago, and we're now wrestling with them over the water damage from our water line break. We're not too far from pulling all of our insurance from them and going somewhere else.

My comment to you regarding the refi is that insurance companies are good at insurance, banks are good for lending, investment companies are good for investing.

The Glass Steagall act allowed companies to cross sell and offer all services for a convenient one stop shop of financial needs. I dont know if it offered that?

I lived in my first house for almost 10 years that was built in '29 in SF. I only filed 1 minor claim. I have lived in my fiberboard house in OC for 2 years and have 2 major claims and they have exceded my expectations in all cases.

[IA_Chiefs_fan]

We had a house fire a year ago.

STATE FARM was amazing!

They have a customer for life. They treated us with respect, made sure we had everything we needed, and never once even thought about playing hardball. I was ready to "do battle" with the insurance company, but that was not needed in the slightest.

We actually switched to State Farm to save money. Now I would pay twice as much to keep them. There were a lot of people at State Farm who genuinely cared and took care of us. My wife and I were able to spend time with the kids through a fairly rough period because State Farm took care of everything for us.

STATE FARM

[Earthling]

Originally Posted by Mojo Rising

I pay slightly more for USAA and it is worth it. I filed 2 claims in the last couple of years and their service is excellent.

Did your rates go up after the claims? Just curious as I had $750 damage to a neighbors yard/small trees/ irrigation pump earlier this year. Our deductible was $500 so I figured that instead of making a claim and saving $250 I just paid out of pocket to keep our policy un-marred by any claims.

[Old Dog]

Originally Posted by Earthling

Did your rates go up after the claims? Just curious as I had $750 damage to a neighbors yard/small trees/ irrigation pump earlier this year. Our deductible was $500 so I figured that instead of making a claim and saving $250 I just paid out of pocket to keep our policy un-marred by any claims.

Can't speak for him, but mine didn't go up.

[RedandGold]

Originally Posted by Rukdafaidas

I live in Joplin as well. We didn't have any claims from the tornado, but know a few that did. My sister-in-law has had some problems with State Farm. They have asked that she itemize everything that was in her house, down to the spices in her cabinet. After working her tail off to complete all of the forms, they came back and offered half of the amount that she was insured for to deduct for depreciation. After 4 months of negotiations and hiring an attorney, they came to an agreement.
Meanwhile, a good friend of mine that lived next to the high school had his insurance adjuster come out days after the tornado and wrote him a check for the maximum coverage...pretty much no questions asked, no itemization, nothing. My friend was thrilled at the check amount. He had American Family and said he would never switch.
I currently have State Farm and I'm thinking about switching to American Family after all of this. The people around here are definitely learning about insurance coverage.

We had to go through the itemized contents list as well, and even though it was a complete pain, AAA gave us a fair depreciated value (roughly 80% of limit). They outsourced the contents costing to a company out in California, and they have been VERY slow to process the replacement reimbursement. The people that we knew with Shelter were getting offered less than 50%, and most people that we knew had to itemize their contents as well.

The ones with State Farm and American Family that had a total loss received checks for their limits within days after the adjuster looked at the property, and that was why I made the statement that I did. With the way the housing market got ridiculous, the people that received the limit checks up front were able to get in to some decent places, and by the time we were in a position to make a serious move, the value was gone.

We're finally in the process of rebuilding, and for the way the market in Joplin is now, we would have to pay a minimum of 20% more to get into the same house in a location we liked less.

[jiveturkey]

Originally Posted by Pawnmower

Holy crap man do you live in a tornado/hurricane zone or something?? I think my policy on a typical ($350kish) bay area California house is about $900 a year total..

I use state farm currently but like to shop it around every couple years....I have my cars, some life, several fire polices and an umbrella with them.

They've been decent so far. And competitive price wise...

I'm paying $1400/year now in Overland Park. USAA is $2400/year.

Again price isn't the main sticking point for me. I want a good balance of price and quality. I'm guessing that there's some middle ground and I'm just going to have to shop around and find that balance.

There's been a lot of useful information in this thread already.

[Earthling]

Originally Posted by truebigdog

Can't speak for him, but mine didn't go up.

Cool.

[R8RFAN]

Originally Posted by jiveturkey

Does anyone have any good recommendations for home owners insurance?

I use USAA for our cars but they're $1000 a year more than our current insurance on the home side. It's still something I'm willing to consider though. We've been with the cheapest for a while (SafeCo) and I'm slowly realizing that cheap isn't the way to go.

If you are in Kansas that would be Mobile Home Insurance wouldn't it?

[Ming the Merciless]

Originally Posted by jiveturkey

I'm paying $1400/year now in Overland Park. USAA is $2400/year.

Ouch...

I guess thats because there is more storm damage there and earthquake damage is not included in standard HO policies in california. I guess If I added EQ coverage it would probly be about that much....

I guess its a needed thing though...

Good luck with your search...seems like you are being thorough about it and so you will end up happy.