The next thing on my to-do list is to settle on a homeowners policy. Steve, if you're reading this, I couldn't find the thread where you posted about it, but what company do you use?

Does anyone else have any recommendations?

Here's where we're at right now:

With the last home we owned, we had State Farm, and that's who we have for renter's insurance and auto right now. I got a quote from Progressive and it was surprisingly expensive, so I'm not going to go with them.

I am going to get a quote from American Family tomorrow (they give a discount for my alma mater, so I'm going to see whether that makes a difference).

And then I have a quote from Erie Insurance, it's quite low but the dollar amount listed under dwelling coverage is low. The agent told me that because it has "Guaranteed Replacement Cost" that amount of coverage is enough... That strikes me as weird so I'm going to follow up.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/advice anyone has!

We’re with State Farm and have been forever. I was just doing a check to see if we can get our homeowners and auto more cheaply elsewhere. Tried Geico and Amica online and they can’t touch SF. Will try a few others.

https://www.usnews.com/insurance/homeowners-insurance

https://www.usnews.com/insuran...-insurance-companies

Thanks for these links!

SF is #2 and Erie is #5... interesting. The premiums are pretty close, I need to go through the two quotes again and see if there's something I'm missing.

Actually, let me rephrase that... I have two quotes from SF, one has a bunch of add-ons that I can't figure out if I need...

Oh one other thing... re the discounts for bundling...

So, American Family isn't in the top 10 of homeowners insurance, but it is in auto insurance. And Erie is #5 in homeowners but not in the top 10 in auto...

And the quotes I have are based on bundled policy...

So, I've been looking at the homeowners policies but I haven't compared the auto policies...

We use AMICA for both auto and home. I have been extremely pleased with how they have helped us when we’ve had major issues. (Like we had a house sale in process, had a major hail storm, inspector came and the house not only needed a new roof, but new garage garaged doors and one big multi-pane window frame was damaged by the hail on the front of the house, and it was a discontinued model, so we had to replace every window on the front of the house to match. They were literally loading the moving van while this was happening, the closing was depending on it all - and our insurance company came through with a 40-something thousand dollar check pretty much immediately so we could deal with it all. They did the same for us when we had water damage from the leaking fridge here (and had to replace floor) and the water damage in our Washington house (about $10K) - absolutely no hassle. So even though they might be a littl more expensive, they have been absolutely worth it when we have needed them. (And that IS why you have insurance.)

Jodi, thanks! I'll try to get a quote from them too!

Does anyone have any opinions about the various add-ons, like "service lines, sewer back-up, home systems"? These things add maybe $60-70/month and it's hard to figure out if we need/want them or not.

I don’t remember add ons like that for ours, but I do have extra coverage for the piano, and maybe one or two other things.

quote:

extra coverage for the piano

I have been asking about this, and it's interesting how each company handles it a little differently. It seems to depend on whether they go by replacement value or not. SF said I don't need a separate rider to cover $45,999 in replacement costs. Progressive said I would need a rider because without one, they only cover up to $2000 for musical instruments!

Having talked to several people after the big ice storm here, my advice is to read your homeowner's policy carefully, and ask specific questions about what's covered.

A scary example here - a neighbor discovered that their homeowners didn't cover damage due to trees falling on their property, only after they had a tree fall across their house causing significant damage.

Things that seem to be not routinely covered are things like earthquake, tornado/hurricane, wind damage, "acts of god", etc. The other is that you can get insurance that will cover you to return your house to the way it was previously, vs some other that doesn't necessarily guarantee like vs like replacement. As it was explained to me, one insurance rate would allow you to replace your floor with "construction grade" flooring, while the like vs like would pay extra for nicer wood flooring, if that's what you originally had.

I'd ask specific questions before signing on the dotted line. In our experience, if money is an issue you can save more by increasing your deductible than by rolling the dice and not getting covered for some things.

Plus - every time you make a claim the may raise your rates. So having an increased deductible may not really be an issue since you wouldn't make a claim for a "cheaper" damage repair regardless. For example, we had a tree fall across our driveway (thank heavens, not our house), and we needed to replace iron fencing on the driveway that got smashed. We decided to pay out of pocket rather than increase our premium. The cost was around $3K if I recall correctly.

Thanks, Nina, this is all very helpful!

I'm on the phone with Amica, and I asked about the piano and the lady said "ok, right, so you want that covered for theft?"

Ummm, no....

OMG this is such a time suck... and I've been doing it since last week.

So far, no one can touch the discounts I'm getting from SF because I have a loyalty discount with them (we've had some form of insurance w them since 2008 and never made a claim)

I even got a quote from Amica with a higher deductible ($5000), and the monthly premiums are still $50 more than SF's premium with the lower deductible ($2500).

I'm still waiting on a quote from AmFam, but at this point, it's looking like I'll be staying with SF.

Ok, American Family is pulling ahead with a bunch of discounts. Now I have to look at them compared to SF and see how the coverage compares. It looks like AmFam might have some elements SF doesn't (like hidden water, which for example covers a leaky pipe that you don't notice until it creates a huge problem)...

I am getting so behind on other things trying to figure this out! Oof!

I have the rentals with an Ohio company called “American Modern”. They had the best rate and I couldn’t find anything bad about them.

I wasn’t sure how good they’d be with claims until I made a sewer back up damage claim last year. They handled it very well. They asked me how much the repairs cost and sent me a check. No stupid stunts, no screwing around.

Might be worth a look. Us midwesterners have to stick together!