Home owners Insurance question...

[dave1959]

Looking at changing insurance companys, Nationwide is just too expensive.
Got a quote from Progressive that is less than half the price. Problem seems to be that I am over insured with Nationwide and Progressive looks under insured.

Question is.... How can I find out what it would cost to rebuild my house if it burned to the ground. ???

I tried a couple of builders and I get a different answer at each one and they are not even close so I suspect if I keep calling I'll probably keep getting the same.

I'm trying to get a resonable generic number.

House info: 2500sf, split foyer, 3br, 2ba, unfinished basement...nothing special.typical cookie cutter house in northern St. Marys.

Any help...

 

[Graymatter]

My state farm agent took about 20 minutes over the phone, asking questions to make the determination. Ask the agent you're working with...

 

[SoMDGirl42]

Looking at changing insurance companys, Nationwide is just too expensive.
Got a quote from Progressive that is less than half the price. Problem seems to be that I am over insured with Nationwide and Progressive looks under insured.

Question is.... How can I find out what it would cost to rebuild my house if it burned to the ground. ???

I tried a couple of builders and I get a different answer at each one and they are not even close so I suspect if I keep calling I'll probably keep getting the same.

I'm trying to get a resonable generic number.

House info: 2500sf, split foyer, 3br, 2ba, unfinished basement...nothing special.typical cookie cutter house in northern St. Marys.

Any help...

Don't forget to insure the contents as well. The agent should have a list of items to assist you in listing all of the contents.

 

[suthrncom4t]

Homeowners Insurance

Looking at changing insurance companys, Nationwide is just too expensive.
Got a quote from Progressive that is less than half the price. Problem seems to be that I am over insured with Nationwide and Progressive looks under insured.

Question is.... How can I find out what it would cost to rebuild my house if it burned to the ground. ???

I tried a couple of builders and I get a different answer at each one and they are not even close so I suspect if I keep calling I'll probably keep getting the same.

I'm trying to get a resonable generic number.

House info: 2500sf, split foyer, 3br, 2ba, unfinished basement...nothing special.typical cookie cutter house in northern St. Marys.

Any help...

Call Smith, Ron - Smith Insurance Svc Incorporated
(410) 535-0416
3235 Solomons Island Rd, Huntingtown, MD 20639

We found him by accident and lowered ALL of our insurances thru him. EASY too. Tell him April sent ya!

 

[lovinmaryland]

State Farm has a tool that is basically an appraisal. (their appraisal) It normally takes about 10 minutes or so to get the value of your home. Not including your land as that is not insurable.

You want to be within a 20% range of what it would cost to rebuild your home from the ground up. There is nothing special for over insuring your property as the company will only pay out what it cost to rebuild your home. But you also dont want to be underinsured. Also most companies include a 20% "buffer" for inflation purposes.

If you have any other questions please feel free to pm me I'd be glad to help.

 

[lovinmaryland]

Don't forget to insure the contents as well. The agent should have a list of items to assist you in listing all of the contents.

Unless it is something special H/O policies automatically include personal property coverage It is normally 80% of the insured amount of the house.

 

[onebdzee]

Unless it is something special H/O policies automatically include personal property coverage It is normally 80% of the insured amount of the house.

Mine must be backwards....the insurance company took the accessed value of the house off the tax web site($137k) and then added $190k for the contents....If my house burned down right now, I'd be screwed as I have no where close to that amount of crap in my house

Duke May is the one that brokered the policy(they didn't offer home owners when I got the policy) and the "wonderful"(you heard my sarcasm, right?) manager there told me that they couldn't re-write the policy for the price(which just went up $200 a year) I'm currently paying

oh....my current policy is through state farm

 

[MrZ06]

Question is.... How can I find out what it would cost to rebuild my house if it burned to the ground. ???
.

just burn it down and get an estimate on the rebuild cost

 

[dave1959]

My state farm agent took about 20 minutes over the phone, asking questions to make the determination. Ask the agent you're working with...

Well, thats the problem, when you talk to an agent they give you their companys opinion...and they are all different.
I've had #'s from 130,000 to 270,000...

 

[dave1959]

just burn it down and get an estimate on the rebuild cost

It's a shame that thats probably the most realistic answer.

 

[dave1959]

State Farm has a tool that is basically an appraisal. (their appraisal) It normally takes about 10 minutes or so to get the value of your home. Not including your land as that is not insurable.

You want to be within a 20% range of what it would cost to rebuild your home from the ground up. There is nothing special for over insuring your property as the company will only pay out what it cost to rebuild your home. But you also dont want to be underinsured. Also most companies include a 20% "buffer" for inflation purposes.

If you have any other questions please feel free to pm me I'd be glad to help.

Yeh, but the higher the coverage the more you pay...If my house can be rebuilt for 100,000 I don't want to pay insurance on a 200,000 limit

 

[lovinmaryland]

Yeh, but the higher the coverage the more you pay...If my house can be rebuilt for 100,000 I don't want to pay insurance on a 200,000 limit

Thats essentially what I said You dont want it over or underinsured but right about 20% between because you will have that buffer amount.

Also keep in mind you want to ask about a hurricane deducitble. Some companies have a seperate deductible for that and they dont disclose it upfront. It is usually 2% of what your house is insured for. So if its insured for 200k and there is a hurricane your deductible which you thought was $500 is actually $4k ... Big Difference IMO.

 

[StrawberryGal]

Yeh, but the higher the coverage the more you pay...If my house can be rebuilt for 100,000 I don't want to pay insurance on a 200,000 limit

I've found that State Farm Insurance is the best. We had our State Farm Agency plugged in information on their software, and it gave us accuracy information. When we got our house appraised again, it match the State Farm's software that figured how much our house is cost to rebuild in case of fire.

 

[suthrncom4t]

Homeowners Insurance

I've found that State Farm Insurance is the best. We had our State Farm Agency plugged in information on their software, and it gave us accuracy information. When we got our house appraised again, it match the State Farm's software that figured how much our house is cost to rebuild in case of fire.

I'm tellin ya....call Smith Insurance Services in Huntingtown. There are companies out there besides the big name ones that ya'll don't even know about. So much of that big company money is goin toward advertising....

 

[struggler44]

We left Nationwide a few months back after asking our Erie agent about coverage since he was our car ins agent, Bahr Insurance.

He came out to look and measure the house and wrote a policy that has a covered amount for the dwelling and contents with a "guaranteed replacement" statement. Less than half the yearly cost with all the coverage.....Nationwide hosed my wife for years on car and homeowners insurance before we met, the guy had no shame, he is in Calf, Md...........

 

[waupaca]

replacement insurance

May be too simple of an explanation, but my insurance plan has simple replacement if totally destroyed. Rebuild any thing that is partially damaged.
As many people in this area have been through some hailstorms. Roof damaged (replaced) siding damaged (replaced) small fire in garage (paid to restore) If entire house is destroyed house will be replaced as originally built. If I want to change to add additional structure I have to pay difference.Contents covered under different clause. Out building and trees under different clause. Of course liability is different clause. If you can't get an agent to explain how it works and what your choices are, look for another agent.

 

[Gilligan]

I was arguing with my mortgage company about flood insurance coverage a while back; they insisted I was underinsured and had to have 100% dwelling replacement coverage and I tried to convince them that was way more than required. I lost that argument so then it came down to replacement cost 'negotiations'. I found a pretty nice home cost calculator on line that let me play around with all sorts of different building parameters. I don't have a link but a Google serach will surely find it or others like it.

It allows you to match up pretty exactly with what you have now..or of course you can tweak it to add or delete features you do not have now.