Homeowner's Insurance Question

G.,
Be sure you are comparing apples to apples. Are you comparing the same deductibles, exclusions, etc? I found in TX some policies have exclusions or different deductibles for hail for example. Another area where there are differences is how foundation work will be covered. You may want to ask what are some typical foundation claims you see. What do you cover and what don't you cover? and then ask the same question of other companies. I felt Farmers coverage seemed more restrictive in this area for example although their rates were lower.

Back east we have homeowners insurance that covers most everything unless it's excluded. Here it seems more common for insurance to cover only the things explicitly listed. There are names for these two types of policies in insurance lingo but I can't remember them right now. I liked the former vs the latter because I can't think of everything for which I should have coverage.

I found homeowners coverage with The Hartford, a Connecticut based company, here in Texas that is broader as I described, and yet the rates were very competitive.

I also have State Farm and have looked periodically over the last several years. Everytime I look, when I finally get the same items quoted, they are close to the same price. We have all of our house, car, etc.. with State Farm and have been with them for years. We also have a clause that says we cannot be canceled...that is how long we have been with them. We just had our first claim on cars and houses after last spring and they cut us checks for more than fair amounts almost immediately after we called. NO HASSLE!! Great when you really need it!

I have friedns that have Allstate as well and they are similar.

We have family that has had problems with Farmers...Also, they are one that I checked out that seemed to have lower rates. When I finally got it apples to apples they were higher and have lower service ratings.

Good Luck!! Each situation is different!!

My mother in law works for a smaller insurance company that has alot of different places they go through so they can find you the best rate. The company is called All About Insurance and they have offices in mansfield, NRH, and on Jacksboro Hwy. I am not to sure which one you are closest to but they are in the phone book and you can google them to get the number. Hope this helps!!!!

Go with the best rates. The companies you named are all good companies. I've been with AllState for auto, home, and life. And have found them to be fair and beyond. They even called me one time to say they were having someone in my neighborhood to check for damage on a roof after a storm and did I want them to check mine while the were out there? After I got over the shock I said yes and I did have roof damage that I would not have know about on my own...if they had not suggested it be checked. And it was completely coverd by the insurance. So, of course, I am loyal to AllState.

We had Allstate and made one small claim. They arrgued about paying out the full 400 dollars, because of replacement coverage- even though we had replacement cost coverage. When we came up for our renewal- guess what- our yearly cost went up the exact amount of the claim.

We switched to Liberty Mutual and paid 200 less than what we paid for home owners with Allstate BEFORE the claim. My parents had used Liberty Mutual before and never had any problems with the claims they had to make over the years. The representative told me that they compare about equally to State Farm, and above many of the others.

Good Luck

We packaged out home and auto together with Nationwide and saved a bundle.