Good home owners insurance (recommendation, cheapest, agent, insurance)

[septemberbells]

Can anyone recommend a good home owners insurance company?

I have quotes from Electric,America First and State Farm. State Farm quoted about 200-300 more than the other two, so I want to rule them out.

America First is the cheapest (about 50 dollars cheaper than Electric for a comparable coverage). Has anyone had good/bad experiences with either Electric or America First?
Electric Insurance was started for people working at G.E., and apparantly America First is owned by Liberty Mutual.

I had to give my SSN to get accurate quotes from an insurance agent (who compared quotes from about 8 different companies). So, if possible, I would like to stick with this guy, instead of starting to get quotes from other companies. Also, FYI, I called Electric directly and they gave me a very similar quote, so I think the agent can be trusted.

All comments and recommendations are appreciated. I am new to all this, and am closing in 2 weeks, and I don't have much time left. So, I wanted to check with you experts :-)

Thanks,
septemberbells

[FLBob]

The real test of an insurance company is how they behave when something bad happens in your life. I don't know how to research the back-end of the insurance industry. I can tell you that you want to stay away from Allstate.
Family members had 4 properties that were hit by hurricane Charlie. Our coverage was with Allstate. It took a year to resolve our claim. Friends that were covered by USAA were resolved in less than 1 week. My mother-in-law was covered by Nationwide, they dispatched a mitigation team within 2 weeks. Adjustments to the claim were handled promptly.

[Moonwalkr]

I have Allstate and they are excellent, had all previous claims handled quickly and professionally. It is very dependent on your local agency and what kind of relationship you have with them. If you have auto insurance with a particular agency they can give discounts for multiple policies. Check with your agent for that, especially if you like your current insurance company.

I haven't heard of the two more local companies you listed. I'd google them to make sure and check on BBB.

[ji603]

If you go to the AZ Department of Insurance's web page, they have a 'for consumers' section and you can read the annual premium comparison/complaints pdf. It's a good shopping tool, as they have 4 'hypothetical' customers and a list of what each company would charge for homeowners and car insurance.

Arizona Department of Insurance Consumers Page

[crazyma]

We have been happy with Farmers, most recently. And used to have Libierty Mutual (who took over our Prudential)

ALSO see about having your auto insurance with the same company...most offer a discount for doing so

[sonarrat]

Amica consistently gets high marks for its good faith policies, and besides that, I recently switched both my renter's and auto insurance over to them and I'm paying the same money for much lower deductibles, and only paying one bill to one company. I thought I was getting a good deal before!