Homeowner's/flood Insurance in coastal Carolina? (Emerald Isle, Sneads Ferry: homeowners insurance, broker, new house)

[Jorge610]

Homeowners, help me out here.

We'll be moving this summer back to the Swansboro/Emerald Isle area and this time around will purchase a home. My initial online attempt to get quotes for homeowners insurance got a lot of "please call us". This says to me they either don't write policies here or it's very expensive and they need to refer me to an actual human.

Before I call these companies, what's the situation here? What can I expect to pay to insure relatively new construction 4 bd homes?

[wrestlingterp]

Originally Posted by Jorge610

Homeowners, help me out here.

We'll be moving this summer back to the Swansboro/Emerald Isle area and this time around will purchase a home. My initial online attempt to get quotes for homeowners insurance got a lot of "please call us". This says to me they either don't write policies here or it's very expensive and they need to refer me to an actual human.

Before I call these companies, what's the situation here? What can I expect to pay to insure relatively new construction 4 bd homes?

They probably can't give you a quote unless you give them an exact address. The flood insurance varies considerably based on which zone a house is in, CAMA rules, etc.

For example the flood insurance on our second row house on Topsail Beach is only about $200 per year, but one about a block up the road that we bid on (also second row) was about $2000 per year.

I'm going to guess the same applies at all of the coastal areas. You can go to the NC Flood Plain Mapping System to get a very rough idea at FMIS: North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Information System

I believe our entire insurance cost for flood, wind/hail, and property is in the $2000 per year range. If you go to the link above and find the exact property location (the address function is sometimes a bit off) you can see the 100 year flood plain with velocity zones, flooding zones, etc. Add to that some of the CAMA rules that make some properties ineligible for federal flood insurance, and it becomes even more complicated. The agent that we used needed to come out to the property, measure the height of the first floor from the ground, etc. etc. It is very much a lot by lot situation.

[goldenage1]

Originally Posted by Jorge610

What can I expect to pay to insure relatively new construction 4 bd homes?

As WrestlingTerp says, it depends highly on exactly where the house is. In Sneads Ferry, a couple of miles from the ocean we pay $2400 on a 4 bedroom new house with replacement value $325,000. About $800 is conventional insurance, and the other $1600 is wind and hail.

Allstate and State Farm gave us much higher quotes. We went to a local broker who sold us Universal Property and Casualty Insurance. I think the better way to go is to contact a local broker from the phone book, rather than these online sites.