Home Insurance

[iberanon]

Get a broker.

[Texan#1]

I have the Costco-affiliated insurance, Ameriprise, and they've been pretty good.

[hokiepoke]

Originally Posted by WorldKlas

Same thing -- bundled and use Safeco. Also have Safeco on rental properties I own and last year 2 of them suffered total roof loss due to a hailstorm. I was very satisfied with the handling of my claims.

I'm still miffed with Safeco since it's been five years now since I sold my house. We had a hail storm shortly before it was listed and I had Safeco come out to inspect and they refused to fix the roof...claiming it was small localized damage. I had an independent roofer come out to meet with their adjuster twice and they refused to budge even though the roofer told us most insurance company would've replaced the roof.

I talked to my next door neighbor then who had Nationwide and they didn't even know their roof might've been damaged. They made a call to their insurance and their roof was replaced it its entirety within two weeks while I still fought with Safeco. Since we had our house listed, we couldn't get it to pass the inspection with the existing roof damage so I paid $2000 on my own to repair just the damaged area on my roof to meet our schedule. So whatever great insurance rate Safeco gave us for those two years we were with them were negated and costed us more - what really counts is when you have to make a claim. That was my lousy experience with Safeco so fair warning if you go with them.

[WorldKlas]

Originally Posted by hokiepoke

I'm still miffed with Safeco since it's been five years now since I sold my house. We had a hail storm shortly before it was listed and I had Safeco come out to inspect and they refused to fix the roof...claiming it was small localized damage. I had an independent roofer come out to meet with their adjuster twice and they refused to budge even though the roofer told us most insurance company would've replaced the roof.

I talked to my next door neighbor then who had Nationwide and they didn't even know their roof might've been damaged. They made a call to their insurance and their roof was replaced it its entirety within two weeks while I still fought with Safeco. Since we had our house listed, we couldn't get it to pass the inspection with the existing roof damage so I paid $2000 on my own to repair just the damaged area on my roof to meet our schedule. So whatever great insurance rate Safeco gave us for those two years we were with them were negated and costed us more - what really counts is when you have to make a claim. That was my lousy experience with Safeco so fair warning if you go with them.

That is awful; but just to clarify that the deductible for hail damage to the roof usually at least $2K; so you would have had to need a whole roof and then your part would still have been the same $2K you paid to make the repairs.

[hokiepoke]

Originally Posted by WorldKlas

That is awful; but just to clarify that the deductible for hail damage to the roof usually at least $2K; so you would have had to need a whole roof and then your part would still have been the same $2K you paid to make the repairs.

We actually had the roof replaced once some eight years before that when we got hit with tennis ball size hail (ah yes, the joy of living in Dallas with the random hail storm). The house and roof was pretty new then only 2 yrs old and we were with Allstate. Allstate was super easy then, the adjuster came and cut us an estimated check couple days later for the entire roof replacement. We just got a roofer then, gave him the whole check and that also covered the deductible. Wasn't expecting such an issue with Safeco.

I would've been ok to even pay $2k deductible for a new roof for the new owner vs local repairs. If we weren't trying to sell the house at the time within a particular deadline, I would've probably press the issue a bit more but had to cut my losses.

[MovingtoDFW]

Originally Posted by iberanon

Get a broker.

Can somebody recommend good insurance brokers? Preferably someone who has access to all the major companies. I am looking to switch from Allstate as they have consistently increased my premiums 20% each of the last two years I have been with them (no claims).

Last broker I tried excluded some major companies. Thanks!