Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > New York > Long Island
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 03-21-2010, 04:05 PM
 
10 posts, read 22,515 times
Reputation: 24

Advertisements

I am in the middle of purchasing a home and got a quote from geico for my homeowner insurance and it was 1680/yr - ah! Is this a reasonable quote for a 4 bed/2bath home in greenlawn?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 03-21-2010, 09:54 PM
 
Location: Long Island
9,918 posts, read 23,044,717 times
Reputation: 5872
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karaboo13 View Post
I am in the middle of purchasing a home and got a quote from geico for my homeowner insurance and it was 1680/yr - ah! Is this a reasonable quote for a 4 bed/2bath home in greenlawn?
The number of bedrooms/bathrooms is not sufficient information to even begin to determine if that's a competitive premium.

So much goes into the rate: the total square footage of living space (3 BR can be as large as 4 BR); the total number of rooms; if it includes "replacement value" (advisable!); the location; type of construction; type of heat; garage yes/no - size; fireplace(s); alarm system; inflation guard, and other items.
Also, while personal property is automatically "included" at between 50-70% of the insured value of the residence, unless you request the personal property replacement cost rider, you will get actual/depreciated value. What does that mean? Let's say you paid $4,000 for your dining room furniture five years ago; the present value of "used" furniture is a fraction of that amount, so if there is damage, without the replacement cost rider, you will only get the current value/reduced amount - you might be able to buy a new chair with that... and so on.
Then there is Personal Liability coverage. Do you have the required minimum or do you have a higher amount?
Also very important: what is your deductible? the lower the deductible, the higher the premium.
Oh, and then there's your FICO score...

BTW, ask what the hurricane deductibles are for different category hurricanes - you might be surprised...

Last edited by Elke Mariotti; 03-21-2010 at 10:03 PM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-22-2010, 03:11 PM
 
Location: Centereach
481 posts, read 1,056,827 times
Reputation: 251
That sounds very high. Shop around. When I did, the quotes were in a range from $900 to around $1900 (big difference for the same coverage).
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-23-2010, 07:16 AM
 
Location: Kings Park & Jamesport
3,180 posts, read 10,502,720 times
Reputation: 1092
Insurance is going up on LI. I guess we are going to have a hurricane any minute now.

Depending on your coverage....sounds OK
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-26-2010, 11:12 PM
 
2 posts, read 13,331 times
Reputation: 12
Default Homeowner Insurance rates on LI

Quote:
Originally Posted by Karaboo13 View Post
I am in the middle of purchasing a home and got a quote from geico for my homeowner insurance and it was 1680/yr - ah! Is this a reasonable quote for a 4 bed/2bath home in greenlawn?
Depending on how much dwelling coverage you are getting for the $1680/yr would determine if you are getting a good rate. What you should do when purchasing a new home and trying to determine how much dwelling coverage you need is first find out how much the homes gross living area is (you can usually find this on the ML listing or on the appraisel of the home. Once you have that info a good indicator is anywhere between $175 to $200 a square foot (atleast this is a reasonable approx of what it would cost to rebuild your home. Some Insurance carriers are charging as much as $250 a square foot to insure homes on Long Island. Here is an example, if your home was 1000 sq ft you should be insuring your home for anywhere between $175,000 and $200,000. If the home is all custom and you have granite countertops and ceramic tile and some other custom features then it might cost more to rebuild your home and the insurance company might require you to insure the home for $250,000 ($250 per sq ft). If I knew how much coverage they were offering you for 1680/yr I would be able to tell you if you were getting a good deal or not. Just remember Geico deals with a few different carriers for homeowners insurance (Geico no longer writes homeowner insurance themselves) and most of the carriers they write with are not very competitive so you should definitly shop around other then just with Geico. Also do not let your mortgage company require you to insure your home for the mortgage amount if the mortgage amount is higher then what it would cost to replace your home if there was a total loss. So lets say we use the above scenario and your home is not custom. You should be insuring your home for lets say $200,000 (which is $200 a sq ft) but your mortgage amount is $300,000. Your mortgage company might tell you that they will not close on your home unless you raise the dwelling to $300,000 in order to protect their interest in the house. So now instead of paying $800 a year you have to pay $1400 a year because they are making you over insure your home. This is illegal based on the banking law of 1982 which states no bank/mortgage company is allowed to make someone insure a home for more then 100% replacement cost. So if your home is 1000 sq ft and the insurance company says they can replace 100% of your home for $200,000 then the mortgage company must accept $200,000 on the dwelling. All you need to do is make sure whoever is getting the insurance for you sends a binder to the bank/mortgage co stating that the policy provides 100% replacement cost. The reason why this is so important is because the more dwelling coverage you have the more the premium will be so its just as bad to over insure a home as it is to under insure one. I hope this was helpful and not to confusing and if you would like to post the amount of dwelling coverage you were quoted for $1680/yr I can tell you right away if you are paying to much or getting a good deal
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-12-2010, 08:57 AM
 
87 posts, read 558,245 times
Reputation: 33
Quote:
Originally Posted by cityguy123 View Post
You should be insuring your home for lets say $200,000 (which is $200 a sq ft) but your mortgage amount is $300,000. Your mortgage company might tell you that they will not close on your home unless you raise the dwelling to $300,000 in order to protect their interest in the house. So now instead of paying $800 a year you have to pay $1400 a year because they are making you over insure your home. This is illegal based on the banking law of 1982 which states no bank/mortgage company is allowed to make someone insure a home for more then 100% replacement cost. So if your home is 1000 sq ft and the insurance company says they can replace 100% of your home for $200,000 then the mortgage company must accept $200,000 on the dwelling. All you need to do is make sure whoever is getting the insurance for you sends a binder to the bank/mortgage co stating that the policy provides 100% replacement cost.
Would you be able to provide more specific information about this law? My mortgage company is telling me I need to insure the home for the mortgage amount. I want to read up on this law a little more but a search for "banking law of 1982" didn't return anything specific discussing this scenario.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:




Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > New York > Long Island
View detailed profiles of:

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top