Shopping For Homeowners Insurance

When shopping for homeowners insurance, take it in three steps. These three steps will streamline your shopping experience and find you the best possible deal quickly (it's not necessarily Geico). Let me first say, once you get a quote, share it with the other guys. That may seem mean to the person who worked up the first quote, but it saves the other guys time in asking "what kind of coverage do you want...?" Just tell them to match what is worked up in "Quote A", and if they can beat it, then they can, if they can't, then too bad for them. This is insurance, and they're aware they can't always win.

Step 1) Decide on what kind of coverage you will need

. If you are in a homeowners association, you will need to know what kind of insurance is already offered. In a condo it isn't uncommon for you to cover the interior only, or the association may just cover everything for you. When you get quotes, check to see how much it will be if you combine your auto policy. Typically you will get a discount for your auto for having your home on the policy, and you will get a discount for home if you have your auto on the policy. So when you shop for rates (in step 3), get quotes for combining all three. In my experience, it ended up costing less to add the condo then what we were paying for the vehicles without a condo on the policy. Add a condo, save money, who knew!

Step 2) Get this information together

• VIN (Vehicle Identification Numbers) for every vehicle on the policy
• DL# (Drivers Licence Numbers) for every person who will be on the policy

This will help them determine previous claims or tickets that may affect your premium

Address of your new home

SS# (Social Security Numbers) for every person who will be on the policy

I don’t know why this is necessary, maybe I’m a little to trusting, but they asked for it

The rest of what you read below will take you through what we learned in Logan about Homeowners insurance when shopping for a policy that would cover $25,000 personal property, and $10,000 internally. When we started this, we were paying about $800 annually for insurance on two vehicles.

Step 3) Shop For Rates

This is my experience with the following agencies: Farm Bureau, Cache Valley Insurance, Logan Insurance, Geico, and American Family Insurance.

What Our Mortgage Broker Suggested – Logan Insurance Company

Because the process of finding just one more thing for our condo appeared that it was going to be a pain, I just asked the mortgage broker who we should go for our home owners insurance, and she suggested Dave Morrill with the Logan Insurance Agency. Because she deals with this all the time, I figured her advice would be excellent, and it was. Dave found us a great rate which would actually cost us less than what we were paying before with our car insurance, and at the same time we were adding a condo to the policy! Dave was very professional and excellent to work with. His quote came in at about

Geico

Our auto policy was with Geico, and believe it or not, they have actually been incredible for us to work with! When I got in an auto accident a few years back, I earned $1,200 from it (even though my vehicle isn’t totally fixed). When I added Jessica to the policy the total cost actually went down on our insurance.

But when it came time for us to add a condo to the policy, they were going to add an extra $300 a month. No dice.

Cache Valley Insurance

I like these guys, I’ve worked with them before. They were going to work up a policy, and may have called my phone (which died), but I asked for an e-mail. In the end, I never heard from them, and that’s their loss. I hope if you try to call them, you will hear from them.

Josh Barnett Insurance Agency – America Family Insurance

I also called Josh and had them work up a quote. Josh was really fun to talk to, but in the end he was less than Geico, but still higher than Dave Morrill at the Logan Insurance Company. I was actually enticed by him at first, but then we realized that the quote was for semi-annual auto insurance.

Farm Bureau Insurance – The Winner

One thing that is a little bit annoying about Farm Bureau is that they have this $65 annual membership fee. This will get you better deals on hotels and such, but I don’t want discounts on things that I won’t use, I just want insurance. They were also the slowest to get back to me, I was about to just go with Logan Insurance, but gave them a reminder e-mail saying “Hey, I want this now!” They then immediately got on the ball, and gave by far the best quote.

But in the end, their quote came in at $700 and we bumped up some of the auto coverage with them. So even with the added annual membership they were by far the best deal when combining an auto policy with a homeowners insurance policy! In fact, I’m still saving about a $100 a year compared to what a paid for before through Geico with car insurance only.

So, congratulations Farm Bureau, you are saving me money and adding more coverage! I am a very satisfied customer! I hope you enjoyed this review of Farm Bureau Insurance, American Family Insurance, Logan Insurance, Cache Valley Insurance, and Geico for homeowner insurance rates in Logan!

via kirksalisbury.com