The Dreaded Homeowners Insurance Bill has Arrived

[ruffdog]

Homeowners insurance rates will also be affected by the distance from a fire station. The further away and the rates go up. Also, the fire station rating makes a big difference. How up to date the equipment is and how well it is staffed goes into this rating. A community may save money by skimping on fire protection but the insurance company will notice and rates will go up. This is called the ISO rating.

How ISO Fire Ratings Impact Your Home Insurance | Bankrate

 

[lsgreg]

Well, I just got off the phone with my insurance guy and learned that the Farmers rate is correct for the auto insurance. Needless to say, I'm changing agents and insurance. It also goes without saying that I'm more than a little miffed at the agent we've used for 20+ years for letting it get to this point. He was letting us take a $6K/yr overcharge and it was only my own due diligence that saved us. Over the past few years, I've occasionally questioned him about how high our bill was getting and if we were missing some opportunities to save or if we were over-insured. Unfortunately, the "blind trust" of thinking you have an equitable business arrangement, is pitted against the old adage of needing to be your own advocate and an educated consumer.

What brought this to light is that my wife and I have recently started looking into whether we can take an early retirement (I'm 58, she's 55). Part of that involves pulling together some info for our CFP to see if we're there with our various investments, IRA's, 401K's etc. With my traveling for work, I leave much of the bill paying to my wife, so not all of this was visible to me or easy for me to follow up on.

Anyway, I just got back from a month trip to Taiwan, and I got up this morning at 3:30am due to the jetlag. Trying to take advantage of the solitude, I started pulling together our insurance info and about fell over when I saw the latest renewals. I thought, "Surely we can't be paying that much for insurance." With a little research and checking, pandora's box opened. That led me to the other item, health insurance. I'm now fully down that rabbit hole too!

It started at 3:30 this morning and it's now 5:00pm and I've been non-stop on this stuff. I've sent our auto and homeowners insurance declarations to multiple agents and have started getting replies that will get us huge savings. I've also set up a meeting for my wife to meet with a .gov healthcare marketplace guru for next week, to get us some pricing on healthcare plans, while I'm on the road again.

For that reason, I re-shop insurances nearly every year. Insurance companies punish loyalty.

But, even when I remain with the same company, I can often find savings.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

For that reason, I re-shop insurances nearly every year. Insurance companies punish loyalty.

Yes they do.

 

[gsganzer]

For that reason, I re-shop insurances nearly every year. Insurance companies punish loyalty.

But, even when I remain with the same company, I can often find savings.

Found that out the hard way. It was our own fault too. For the last few years, I've been telling my wife we needed to shop policies. But what can you do when you spend 256 nights in hotels a year?

Needless to say, I've been keeping my distance from my wife while I try to get myself back in check. We both need to be rowing this boat. But that's my own issue to address.

 

[5030]

My issue with insurance is I live in Michigan, the insurance poor state. I think we pay more for insurance than we spend on food.

 

[ultrarunner]

My home had a Buck Insert built that way in 1993.

Wood burning on a cold night is almost always a no go by law… only used the fire place once and worked great.

When I bought only 1 from 7 would insure because I had no annual chimney sweep receipt but it was not even mine when in escrow…

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

Since I relocated to rural living in Tennessee my homeowner insurance has increased each year, especially the past 4 years with home values skyrocketing. My home value is now appraised at almost 250% above what I originally paid 11 years ago and the majority of the increase was over the past few years.

So the wife and I were thinking a big increase was instore again but was shocked to see it actually went down by $220 bucks and my auto insurance also dropped by $5.

With all this bad crap going these days we finally get a beautiful shine of northern lights in the sky.

Wish ours would go down. Five years ago I was paying 11 hundred a year for homeowners, just paid the bill a couple days ago, same company was 22 hundred. No claims or additions or new buildings. Taxes went up almost 500 in the las couple years. I’m in the state right above yours.

 

[texas42]

My Home Owners Insurance has more than doubled in the last 3 years.

 

[ultrarunner]

Sounds like the only difference is you guys outside of California can get coverage for a price where as many in California can only get Fair Plan through the State?

 

[gsganzer]

My Home Owners Insurance has more than doubled in the last 3 years.

Based on my experience in TX on auto (and all insurance type, regardless of kind/state), send your renewal declarations every year to all the other competitors. There are no friends in the insurance industry. Only annual insurance rates.