I've had this house in rural Northern California for four years now, and have shopped homeowner's coverage every year. I started with AAA, who also covered my city home. The rate was comparable the first year, then took a big jump. AAA said it was because I'm in an area rated for high wildfire danger, which according to the maps published by CalFire, I am. I maintain more than 100 feet of clearance, have removed trees that overhung the house, and have a concrete tile roof and stucco walls, so there's nothing more I can do to better mitigate that danger. So I switched to another company, Amica, which came highly rated by Consumer's Reports. They quoted a much better rate than AAA, but after I signed up and had already cancelled AAA, they raised it another 20%. I was flabbergasted, but their only excuse was that their underwriters forced the change. I switched to Liberty Mutual the next year and now have a rate better than even that first year at AAA. Their claims reputation isn't great, but so far they've been real easy to work with as in no long waits on the phone and no run arounds when I ask questions about what's covered and what's not. But the real test will come when I get the the bill for next year's premium.
One thing I did find out is that most insurance companies rely on the ISO rating assigned to both the property and the fire department serving that property. It's called the Property Protection Class (PPC), and anything 9 or higher will significantly impact the insurance premium, or even an insurance company's inclination to insure a property. ISO changed their rating system last year, the result being that homeowners in high fire hazard zones like mine, or that live more than 7 miles or 15 minutes from the fire station, are seeing pretty steep increases in their premiums. If the closest fire station is either volunteer or is not manned 24x7x365, that will negatively impact their rating and therefor the insure-ability of the property as well. I was shopping for a new home (bare land, actually) last year and this was one of the factors that I evaluated at each location. I also called a few insurance companies for one or two places I was seriously considering, and some of the big companies like AAA, State Farm, Farmers, etc. wouldn't even write a policy if the property was at PPC9 or higher. When I mentioned this to more than one real estate agent, they would pass along the name of a local independent agent. Invariably when I reviewed those rates, they were very high, were offered by companies that I'd never heard of, and had very low Dun and Bradstreet ratings.
