I am under contract on a house (yay!) and need to submit proof of home insurance to the lender. So of course I spent today trying to track down estimates from two insurance agents recommended by my realtor (State Farm, Allstate) as well as getting an insurance broker to find me the best deal from a reputable company that he could.
The replacement value for my dwelling was all over the place between these three!
Home sold for 564K (almost 40K over listing in a bidding war, but still less than many comps).
Mortgage: Conventional 451K with 20% down.
It's in a HCOL area (Boulder County, CO). Here is what each estimated my replacement value to be:
(1) Safeco: $231K plus 100% extended dwelling coverage, for a total of $462K. Medium premium (around $1500)
(2) Allstate: $310K plus 'building structure reimbursement extended limits' (don't know if that is also at 100% -- it doesn't say on the document and I haven't talked with them yet). The lowest premium (around $1400)
(3) State Farm: $422K -- I don't see anything about 'extended', but again, I haven't been able to talk with them yet. The highest premium by far, probably because of the high value of the dwelling (around $2100).
(4): EDIT: Meanwhile, Amica allowed me to just input the replacement value (I put in 350K, which seems to be current appreciation over the assessed tax valuation from two years ago). But it seems like they can't just allow me to put in a number, right? Right? I could say I lost a million dollar home!
How do I choose? They all seem reputable, though I've heard that Allstate can scrimp on hail, and I live in a very hail-filled location. Will choosing low or choosing high hurt me? The broker who recommended Safeco told me that he could only bring the value up by a few percentage points, since the software had determined what the building cost would be. He is in a different and less expensive part of the state, but I assume automated software determines the cost/sf of rebuilding, etc, right? Obviously I don't want to be under-insured, but I don't want to throw away money, either -- I'm on a tight budget.
Thanks!