Land Lover answers:

Several ways - either you tell them, or they go to your property tax website (more accurate than you telling them) and see what the legal dimensions are, or they go out in person and measure and inspect.

Go outside and measure the outside of your house. If you're under insured, it will be a BIG DEAL if you have a claim and can't get enough to fix your house. If you're over insured, you're paying too much.

Land Lover answers:

Well, they're out there, but you have to buy it, and it's really expensive. Most independent agencies buy the software, and then pay monthly to pay for rating updates. We're talking several thousand for the initial software, and about $25 per month, per company, for the rate updates.

You are trying to be your own agent.

Unless you know the difference between replacement cost and GUARANTEED replacement cost, and unless you know which extra endorsements you need (are you familiar with an HO41?), you will be making MAJOR mistakes by trying to do this yourself. You likely won't even be able to get the accurate (for each company) limit for the building.

Go visit a local, independent agent, and ask them to give you quotes with 10 different companies. Have them print it out. Then go to another one or two, and get 10 or 20 more quotes, from 10 or 20 more companies.

You can't get the policy, anyway, without using an agent. So let them do ALL the work for you.

Land Lover answers:

Before buying a home insurance policy, please read the full details of coverage offered by the policy.

Some common things that should be part of your policy are...

List your valuable belongings and be sure to include your home appliances, furniture, electronic items, kitchen goods, clothing, jewelry, other appliances, silverware and other personal things. These items should be covered and you can provide this list to your agent.

Keep digital records of the policy taken by you. Such records can also include video or images/photographs of valuable possessions in your home. Keep them in a safety deposit box.

Make regular updates to your home insurance policy to include any renovations or repairs in your home.

In case you have any questions about your policy - at any time, do not feel shy about asking your insurance agent questions, how so ever trivial it might appear to you.

Land Lover answers:

I have never heard of free insurance.

Go talk to your agent and see about getting a policy in place when you purchase the home.

You don't get free insurance when you purchase a car. Purchasing a house is no different.

Land Lover answers:

I would get a good lawyer that I can trust to examine the policy first. Insurance companies, (probably most of them), use very misleading words that appear clearly to mean one thing but yet they may mean just the opposite. Insurance salesmen and car salesmen may act like they are your friend but in reality they are trained to get you to think that they care about you and are your friends.

More than a few people in California lost their homes due to fires and had "EXTENDED REPLACEMENT COVERAGE" in their policies which meant that they actually got screwed and were $280,000.00 or so short after being paid for therr houses in some cases.

Some Insurance companies are run by lying, greedy, powerful people. I will not say that this is true or not true about Allstate or about any one of them, in particular.

The hurricane damages which caused the flood in New Orleans was for the most part unpaid by insurance companies since the water came from the ground up. They say that the hurricane did not cause the damages.

Allstate commercials look good and so do the ads for the Marines or Army recruitment BUT what happens in the military when you get gut shot, or you lose a leg,arm, your entire crotch, or half your face ? Do the research to see if the good outweigh the bad. Search the web for complaints about your insurance company first. I see insurance companies as a needed evil that we middle class and poor have to live with.

Finally, ask your parents, ask others who have had problems with their homes or cars and find out how their insurance companies upheld the policies. That may help you decide which company to go with.