How To Get A Quote For Homeowners Insurance

Posted February 27, 2021

How you choose to get a quote for homeowners insurance will often dictate the coverage and price of the policy you purchase.

There are multiple ways to get a quote for homeowners insurance.

Online Only Carrier (Fast but poor coverage options)
Captive Agent Carrier (Slow, expensive, better coverage options)
Independent Agent Carrier (Best price and coverage options)

While each option has pros and cons, when it comes to homeowners insurance there is one option that stands out above all others… the Independent Agent.

Online Only Carrier

You can go to an online insurance company where you punch in your name, your birthday, your address, and it spits out a rate.

These are good options because they’re very fast.

However, you are DIY-ing your insurance. In these situations, you as the homeowner, are responsible for any mistakes that are made on that policy.

In particular, any additional coverages or endorsements that are not added, making sure that your replacement cost is properly set, that you have adequate coverage for your personal property, for your liability, etc.

Purchasing homeowners’ insurance on your own creates the additional risk of making sure that that policy is set up properly in the event that something terrible happens.

Captive Agent

The next option would be a captive agent.

This would be your State Farm, Allstate and Farmers type companies. These are fine options. The professionals who work in those organizations are perfectly capable.

The issue that you run in often is that they have one carrier, they have one option to provide you with, so if you call a State Farm office, that person on the other line is going to sell you State Farm insurance.

They have one quote, one product that they can offer and sometimes that may be the best option for you, sometimes it won’t be, but they are always going to try to sell you that option because that is how they make money.

Independent Agent

Your third option is an independent insurance agent.

Western States is an independent insurance agency.

What we do is partner with multiple companies, in our office we have over 15 homeowners insurance companies.

We take your information, we run a replacement cost estimator to find out what the appropriate amount of coverage is. We work with your bank and your loan officer, if you’re purchasing a home to make sure that we have your information correct, that we have your replacement costs properly set, and then we work through you the various coverages that are necessary for your life.

We ask you questions to ensure proper coverage, such as:

Do you have a finished basement?
Do you need water backup coverage?
Do you have children which provide excess liability issues?
Do you have a pool?
Do you have large buildings in your backyard?

There are many different scenarios in which there are endorsements or coverage options that may not be presented to you if you were either doing your homeowners insurance yourself or you’re presented with just one option.

We then take that package, we shop it out to all our companies and we come back with a competitive price for an insurance program that’s going to suit your needs and the needs of your family in the event that you have that terrible day.

The Take Away

I am incredibly biased to option number three (independent agent), it’s why my family founded Western States 46 years ago!

It’s why I work with homeowners every day. It’s why I partner with the insurance carriers that I do so that when people like yourself have a need, you get the product that you pay for.

We are homeowners insurance experts, it’s what we do all day long here at Western States.

If we aren’t your agent, we should be!

You can contact us at 801.798.7461 or Matt@westernstatesinsurance.net.

Thank you and have a great day,

Matt Barber