An Insurance Education, Part 1: How to Compare Insurance Quotes

An Insurance Education, Part 1: How to Compare Insurance Quotes

For a homeowner, understanding what to look at when choosing and customizing a policy is vital to getting proper coverage. This month, we’re looking at educational topics in a four-part series designed to help you get the best policy possible.

To start off, we’ll look at how to compare and contrast homeowners insurance quotes based not just on cost, but on the important coverages you need for security and peace of mind.

Policy Quotes

A standard homeowners insurance policy is written on what is known as the HO3 form. This is a typical insurance policy that covers your home and personal property against damage caused by storms, losses from burglaries, and so on.

The premiums for these policies are made up of many different rating factors, much of which are built around your home: year of construction, construction type, location, and other characteristics such as wind mitigation devices or fire/burglar alarms.

In addition, your premium will include some factors based upon you, the homeowner. These are comprised of many factors inclusive of losses at your current or previous addresses and insurance scoring.

Not all policies are created equal, however. When you go to purchase a policy, you may simply be shown the lowest priced quotes that a comparative rater delivers back when your information is entered by the agent. By asking about specific coverages, you can identify the policy that is best suited to your needs.

Comparing Coverage

By comparing coverage and not just cost, you can get a real idea of what the true value of each policy is. Ask your agent about HO3 coverage for the following areas, which can vary widely from carrier to carrier:

• Damage to your home or personal property from wind-driven rain. Many policies don’t cover this kind of damage unless there is a gaping hole in your roof or a broken window. (Olympus HO3 policies customarily cover wind-driven rain damage even if your roof and windows are intact.)
• Hidden water damage. Many policies contain extremely restrictive language and tight limitations for water damage coverage. (Olympus HO3 policies include some of the broadest water damage coverage available on the Florida market.)
• Pool enclosures. Many policies only offer a maximum, sub-limited amount of coverage for pool enclosures, and may not cover all components. (Olympus HO3 policies protect attached pool enclosures with Replacement Cost Value coverage that includes frames and screens.)
• New home builds. Getting ready to build a new home in Florida? Many dwelling under construction (DUC) policies won’t cover building materials stolen from the construction site. (Olympus DUC policies do cover theft of building materials from new home worksites.)

For other areas to compare and contrast between policies, you can use the Olympus coverage checklist.

Next week, we’ll look at typical homeowners insurance coverage amounts and limits.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not form a part of, replace, change or amend any terms, conditions, provisions or language within your Olympus Insurance policy. We encourage you to read your entire policy.