Local Homeowner's Insurance Recommendations?

lucky760

lucky760

New member
At the point in the loan process where we need to have an insurance quote in hand. I've never had homeowner's insurance before, and there are seemingly hundreds of agents in Irvine.

Do you have any recommendations? Obviously, the lowest price is highest priority, but a nice, friendly agent is always preferred.

If it makes any difference, we'll be insuring a detached condo with a lot line (at Saratoga).

Thanks!
 
Check with your car insurance company to see if you can get a good rate for multiple policies.
Just let you know, AAA doesn't insure detached condo.
 
yeah they do... i have a detached condo... my homeowners insurance is with AAA... =_=...

do ur hw and figure out whats the diff between H3 and H6 insurance... figure out what u want/need... detached/attached is just a builders term and not an insurance term... 90% of insurance sales ppl arent gonna understand what a detached condo is or what a PUD is... the only ppl that do are insurance folks or brokers that are native to OC...
 
For any interested parties:

Just got a quote from AAA, and yes they do cover detached condos. The cost seems pretty reasonable, but only as a AAA member and if I also have AAA auto insurance. (And having home insurance will also reduce the auto insurance.)

One good thing is they are not for profit so they pay dividends back at the end of the year that go toward the next year's policy.

The policy is for $431k personal property protection, $575k for rebuilding, $500k in liability, with a $1,000 deductible.

Seems like a pretty good deal to me and the agent is a really friendly fellow, but I'll still continue checking around.
 
@lucky
  Did you go to local AAA or just make a call to AAA? Who do you talk to? and did you tell him that it is a detached condo or you just quote it as a single family?
When I was in the local AAA, they told me that someone's policy got decline because it is a detached condo when they submitted the policy for final approval. That is why they told me AAA doesn't cover detached condo.
 
insurance types are heavily regulated... theres only the handful of residential insurance types out in the mass market (see my link above)... read everyone of them, and then figure out which one u need b4 u go shopping for it...

with that said, i would suggest educating urself on the insurance industry... when u talk insurance, u need to use the terms H3, H5, H6 etc... try not use the terms "condo" "detached" "attached" etc because those are builder and legal/ownership terms... when u use insurance terms, it kills off the chances of misinterpretation and buying the "wrong" insurance type because the insurance types automatically assume certain legal/builder type of the home...

for detached condos, the main thing is to check with ur master HOA to see if they insure the structure... if they do not, then the liability falls onto the homeowner, so u need to get H3 or insurance packages that includes H3...
 
irvine123searching said:
@lucky
  Did you go to local AAA or just make a call to AAA? Who do you talk to? and did you tell him that it is a detached condo or you just quote it as a single family?
When I was in the local AAA, they told me that someone's policy got decline because it is a detached condo when they submitted the policy for final approval. That is why they told me AAA doesn't cover detached condo.
Click to expand...

Oh, boy, that scares me. I did talk to an agent in my local AAA office. He tried to look up the property type in county records but found none because it's not done yet, presumably.

I did tell him it was a detached condo and he had no concerns about that.

"Why wouldn't they cover a detached condo?" I wonder.

[edit]
Note that I did explain that I own the land and building and that I'd need the corresponding coverage. That translated to the appropriate insurance type (H3 or what have you), regardless of how the builder defines the property type, so after specifying the required type of insurance, I just can't imagine why they would later come back and say the underwriters declined us because it's a detached condo. There must have to be some mitigating circumstances, like it turned out to be a condo where the structure is covered by the HOA or something. Hmm...
 
nah dont worry dude... as long as u know ur shit, the chances of things going wrong are minimalized...

for that particular situation... im thinking most likely the insurance guy was a new guy, so right from the start hearing "condo" decided to write him a H6 app (the only insurance type that specifically states "condo" in the terminology, BUT if u actually read the definition, the term condo in there is meant for multi-family style condos like townhomes/apartments, and NOT detached condos)... and then later on either the dude was like no i want to insure the entire structure or they realized the app was quoting for an H6 (significantly cheaper) but needed or was expecting the coverage of a H3 (much more expensive)... so in colinqual terms, in essence the dude tried to buy "condo" insurance for a "single family" LOL...
 
I would recommend Rebecca Higgs with State Farm.  Awesome service.  Knows her stuff and competitive pricing - not the cheapest, but i'm happy.  949-726-9015.
 
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