Hi, this is Jeff Shropshire with the Shropshire Agency, and today we’d like to talk to you about finding the right insurance policy for your home.

Homeowners insurance has changed dramatically over the last couple of years, as well as the pricing has increased. I’m sure you’ve noticed that on every renewal as you open the envelope with great disdain, trying to figure out what in the world is going on. So, when you see premiums like that, you typically pick up the phone, start calling around and getting quotes, and you start finding a variety of options. The challenge is finding the right option for your family. So I wanted to put together a scenario here to show you something that happens in our office all the time with with clients and with people who come in.

So we go in and we’re gonna quote somebody’s homeowner’s insurance for them. We always have replacement costs on the dwelling and on the contents. You need to make sure you have that, but it’s a common situation on most policies. On this particular home, the current policy has about $462,000 for the dwelling amount. The other quotes came in pretty close to that after they were on the estimator. The current wind and hail deductible, which a lot of people now look at, which you really need to, is that 1%. We had some options on some other quotes that required 2%. If you’re in the state of Texas, sometimes that deductible is more than 2%, 5% or more. You need to pay attention to that. But the real area where everybody looks at, of course, is the premium. We need to save some money. We want to put money back in our pocket.

Insurance is ridiculous! We totally understand that. And that’s the thought that most consumers have. So this is the area where most people like when they’re going to make their decision. However, with changes in the marketplace and forms and endorsements with carriers, you may be able to afford this premium, but can you afford the claim?

In this particular scenario, let’s assume that we had a $20,000 hail claim, the sky’s opened up, dumped all over the place, $20,000 worth of damage on the roof. It’s gonna trigger this, wind and hail deductible. Many people anticipate that’s going to be the only scenario they’re gonna have to pay out of pocket. Well, not necessarily true. On the options, 4 other options that we had in this particular quote, there were endorsements and changes of policies due to underwriting requirements that inquired and made the insured pay more out of pocket on top of their deductible.

So in this scenario, if we were just looking at premium, quote 2 looks great, but at the time of a claim is quote 2 the best option? Then you add how much you paid in premium plus the amount you paid in claim, and you could definitely be funding that claim yourself out of pocket. Some people have this much money in their savings, some people don’t. Some people don’t want to spend this much on a hail claim.

So you need to understand your homeowner’s policy now and especially when you’re shopping, you need to understand claim scenarios of what could happen because these sorts of things are taking clients by surprise, and it is not time to find out during a hailstorm that you’re gonna be paying a college tuition for your roof to be paid. It makes no sense at all, especially in the marketplace if you don’t have to.

So listen, homeowners policies are different. You need an agent who can help you with that. At the Shropshire Agency, we’ll be glad to analyze your current coverages. We’ll show you this sort of scenario for you. We may make some recommendations with some other carriers. We’ll quote your auto as well to get you as many discounts as we can to help you through these hard times, but also to save you money, but more importantly, to protect your assets. We thank you and we hope you have a blessed day.

We’d be happy to review your insurance coverage options with you! Give us a call at (806) 763-7311 or visit https://shropshireinsurance.com.