Where can you find the least expensive homeowners insurance Arizona? That answer is different for everyone. It depends on where you live, what kind of home you live in, which natural disasters are more likely in your area–and even whether or not you smoke!
If you want to find the best insurance at the lowest rates, you’ll need to do a little legwork. You don’t have to spend every spare minute searching for the best deal, but you should check out multiple providers. For example, some of the most popular insurance carriers in Arizona include Allstate (often considered best for first-time homeowners), MetLife (usually has the highest standard coverage), Travelers (great for green homes), and State Farm (a solid, sure, and very well-rounded company). Other insurers include Mercury Insurance and the Arizona Home Insurance Company.
It pays to look over various aspects of your home as well your potential policy. We designed the following questions to help you find the best homeowners insurance Arizona.
How Does Shopping Around Help Me Get the Best Homeowners Insurance Arizona offers?Â
If you go with your first one, you could get ripped off. Also, even if everybody is honest, some will have packages that fit your individual needs much better. That’s why you should shop around–not only to counteract any dishonest or just plain too-high quotes, but also to find which insurance package works best for your situation.
Naturally you’ll want to make sure you don’t pay too much for the homeowners insurance Arizona offers. The good news is that you’re in a lucky state when it comes to premiums and deductibles. According to a recent survey, the average monthly premium in Arizona is $57.94, or about $695 per year. Compare this to neighboring California and Colorado, where the averages are $88 and $82, respectively. In fact, Arizona is the third-least-expensive state when it comes to homeowner insurance, just behind Delaware ($56.99) and Utah ($48).
How Do I Make Sure I Have the Right Amount of Coverage?
It’s important to understand that, should your house burn down, it will likely cost more to rebuild, than what you paid for it. If the construction itself doesn’t cost more, then the cleanup and everything that goes with it will. The safest thing for you to do is to insure your house for more than you paid for it. Not everyone wants to do this…but if you ever suffer a life-changing disaster, don’t make it potentially worse on yourself by not having enough coverage.
Fortunately, there is a way you can offset this cost.
Is There Anything I Shouldn’t Insure?
This is something most families don’t ask and end up paying too much. Do you need fire insurance for your home? Absolutely. Do you need it for the land on which your home sits? Probably not. Theft insurance? Unless you’re running a farm or an outdoor art gallery, probably not! Usually when you buy an insurance package, the insurance you apply to your home, also takes into account the value of the land your home is sitting on. Depending on land values in your area, and the size of your plot or estate, you could be wasting a lot of money insuring your plot of land.
Is It Worth It to Raise My Deductible?
The answer to this varies from policy to policy, but quite often the answer is “Yes!”. In some cases, you could save 25% a month just buy raising your deductible to $1000 dollars. You can easily save up that money with you savings every month.
Make sure you check for multiple deductibles in your policy as well. Some insurance events may have different deductibles than others. You may be able to save money by choosing a higher deductible on events that are less likely or less likely to be costly.
Do Homeowners Insurance Arizona Providers Look at My Credit Score?
Arizona homeowners insurance agents do look at your credit score–just like agents in every other state! If your score is above 650, you begin looking like much less of a risk to insurance companies. Your rate will likely reflect that (if it doesn’t, then you may wan your get a copy of your credit report and talk to your potential agents).
Keep in mind you can always review your policy and do something different if your credit score goes up in the future.
What Can I Do to My Home to Lower My Homeowners Insurance Rates?
The best thing you can do to your home to lower your insurance rate is to make it disaster-ready. Depending on where you live and what type of natural disasters your area faces, you may save by installing storm windows, reinforced roofing, fire prevention measures, etc.
In Arizona, you actually have the luck of living in one of the safest states in the union, at least when it comes to natural disasters. Phoenix is the second-safest city in the U.S., according to Risk & Insurance. Since the state is not close to an ocean, not in a tornado corridor, and doesn’t have any active major fault lines running through it, it is considered very low risk for natural disaster. Still, smart Arizona homeowners will make sure that their houses have adequate fire protection, as well as protection against excessive heat. In many places, you can reduce your insurance costs by 15-20% by adding a home sprinkler system and automatic fire department notification.
Will A Home Security System Help Lower My Home Insurance Rates?
Most companies can reduce your insurance rates if you up the security of your home. This includes simple things like deadbolts, as well as slightly more sophisticated measures such as a home security system.
Actually, home security systems aren’t as complicated as they used to be. Even many cable providers offer this service now, which involves wireless devices and routers with backup batteries. You can save anywhere from 5% to 20% or more on your insurance rates if you have a qualified home security system. Off-site monitoring may help push your rates lower than just a standard security system. Plus, off-site monitoring gives you excellent peace of mind.
Will My Homeowners Insurance Go Down if I Quit Smoking?
Believe it or not, it will! Insurance companies see smoking as a major contributor to house fires. With Arizona being a particularly dry and hot state, this can be a big issue with insurance providers.
How Can Multiple Policies Actually Reduce My Monthly Insurance Payments?
It sounds counterintuitive, but the more policies you take out with a single provider or carrier, the less of a risk they consider you to pose! If you’re looking for homeowners  insuranceand already have, for example, car insurance in the state, ask your agent about other types of insurance. If your insurance company and/or agent offers multiple types of insurance, you may get a heavily discounted rate if you roll fire, theft, burglary, auto, life, and other insurance types all into one bundle.
2 Point Highlight
In many places, you can reduce your insurance costs by 15-20% by adding a home sprinkler system and automatic fire department notification.
In some cases, you could save 25% a month just buy raising your deductible to $1000 dollars
