Choose the highest deductible you can get to lower your premium.

Buy full replacement cost insurance, so you don't get caught in a depreciated building/depreciated stuff trap. This will raise your premium, but if you've offset it with high deductible, maybe it will be a wash.

Buy flood insurance, even if you don't live in a flood zone. (It will be cheap if you have a low flood likelyhood, but any water that's hit the ground and then enters your property is a "flood" even if it's just excess water from a clogged storm sewer, and without flood insurance you out of luck.)

We have Traveler's and though we live far out of the "normal" tornado zone, when one smacked our house, they were prompt, generous, fair, and paid the full replacement cost (which on our antique house meant real plaster, slate roofing, etc.), and was not cheap. If we pay our premiums for the next 50 years, they'll never break even on us.

And finally, don't nickel and dime 'em on small claims. Save your claim karma for the Big One.

Call and ask for quotes from twice as many companies as you think is necessary, since that will keep you from a last minute panic if one company declines at the last minute before closing.

Oh, and soon as you move in, take pictures of your stuff and the building and store them off-premises along with an inventory; update as needed.

Congrats on your new home!

Molly~

My husband lived in Alaska for many years (until 2001) and always used Geico. We still use it (in NY) for auto insurance but our homeowner insurance is now with Allstate. I don't know if Allstate is in Alaska. Check Geico's web site to see if you can do an umbrella policy (combine auto and homeowner for discounts).

braytonak, I'm also in Alaska. Anchorage, if that's close to you. Right now, I believe State Farm is the only company you will give you earthquake insurance. My friend has Allstate and their earthquake coverage was dropped. We have everything, cars included, through State Farm. You probably won't need flood insurance unless you have purchased in the areas which flooded last fall or are close to a river. That lets most of us in Anchorage off the hook.

The earthquake insurance is getting to be a pretty big deal right now. Within a year or so, rates are to be based upon where the house is located within the soil stability risk range. Our last house was right by the Inlet, so I'm sure our rates would have gone sky high. We are in a more solid part of town now. Don't forget, unless you are purchasing brand new, replacement insurance is much more than the cost of the home price.

Gloria

housekeeping - while I agree that choosing a higher deductible is a good idea to lower insurance premiums, choosing the highest may not be. What if the OP cannot afford the deductible payment? Personally, I choose the deductible I can afford.

Gloria: Yes, I'm in Anchorage, too. I wanted to inquire with the companies about flood insurance, despite the area (Turnagain) not being known as a flood area. I figure a flood doesn't have to come from outdoors or the sewer system. The house has hot-water heat and there was a spot in the crawlspace that made me think there had been some kind of leak in the past. My cautious side makes me think an insurance company would say that a broken water pipe was a flood...thus, deal with it yourself!

I'm glad you mention the earthquake insurance. Turnagain is awfully close to Earthquake Park, and you and I both know what happened there.

I'll add Geico to the list of places to call (which is short right now). I used to use Geico for auto insurance, so maybe I need to re-consider. ;-) Then again, if State Farm is the only one doing earthquake insurance...ouch.

I do recall that there was some big shakedown caused by the state two or three years ago, which caused all the insurance companies to stop offering coverage for a while. Scary.

I'll definitely look at replacement value coverage. That's one of my big fears...having coverage, but not enough.

What kinds of info do you need at hand when requesting quotes? Our loan originator mentioned that the insurance company could call her for information. Is that normally done?

We have an umbrella policy through Geico and Traveler's. So far no complaints.

Find out what it would cost to rebuild and replace. Usually a basement isn't damaged, so you could leave that off the total. New home owners are sometimes amazed that the house they paid $1M for isn't insured for that; the land isn't insured!

I agree with the high deductible. Today insurance isn't against small problems, it's against huge ones. If you file small claims, your rates will rise. File enough small claims and they will cancel your policy.

We've had no complaints with State Farm for 35 years. We are in Illinois.

do not buy insurance based on your mortgage. the coverage should reflect the cost to rebuild your home. Land and foundation are usually not included as they do not get destroyed.

get replacement cost coverage. realize most companies only give an additional percentage (20-25%) above your limits. get a high enough deductible that you can afford. i personally believe $500-$1000. flood is always a good idea and earthquake.

We have a $1000 deductible because our insurer refused to do a $500 deductibe. I had a claim in the place I lived before right before we closed on this one. Even though it was a different company, I was considered a high risk (makes no sense, the previous claim was a burglary. Unless the thieves are following me from one state to another I don't see how I'm a high risk!). I was going to do $500 just because that is what I always did. Doing the $1000 saves a LOT of money. In reality, I would never make a claim unless damages exceeded $3k because of the impact on rates and the risk they will drop you, so the higher deductible makes sense for me.

I don't know if they operate in Alaska, but I found Country Insurance to be the best deal for me in Oregon.

Boy that's an open ended question.

Start with insuring the structure. You'll need basic info on the house, but also the square footage and the year built. Most companies seem to have a real bend on limited electric power (60 amp is bad) and fuses. Could be very different in your neck of the woods...I'm in CT. With the house info your agent will determine an estimated replacement number. Make sure you ask EVERY company how much additional replacement they offer. It can vary from nothing over the face amount up to an unlimited amount of coverage (ie: if the house were insured for 200K and it actually cost $750k to rebuild exact same house they would pay all $750K). Most companies in the last 5 years have limited replacment to somewhere between 120% and 150%. I'd go with a maximum amount I could find...especially in AK, where everything is expensive (from what I hear). You might pay a little more, but I think it's worth it.

Replacement on Contents is also very important. Basically it says the insurance company will pay you the amount you spend to replace a lost item...not a depreciated amount. Example, with replacement your 20 year old fridge is lost in a fire. If you go buy the exact same fridge, the insurance pays you the full price. Without replacement, the insurer hands you $50 as that's about what a 20 year old fridge is worth. You'll pay a slight increase in premium for this, but you'd be NUTS not to get it!!

Liability...buy as much as you can afford! Most policies come with $100,000 standard and you can add up to $500,000 for a modest increase (around $50/year). If you have your home and auto with the same company (which you should definitely do to maximize discounts) you could also get an umbrella policy. An umbrella is simply extra liability, usually in million dollar increments. There's always some deadbeat looking for a free ride, so you need to protect your biggest asset at all times. Most don't carry them, but I'm writing more and more every day.

Deductibles...check either $500 or $1000. You'll save a substantial amount going from 500 to 1000. I don't find going over 1000 to make much sense. If you can save $200/yr from 500 to 1000, then in 2 1/2 years time you've saved the increase in deductible. If you save the same $200 going from 1000 to 2000, you've just doubled how long it will take you to "save back" the increased deductible. Check a couple of 2000 deductibles and you'll see what I'm saying.

Flood Insurance...don't bother unless you're in a flood zone. Your bank will be the first to enlighten you if you are. Flood insurance isn't cheap. Most importantly, FEMA is the only horse in the barn when it comes to flood insurance. The reason I say that, is if you don't meet their definition of a flood then they don't pay. Translation, if your basement floods in a heavy rain, but your neighbors doesn't they don't pay. I believe their definition of flood has to do with an affected area having to be a certain number of houses or acreage. If not,then no flood.

I've got to bail...sorry. I will check this again tomorrow to see if I've missed anything. In case you're wondering, I've been writing house insurance for almost 20 years.

I'll be interested in what you find out about the earthquake insurance to see if my information is correct. I would also be suprised if anyone has any flood insurance at a reasonable cost. Here in town, I don't think it's an issue unless you back up to Chester, Campbell or Ship creeks, so you are safe there.

I've linked the ground failure risk for Anchorage. Looks like Turnagain is still a very high risk. We are in College Village so we are moderate to moderately low. Better than our previous very high status.

We set up our initial insurance based on the electrical panel, age and sq. footage. Same as spanky mentioned. As soon as we were in and settled, we reevaluated for a more realistic $$. In our last house, State Farm came out and went through the house to help us come up with our number. We had done quite a bit of remodeling, so we didn't want to have to go back to a builder grade box if we needed to rebuild. I've also figured in costs like renting for the year we would be out of the house and the need for an architect to help us rebuild on this specific lot.

Good luck. You've landed in one of my favorite parts of town.

Gloria

Here is a link that might be useful: Ground failure map for Anchorage

Minutes after writing my last message I checked my Email to find a request from our loan processor that she needed to know who we had chosen to be our insurance carrier. Since it was almost midnight, I just went to bed and did some checking around while working. (Ugh!)

I ended up going with Allstate after a fairly quick run-through. At least I'll save a large percentage on the car coverage. I figure I can go back after closing and make any adjustments to the policy. $786 / year for Replacement coverage is what I ended up with right now. I'm just relieved to have been able to find a policy quickly.

Running out of time to find a carrier is my only flub in this whole process. But it's tweakable later. :-)

As Braytonac mentioned, often if you can get your home and car insured by the same company, they might knock as much as 10% off your car insurance. I think that is the number that State Farm uses.

If you are eligible, USAA is a terrific insurance provider, although I heard they won't take new policies in Oakland, CA due to it's coastal proximity (???).
We got our flood insurance in Florida cut by 1/3 by taking off the carpet coverage. We're putting in tile and hardwood anyway.