Home Value for Homeowners Policy

Start by listing what state you are in and possibly what areas you work.

Do you have a niche market that you work? For instance, do you specialize in homes over $5,000,000?

For standard homes, and by that, I mean the average home in the subdivision, agents pretty much do this with their little Marshall and Swift valuation calculators. This gets it close enough for insurance purposes. I assume this is not what you do.

Tell me what you bring to the table and why you should be paid rather than the agent just saying 1200 square feet X $165/sqft = $xxxx Through in some adjustments to make it sound good, and viola, a valuation.

Dan
 
Thanks for the reply. I am a CT State Certified Appraiser covering Fairfield, Litchfield, New Haven, Hartford, Middlesex, Tolland and Windham counties. I appraise 1-4 family residential properties, condos, and vacant land. A part of the appraisal process is determining replacement cost, which includes a site value analysis and calculating depreciation.
Do insurance companies hire valuation professionals, such as appraisers, to value a property? I just received my annual homeowners policy statement, and the insured value is at least $150,000 higher than it should be. Hence, the reason for my query on this forum.
 
most companies use their own evaluation system online while you are doing the app. Are there carriers out there that will take someone elses word?
 
The online calculators are not accurate for high value homes or for custom homes (true custom, not what developers call custom).

In these cases, you need a specialist to calculate the true reconstruction cost coverage, except, most insurance policies already have an allowance that keeps you from needing it. For instance, near me there is a fairly large development of multi-million dollar homes (starting at an affordable $5M, most are over $10M) in a gated community. These are pretty ornate homes, hard to come up with a good valuation for the average agent.

Now, if you write it with Chubb, well, its covered. Take a decent guess, they send a guy out and make sure you are close, they will make changes if needed. This is true with every carrier that I know of for high value homes. The risk is to much to not send an inspector.

The carrier will almost never reduce coverage based on the inspection, but might increase it.

Dan
 
As with banks/lenders, appraisers deal with the appraisal department. Generally there is no appraisal department at an insurance company, so who would an appraiser contact?
 
There is not an appraisal department in an insurance company, at least not anything close to a bank/lender type of situation.

There are 2 times a house is looked at, once when it is insured. This does not determine the house value in terms of sales price (such as an appraisal does), but does determine how the house is built to determine the necessary coverage.

The second time a house might be looked at is after a loss to determine how big a check to write. This is done by adjusters, whether it be a public adjuster or a company adjuster.

Dan
 
Some companies do have appraisers on staff (Chubb, Fireman's Fund, Chartis), however most smaller companies do not and use a computerized replacement cost estimator. Have you thought about maybe getting a little more licensing and becoming an claims adjuster?
 
What is the best way to contact homeowners insurance companies to offer my valuation services?

Do your research online - find a list of insurance companies..and then start your insurance shopping.

Doing your insurance shopping online can be the best way to contact insurance companies - you can do it right at the comfort of your home. You can do insurance quotes comparison.

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California Casualty
 
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