Who do you use? It's time to step away from State Farm.

germania

There is a thread on the Houston board about this. A poster works for one of them and seems to be making a bunch of folks happy.

We've used Casey at Goodehead Insurance for a few years now and have been happy with his help. I believe there's a contact for Liere insurance on here as well, and probably a few others that I can't recall off the top of my head.

Find a local independent agent

Also with State Farm and looking.

Thanks for the recommendations. I reached out to every recommendation and a couple of independents.

We were with Travelers for years but just switched to Acuity for home & auto. Written thru Rollo.

We have Germania for our rental properties.

Try Liere insurance - used to be a sponsor in here (maybe still are?). Aggie independent broker firm in BCS. Saved me $2k in auto and homeowner this year from Allstate.

Be careful of the "bait and switch". Insurance companies will low ball your initial quote and sucker you in and then double your premiums in 2 years. Happened to me twice.

Allstate
State Farm


These are a hard no.

Almost all others have been hit or miss. Might be good, might be bad. I am doing a third re-inspect with Allstate Saturday for a home. They are by far the worst and I wouldn't use them if they were the last company on the planet.

That said, Texas Farm Bureau has been quite pleasant to work with in most cases and seem to take care of their customers. They approved legit damage quickly and I don't have to go back and ask them for supplements because they shorted a customer. They usually do it right the first time.

Unlike the large companies where they cheap out and force me to pre-supplement which take more time and makes the customer wait.

Outside of TFB, the smaller companies are generally easier to work with. I have a few with Hartford, Maison, Hoccheim....and ones you've never heard of and they have been OK.

Germania and Traveller's have been OK as well. I can't think of any offhand that were overly difficult with them.

Make sure you have code upgrade coverage, regardless of who you go with. I don't know why you have to but for some carriers I swear to God they will call me and tell me "X, Y and Z are not going to be covered because the insured doesnt have it on their house now. It is a current building code requirement, but the insured didn't pay for code upgrades in their premium."

In other words "You need to do those things to do it properly but we aren't paying for it because the homeowner didn't give us enough money annually to do the job right. Sorry!"

ChoppinDs40 said:

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Try Liere insurance - used to be a sponsor in here (maybe still are?). Aggie independent broker firm in BCS. Saved me $2k in auto and homeowner this year from Allstate.

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We switched to goose head and they saved us close to $1000 vs Liere.

Independent agent here... www.bestinsurancetx.com

Family-owned 43 years.

Call and ask for Michele 979-297-2655 or email rb@best-ins.com

When the adjuster at the time went to Jack Winslows (#1 car repair in Aggieland) years ago and told them to put down 1/2 the paint, 1/2 the prep, they called me to get an OK.
Not OK & then met W.E. Gibson over coffee at my house. office & cars about.
Since they shop ALL insurances and the adjusters have been most honest, no reason to change with all that care & good deals for decades. Brandon Eisenman even took in my Dallas family with all their drama and made "A"s.

W.E. Gibson Insurance Co.
800-259-6665
979-694-1555
979-200-3205 Brandon
Please update these numbers if they changed

Pro tip: if you see their ads on TV, then you're paying too much. Have an independant broker shop rates for you.

As suggested above, Use Liere (insurance broker). They are the best. I've had them for 10+ years for house, car, and boat, They reshop every policy every year.

State Farm was pretty competitive for us but Progressive was the best value/cost ratio out of anyone we looked at

I own an Independent Agency in Austin and would be more than happy to help anyone looking to get some new quotes.

Matt@Dimitexas.com