Homeowners quote comparison worksheet

The cheapest homeowners quote is often cheapest because it covers less: a lower dwelling limit, a percentage wind deductible, a roof paid at actual cash value. The worksheet lines quotes up in columns and flags the places they differ, so you compare coverage first and price second.

How to use it

Ask each insurer or agent to quote the same dwelling limit, deductibles and endorsements, then copy the figures from each quote summary or draft declarations page. The worksheet starts with three columns (or the ones you saved), and "Add a quote" brings you to a maximum of five. The rows are the insurer's name (suggestions come from the insurer profiles), the annual premium, Coverages A through F in dollars, the all-perils deductible, the wind or hurricane deductible as a percentage or a dollar figure, how roof and contents claims are settled (replacement cost, actual cash value or a payment schedule), extended replacement cost and ordinance or law as percentages, the water backup limit, and a notes row for anything else. Leave a field blank if the quote does not say, and then go ask. "Save in this browser" keeps your entries on this device only when you press it, "Clear" empties the table back to three blank columns and deletes the saved copy, and "Print" gives you a paper copy.

What it checks

Checking starts once two quotes have a premium; a column without a premium is left out of the comparison entirely. Until then the worksheet says to enter at least two. It sorts the quotes by price, marks the cheapest "(lowest)", shows each of the others as "+$ vs lowest", and then lists "Differences to check before you choose", in this order:

• any quote whose dwelling (A), other structures (B), personal property (C), loss of use (D), liability (E), medical payments (F) or ordinance or law figure is below the highest of your quotes, one line per quote per row, naming the insurer or "A quote" and showing both figures; a blank cell is never flagged;
• all-perils deductibles that differ, when at least two quotes have one;
• then, quote by quote, a percentage wind deductible converted to dollars using that quote's own Coverage A (the dollar figure is left off if Coverage A is blank), a roof entry that contains "acv", "actual" or "sched" (so ACV and payment schedules are caught, "RC" is not), a contents entry that contains "acv" or "actual", and a blank water backup limit when at least one other quote has one;
• wind or hurricane deductibles that differ in dollars, giving the lowest and the highest, with percentages converted as above and dollar entries taken as they are;
• extended replacement cost that differs, with a blank counted as 0.

If nothing is flagged, it says the coverage matches across the fields you entered and reminds you to check endorsements and exclusions. Links to the quote-comparison guides close the result.

Say, hypothetically, one quote costs $2,300 and the other $2,550. The cheaper one has a $340,000 dwelling limit, a 2% wind deductible and an ACV roof. The other has $400,000, 1% and replacement cost on the roof. The worksheet shows the second as +$250 vs lowest, flags the lower dwelling limit ($340,000 vs $400,000), shows the cheaper quote's wind deductible as $6,800 and the other's as $4,000, flags the roof, and adds that wind deductibles differ in dollars, from $4,000 to $6,800. The $250 saving now comes with less dwelling coverage and a bigger storm bill.

What it assumes

The worksheet has no reference figures of its own; every entry is yours. The only arithmetic is the percentage times Coverage A, and the benchmark for a limit is simply the highest one among your quotes, not a recommended amount. Dwelling limits matter because the ISO homeowners form (HO 00 03 05 11, published by the Maine Bureau of Insurance) pays replacement cost on a building only if it is insured to at least 80% of full replacement cost, and pays less below that.

Where it stops being right

The checks cover only some rows. Water backup limits are compared only for being blank, never for size, and the notes row is not read. A blank water backup field is flagged only when another quote has one, so a quote set where no one fills in that row raises no flag. A wind deductible entered as a dollar amount is compared in dollars with the converted percentages on other quotes, which works only if Coverage A is filled in on the percentage quotes; a percentage deductible with Coverage A blank is left out of that dollar comparison. The text checks look for the strings above, so "no schedule" would still be flagged as a schedule. A "matches" message speaks only to the fields it checks. It cannot see the policy form, discounts, installment fees, the insurer's financial strength or how it handles claims, and a first-year price can differ from a renewal price. Use the compare home insurers side by side tool for the company side, and read how to compare homeowners insurance quotes and how to read a homeowners insurance quote before you choose. A quote is not a policy until you see the declarations page (declarations page).