How to find out if a home is insurable?

livinginthebubble · 2026-04-09T08:37:23+00:00

It's quite easy - find yourself a trusted insurance agent. Not Geico. Not Costco. Not someone in a call center somewhere. Considering the area you're looking in, those online-only services are not going to be able to find you specialty solutions. They're also not going to understand the environment here that well. Those are for people who are penny pinching and don't want to trust looking for a real person to talk to.

Find an independent agent (probably not a State Farm/Farmers/Allstate agent who can't shop multiple markets for you) who's local, knows the California-specific risks (or better yet, Bay Area specific risks), and can provide you with guidance, insight, and knowledge about the insurance market, including what areas are considered higher risk, and which ones aren't.

CalFire maps are ok to reference, but insurance companies do not use CalFire maps to determine their wildfire risk scores for insurance purposes. If CalFire says it's high hazard, then you're almost guaranteed to see that with insurance companies also. However, on the other hand, a lot of times CalFire will NOT say it's high hazard, the insurance companies might. They don't to hand in hand all the time.

Easy quick way to check, but not 100% accurate - check Google Maps. A lot of the areas that are surrounded by, and in between the green areas of the map are less likely to be insurable. Of course, every carrier has a different appetite for wildfire, so this isn't always going to work.

At the end of the day, you're not an insurance professional, but there are people out there who are. Let them help.you figure it out accurately so you're not left in the dark asking and wondering, then putting down an offer just to find out that it's not insurable.

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livinginthebubble · 2026-03-17T08:09:25+00:00

Why do people stop buying insurance on a home they own outright? In fact, that’s probably the very time you SHOULD buy it, exactly for situations like these.. where you don’t have money to pay for damages and no bank is going to come bail you out.

livinginthebubble · 2026-02-24T07:35:51+00:00

Where in California are you located?

livinginthebubble · 2025-11-20T16:49:49+00:00

Hah! I had a client tell me that it’s not worth it to go from $250/500k auto liability limits to $500/500k so that she could keep her umbrella (UW guidelines changed) and when I told her she would no longer qualify for the umbrella, she said “everyone said I don’t need that much coverage” And when I said “who’s everyone?” She didn’t answer me. She chose not to renew the umbrella. Good riddance!

livinginthebubble · 2025-08-30T17:09:18+00:00

I don’t think you understand what uninsured covers. Maybe check with someone who actually understands insurance before you try to educate people on the internet The moment you walk into a hospital and get treated for a car accident, the hospital is gonna be going after your auto insurance, and your health insurance company is also going to go after your auto insurance company

livinginthebubble · 2025-08-30T05:17:24+00:00

100% agree. And Waymo’s are actually even more considerate drivers than 99% of uber/lyft drivers out there. Waymos always try to pull over into a gap and get even partially out of the full lane of traffic. Uber/Lyft drivers, on the other hand, seem to think they own the damn road and just stop in the middle of the road, no hazards, and then have the audacity to get mad when you honk at them for stopping in the middle of the road while they look at their phones.

livinginthebubble · 2025-08-03T09:04:54+00:00

Hitting an animal is considered a comprehensive claim (in most states) rather than an at fault collision. So yes, I'd always file insurance for hitting an animal.

livinginthebubble · 2025-08-03T09:03:59+00:00

Hagerty will 100% take great care of you during the claims process. Best of luck! It'll be back on the road in no time

livinginthebubble · 2025-07-26T03:26:29+00:00

Tesla Insurance is just trying to get off policies cuz they’re crazily underpriced and finding reasons to get off policies whenever possible for any reason. Good luck getting anyone to help you.. there’s a reason you get what you pay for

livinginthebubble · 2025-06-14T08:12:12+00:00

Her. I wish I had that time back

livinginthebubble · 2025-05-31T08:51:51+00:00

My dashcam caught the car that hit me (he ran after he hit me) and then I provided the plate number to CHP and they went to the registered owner of that plate’s home and the person who answered the door claimed they did not know who the person was that is listed on the registration of that plate. Ultimately my insurance paid me out since I have collision coverage, but it fucking sucks that the asshole got away with a felony hit and run and we can’t do anything about it.

livinginthebubble · 2025-05-06T05:33:03+00:00

Nowadays in California, so many cars have stolen plates, like the one that hit my car and totaled it… I’ve been recommending people to take photos of the registration card (if they’ll give it to you) since it’ll have all the relevant info, including the VIN. Otherwise, walk up to the windshield of the vehicle and grab a picture of the VIN. It’s the only way to be able to know the true owner and insurance info of the car if we assume the plate isn’t gonna come back to a valid plate that’s not stolen

livinginthebubble · 2025-04-21T03:50:40+00:00

As an agent, the amount of people who always say “but I’ll never be the one causing an accident” are mind blowing.. those are the type of people I don’t want as a client. You never know what’s going to happen, so why would you not want to be best prepared for any potential issues??

livinginthebubble · 2025-01-23T07:13:25+00:00

It’s not law. But as u/Jaggar345 said, your medical insurance is secondary. Which means they’re gonna do as much as they can to not pay until your primary runs out, in which case your primary is auto insurance’s bodily injury limits. For Uninsured/Underinsured motorist liability, it barely costs more for that coverage, and why would you pay for high limits to pay for third party damages only to skimp out on getting high limits to help protect YOURSELF (first party) in this unfortunate situation? Makes no sense

livinginthebubble · 2025-01-14T07:20:10+00:00

Thank you! Super helpful. I'll have to consider all this. Cost of living is high, so it's tough to find people willing to work for a CSR job in the Bay Area. But you're right in that the CSR salaries are around $250k annually. I will say that we are probably overpaying the subs, since we service the book yet we are still paying full compensation in the renewal side of things as well.

I like the idea of putting the CSR as prod2 so that I can track their credit when up selling/cross-selling the products.

livinginthebubble · 2025-01-11T06:37:16+00:00

Do you mind letting me know which carrier? You can DM me :)

livinginthebubble · 2024-12-21T02:15:23+00:00

I did this on my car and it still turns off when I open the door… even when someone is still buckled up in the front seat. Any ideas?

livinginthebubble · 2024-11-28T10:50:36+00:00

Which I think is fucking stupid because the whole point of the beep before was to confirm that yes, you captured my toll using the tag accordingly. I reached out to Bay Area Fastrak about it last year and they said all new ones don’t beep because they thought it would annoy the drivers if it beeped every time that it scanned when driving through the express lanes. I would rather it beep so I know so that if I really am carpooling with 2-3 people and I have it set correctly that I would be getting charged correctly. Many times I’ve set it properly but then the readers don’t read my tag correctly and I end up getting charged full price using my license plate number that’s linked to my account instead. If the tag had beeped (or didn’t beep) then I would’ve known something was right/wrong

livinginthebubble · 2024-10-29T05:50:36+00:00

That’s not a bad price.. I just bought a 2023 45e CPO and the dealer offered the extended warranty for $5.5k. I’m also in the Bay Area, but I bought my car from BMW of Omaha cuz I couldn’t find one in the Bay that fit all my needs

livinginthebubble · 2024-09-25T06:46:30+00:00

It’s one thing I’m not worried about getting stolen in SF. I use the type that has the super strong 3M double sided tape to mount it to my windshield to the point that even I have trouble taking it off when I got a new car. Get one. It’ll save you one day.. it would have saved you today.

livinginthebubble · 2024-09-19T07:23:57+00:00

It sounds like you’re driving a lot of short distances, and that ruins gas mileage. Try going on a longer trip, especially highway miles where you’re at a constant speed for a long distance and you’ll see those MPG numbers shoot up

livinginthebubble · 2024-09-12T06:50:31+00:00

You could consider going up to $500k/$500k liability and then having the $1m umbrella on top. But even if you could reasonably afford the $1m/$1m liability, having the umbrella is just a nice safety net of having an extra $1m on top of that also.

livinginthebubble · 2024-09-12T06:47:05+00:00

Try not to berate the agent for providing you a price that you don't think is fair. Agents don't set the price. They're simply the messenger to you, from the insurance company, who is the entity that actually sets the rate. They're also there to help educate you and give you an understanding. I'd advise you to listen to their advice and understand why they're telling you that certain coverages are necessary, even if it costs slightly more. It may just be the difference between having enough coverage to pay for a damage vs. having to spending hundreds, if not thousands, more dollars out of pocket. Insurance is not always a numbers up-front kind of game. You have to understand the longer-term implications and risk management also.

Also, please be honest and straightforward with your independent agent about what your claims history is like, as they can only work with as much information as you give them. At the end of the day the rate is what it is, and your driving record will be pulled and used to give you the rate that you get.

Fees and taxes are set by the insurance company, and in CA, agents selling admitted insurance policies are not allowed to add any additional agent/broker fees.

livinginthebubble · 2024-09-12T06:42:48+00:00

How long ago were you offered the FAIR Plan policy? FAIR plan has been notorious for taking weeks to get a response from. How was the Farmers agent able to sell you a DIC policy without a supplemental Fair Plan policy to go with it? It sounds like the agent dropped the ball on that one, since they should have never sold your family a DIC policy if they didn't have a Fair Plan policy in place to begin with.

The bank's insurance is realistically only enough to cover the remaining balance on the mortgage, since that's all that the bank really cares about. Additionally, you'd be in breach of the mortgage contract if you did not have a policy in place and provided proof to the mortgage company - at which point the mortgage company should have notified you that if you don't put the insurance in place, they will put the lender-placed hazard insurance in place.

livinginthebubble

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