The limit you brought with you isn't the one this house needs.

Not usefully, and the two figures are not trying to answer the same question.

What you paid includes the land, the location and whatever the market was doing that month. A homeowners policy is built on what it would cost to rebuild the structure, which involves none of those things and does involve materials, labour, debris removal and current building code. In a market that has moved as much as this one, purchase price and rebuild cost can be a long way apart in either direction, and neither one is a reliable guide to the other. This matters more here than in a settled market for a simple reason. A great many Bentonville policies were arranged quickly at a closing table because a lender needed evidence of coverage by a date, and the dwelling limit was set from whatever was to hand. That is a perfectly normal way for it to happen and a very good reason to look at the number again once you have unpacked.

The policy does not travel at all, and neither does the limit that was on it.

A property policy is written under the rules of the state the property sits in, on forms filed there, by carriers appointed there, so moving means a new policy rather than a change of address. What catches people is the limit rather than the paperwork. A dwelling limit that was correct for a house in another market reflects that market's construction costs, labour availability and building code, none of which transfer. Someone arriving from a higher-cost market tends to assume their old figure is generous here, and someone from a lower-cost one assumes the reverse. Both are reasoning from a number that has nothing to do with what a builder would charge to rebuild this specific house. The fix is a replacement cost estimate on the actual property rather than a rule of thumb, and it takes very little time.

Unfortunately those are separate questions.

Market value is driven by what someone will pay for the location, and rebuild cost is driven by materials, labour and code. They can and do move in opposite directions, and in a fast-growing market that is common rather than unusual. A house can be worth considerably more than it was and still be underinsured, because the land did the appreciating while the cost of lumber, labour and permits moved on its own schedule. Watching your home's value rise is therefore not evidence that your coverage has kept pace, and a rising value can be actively misleading if it makes the question feel already answered. The number worth checking is the dwelling limit against a current rebuild estimate. It is a short exercise and it either confirms you are fine or finds something worth fixing.

Four lines, and the first one is the local one described above.

Then the loss settlement provision and the endorsement list, for anything affecting how a roof or other major component is paid. Then the deductible section, to see whether there is a separate wind and hail figure and whether it is expressed as a percentage of your dwelling limit rather than as a flat amount, because a percentage is a considerably larger number than most people realise. Then the dwelling limit itself, read as what it would cost to rebuild today rather than as what the house would sell for. And finally your liability limit, which is almost always a default nobody chose. Those cover most of what actually goes wrong on a home policy. If you would rather someone else read it, send us the declarations page or upload it to Coverage Compare and you will get a written answer without anyone ringing you about it.

No.

A fair number of the reviews we do end with us saying the policy is already right, and that is a perfectly good outcome. We would rather be the agency you call in three years when something has changed than the one that pushed you into moving before there was a reason to. What a review costs you is the time it takes to find your declarations page and a short conversation. What it is worth is knowing where you stand rather than assuming. If it turns out that a different market fits your house better, we will say so and show you why. If it does not, you will have spent twenty minutes and learned what your policy actually does, which is more than most homeowners can say.

Because appetite differs enormously between companies, and a single company can only ever offer you its own answer.

A captive agent has one carrier's rules to work with, so when that carrier does not want a house, or prices it oddly, there is nothing else to point at. We place business across more than forty carriers, which means the same property gets looked at by several sets of rules rather than one. That matters most on the houses that are not straightforward, which in this region is a great many of them. It also means we are able to tell you that your current coverage is already competitive, because we have nothing to gain from moving it if it is. What it costs you is a declarations page and a conversation.