It took 45 mins, but just saved 64% on my home insurance. If, like me, you haven't shopped your insurance...do so.

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Safeco just hiked my Mom's homeowner's policy coverage by 150%, no real explanation given.

Her agent tried to find her a better deal, but the best they can find is a policy that raises her monthly payments by $200, which is unaffordable. I'm trying to find a cheaper policy from another company, but can't seem to get it done during office hours because of my chronic sleep disorder. OF COURSE they gave her hardly any notice, and it took several days just to get in touch with the agent, the company, look at the quickest alternatives (none of which works), renegotiate lesser coverage, talk to another insurance agent we've gotten homeowners' insurance form before, and end up having to start payments on the new, doubled payments to avoid losing coverage altogether. You'd think that somewhere along the way SOMEONE would try to explain why this beat-up, 45 yo house with a crappy floor plan is suddenly declared to be worth HALF A MILLION DOLLARS when even the brand new, larger houses in the neighborhood are selling for 30-40% less than that.

My planned next step is to starting asking around about FUNCTIONAL replacement value, to see if we can get a break that way. There's no way she'd want to buy a house this large again. Much of the extra floor space is there because my dad wanted a huge, high-ceilinged living room for his stereo and a huge workshop downstairs for his woodworking projects. All inefficiently used storage space now. She could get a house with 2/3 the floor space and not feel any squeeze at all. Probably 1/2 the floor space would be perfectly livable. Of course she really doesn't want to move if she doesn't have to, so that doesn't really help. She has to pay to insure what she got in the divorce, even if she probably won't live to enjoy it for many more years.