Homeowners · The limit is a rebuild number
You need enough to rebuild the house, not enough to match the sale price.
Coverage A insures the dwelling. The sale price includes the land, and the land is not what the carrier rebuilds. Set Coverage A from a rebuild estimate: square footage, finishes, and local labor. A lender’s minimum protects the loan. It can sit below what a total loss actually costs you. This is educational, not a limit for your address.
Other structures, Coverage B, often start at 10 percent of Coverage A. That default is not a promise your detached garage fits. Contents, Coverage C, often start as a percent of the dwelling too, and jewelry, guns, cash, and collectibles usually have a smaller special limit inside that. A rider schedules the item the special limit will not cover. Loss of use pays extra housing after a covered peril makes the home unlivable. It does not pay the mortgage, and it stops at the dollar or time limit on the declarations. Texas riders are the add-on list, not a second policy.
Liability is a separate limit. It can pay covered injury or damage you are legally responsible for, plus defense as the form allows. Raising it does not raise Coverage A. An umbrella sits above it only after that underlying limit is used up. Flood is not a homeowners peril. In hail country a wind or hail deductible is often a percent of Coverage A. On a $450,000 dwelling, 2 percent is $9,000. That is an example, not a quote, and you have to be able to write that check. Do not treat a higher deductible as a guaranteed percent off. Ask for two quotes with the same Coverage A. More on that comparison: raising deductibles in Texas.
Texas shopping path: the shopping guide, buying home insurance in Texas, and how to set the dwelling limit. Colorado primary homes: Colorado homeowners. The regulator’s consumer page is TDI.
