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Should I Keep My Home Insurance or Switch?
The easiest time to move and the right time to move are rarely the same week. Here is the check we run before anyone presses bind.
The answer
Keep your policy when the price you have is fair and switching would cost more than it saves. Switch when this year's renewal offer comes back thinner than the quote, on the roof, the water coverage, or the fees, and the new carrier will take the house as it stands. Compare the two 30 to 45 days before renewal, with the new carrier's inspection in view. The right time to move is rarely the easiest time to move.
The easiest time and the right time
A switch usually starts with a feeling, and the feeling is fair. A mailer lands, a friend got a better number, the renewal looks bigger than last year. That is the easiest time to move and the hardest time to compare, because you are holding one price and no contract. The right time has a date on it, a document in your hand, and a carrier that has already told you what it will ask of the house. Easy is a feeling. Right is a comparison.
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The easiest time
- What you hold
- Last year's policy and a mailer
- What you compare
- Price against price
- What you know about underwriting
- Nothing yet
- When you cancel
- Today, because the new quote is ready
- What decides it
- A feeling
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The right time
- What you hold
- The renewal offer and a written quote
- What you compare
- Contract against contract
- What you know about underwriting
- What the inspection will ask of the house
- When you cancel
- The day the new policy starts, on your signature
- What decides it
- A comparison
The Three-Year Decision Check
This is the check we run on every keep or switch call. It is a comparison, never a forecast. Nobody can tell you what your premium will be in three years, and we will not pretend to. Five facts, side by side, and you decide with your eyes open.
- 01
Both pages
Today's price, both pages
The renewal offer against the written quote, with the same deductibles and the same dwelling limit on both. A quote with a lower limit is a quote on a different house.
- 02
Your call
Your worst-day money
The deductible you could write a check for tonight, wind and hail included. If the cheaper policy got there by raising it, the savings are a loan from your worst day.
- 03
Inspection
The house as it stands
Will the new carrier take the roof, the trees, the water heater, and the plumbing as they are today, or will it ask for work first. Ask before you bind.
- 04
At renewal
What changes at renewal
Roof settlement, discounts that step down, fees that only show up on the first bill. Read both contracts for every promise with a clock on it.
- 05
Once a year
When you will look again
A new roof, a claim, a credit season, a roof moved to a payment schedule. Name the trigger now, so the next review has a reason behind it.
Five facts side by side, and the decision stops being a guess.
Underwriting happens either way
Your house has already passed one carrier's underwriting, and that carrier has watched it for years. A new carrier starts from zero. Each company's rules are different, and in Texas a new company can still cancel inside the first 60 days if the inspection finds a risk it was never told about.
A family had been with State Farm for 25 years in a house wrapped in oak trees, with limbs out over the roof. Nobody had asked about the trees in a long time. Any carrier we could bring would ask, and would most likely want them cut back before it wrote the policy. The switch saved about 500 dollars a year. The arborist wanted 4,000 to 4,200 dollars. We told them to stay. Nobody saves 500 dollars on insurance by spending 4,000 on an arborist.
Different carriers worry about different things. Some ask how old the water heater is, and past about ten years a few limit the water coverage or pass. One carrier ended a policy after bind over one photo of a rusted supply line under a toilet. Orion180, a carrier we are appointed with, runs a do-it-yourself photo inspection, inside and out, and in our experience that is about 80 to 100 photos. That level of care fits a newer house. On a house lived in for 15 years, it is a reason to tell us the details first.
The discount that shrinks
The number that moves most in the first term is the early shopper discount. Some carriers are aggressive about new clients, especially in a soft market, and the switch discount can run around 10 percent. On one schedule we have watched, it was cut in half at the first renewal and in half again at the second. The price you switched for was never the price you were going to keep.
One early shopper discount, as we have watched it step down
Move for 10 percent to a contract that is wrong for your family and the relief on the bill is short, the problem on the worst day is long, and the carrier you left may have been priced right all along, with no switch discount to wave. Price cannot be the only thing considered. It is just the beginning.
Shop the renewal offer
Open the window 30 to 45 days before renewal. Any earlier and you are shopping with last year's grocery receipt, expecting the prices to hold. The renewal offer is the document that matters, because it carries this year's changes, and TDI tells you to check your roof coverage at every renewal for exactly that reason.
Allied Trust, a carrier we write with, moves a roof to a payment schedule once it turns five. That is simply how its contract reads today, and with Porch Group's agreement to buy the company, expected to close in early 2027, even that could change. Last year's policy paid the roof in full. This year's renewal may not.
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Last year's policy
- The roof
- Replacement cost
- The discount
- 10 percent, year one
- The price
- The number you remember
- What you are holding
- A receipt
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This year's renewal offer
- The roof
- A payment schedule, from year five on Allied Trust and others
- The discount
- 5 percent, and half again next year
- The price
- The number you were offered
- What you are holding
- The offer
That roof line is the clearest switch case we see. When the renewal takes the roof off replacement cost and another carrier would still pay it in full, the move is right on the contract before it is right on the price. Verify what is, never what we hope.
Before you cancel anything
A switch done right has a date, and three parties who need to hear it from you. The old carrier, because the policy ends on your signature and nobody else's. Your mortgage company, because it tracks your coverage and can buy its own policy at your expense if it sees a gap. Any other lender on the policy, for the same reason. The cancellation is yours to sign, on your date, and the date matches the new policy to the day.
Before the old policy ends
- The new policy is bound, with a written start date.
- Your cancellation request is signed by you and dated to that same day.
- Your mortgage company has the new declarations page.
- Any other lender on the policy has it too.
- The old carrier has your signed request, and nothing earlier.
The gap
We see it all the time. Someone switching in two weeks asks to cancel today, and the house sits bare for 14 days. That gap goes on your record, the next application asks about it, and it can follow your price for years.
What happens when you send both
You want one thing from this page. To know whether to stay or switch, and to be sure of the answer before anything is signed. Here is the whole path.
- 01
Free
Send both
The renewal offer and the quote you are weighing, declarations pages included. The window is 30 to 45 days before renewal.
- 02
On our desk
We run the check
The five facts side by side, what the new carrier's inspection will ask of the house, every discount with a clock on it, and what the renewal changed. We ask for the details up front, what was upgraded, what was not, and what you care about in the coverage, so the surprises land on our desk first.
- 03
Your call
You get one of three answers
Stay, adjust, or switch, with the reason in writing. If the answer is switch, the cancellation is dated to the day the new policy starts, on your signature. About 40 percent of the time we tell homeowners to stay with their current carrier, and sometimes even with their current agent, because that is the right answer for the family.
The decision stays yours. The work before it is ours.
Before you press bind
Part of my job is telling you when the money to switch is not worth it. That family under the oak trees would have saved 500 dollars a year and paid an arborist 4,000 to do it. I told them to stay, and I would tell them again. Those limbs are beautiful on a summer day and terrifying in the middle of the night, and a thousand pounds of oak swinging over a roof in a rainstorm is the last thing I want a client lying awake over.
The scariest part of a switch is the part nobody talks about. Once you press bind, the work just began. I would rather do that work with you before anyone presses anything.
Charles McDade, LUTCF
Questions readers ask
When should I start shopping my home insurance before renewal?
Thirty to 45 days before. That is when the renewal offer exists, with this year's changes on it. Shop earlier and you are comparing a fresh quote against last year's receipt.
Can my insurance agent cancel my old policy for me?
The policy ends on your signature. You sign the cancellation and you set the date, and the date matches the day the new policy starts. Switching in two weeks and canceling today leaves the house bare for 14 days, and that gap goes on your record.
Do I have to tell my mortgage company I switched home insurance?
Yes, before the old policy ends, with the new declarations page. If your mortgage company sees a gap it can buy its own policy at your expense, and that policy usually costs more and often protects only the lender.
What should I ask a new carrier before I bind?
Three things, in writing. What will your inspection look at on my house, and what might you ask me to fix. How long does this discount last, and what does it step down to. What fees land on the first bill that are missing from this quote. A shrug on any of them is your warning sign.
Is it bad to switch home insurance every year?
You are allowed to shop every year, and we would rather you compare than wonder. Switching every year has a cost, though. Tenure discounts reset, every new carrier underwrites the house from zero, and every switch is one more chance for a gap. Shop every year. Move when the contract says to.
Sources worth opening before you decide
- Home insurance guide, Texas Department of Insurance, updated June 1, 2026
- Insurance and your roof, Texas Department of Insurance, updated January 30, 2024
- What can I do if my mortgage lender or servicer is charging me for force-placed homeowner's insurance?, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, last reviewed September 4, 2020
- Home Inspection with Orion180 and Chrp Tech, Orion180, undated, opened October 15, 2026
- Porch Group to acquire Allied Trust, Porch Group press release filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K, October 13, 2026
The purpose is to help the reader ask better questions before claim time.
Know whether to stay or switch
Stay, adjust, or switch. The answer should come with a reason you can read.
Send the renewal offer and the quote you are weighing. A licensed Texas agent runs the Three-Year Decision Check, names what the new carrier will ask of the house, reads every discount for its clock, and tells you plainly if staying is the right call, client or not. We translate the contract before you sign for another year.
The audit is free. The decision is yours. No broker fees for personal lines clients.
