The best home insurance for a first-time buyer in Oklahoma City is whichever carrier prices your roof best, and the only way to find it is to put the same house in front of several carriers at once. That is what an independent broker does. We hold appointments with Allstate (independent), Travelers, Safeco, Mercury, Openly, National General, Great Northwest and American Modern, so one application gets you every one of those answers instead of one. Our home insurance quotes in the metro run about $2,500 to $4,500 a year, from our own quotes, not a national average.
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What your lender needs, and when
Your mortgage company will not fund the loan without proof of insurance, and they want it in hand before closing day, not on it. Three things have to be right on that declarations page.
The dwelling amount has to cover what it costs to rebuild the house. The mortgagee clause has to name your lender exactly the way the lender writes it, because a wrong loan number or a missing "its successors and assigns" sends the document back. And the policy has to be effective on your closing date. After that the premium usually gets paid out of your escrow account with your taxes, so the first year is often collected at closing.
Start about ten days out. Quoting early is also worth money on its own: several carriers give an advance quote discount when the policy is written more than ten days before it takes effect. Leave it to the morning of closing and you lose that, and you lose the room to fix a mortgagee clause.
Your coverage amount is not your purchase price
This is the one that catches nearly every first-time buyer. Say you paid $310,000 for the house, so you ask for $310,000 of coverage. But part of what you paid for is the lot, and the lot does not burn down. Dwelling coverage is the cost to rebuild the structure with today's labor and materials, which can land well under what you paid or well over it depending on the neighborhood and the age of the house.
Insuring to the purchase price costs you money if the rebuild figure is lower. Insuring below the rebuild figure is worse, because most policies can reduce what they pay on a partial loss if the dwelling amount is short. Ask what the rebuild number is and why, and make the carrier show its work.
In Oklahoma, the roof sets your price
Age, material and whether the carrier will still pay replacement cost on it. A new Class 4 impact resistant roof and a fifteen-year three-tab roof on the same street can be a thousand dollars apart with the same carrier. Carriers also rate the hail record of your specific address, not the ZIP code average, so two houses a mile apart can be priced differently because one sat under a storm path.
If the house you are buying has an older roof, ask two questions before you get attached to a quote. Is the roof still on replacement cost, or has the carrier moved it to actual cash value, which pays out depreciated? And will the carrier still be writing that roof at renewal? Appetite changes every year in this state, and a cheap first-year quote on a 2006 roof has a way of becoming a non-renewal letter.
Read the wind and hail deductible in dollars
Oklahoma policies almost always carry a separate wind and hail deductible, and it is written as a percentage of the dwelling amount rather than a flat number. One percent on a $300,000 dwelling is $3,000 out of your pocket before the carrier pays anything on a hail claim. Two percent is $6,000.
That is the single biggest reason two quotes that look a few hundred dollars apart are not comparable. Ask for the deductible in dollars, on every quote, and compare those side by side. We put that number on the quote so you are not doing the arithmetic yourself.
What the carriers bring to a first house
Allstate through an independent agent runs the same rates as a captive office, with Claim RateGuard, which holds your rate after one claim every five years, and 5% back each year you stay claim free. Travelers writes full wind and hail coverage and discounts smart home equipment, which is easy to add when you are already setting up a new house. Openly writes guaranteed replacement cost up to $5 million with water backup and mold included, which matters on a storm-prone address. Mercury has MercuryGo usage-based savings for Oklahoma homeowners. Safeco, National General, Great Northwest and American Modern fill out the rest of the list.
Bundling the house with your auto is still the largest single discount on the board with most of these carriers, so quote both at the same time even if your car insurance does not renew for months.
First-time buyer questions we get asked
How much home insurance do I need as a first-time buyer in Oklahoma City?
Enough dwelling coverage to rebuild the house, which is not the same as what you paid for it. The lot is part of your purchase price and does not need insuring. Ask the carrier for its rebuild calculation and check it against what building actually costs in your neighborhood. Coming in under the rebuild figure can reduce what the policy pays on a partial loss.
When should I get home insurance before closing?
About ten days before your closing date. Several carriers give an advance quote discount when the policy is written more than ten days ahead, and the lead time leaves room to correct the mortgagee clause if the lender writes it differently than the carrier did. Waiting until the morning of closing costs you the discount and the margin for error.
How much does home insurance cost for a first home in Oklahoma City?
The homes we quote in the metro run about $2,500 to $4,500 a year. That is our own quote data, not a national average. Roof age and material, the rebuild value, the wind and hail deductible you pick, the hail history of the address and your claims record move it most.
Does my mortgage company pay the home insurance?
Usually it collects it. Most lenders escrow the premium with your property taxes and pay the carrier when it is due, and the first year is often collected at closing. You still own the policy and you can still change carriers. We bind the new policy, send the new declarations page to the lender or escrow servicer, and cancel the old one for a refund of unused premium.
Is the wind and hail deductible different from my regular deductible?
Yes, and on an Oklahoma policy it is usually the bigger one. It is written as a percentage of the dwelling amount instead of a flat dollar figure, so one percent on a $300,000 dwelling is $3,000 before the carrier pays anything on a hail claim. Get it quoted in dollars on every option you are comparing.
Have it quoted across every carrier at once
Send us the address and your closing date and we will run it through the carriers above and come back with the real cheapest, the deductible in dollars, and the mortgagee clause already formatted for your lender. Call or text (405) 509-9433, or email info@okcib.com.
Serving Oklahoma City, Edmond, Yukon, Mustang, Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Stillwater, Lawton and the rest of Oklahoma.