A household in Lake Stevens, Washington came to us with a primary home, two vehicles and five rental properties across Washington and Texas, all on an Allstate program. We proposed rebuilding it across three carriers. The proposed program costs $1,476.48 more a year, about 13.2 percent of the current $11,149.36 annual total, and we recommended it anyway. Two things about that number before anything else: the auto side of it is annualized from a six-month policy, and it assumes two of the proposed policies are paid in full. Both are unpacked below. This is the line-by-line of what the extra money bought and what it cost.
The number, and the honest problem with it
| Current (Allstate) | Proposed | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary home, Lake Stevens WA | $2,994.84 | $2,507.00 | -$487.84 |
| Auto, two vehicles | $2,793.38 (estimate) | $2,555.70 paid in full | -$237.68 |
| Everett WA rental | $877.99 | $1,731.00 | +$853.01 |
| Lubbock TX rental 1 | $968.13 | $960.00 paid in full | -$8.13 |
| Lubbock TX rental 2 | $1,139.34 | $1,559.71 | +$420.37 |
| Wolfforth TX + Lubbock TX rental 3 | $2,375.68 | $3,312.43 | +$936.75 |
| Total | $11,149.36 | $12,625.84 | +$1,476.48 |
That works out to $123.04 a month.
Two of those proposed figures are discounted prices and we chose them. The auto and Lubbock rental 1 both show a paid-in-full premium, and the table uses it. On standard installment pricing the auto is $2,681.50 and Lubbock rental 1 is $981.00, which puts the proposed total at $12,772.64 and the increase at $1,623.28. We do not know what payment basis the Allstate policies were on, so neither figure is strictly like for like. The $1,476.48 is the version most favourable to our own recommendation, and you should know we picked it.
On that standard basis Lubbock rental 1 stops being a small saving and becomes $12.87 more, which changes the count below from three cheaper to two.
Now the part most case studies leave out. The auto line is an estimate. The current Allstate auto policy is a six-month policy at $1,396.69, and we doubled it to $2,793.38 so it could sit in an annual table. We did not have the actual next-term renewal premium. Six-month auto policies reprice every six months, so the real figure could land either side of that.
That estimate is about a quarter of the current annual total, which means the $1,476.48 headline rests partly on an assumption. We are telling you that rather than hoping you don’t notice.
If you’d rather work from numbers that are all real, take auto out and compare the six property policies only:
$8,355.98 currently, $10,070.14 proposed, an increase of $1,714.16.
The property side got more expensive by more than the headline suggests, because the auto side was one of the places we saved money.
Three got cheaper on paid-in-full pricing. Two did on standard pricing.
The reductions came to about $734: the primary home down $487.84, the auto down $237.68 against the annualized estimate, and Lubbock rental 1 down $8.13 on the paid-in-full price. Two of those three carry qualifications, so treat the total as approximate rather than as three comparable numbers added together.
The increases came to more than twice that, concentrated in three places: the Everett rental at $853.01, the Steadily two-property package at $936.75 combined, and Lubbock rental 2 at $420.37.
A portfolio total hides that kind of movement. This is the argument for reading the lines.
The primary home got better and cheaper at the same time
Cheaper, with the limits that matter most going up and two secondary limits going down.
| Allstate | Liberty Mutual | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual premium | $2,994.84 | $2,507.00 |
| Dwelling | $600,000 | $651,900 |
| Deductible | $6,000 | $2,500 |
| Extended dwelling | 20% | 25% |
| Water backup | $5,000 | $50,000 |
| Ordinance or law | not purchased | 20% |
| Water seepage | not shown | $25,000 |
| Personal property | $450,000 | $325,950 |
| Additional living expense | $150,000 | $130,380 |
The deductible is the one to look at first. $6,000 down to $2,500 would be $3,500 less to find before the policy responds on a covered claim, for as long as that deductible is kept. On this account nobody could tell us why the deductible was $6,000, and it had been renewing at that figure.
Water backup going from $5,000 to $50,000 is the second. We do not have this home’s characteristics in our source documents, so we are not going to tell you what $5,000 would or would not cover here.
The tradeoffs are real and they’re in the table: personal property dropped by about $124,000 and additional living expense by about $19,600. Those limits should be checked against what the household actually owns rather than accepted because the rest of the policy improved. We’d rather show you the two numbers that went the wrong way than pretend the whole page was an upgrade.
The auto change is about one coverage
Same two vehicles, same liability, same deductibles. The uninsured motorist limits are what moved.
| Allstate | Liberty Mutual | |
|---|---|---|
| Bodily injury liability | $250,000/$500,000 | $250,000/$500,000 |
| Property damage liability | $100,000 | $100,000 |
| Uninsured/underinsured BI | $25,000/$50,000 | $250,000/$500,000 |
| Uninsured/underinsured PD | $10,000 | $100,000 |
| Comprehensive / collision | $500 / $500 | $500 / $500 |
| Loss of use | not shown | $50 per day |
Liability and uninsured motorist coverage protect opposite directions. Liability pays other people when you’re at fault. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage pays you when somebody else is at fault and can’t cover what they did.
This account carried a quarter million in liability and twenty-five thousand in UIM. That’s a common shape and it’s backwards relative to how most people would rank the two if you asked them. If a driver carrying state minimums puts you in a hospital, your own UIM limit is the number that pays and theirs is not. Ten thousand of UIM property damage doesn’t replace a Tesla either.
Two qualifications we owe you. The Liberty pricing reflects RightTrack participation, which is a telematics program; pricing without it was higher. We do not have the non-RightTrack figure, and if it exceeds $2,793.38 the auto line is not a reduction at all. And the current premium here is the annualized estimate discussed above, so treat the $237.68 as approximate on both counts.
We know the vehicles are a Tesla and a Land Rover. The model years aren’t in our source documents and we’re not going to invent them, which is a genuine limitation on an auto comparison, because physical damage pricing depends heavily on exactly which cars they are.
The rentals, where the money went
Lubbock rental 1, 1,104 sq ft, built 2025: basically the same price, better policy
$968.13 currently, $960.00 paid in full. Eight dollars cheaper. Underneath: the general deductible went from $5,000 to $2,500, the dwelling limit rose from $211,533 to $217,700, and the policy added 25 percent extended dwelling, 10 percent ordinance or law, $5,000 water backup, $5,000 mold, and $500 loss assessment. Personal property dropped from $10,577 to $6,531 and the wind and hail deductible stayed at $5,000.
Lubbock rental 2, 1,128 sq ft, built 2020: liability, not limits
Up $420.37. The dwelling limits barely moved, $191,381 to $192,000. What moved was liability, from $100,000 to $500,000, plus $10,000 of water backup, $18,000 of explicit loss of rents, and roof settlement shown on a replacement cost basis.
A $100,000 liability limit on a rental property is thin. One serious injury on the premises and it’s gone, and the rest is the owner’s problem. That is what the extra $420 is for.
It isn’t all upside. The wind and hail deductible went to $5,000, and ordinance or law is excluded on this policy. That’s a real gap on a building, and we’re naming it rather than leaving it in a table. This is also the one placement where our source documents don’t name the insurance company behind the policy. Obie is a licensed brokerage platform, not an insurer, so a policy placed through it is issued by an underlying carrier and the declarations page names that carrier. That is not only a documentation gap. Without the insurer’s name a landlord cannot check its financial strength or whether it is admitted in Texas, and an admitted carrier carries state guaranty association backing that a surplus lines carrier does not.
Wolfforth townhouse, 1,262 sq ft per county record and 1,239 per one listing, and Lubbock rental 3 at 1,430 sq ft: the package
We proposed moving these two together to Steadily: $2,375.68 currently, $3,312.43 proposed including $250.43 of recurring annual taxes and fees, an increase of $936.75.
On Wolfforth, dwelling went from $237,047 to $261,000 and liability from $100,000 to $500,000. On Lubbock rental 3, dwelling went from $274,433 to $308,000 and the deductible from $5,000 to $2,500. Both gained water backup at $10,000, ordinance or law, explicit fair rental value, and a set of landlord endorsements the incumbent policies didn’t carry: limited theft, fungi and rot, bed bug reimbursement, HOA fine coverage.
The tradeoff on both is the wind and hail deductible, and it’s the biggest single negative in this whole review. Both moved to a 2 percent percentage deductible: $5,220, being 2 percent of Wolfforth’s $261,000 dwelling limit, and $6,160, being 2 percent of Lubbock rental 3’s $308,000 limit.
Two things follow from a percentage deductible. It’s usually a larger number than the flat one it replaces. And it rises every time the dwelling limit rises, so it grows at each renewal without anybody choosing to grow it. On a Texas rental that deserves more than a footnote. An owner who’d rather carry a flat deductible should ask whether that’s available and what it costs.
Everett townhouse, 2,148 sq ft, built 2013: the biggest increase, and the least we can tell you
Up $853.01, from $877.99 to $1,731.00. The proposed policy shows a $544,000 dwelling limit, $500,000 liability, a $1,000 deductible, $5,000 water backup and $54,400 of loss of rent.
Here’s the limitation. The current Everett coverage details didn’t carry into our working comparison, so we can’t show you what the old limits were. We’re not going to claim every coverage improved when we can’t demonstrate it. If you’re reading this as a model for your own review, this is the line item to be most skeptical about, and it’s the one we’d go back and document before presenting it again.
What the extra money bought, in one list
- Auto uninsured/underinsured bodily injury: $25,000/$50,000 to $250,000/$500,000
- Auto uninsured/underinsured property damage: $10,000 to $100,000
- Primary home deductible: $6,000 to $2,500
- Primary home water backup: $5,000 to $50,000
- Lubbock rental 2 liability: $100,000 to $500,000
- Wolfforth liability: $100,000 to $500,000
- Lubbock rental 1 deductible: $5,000 to $2,500
- Lubbock rental 3 deductible: $5,000 to $2,500
- Dwelling limits up on the home and all four Texas rentals. Everett is unknown either way.
- Ordinance or law added on the home and three of the five rentals. It is excluded on Lubbock rental 2 and not shown on the Everett quote.
And what it cost
- $1,476.48 more a year on paid-in-full pricing, or $1,623.28 on standard pricing. $123.04 a month on the first figure.
- Percentage wind and hail deductibles on two Texas rentals: $5,220 and $6,160
- Ordinance or law excluded on Lubbock rental 2
- Personal property and additional living expense limits down on the primary home
- Personal property down on Lubbock rental 3, from $13,722 to $3,000
- On Wolfforth, the current policy carries $11,853 of landlord personal property and the Steadily quote shows no personal property line at all, only $3,000 of limited theft. That needs confirming before anyone relies on it.
- Three carriers instead of one, meaning three bills, three portals, three renewal dates and three sets of policy language
That last one is not nothing. A single-carrier program is easier to run, and some owners reasonably value that over a better fit on any individual property.
What this does and does not show
It does show one real household’s policies and quotes in 2026, and how far a program can drift from the risk it’s supposed to cover when properties get added one at a time.
It does not show what insurance costs for any other investor, that these carriers would price anything similarly, or that any one of them is better than another as a rule. It also doesn’t show a known twelve-month auto cost, because the current auto policy is a six-month term and the renewal wasn’t in the documents.
These are quotes and proposals, not issued policies. Coverage is governed by the policy, its forms, endorsements, exclusions and conditions.
One disclosure
The incumbent program here is Allstate, and Richard was an Allstate agent before founding Vantage Point Risk. We’d rather you knew that reading a comparison where Allstate is the one being replaced.
We’re also an independent agency and we’re usually paid a commission by the insurance company when we place or renew coverage, which is true of all three of the proposed markets. That commission is a percentage of premium, so recommending a higher premium pays us more. That is a real conflict and it is the reason every line is on this page rather than just the conclusion. How we are paid is set out on our partnership disclosure page.
Questions to ask your advisor
- What is my uninsured motorist limit, and why is it lower than my liability limit?
- What liability limit is on each rental, and are any of them different from the others?
- Is my wind and hail deductible a flat amount or a percentage, and what is it in dollars today?
- Does any of my rental policies carry ordinance or law coverage?
- What deductible did I actually choose on my house, and when did I last look at it?
- If the account moved carriers, how many bills and renewal dates would I have?
- Which of my properties is my current carrier least interested in writing?
What we recommended and why
We recommended the more expensive program.
Not because more expensive is better, and not as a rule. On this account the incumbent price was defensible. What wasn’t defensible was a $25,000 uninsured motorist limit behind a $250,000 liability limit, a $100,000 liability limit on two rental properties, a $6,000 deductible on the primary residence, and no ordinance or law coverage on any of the four rentals where we could read the current policy.
Those are the failures that show up once, at the worst possible moment, and cost more than every premium difference in this article put together.
The percentage wind and hail deductibles are a genuine step backwards and the owner should go into it knowing that. If you’re looking at your own portfolio and none of these questions have been asked in a few years, a portfolio review is where we’d start, or send us your declarations pages and we’ll read them with you.