Farmers Insurance holds more than 19 million individual insurance policies, serving people in all 50 states. The Farmers Insurance brand includes several companies under its umbrella to cater to coverage needs in each state.
Over the last several decades, Farmers Insurance has become a leader in the homeowners insurance industry, helping homeowners get personalized coverage to maintain their property. Homeowners in every state except for South Carolina can get a Farmers Home Insurance policy.
As one of the best homeowners insurance companies, competitors of Farmers Home Insurance include:
Farmers Home Insurance: Company Overview
Farmers Homeowners Insurance offers multiple ways for homeowners to save through policy discounts. Home insurance customers also enjoy customizable policies, a simple claims process they can complete through their online account, and the choice of several types of home insurance for various dwellings.
Pros
- Multiple discounts for homeowners
- Customizable policies
- Coverage for multiple types of dwellings
- Easy-to-use digital claims process
- BBB accredited with A rating
Cons
- No homeowners insurance coverage for South Carolina
- Can be pricey compared to some competitors
- Some information is not available on the website
Types of Coverage Available
Farmers Insurance provides several types of insurance coverage to homeowners. This allows homeowners to ensure that they have the required insurance coverage for their state along with any coverages they elect to have to protect their homes and properties.
Dwelling Coverage
Dwelling coverage includes your home and any applicable structures on your property that aren’t attached to your home, like a barn. When you sign up for homeowners insurance with Farmers, you’ll receive a dwelling and structures coverage amount on your policy. This amount is the expected cost to replace your home, and your insurance plan will pay up to that amount to repair or replace it, if necessary. Therefore, dwelling coverage is potentially the most important insurance product in a policy.
Insurance carriers determine the repair or replacement cost of your home for dwelling coverage by researching similar properties in your area and considering any renovations or upgrades that have been made. Farmers Insurance also determines whether the home may need to fit updated coding standards if it were to be rebuilt, which can affect the cost of the rebuild.
Personal Property Coverage
While dwelling coverage protects your home and property, personal property coverage protects what’s inside your home. This coverage is typically included in a homeowners policy, but homeowners can usually choose how much coverage they want and need. Usually, the amount is right around 50% of the dwelling coverage limits.
Personal property coverage covers most items in your home, including electronics, furniture, jewelry, appliances, gym equipment, clothing, and other covered losses. You may receive money from a personal property coverage claim if your items were damaged by a named peril in your policy, like fire or vandalism. Still, each type of item may have limits on how much you can receive for them, which will be outlined in your Farmers Home Insurance policy.
Liability Coverage
If someone visits your home and gets injured, such as falling down a few steps without a stair railing attached, you could be liable for any medical fees incurred by the injury. The guest could also sue you regarding the injury. In this case, liability coverage can protect you and your assets by paying up to a specific monetary limit for medical and legal claims. Liability coverage can also pay for any necessary repairs to your home stemming from the incident.
You can specify the amount of liability coverage you’d like in your policy. As with other coverages, the more coverage you have, the more you’ll pay for your insurer for your premium. Most homeowners policies have liability coverage of $100,000 to $500,000. If you want more than that, you can opt for an umbrella policy from Farmers, which adds additional coverage to your insurance policy.
Additional Living Expenses Coverage
If your home had extensive storm damage or fire damage after a kitchen fire, you may need to live somewhere else temporarily while your home is repaired. A homeowners insurance policy with coverage for additional living expenses can help with this. It pays for your living expenses outside of the home as a result of a covered loss.
This coverage usually equals a percentage of your policy’s dwelling coverage, but your Farmers Insurance agent can help you determine how much coverage you should get.
Earthquake and Flood Insurance
Earthquake insurance and flood insurance are only required in specific areas of the United States, but some homeowners choose to include them on their policies. Earthquake insurance from Farmers Insurance can replace belongings damaged by an earthquake and cover structural repairs to your home. For flood insurance, you can choose to get coverage for just your home or combine structural coverage with coverage for personal belongings.
Coverage for Various Types of Dwellings
In addition to its multiple types of homeowners insurance products, Farmers Insurance also offers coverage for various home types, like condos, mobile homes, rental properties, and vacation homes. These policies have coverage limits and applicable coverages more specific to their unique needs, which can help you ensure that you have protection in the event of a named peril, regardless of the type of home you own.
For example, mobile home insurance from Farmers may include coverage for car or aircraft damage or falling objects. And vacation home coverage may allow a higher limit for vandalism and theft than a homeowners insurance policy for your primary home.
Farmers Smart Plan Home
Farmers is a unique home insurance provider in that it offers tiered insurance plans for homeowners to get the coverage they need for their homes. The plans are known as Smart Plan Home, and it provides three levels of coverage that balance value with benefits.
Standard Plan
The first plan, Standard, is the most affordable plan with custom coverages so that homeowners can tailor its features to fit their budgets. You may not get high coverage limits on this plan, but it could help keep costs low if you don’t necessarily need extra coverage.
Enhanced Plan
The Enhanced Plan is the next Smart Plan Home, which has a good mix of affordability and coverage benefits. With this plan, you can have your roof and personal belongings replaced at a no-depreciation cost.
Premier Plan
The Premier is the highest tier. You’ll pay more, on average, with this plan, but you’ll also access some of the best coverage with high limits for personal property, liability, and other coverages. Homeowners also get the full cost of their roof replacement reimbursed, guaranteed, with Premier.
Although these plans each come with a set of standard limits, you can speak with your Farmers insurance company representative to make changes based on your specific insurance needs.
Homeowners using Smart Plan Home coverage get exclusive benefits, like a 10% discount when they’re claim-free for three years and $50 off the deductible annually. Policyholders who have gone without claims for at least five years can also avoid seeing their premiums rise if they do have to put in a claim.
Additional Coverage
In addition to its primary coverages – liability, dwelling, and personal property – Farmers Insurance gives customers the chance to add extra protection for things that matter the most to them.
Emergency Mortgage Assistance
Emergency mortgage assistance is additional coverage you can place on your policy to cover three months of mortgage payments if you cannot live in your home after dealing with a covered loss, such as fire or flood damage. This coverage pays up to $10,000 in mortgage payments for those three months, so you won’t have to worry about paying your mortgage while you might also be paying for somewhere else to stay during your home’s repair.
Enhanced Roof Coverage
Enhanced roof coverage from Farmers allows for higher replacement costs for premium materials to be used when your roof needs to be repaired due to storm damage. The coverage is designed to help bring your roof to modern standards to withstand potentially dangerous storms, so it could be best for homes in areas that are typically subjected to tornadoes, hurricanes, and other dangerous weather patterns.
Extended and Guaranteed Replacement Cost
Your Farmers home insurance policy will come with coverage limits for specific items and parts of your home. Extended replacement cost coverage allows up to 25% more coverage for replacements of your roof, home, and other covered items. Farmers also offers guaranteed replacement cost, which ensures that you get reimbursed for replacements, even if they’re over your policy’s regular limits.
This additional coverage may benefit homeowners who expect their replacement costs to exceed their policy’s allowable limits.
Cyber and Identity Shield
Cyber and Identity Shield is Farmers’ identity protection coverage that keeps homeowners safe from identity theft with continuous monitoring of their credit reports and identity. This coverage monitors the dark web for your information, alerts you when potentially fraudulent actions occur, and provides recovery assistance if your information does fall into the wrong hands. You can add this coverage as an endorsement on your new or existing homeowners insurance policy.
Item-Specific Coverage
When you have specific items you’d like to protect that aren’t already included in your homeowners policy, you might choose to add item-specific coverage. This is typically most useful for items with high value, like jewelry or antiques, but homeowners can also protect high-value medical equipment, instruments, collections, or expensive electronics. Homeowners can have the items they’d like covered appraised to include their full value on their policy.
Building Ordinance and Law Coverage
There’s a lot that goes into repairing and replacing parts of your home, including ensuring that the home meets building ordinances and codes. Although the part of your home needing to be replaced may be covered by your Farmers Home Insurance policy, you still may need to upgrade or fix other parts of your home relating to that part for it to pass a building inspection. This coverage allows for those additional expenses that may arise as part of a repair or replacement.
Water Damage Coverage
Water damage can be tricky to navigate on a homeowners insurance policy, as not all causes of water damage may be covered. This additional coverage offers protection for water damage caused by backed-up sump pumps or drains, which may not be included in your original policy. Homes with older drain pipe systems may benefit from this coverage option.
Pricing and Costs
According to a report from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), homeowners across the United States with typical homeowners insurance coverage for a $150,000 to $174,999 home pay an average of $990 annually. However, homeowners insurance from Farmers Home Insurance varies significantly in cost by location, the value of your home, and your coverage levels.
To illustrate how costs for homeowners insurance can vary by state, let’s look at a few state averages. This can give you an idea of the premiums you can expect in your state. To get a specific quote for your zip code and home, you can contact Farmers Home Insurance or use the online quote tool.
The following data is also from the NAIC report and refers to typical homeowners insurance coverage for a $300,000 home.
- Pennsylvania: $959/year
- California: $1,281/year
- Illinois: $1,715/year
- Texas: $3,559/year
Homeowners can lower their costs with a Farmers Home Insurance policy by choosing lower limits and less coverage. However, this may also affect your payouts with a claim. Be sure to choose coverages that give your home the right amount of protection. Farmers customer service can help you determine what coverage amounts and policy features to choose and find discounts and savings you may be eligible for.
Discounts
While some other companies include the typical discounts for newer builds and having multiple policies with that company, Farmers offers these plus additional discounts for using certified energy-saving appliances, having protective devices in the home, and having an ePolicy by keeping statements and communications digitized.
Here’s a rundown of discounts you may be eligible for when you have a homeowners insurance policy from Farmers:
- Having a home less than 14 years old
- Having a homeowners policy and another type of policy through Farmers
- Being a member, employee, or retiree of a partnered organization
- Opting for an ePolicy
- Staying claims-free for at least three years
- Having specific home safety protections or items in place
- Using UL-approved roofing materials
- Using automatic payments
- Paying your bill on time consistently
- Having a smart home system installed
- Having appliances or materials that are green-certified in your home
- Switching to a homeowners policy after owning a renters policy with Farmers
Be sure to let your Farmers Insurance representative know what discounts you believe you’re entitled to when ironing out the details of your policy.
How To Get a Quote
Farmers Home Insurance makes it easy to get a quote for homeowners insurance through the Farmers Fast Quote service. Enter your zip code into the tool and choose Home to start the quote.
If you’d prefer to get a quote with the help of an insurance representative, you can contact 1-800-515-1896 by phone.
How to File a Claim
If you ever need to file a claim with Farmers Home Insurance, the company makes it easy for you to do so. Visit https://www.farmers.com/claims to get started.
You can also call the Farmers Claims Center: 1-800-435-7764.
During the filing process, you will be asked a few questions about the claim, after which a representative will review your information and contact you about further steps and what you can expect during the process. You may need to provide reports, photos, and anything else you might need to send to process the claim. Track the status of your claim at any time through your online account.
Farmers can pay you your claim reimbursement directly or send the money to your contractor, if applicable. After payments disperse, Farmers closes your claim.
Farmers Mobile App
The Farmers Mobile App allows customers to manage their insurance policies and accounts from their mobile devices. The app offers various features and benefits for managing insurance policies. The app also provides access to a variety of tools and resources, including educational materials and helpful tips. The Farmers Mobile App is available for free on Google Play and the Apple App Store.
- Request roadside assistance
- Obtain a price estimate for insurance coverage by getting a quote
- Keep in touch with your agent to stay informed and ask questions
- Receive important updates and alerts about your account through push notifications
- Access your auto and home insurance proof of coverage, including ID cards in Apple Wallet and through Siri
- Go paperless by signing up for electronic delivery of your policy documents and billing notices
- Manage your insurance payments and options
- Review the details of your insurance policies by viewing policy documents
- Report incidents and file claims easily through the app
Is Farmers Homeowners Insurance Right for Me?
Farmers Insurance helps make homeowners insurance affordable through its many discounts and customizable coverage options. It also includes several add-on coverages to help you protect your home and belongings in all the ways that are most important to you.
Still, finding the best homeowners insurance for your home isn’t something to take lightly. If you’re considering Farmers Insurance, be sure to compare its pros and cons with competitors to determine the most suitable option. You can typically get a free quote from insurance agencies, which can make it easier to compare insurance coverage for your home.
We recommend reaching out to Farmers to ask about its insurance policy options and what the company suggests for your home’s coverage. With extended customer service hours, Farmers is usually available to answer your questions and provide a detailed quote.
