Protect your investment

A homeowners policy is four coverages in a trench coat: the structure, the things inside it, somewhere to live while it is repaired, and liability if someone is hurt. Three numbers on it matter more than the premium.

The dwelling limit is what it costs to rebuild, not what the house would sell for. On the Ross Barnett Reservoir and in Madison County, land is a real share of market value and cannot burn down; insuring to the purchase price over-insures the structure and costs you money every year.

The wind and hail deductible is usually a percentage. See the Mississippi section below — this is the number that decides what a storm actually costs you.

The roof decides whether you get a policy at all. Carriers price on age and many will not write a shingle roof past 15 to 20 years, or will settle it at actual cash value instead of replacement cost. If yours was replaced recently, photograph it and say when — it is the cheapest premium reduction available.

Commercial property is three decisions. The building limit — replacement cost, and if the building is older, whether ordinance-and-law coverage pays to bring the rebuild up to current code, which on a 1970s Jackson office building is a large number. General liability — $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate is what most leases and lenders require, and what a tenant will ask you to evidence. Business income — the profit and continuing expenses you lose during the repair period, which after wind damage in Mississippi is measured in months, not weeks, because every contractor on the Coast is busy at the same time.

If the building is leased, the lease usually dictates who insures what and to what limit. Send it along with the quote request — Continental reads leases, and an insurance schedule that does not match the lease is a default waiting to be found.

The Gulf Coast wind pool

The Mississippi Windstorm Underwriting Association is the state-created market of last resort for wind and hail in Hancock, Harrison, Jackson and the adjoining designated territory. When admitted carriers decline wind on a coastal property — which is common south of the CSX line — the wind pool writes the wind and hail portion and a separate policy covers fire, liability and everything else. Two policies, two premiums, two deductibles, and a broker who knows how they fit together. That arrangement is normal on the Coast and surprises every buyer coming from north of I-20.

Named-storm deductibles are percentages

Your all-other-perils deductible is a dollar figure — $1,000, $2,500. Your wind, hail or named-storm deductible is a percentage of the dwelling limit. On a $400,000 dwelling limit, 2% is $8,000 and 5% is $20,000, payable before the policy contributes anything. Two quotes at the same premium can be $12,000 apart in a hurricane. Read this number before you read the price, and ask for it as a dollar figure.

X-zone does not mean no flood risk

FEMA's X zone means flood insurance is not federally required with a mortgage. It does not mean water will not enter the building. Roughly a quarter of NFIP claims nationally come from outside high-risk zones, and the flood maps for much of Hinds, Madison and Rankin County predate the development that changed how water moves across them. A preferred-risk flood policy on an X-zone house is cheap precisely because the risk is lower — not because it is zero. Every Bedford listing shows its FEMA flood zone on the property page, and we copy that determination onto your quote so the underwriter is looking at the same map you are.