Get a Home Insurance Quote Before You Make an Offer

Most buyers don’t think about home insurance until a few days before closing, when the lender asks for proof of coverage. That used to be mostly fine. These days it can leave you with an unpleasant surprise.

Insurance has gotten a lot more expensive. NerdWallet found that the price of insurance for a typical home rose 24% between early 2023 and early 2026. And the price isn’t the same for every house. Two homes listed at the same price can cost very different amounts to insure, sometimes by hundreds of dollars a year or more.

With mortgage rates back above 7%, your monthly budget probably doesn’t have much room for surprises. The good news is that you can find out what a house will cost to insure before you commit to it.

Why two similar homes can cost different amounts to insure

Insurers look at the house itself, not just the price. A few things tend to move the number the most.

The age of the home. Newer homes are usually cheaper to insure. In NerdWallet’s data, a typical home built in the 1980s now costs over $1,000 more a year to insure than a brand-new one.

The roof. This one catches people off guard. Many insurers charge more for older roofs, and some will only pay part of the cost to replace an old roof after a storm, or won’t cover it at all past a certain age. The cutoffs vary by insurer and state.

Past claims. If the insurance company has paid for damage to the house before, like a burst pipe or a storm, that can push the price up.

Where it is. Areas with more hail, wind, wildfire, or flooding cost more to insure, and that can change from one neighborhood to the next.

Weather is a big reason prices are rising

Insurance companies have been paying out more for storm damage, and that cost ends up in what everyone pays for coverage. In the Midwest, for example, NerdWallet points to more hail, wind, and tornadoes.

Climate scientists say a warming planet is making some kinds of extreme weather worse. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations group that reviews climate research from around the world, found that heavy downpours have become more frequent and more intense across most of the world since the 1950s, and that human-caused warming is likely the main reason.

For hurricanes, scientists at NOAA, the federal agency behind the National Weather Service, expect storms to bring heavier rain as the planet warms, and a larger share of them to reach the strongest categories. Rising seas also mean that flooding from hurricanes can reach higher along the coast than it used to.

Scientists are less sure about hail and tornadoes. Good records for those don’t go back far enough yet to show a clear trend, according to a summary of the IPCC’s findings.

For you as a buyer, this means a house can get more expensive to insure over the years, and where a home sits matters more than it used to.

Ask the seller two questions

Your agent can ask the seller’s agent for these before you make an offer:

“Would the seller share what they currently pay for home insurance, and a copy of the home’s CLUE report?”

What the seller pays now gives you a rough idea, though your price may be different.

A CLUE report is a history of insurance claims on the house, usually covering the last seven years. Buyers can’t order one themselves, but the seller can get a copy for free once a year. If it shows past water or roof damage, that’s worth knowing before you make an offer, and worth mentioning to your home inspector. A clean report is a good sign, but it doesn’t guarantee nothing has gone wrong, since not every repair goes through insurance.

Check the flood risk separately

Regular home insurance doesn’t cover flooding. That takes a separate policy.

You can look up any address on FEMA’s flood map. If the home is in a high-risk flood zone, most lenders will require flood insurance, which adds to your monthly cost.

The map is a good starting point, but it isn’t the whole story. It’s based mostly on past flooding, and a 2021 report from the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan government watchdog, found that FEMA’s maps often miss flooding from heavy rain and don’t account for future risk. So even if a home is outside a high-risk zone, ask an insurance agent whether flood coverage makes sense for it.

Some home listing sites also show a flood or wildfire risk score for each address. These are estimates, and different models often disagree, so treat a high score as a reason to ask questions rather than a final answer.

When to get a quote

Before you make an offer, get a rough quote on any home you’re serious about. An insurance agent can usually give you a ballpark with just a few details:

• The address
• The year it was built
• How old the roof is
• The square footage

Then ask: “Would the roof be covered for full replacement, or only part of the cost?” That answer can make a big difference if a storm ever hits.

After your offer is accepted, get firm quotes from two or three insurers. Try to do this while you can still back out of the deal, which is often during the inspection period. Your agent can tell you how that works in your contract. If a house turns out to be very expensive or hard to insure, you want to learn that while you still have options.

Before closing, your lender will need proof that the home is insured. By then you’ll already have your policy picked out.

Count it in the real monthly cost

When you compare homes, insurance belongs in the monthly cost right next to the mortgage, property taxes, and any homeowners association (HOA) fee. A house that looks cheaper on paper can end up costing more each month once insurance is added. We covered how to figure out the true monthly cost of a home in an earlier post.

On each tour, write down the year the home was built and ask how old the roof is. If you’re using CazaHQ, you can keep those details in your notes for each home, so you have what an insurance agent needs as soon as you find one you like.

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This is general information, not insurance or financial advice. Coverage rules and prices vary by state and insurer, so talk to a licensed insurance agent about the homes you’re considering.