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Best Manufactured Home Insurance Companies

If you have a manufactured or mobile home you know finding insurance coverage can be tricky as a lot of traditional insurance companies are unwilling to cover them. Or if they are willing to, they will often limit the coverage you need. This has left a lot of customers in a bad spot. However, there are a number of companies that specialize in covering manufactured homes, and have an appetite for providing the specialty coverage that a manufactured home policy needs. For many years there have been 3 main players in the market: American Modern, American Reliable/Assurant, and Foremost. However, the market has changed dramatically and a number of smaller companies have popped up recently competing with these companies. Here are some of the carriers that we at Gila Insurance Group work with to offer the best coverage we can find for our clients. We have listed these in alphabetical order. The companies have many coverage options, so you will want to speak with one of our licensed professionals to ensure you get the coverage that fits your scenario. 

fallen tree on mobile homeAegis General Insurance

Aegis is a company that has been in the market for a LONG time, but were very regional in nature. However, their leadership team has come several of the larger Manufactured home insurance companies, and they recently completed the acquisition of American Reliable.

American Modern

American Modern has long been a leader in the Manufactured home insurance market with coverage that matters. They have competitive coverage and rates and are among the best options you can find for manufactured home insurance. American Modern is A+ Rated. 

CoverTree

CoverTree is a newer player in the market with the backing of one of the largest insurance companies in the market, Markel. Their coverage is awesome, as are their rates for newer manufactured homes. Markel is A Rated. 

Foremost 

Foremost is the market leader and has been for many years. They offer coverage options on older mobile homes that their competitors will not, and are hands down the best option for homes that are older than 1980. Their rates are competitive, which is why they have been the market leader for many, many years. Foremost is a part of the Farmers Insurance group of companies and is A Rated. 

Standard Casualty

Standard Casualty is owned by a titan of the manufactured home industry, Cavco Industries. They have been around since 1961, and only sell manufactured home insurance. They offer no other lines of business. Their coverage for manufactured homes is phenomenal and they offer some coverage that others do not. They are a great option for homes that are 1980 and newer. Standard Casualty Company has a Rating of B++ (Good) according to AM Best (as of 3/29/2023).

Tower Hill Insurance

Tower Hill has been around since 1972. They are based in Florida and is one of Florida’s largest residential property insurance companies. They have expanded into 16 additional states. They offer excellent coverage for newer Manufactured Homes and have very competitive rates. They are A Rated According to Demotech. 

The key to finding the best-manufactured home insurance company is to find a company that understands manufactured homes. What do you look for in a manufactured home carrier? While a lot of the coverage is standard there are a couple of things that will indicate that your carrier doesn’t like manufactured homes. 

  1. Do they have weird exclusions for additions like sun rooms or carports? 
  2. Do they offer replacement costs on your home? If not, will they offer replacement costs on partial losses? While even the manufactured home specialists will sometime limit this on older homes, non-manufactured home carriers will often exclude this coverage on new homes. 

If you need coverage for your manufactured home, be sure to speak to a specialist who will have access to different manufactured home companies. You can start the conversation with Gila Insurance Group, by completing our free online insurance quote form, and we will shop these carriers and provide you with the best option for you.

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Manufactured Home Insurance – Why Is It So Expensive?

Seriously, have you ever compared a manufactured home insurance policy with that of a “stick built” home insurance policy? The cost can be crazy. Why? Insurance rates are based on the expected losses, and in short the expected losses from a manufactured home are higher than a traditional home. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Fire – So while, there is not more of a likelihood that your manufactured home policy catches on fire and the “stick built” home, the damage a fire would cause is much greater on a manufactured home. Remember, if there is significant damage to a manufactured home, you can’t tear down part of the home and rebuild that part, you are looking at replacing the entire home. So the expected losses increase.

Wind – Most companies that insure manufactured homes will ask if the home is “tied down.” This is a big difference between manufactured homes and stick built homes, the foundation. Because of the relative light weight of a manufactured home, it is more likely to sustain wind damage. Rather than the loss of a few shingles, you could lose the whole roof.

Also, with manufactured homes if there are “attached structures” like “Arizona Rooms,” awnings, carports, etc. these can cause significant damage to a manufactured home. Check out the study and Video American Modern did regarding the effects of High Winds on Manufactured Housing. In fact, there are several large insurance companies that will insure manufactured homes, unless you have an attached structure, once they find out you have one of these, you are no longer “eligible” for their program. Fortunately, we have several partners that offer coverage for manufactured homes with or without attached structures.

There are other examples, the point is the higher the possible losses, the higher the insurance costs. Fair or not, insurance is about the numbers.

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Coverage Checklist for Manufactured Home Insurance

We will work off of a Coverage Checklist for Manufactured Home Insurance when reviewing coverage with you. It will help us figure out what’s most important to you and helps you understand how you are covered. Below is a copy of the checklist we use for Manufactured Home Insurance. Even if you don’t buy from us please use this checklist to make sure you have the coverage you want and need.

Property _______
How Much would it cost to replace your manufactured/mobile home? _______
Loss Settlement –  How much will you actually get if there is a loss? _______
Deductible – How much of a loss are you responsible for paying? _______
Water Backup of Sewer or Drains Coverage – Yuck… buy this. _______
Earthquake  – Not automatically included. _______
Flood – requires a separate policy _______
Ordinance and Law – does your city have any weird requirements for remodels or rebuilds? _______
Other Structures
How much would it cost to replace your Garages, sheds, Fences, and other structures? _______
Personal Property
Personal Property – How much is all your stuff worth? _______
Loss Settlement – How much will you actually get paid if there is a loss? _______
How is your property protected (hint its probably not for everything you think)? _______
Do you have anything really valuable or a collection of valuables items (think guns or electronics, etc)? _______
Loss of Use/Additional Living Expense – What happens if you can’t stay in your house after a loss? _______
Liability
Liability – You can get sued and this coverage is pretty cheap. _______
Can you get Personal Injury Coverage? _______
Medical Payments _______
Umbrella – Lawsuits can get nasty, do you have enough coverage? _______
Loss Assessment, do you live in a park or an HOA? They can actually assess you when stuff happens to them. _______

 

Start your manufactured home insurance quote now.

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What does Manufactured Home Insurance Cover

Manufactured Home Insurance coverage is not too different than what you might find on a regular homeowner’s insurance policy. While not all companies are the same if you get an actual manufactured home insurance specialty company like American Modern, Foremost or American Reliable, you should get some of the following coverage and coverage options.

The Home

The home is going to coverage for what is known as special or comprehensive coverage. This means unless we exclude the coverage, we are going to include the coverage. Things like fire, lighting, exclusion, damage done by water, hail, etc. are all going to be covered. This that are not covered are things like flood. A broken pipe that floods your home is going to be different than if the rains fall, causing flooding.

The question is how much will the policy pay out if there is a total loss. You want replacement cost on total losses and partial losses. Not all companies are going to be able to provide this, and especially if the home is older. So ask your agent how its covered.

Other Structures

Other structures are things like sheds, detached garages, and other “structures” that are not going to be connected to the home. They should be covered in the same way as the home, but make sure you have enough coverage because coverage for other structures isn’t automatic and when its included is can also be for low limits.

Personal Property

Question if you had a loss for your manufactured or mobile home do you want to negotiate with an insurance company how much your TV was worth. OF COURSE NOT. So here’s the thing. Manufactured Home insurance policies coverage personal property, but usually cover them for the actual cash value. BUT they can also cover it for replacement cost. For $20 bucks a year this is a heck of a deal.

Liability

What if you get sued. That’s what liability does. It protects you, and can pay for your defense and the pay out if you are found to be negligent. Also available for manufactured homes.

Medical Payments

Something that goes right along with liability. It pays for medical costs of people that don’t live at the home in case they get injured. The hope is if we help cover the deductible or part of the deductible maybe they won’t sue.

There are other coverage options as well. We at Gila specialize in manufactured home insurance, but even if you don’t go with us, find an agent that understands the unique coverage options provided by a manufactured home insurance policy.

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Understanding Debris Removal

Debris Removal Insurance Coverage in Safford, AZSome coverage is hard to explain, it’s much easier to just say see! That is exactly the case with debris removal. Debris removal isn’t difficult to explain, it’s just the cost to remove the pile of trash your insurance claim just left. If there is a fire, it’s going to be the ashes and rubble, but also the mess the fire department caused while putting it out. Let’s be real they are great a putting out fires, but they aren’t exactly tidy. If there is a flood, we might be looking at all the damaged drywall and installation. Some of it might be moldy or muddy. The point is there is a cost to haul it away. But there is also going to be a cost for the demolition, which can get pretty costly.

Recently near my office there have been two fires. The first was in a second level apartment. The second was in a single-family home rented to a young couple. It was on one of my many strategy walks that I decided to explain debris removal through picture.

Debris removal is usually included in most property insurance policies, but like most things with an insurance policy there are limits. Depending on where it is commercial insurance or a homeowner’s policy it can vary, but here are some things to consider when it comes to debris removal.  How unique is your building? How old is your building? How much space is around your building. All of these and more can cause additional costs in removing debris from your property. Another consideration is building materials. Is there any asbestos in the building? The cost of asbestos disposal adds additional cost to debris removal.

As is not unusual, insurance policies provide coverage for a number of different situations that you probably hadn’t even considered. While we may often complain about insurance the truth is that the benefits provided by our insurance policies are amazing.

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