We build a quote with everything on it first: the higher liability limits, the water backup, the replacement-cost roof, the lower wind/hail deductible, the umbrella alongside it. Then we walk it on video and ask what to take off. Every removal is a decision the client made, on the record, instead of a coverage nobody mentioned.
How most quotes get built
Most quotes start at a price. Someone types the house and the cars into a rater, the base policy comes back, and the number on the page is the number that gets sent. Anything beyond the base gets added if the customer asks, and most customers do not know what to ask for. That is not a knock on customers. Nobody knows to ask about ordinance or law coverage until a city inspector has explained it to them.
The result is a quote that is missing things by default. Not because anyone chose to leave them off, but because nobody chose to put them on. The coverages that were never mentioned are the ones that are not there, and they stay not there until the day they would have mattered.
Starting from the top
We go the other direction. The first version of every quote we present has the full menu on it: liability limits well above the 25/50/25 legal floor on the auto side, uninsured motorist to match, water backup, service line, ordinance or law, the roof at replacement cost where the carrier will write it, the wind/hail deductible at the lower end of what is available, and a personal umbrella sitting next to the whole thing so the client can see what it costs to have one.
Then we ask what to take off.
Some people take off nothing. Most take off something. The point is not the final list. The point is that every line on the final policy was a choice, and every line that came off was a choice too, made by the person who owns the house, with the price of each one in front of them.
Why the video matters
We record the walk-through instead of sending a PDF. The screen shows the quote next to the current declarations page, line by line, with the premium moving as options come on and off. The client gets a link and a written summary, and the recording can be watched twice, paused, or sent to a spouse who was not on the call.
The last thing we ask on every one is the same: what do you want to change?
That recording is what makes “you chose this” true rather than something we say later. Two years on, when a claim comes in and the question is why a coverage is or is not on the policy, the answer is not a memory of a phone call. It is a video where the option was on the screen and someone decided.
What it costs
The first number is higher this way. It has to be. A quote with everything on it will almost always come in above a quote built from the base, and it will sometimes come in above the policy the client already has. We say so on the recording and show where the difference is.
Some people never call back because of it. They saw a bigger number than the one from the website, and the walk-through explaining why did not get watched. That is the honest cost of the method, and it is a real one. We have decided we would rather lose a quote to a lower number than win one on a policy nobody understood.
The part that does not flatter us
Everything above also protects us. A client who removed a coverage on video is a client who cannot fairly say later that nobody offered it. That is good for the client, and it is good for the agency, and pretending it is only the first would be dishonest. The method exists because it serves both.
Oklahoma is a reasonable place to be careful about this. The state’s average homeowners premium was $2,155 in the most recent NAIC data, third highest in the country, and the wind/hail deductible underneath is typically 1% to 5% of the insured value. On a policy that expensive, the difference between a coverage that was declined and a coverage that was never mentioned is worth a twenty-minute video.
What answers this
The quote is where the choices get made. The policy is where they get recorded. Your policy is the thing that says what stayed and what came off, and the declarations page is the place to read it. Walking the full menu on video is the last step in how we quote before that policy gets written.
Want to see the whole menu before deciding what to keep? Start at our home insurance page, or call (405) 861-8500 and we will build it all the way up for a house in Mustang, Yukon or anywhere in the metro, then hand you the scissors.
This article is general information about how coverage typically works, not advice about your specific situation. Policy language — not website descriptions — determines coverage, and your policy is the only thing that says what you have.
