New consumer home insurance research reveals that U.S. homeowners are willing to pay higher premiums to have the right coverage for their properties.

Among those who have had a claim in the last three years, that number is even higher: 81% are willing to pay more to ensure they are fully covered.

We interviewed over 2,000 homeowners across the country to learn about their preferences and behaviors toward home insurance. The results are presented and analyzed in our 2024 Home Insurance Consumer Insights study.

The research unveils other surprising—and at times worrying—facts related to home insurance consumers. Some of them:

• 82% of homeowners assume some or total responsibility for the information they collect or provide about their home at renewal, and 78% when applying for a new policy
• 70% rely on their agent or carrier to ensure they have the coverage they need
• 89%, or nearly nine in 10, believe their coverage is enough to replace, repair or rebuild their home
• But 49% have only a general sense of their policy and coverage

As we can see, there is a huge disconnect between customers’ perception of their coverage and how much they actually know about their policies. The good news is that seven in 10 are interested in better understanding the potential risks to their homes.

What kind of customer are you dealing with?

A deeper understanding of the motivations of homeowners empowers carriers to develop more effective engagement strategies while leveraging emerging technologies to enhance risk assessment. With that approach, home insurance carriers can bridge the gaps with consumers and address profitability challenges faced by the industry.

To that effect, two key segments with distinct requirements emerged from consumers’ answers: Set it & Forget It and Insurance Involved. 

Set It & Forget It homeowners self-identify as being less knowledgeable about policy specifics. That can result in homeowners being surprised when additional hidden risks are uncovered, particularly at renewal.

Comprising 37% of policyholders, Insurance Involved customers are more engaged in understanding their policies. While they may call or email your contact center more, they are 1.5 times more knowledgeable about their policy than their Set it & Forget It counterparts.

The study shows that Insurance Involved customers tend to be more proactive, having learned from filing claims. They’ve gained insights from experience and typically pay their premiums manually, with many residing in the high catastrophe risk states of Florida, California and Texas.

Self-guided mobile home insurance inspections welcome

Understanding these differences in home insurance consumer behavior enables carriers to rethink underwriting with innovative tools that make risk assessment easier for everyone, both at policy underwriting and renewal. One solution that seems to be suitable—and welcome—to improve risk assessment with the two segments we identified, but particularly with the Set It & Forget It cohort, is self-guided mobile home inspections. We asked consumers about this approach and found out they like the idea.

The high cost of sending an inspector into a homeowner's space burdens insurers and disrupts privacy. Yet nearly 50% of all claims originate in the home's interior, including hidden water leaks or faulty wiring—all of which should be addressed with direct inspections to assess loss accurately. Other approaches, like aerial photography, often fail to detect signs of water damage, such as curling shingles on a roof.

In a self-guided inspection, at their own pace and schedule, homeowners use a mobile device (a phone or a tablet) to capture interior and exterior details within the privacy of their homes. Following step-by-step prompts, users make photos and/or videos of a property's condition, features and risks. 

About seven in 10 homeowners say they like self-guided mobile home inspections as a convenient alternative to traditional in-person methods. They also reveal a positive perception of carriers that employ the technology. For 62% of the respondents, when a carrier offers a consumer-led mobile method for visual inspections, it shows customers that they are valued. For 67%, the offer shows that the carrier is doing all it can to help ensure homeowners have the coverage they need.

Self-guided mobile inspections can help carriers ensure that homeowners with the Set it & Forget It mindset have adequate coverage while engaging homeowners with the Insurance Involved mindset at a lower cost. Importantly, carriers can also reach scale: Teams can inspect more properties and grow the underwriting program. 

LexisNexis Risk Solutions has a mobile tool for home inspections, LexisNexis® Flyreel®. Our internal data shows that 94% of homeowners who complete inspections using Flyreel express satisfaction with the experience. 

A safer, smarter tomorrow calls for a more modern, convenient, user-friendly solution to home insurance inspections. The reward is shrinking risk, optimizing coverage and a closer, trustworthy relationship with homeowners. 

A revealing metric in home insurance consumer behavior

As we have seen, seven in 10 homeowners expect carriers to play a prominent role in ensuring they have the coverage they need. The finding suggests that moving to deeper homeowner engagement isn't optional but mandatory.

Ready to challenge your assumptions about homeowners and profitability? Download our Home Insurance Consumer Insights study and learn more about home owner insurance preference and behaviors, including consumer-led mobile methods for visual inspections.