Keep HALF for you: Homeowner's Insurance

Before I used the following tips, I paid more than double for homeowner's insurance. By reducing our insurance costs, our monthly mortgage payment fell rather dramatically, as in MD, insurance is rolled into a mortgage. Despite paying $50/year extra to have the co-op preschool at our house, our homeowner's insurance is only about $300/year.  Here is how I did it (and in my mind, I had enough extra for half an international plane ticket!):

1. Shop around. We ultimately went with USAA, however I looked around online and called various local insurance companies.
2. Increase your deductible. This was the biggest savings for us. We decided to raise it to $6000. Look at the money you have in your emergency fund. I knew I wouldn't be comfortable with a five figure deductible, but I was okay with at 4 figure one, as we would still have several months left for our emergency fund (which took years to build), if we did have to use our deductible. If you don't have an emergency fund, use the cash you save here to build yourself an emergency fund. Online raise this deductible to the level with which YOU are comfortable.  Some insurance companies set it at $250 or $500 if you don't ask for a higher deductible. Just increasing your deductible a bit will save you money. You can always raise it more later, as your emergency fund grows.
3. When looking at how much homeowner's insurance to take out, make sure your home value is up-to-date on your policy.  In some regions of the country, home values have fallen dramatically. I feel more comfortable taking out 10% above what www.zillow.com says.
4. Combine policies--both of our cars and the house are with the same company. When I called to shop around for rates, I was shopping for home and cars (and raised car deductibles as well)--you will save 5-15% doing this, experts say. We saved 30% by combining Kevin's car policy with mine, before raising deductibles.
5. Find out what discounts are offered for smoke alarms, security alarms, etc. Find out discounts available, so you can decide if you want to add those features to your home.
6. Your FICO score will give you the best rates on insurance. If you haven't figured out how to improve your score, yet, look at the previous post.
7. Be loyal. Once you find your best rate, companies reward loyalty. Stick with them and after 3 years, you are often rewarded with 5% off. After 6 years, it increases to 10 or 15%.

If you save big, please comment. I'd love to know!