I know this is pretty elementary but always remember one thing about home owner's ins: it's one thing to get "coverage", often quite another thing to get paid when your house, barn, shop burns down. Lots of companies will happily insure you and then cite obscure clauses to evade payment, even so called reputable companies. I researched our ins. for close to a year and found that, while initially bothersome, companies that require on site inspections, EXTREMELY detailed lists of items, etc, are invariably the best to deal with. You will generally get what you pay for.