Valuation: Which is more accurate - Insurance Co or RE Websites?

[Paul Munly]

Ladies and Gents, I'm evaluating an east coast to west coast move, and am debating whether or not to sell my current residence (single family home) or to rent it (and while that's an entirely different discussion, but my current question factors into that discussion).  I've been looking at sites like Zillow, Redfin, and Trulia to get a ballpark value estimate for my property, and they tend to estimate its worth at between $310k to $330k, which I think is in the right ballpark based upon recent sales in the area.  Then I looked at my home-owners insurance company's estimate, which is totally throwing off my guesstimate -- they estimate its value at $350k.  I'm assuming that the insurance company is inflating the numbers a bit for a number of reasons (higher premiums for a start), but I have done some work to the property (new roof, new windows, new HVAC, encapsulated crawlspace) that I'd like to think increases the value a bit (and would make me much happier if I do sell!).  In general, which estimate is more accurate? 

Thanks!

[Trevor Kolb]

@Paul Munly: Your insurance company uses a Replacement Cost Estimator to determine the value in which to insure your home. It's based on many factors including builder's materials and other typical costs with covering your property for rebuilding. Their estimate is NOT a valuation on your home, merely the estimate they associate with replacing your current home based on your homes current size and building materials. In truth, most companies will require the property to be insured for at least that value, some, like Esurance (the company I work for) will allow you to insure the home to 70% the RCE value. Though you would have to agree to select value coverage (Agreeing you knowingly wish to under insure your home based on the value provided). 

At least with my company, this is how it works. I cannot speak on behalf of others, but this is typical practice. You can tell them the amount of coverage you want, and the company will determine if they can meet your request. After that, it becomes your decision to insure with them or not. It's really not about getting the extra premium from you, but for them to determine a way to value your home based on the information provided. As an insurance agent, if I spent any more amount of time in actually determining your properties value, it would be a waste. This would only increase the premium's an insurance company would charge because we would have to require additional underwriting.