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Updated over 4 years ago,
type of home insurance to buy if wouldn't rebuild a similar house
(This is a question about a home I'm buying to live in, not my rental property.)
I've had an offer accepted on a house in a suburb of Denver and am shopping for home insurance. We plan to live in the house for 5-7 years and then move elsewhere in Colorado. The house was built in 1965 on a large lot, and is toward the low end of prices (~$600K) for houses in that neighborhood.
In the event of a disaster that destroyed the house, it wouldn't make sense to rebuild a similar house on that lot. We'd want to either use the settlement to build a house better designed to be expanded by the next owner, or simply accelerate our plans and use the settlement money toward the purchase of a house in another area of Colorado.
What should I be looking for with respect to the type of insurance? I'm less interested saving money on coverage than in being covered as well as possible in a catastrophe.
My first thought was to go with one of the few companies still offering guaranteed replacement cost coverage. But would that lock us into rebuilding more or less exactly the same design of house we had before? I've found a strange lack of discussion of how much flexibility various kinds of insurance give on rebuilding.