Some quote sites sell your information. casa searches the market instead.
On many insurance quote sites, the thing being sold is you: the form collects your contact information, and agents pay for it. casa was built to be the other kind of site, the destination where the search itself happens.
Two kinds of quote sites
Many insurance quote sites are not actually quoting anything. They are lead-generation forms: you type in your address, your phone number, and your email.
The site then sells that contact information to multiple agents.
The agents are the customers. The form is the storefront. You are the product being sold.
What follows is familiar to anyone who has tried it: the calls start, from numbers you do not recognize. They can go on for weeks. Each caller has to ask you the same questions again, because what they bought was your number, not your answers. The price you came looking for never appeared on the site at all.
Not every quote site works this way, and this guide is not a claim that they do. Some search real markets and show actual quotes. The point is that the two kinds look nearly identical from the outside, and it is worth knowing which one you are typing into.
How to tell which kind you are on
There is no label that says lead-generation form, but there are signs, and most of them show up before you have given anything away. None of them proves anything on its own. Together they tell you what the site is for.
The clearest test is also the simplest one. Does the site itself ever show you a price? Or does the form end with a promise that someone will be in touch?
- Your phone number is required before the site has asked a single real question about your home.
- The fine print near the submit button asks you to allow calls and texts from partner companies or a network of agents. Sometimes that includes an automated dialer.
- The site promises quotes from a long list of companies but never says which of them was actually asked about your home.
- The result of the form is a list of agents who will contact you, rather than a number you can look at.
What casa does with the same questionnaire
casa is the destination, not a hand-off. You answer one questionnaire about your home, and the search itself runs: standard insurers first, then the specialty insurers. What comes back is delivered to you: quotes, or a straight answer about what is possible for your home. casa itself is not an insurance company: coverage is arranged by a licensed agent.
The specialty insurers matter more than it sounds. It is the part of the market built for the homes standard insurers turn down. It now insures more than 300,000 California homes, and many quote forms never touch it. Searching one side of the market and calling it a search is how homeowners with hard-to-place homes come away believing they are out of options.
If your home cannot be quoted online, that answer is real too. A licensed agent reviews it personally and contacts you about your request. One person, about your home, rather than a list of strangers dialing a purchased number.
Your information is not the product
casa does not sell your personal information. What you share is used to search for quotes, to contact you about this request, and to meet legal and insurance requirements. That is the whole list.
We do ask for your phone number and email, and it is reasonable to wonder why, given everything above. The answer is delivery.
Your quotes arrive by email, and if something about your home needs a human, a licensed agent needs a way to reach you. The difference is not whether contact information gets collected. It is what happens to it afterward.
So any call you get is about your request, from someone actually working on it. No cold calls, and nothing passed along to a network of buyers.
Ask the market, not a mailing list.
One questionnaire covers the standard insurers and the specialty insurers in one pass. You get the quotes it finds, or a straight answer about what is possible. Your information is not for sale.
An honest word about the other model
Lead generation is not a scam. Agents need customers, and buying introductions is a legitimate way to find them. Plenty of people have ended up with real coverage from an agent who first reached them through a purchased lead. If you already work with an agent you trust, none of this is a reason to leave.
The problem is narrower. It is the weeks of calls, the repetition, and the fact that you cannot tell who has your number or when it stops. For a homeowner who has been non-renewed or turned down, and is working against a deadline, that time and attention matters. It should go to the actual search, not to being sold to.
So ask two questions of any quote site before you type: does the search happen here, and who gets my information. casa's answers are the reason it exists. The search happens here, and your information is not for sale.
Questions people ask us
How can I tell if a quote site will sell my contact information?
Does casa sell my information?
Then why does casa need my phone number and email?
Are all comparison sites lead-generation sites?
Sources
- 'Structural Shift' Occurring in California Surplus LinesClaims Journal
- 47 CFR 64.1200, Delivery Restrictions (Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules)Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (federal regulation text)
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Reviewed August 2026.