Writing new insurance policy - excessive?

[vanillacourage]

My grandparents own 3 homes, two of which have historically been rental properties and now the third is becoming a rental as well. They are in a nursing home and I handle their affairs. I called their home insurance company to transition the policy to that of a rental home, and was told that they would have to re-write the policy. OK, fine.

Then they told me that they want to come out and do an inside-and-out inspection, have the roof inspected, and wanted 30 minutes of my time to answer questions for purposes of determining replacement cost. I'm relatively savvy with insurance, have had my own homes covered three separate times, and have never had an insurance agency want to physically come to the house. Everyone else has been able to write the policy using just basic facts about the property and running it through their own value calculators. Anyone else run into this? This is really not something I want to hassle with right now.

[Deleted]

I think certain companies do this since I had 2 companies insure me with no issues before, then was trying to get updated rates and went with one--to complete the application they sent someone out to my house. I ended up having to do a couple of "safety" things (rail on patio door where a deck was being built the next month) and it was finished. Annoying yes, but can be helpful