According to Steve Lekas, Esurance's director of Homeowner Product and Actuarial Management, a lack of consistency between carriers catering to a variety of customer needs made it impossible to define homeowners risk efficiently enough without an agent's help.

However, “Consumers are becoming more and more familiar and comfortable shopping and buying online, and it is becoming something that people expect,” Lekas told PC360. “With these changes, the next step is for an insurance company, who really understands how to best help consumers shop and buy insurance online, to build that capability.”

Esurance underwrites its own homeowners policies, as it does with auto insurance—the insurer chose to debut the program in Wisconsin because the state domiciles one of its underwriting companies, says Lenkas.

Allstate purchased Esurance in late 2011 to revive its limp auto-insurance business that was losing customers' attention to Progressive and Geico, which were wooing new business with direct-to-consumer online sales.

Esurance has been growing since its acquisition, enjoying a steady incline in new policies and a 27 percent increase in net written premium between the third quarters of 2012 and 2013. However, Allstate's homeowners policies in place decreased by about 3.2 percent even as its net written premiums increased by 5.5 percent since Q3 2012.

Although only currently available in Wisconsin, online homeowners sales will be expanded within the U.S. In a previous news interview, Esurance president Tolman said the policy will not be offered in Florida and California because of high disaster risks.