From what I'm being told, insurance underwriters like State Farm, Farm Bureau, and others who have underwrote home and auto policies for years, are trying to recover from all the losses of the 2005 hurricane season and the tornado out breaks we have had, so they are trying to venture into markets that was once only held by a certain few commercial underwriters, from what my agent said is they are not looking for large companies, but small single man to as many as 10 employees shops.
With State Farm I can do new and old construction, repairs, and commercial, and light industrial, up to 100k bids, higher then that I have to submit for high umbrella coverage to cover anything larger which they can refuse if they feel the liability is too great, then its back to the larger high dollar commercial underwriters.
Each states insurance requirements will be different, as well as what you will pay, litigations laws of each state plays a big part of this.