Getting Home Insurance or Warranty to Pay for things

[Pierre E.]

What are the best ways to leverage your landlord property insurance policy for repairs?  (Either new purchase, or longterm ownership property)

For example, if roof need to be replaced or piping needs to be replaced how are you maximizing its proper usage? I don't want to abuse anything but also don't want to leave money on the table when I shouldn't be. 

Same with Home Warranty - Do you even find it helpful to get one, and when does it tend to help? 

Thanks BP Fam in advance for the insight and feedback. Trying to fine tune my investing!

[Jeff Copeland]

You can't file a homeowners insurance claim every time you need something repaired, for a couple of reasons:

1. Homeowner's insurance is for casualty damage caused by an accident or act of god. 

     5 year old roof damaged extensively by a tornado? Yes, insurance claim. 

     25 year old roof starting to leak? No. That's a normal wear and tear and a capital expense for you as the landlord.

2. Deductibles. You are likely to have a $2500 or $5000 deductible on any homeowners claim, meaning you pay this first, and your insurance only kicks in after you exceed your deductible. So even in the tornado damage example above, it's its a $2000 repair, you're still paying for it yourself. 

3. Claims history. If you keep filing repeated homeowner's claims, your insurance carrier will raise your rates or drop you, leaving you scrambling to find a new insurance company (often at a much higher price). And the other carriers can often find out about your claims history, making it doubly hard. 

As for home warranty policies, while you may get some conflicting advice (you'll always have the 10% of people who had a good experience and love them), the other 90%, which includes most experienced investors and property managers, generally despise home warranties. See http://www.evicttv.com/episode...