I thought I was getting good insurance rates...

[Michael Wentzel]

When I started acquiring more properties a little over a year ago, I talked to a couple different insurance agents/ brokers to see what they could do. One of them answered his phone, responded to me quickly, gave me the best quote and I went with him. Since he is a broker, he can shop the properties to different companies. I thought this would be helpful since I purchase a mixture of really old sfh and mfh. So I was feeling good. He has written 6 policies for me over the last 15 months and I was content.

Then last night I was looking over some numbers on a property I'm considering buying. It was actually a spreadsheet of about 12 properties in a portfolio and the guy wants to sell a couple. I looked closely at the annual premium on his insurance and its less than half of what I pay on a similar home. I started looking at the other properties and across the board his insurance premiums are about half of what I pay on similar homes. $30 a month isn't a big deal. But $30 per month multiplied by 6, 10 or 15 properties starts to add up.

So I called him up today to find out his trick. He assures me he has no trick. He was dropped by another insurance company a few years ago and found a small broker in town that would work with him. So I now have the name and number of his insurance person and I'll give them a call on Monday to figure out the trick.

Where did I go wrong? Why am I paying double what he is paying? My policies are not top-of-the-line by any means. For the investors out there with 10 to 20 properties, where have you found the best insurance rates?

Mike

$30 a month x 6 properties x 12 months = $2160 a year makes it worth my time to shop my insurance.

[Ben Stout]

This happened to me too. My premiums on some homes went from $75 a month to $30 a month. A big difference is the way the policy is written. I try my best to get cash policies. If I pay $50k for a place that's worth $75k, just give me a cash policy @ $75k so I can repurchase a similar asset. I really don't care that the computer program they use says the replacement cost is $375k.