my moms rental kitchen burned up-insurance pays too little

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Hi all- what a cool website. This is my first post. My poor mom has 4 rentals, two with big problems. In one, the kithen is completely burned out and insurance will only pay 10, 000 dollars. Luckily my husband is a contractor and is going to help but can only do it on weekends. In the other, the furnace broke and the renters moved out because it was too cold. Heating contractors have said they dont know what's wrong. My main question is how can she make insurance pay more? Don't they know it costs more than 10,000 just for materials for a kithen remodelong? Also, I am following in her footsteps and just bought a second home so I could be closer to work. I am going to rent out my first house and barely break even. I dont want to sell it because it will be paid off in 15 years and will be a good asset for retirement. I was going to rent it out to Section 8 tenants. Any suggestions?