Why even get insurance on a rehab?

[Patrick Philip]

If I don't have a lender requiring it, most stuff like theft and vandalism would never even match the deductible.

I just went through the largest hurricane I've experienced in 30 years and had no damage to my flip or personal residence. Okay, I had a few fence panels down but that is cheaper to fix than the deductible.

Especially when not in hurricane season, what could happen? Have you ever made a claim?

What could happen? Lightning strike? Arson? Electrical fire?

I bought this flip project a few days before I heard about Hurricane Irma. They wouldn't write the policy until the storm passed, and it's still not insured. I'm deciding on what coverage, if any, to get. It's already been 1.5 months with no insurance. I have an alarm system for theft, anyway.

I know this probably sounds stupid to everyone, but I even know neurosurgeons who don't carry insurance.

[Jeff Copeland]

The purpose of insurance is to assign risk to other entities, for a cost. 

The alternative is to self insure, if you can afford the risk.

How much is the house worth, less the land value? Can you absorb/float that cost if the house burns to the ground? And do you have any private or hard money lenders who will need to be paid off, regardless? If you can afford to do so and/or rebuild the house, then self insuring it is certainly an option. 

But for most of us mere mortals, a $50k or $150k loss on a property would wreck our finances (if not ruin our lives completely), so we pay a relatively small percentage of that to pass that risk on to an insurance company.

I suspect the reason your neurosurgeon friends don't carry insurance is they can afford not to.