Insuring my first rental property

[Kristi Patton]

We are ready to make and offer on our first rental properties in Little Rock, AR. We are looking at purchasing 2 SFR in one deal. The houses are older and are in a low income neighborhood. We are having a hard time finding decent insurance. The quotes we are getting are for $1000 to $1200 per year per house and will not cover a roof over 10 years old. They are also quoting a flat $500 fee for $1 million in liability. That seems crazy to me. The houses are worth about $30k each. My own home is worth almost $300k and we only pay $1400 per year for insurance.

Does this sound about par for the course or am I missing something? Also, we are forming an LLC so is it necessary to have $1 million liability on each property or can our company carry an umbrella liability policy to cover both properties (and any more that we add...)? Thanks for any info you guys can provide!