All Forum Posts by: Andrew Pope

Most agency with a real estate focus should be able to  accommodate that. 

BrickHouseInsurance.com

 Brick House Insurance has a few companies that can help. BrickHouseInsurance.com 

I'm honestly not sure. Taxes are public record so you can look up on the city's website last year's city and county taxes and for the school tax on the school district site. 

2% sounds low. Keep in mind in the City of Albany we have County, city, and school taxes. 

On the other hand, the insurance estimate seems a little on the high side based on the value of the deal.

NY insurance broker here.

Him/his insurance. Depending on the specifics his renters insurance may not cover it though. If it is classified as flood damage then he would have needed tenant flood insurance which almost no one has. Either way, you were not negligent and it is not your personal property so you are not responsible.

Albany's student area is the lower pine hills area.

Hey Scott. I live/work right around that area. I'm an insurance broker and I mostly work with real estate investors. I would love to connect. 

For realtors, that would be @jamie Brayton with Principles Realty. I'm trying to tag her but, I can't seem to figure it out on my phone. 

I'm an insurance agent in the area and at the risk of being called a corporate shrill, I would tell you to avoid working with a public adjuster. The only exception to that would be if the claim doesn't work out in a way that you think is fair.

Public adjusters are paid commission based on what they "help you" collect. If you have a straight forward claim but, you had a public adjuster the whole time, your losing 10% to the adjuster for no good reason. If you get through the claim and then a public adjuster helps you get a few extra bucks at the end, they only get paid on those few extra bucks. 

Alright something in my wheelhouse. I'm an insurance broker in NY and I specialize in working with investors. Here is the breakdown:

1). Dwelling policy, good option, I use it a lot for flippers. Easy to set up, cheap and usually done by a company that works with a lot of rentals so if you don't sell and instead use it as a rental, it is easy to convert it to a landlord policy with little headache. Typically a package for both property and liability coverage. Downfall of it is, sometimes you don't get great coverage as far as the perils you are covered for. It is tough to get an all risk policy for the property coverage. Usually you are only able to get a basic fire policy that has some extra enhancements.

2). Builder's Risk, Another good options although I don't do these as much because they tend not to be as flexible. While sometimes you can get the all peril coverage on this one, you are usually only limited to property coverages and they don't package liability with it. That is not to say you can't get a stand alone liability product too but, it is just another moving part. The other tough part with these are that they are usually "fully earned" which basically means no refunds. You can buy a 3, 6, 9, or 12 month policy but, you have to guess what you need and that can be tough for less experienced flippers. 3 month policies tend to be a little more expensive so if you buy one and then still need and need to renew it for another 3 months you are stuck paying more than if you just bought a 6 month policy. For that reason, a lot of my clients prefer the dwelling fire but, builder's risk is still a good option.

3) Umbrella, Great addition to any of those options. They extended liability past what the other liability limits are. These are additional policies thought and not the only thing you need. A typical landlord, dwelling, or stand alone liability policy will only cover between $500k, and $2mil in liability. Umbrella can go in $1mil increments over and above that.

4) Your current landlord policy, not good for flipping. If you want to buy a rental that needs a little bit of work and then you will keep it as a rental, run it by your agent/company and they can advise. If you are working on it for under 30 days they may be fine with it or they may add a small surcharge. In general for flipping only, it is the wrong product and if you ended up with a claim it could easily end up denied.

Hope this helps. I am always available for more specific questions.