All Forum Posts by: Jason Bott

Scott,

If you can tell me what your looking for; ease of billing, best premiums, broadest coverage, response time, claim payout satisfaction.  Will you be flipping or buy and hold?   I represent 50+ companies and no 1 company handles all well.  If you can give me your #1,#2, #3 most important, I can tell you which to avoid.

I know that 1 particular company will be the most competitive in your area, but they are getting sued because of they will stall on claim payouts.  If you want the name to that company, send me a private message.

If the biz has clientele coming to the property, you will want them to add you as an "Additional Insured" on to their business policy.   If there is a slip and fall claim made by a biz customer, the tenant biz policy will defend you, greatly reducing the likelihood that your policy would pay any part of the liability claim.   

Depending on the type of insurance policy you have, it may have an exclusion for business operations.  In this case, you would be holding the bag on the entire claim.

Calvin, as a commercial insurance broker I can tell you that you will create more issues "blending" your Irrigation Consultation biz with the rentals.  It would be close to impossible to find 1 insurance carrier willing to competitively price a combined program. 

That being said, with 2 rental properties (insurance carrier will base their decision on # of rental units, not locations) you want to first find out if your current insurance carrier will offer a General Liability limit of $2million before adding an umbrella policy.  This can be done for $25-$50 a year.  If they can't do that, they will be able to give you a price for each million in coverage.  The higher the limit, the less it costs for each million.

Replacement Cost, special form is the best.  It may not be available if your properties are too old for your insurance carrier.  If that is the case, try and find an insurance carrier who can offer it.  If by last resort, ACV (Actual Cash Value) is your only option, it is very important to insure to the proper value.  If you do not, you may not have enough money from the insurance carrier to get your property back to it's previous state.

Brian, if you decide to keep them in your personal name, you can get a Personal Liability policy fairly inexpensive, $150-$200 per year for the first $1mil, and $50 for each additional $mil.  Most insurance companies will all up to 2-4 rental units before you will be maxed out and be forced over to the commercial side.  Just make sure the personal umbrella does not exclude "business operations".