Well paranoia is probably a sign of insanity. Buying out of state properties, and 100 year old floods do worry me. I have been quoted $500 a year. Still undecided.
@Frank Salgado If it helps you sleep at night 500 bucks is money well spent. I am a landlord in western Wa. and I carry EQ coverage on all my properties-I don't think any of my fellow LL's do. My livelihood depends on the rental income from my properties, if we have a shaker and my tenants will quit paying, I'll be working as a cashier at Walmart! EQ insurance has me sleeping like a baby! All the best!
Yeah that's what I'm talking about. I retired at 60 yrs old because of my rental Properties I have to make sure they last my life and hopefully my Children and Grandchildren life. I'm buying insurance tomorrow.
@Frank Salgado If you’re in a low lying area near a big body of water or river even though you’re not in a flood zone it might be worth considering the cost benefits of it. Just look at Vermont right now. I’m sure not all of Montpelier or all of the areas that are flooded are in a flood zone.
I am not in a flood zone in my current property which is a duplex I house hack. It does not have a basement. It is on the side of a hill and when it rains heavily the water comes down the hill and rushes down the street right next to me and my patio always fills up with several inches of water. When I owned the building on the opposite side of the street from me on the same hill the basement always took on water and the separate detached garage also took on water. I have opted to spend the $675+/- per year for flood insurance just because if we were to get enough rain I’m concerned of either the patio flooding enough that water comes in and destroys a certain amount of Sheetrock and stuff or an actual mudslide were to come down the steep hill if we were to get a direct hit from a hurricane and have a 20” rain event which we missed out on the last two times hurricanes came through.
If you were in the 100-year flood zone, you would know about it and be required to get insurance. The fact that your lender does not require flood insurance means you are not in the 100-yr flood zone. Also $500/yr is cheap for flood insurance indicating that your are at low risk of flooding. However, there are other types of flooding that are not looked at when assessing the FEMA flood risk that might be worth getting insurance for, such as storm water flooding. For example, if it rains a lot and the street drains backup and all that rain water runs off from the street into your basement. I would check with that insurance quote to see what type of flooding is covered. Seems you're in the phase of your career where you are protecting what you already have, so for that, $500/yr is minimal.