Revisit your insurance policies every year!

[JT Spangler]

I was pulling together 1098s so I can do 2015 taxes (normally I like to procrastinate, but this year I'm trying to refi some things so I'm motivated), and I noticed I got an escrow bill for nearly a thousand bucks.

What happened was my insurance on a rental got canceled because the mortgage company had a paperwork screwup and didn't send in the payment in time (even though they had the money in escrow specifically for that). My agent had to requote because the insurance company wouldn't reinstate, and when the agent looked around the best policy she found was twice as much money. An extra $85/mo was scheduled to come out of my pocket (and out of my cashflow!).

So, I called all of the agents I work with and had them quote the property as well, and one of them got it back down where it was before.

One hour on the phone and an extra $1000 this year in insurance savings goes into my pockets. It was a reminder to me that I should really do this every year.