Which insurance is recommended?

Question

Which insurance companies do you recommend for short-term rentals?

Kevin Romines · Answer

@Jon Crosby mentioned Foremost. I was an agent previously with Farmers who owns Foremost. I cant say that I did any coverage for anyone with a vacation rental so I cant speak to that. What I do want to point out to all out there is, that Farmers and Foremost are one of the best, investor friendly insurance companies out of all the big names in the industry. I say that because they will do the policies in the names of the LLC even though the policies are personal lines policies. Farmers limits you to 20 properties, but Foremost has no limits what so ever, so if you need to insure 100 properties on personal lines, they can do it. Most other big name insurance companies will do a max. of 4 properties and will only do them if they held personally, not if they are held in an LLC, or they will put you in a commercial policy. Just a couple of things to think about when shopping for insurance.

Oh one last thing, vacation rentals can be bought with as little as 10% down on a  traditional 2nd home loan program & interest rates. Your required to stay there 15 days out of the year. That's it!!! Pretty amazing!!!

Happy investing!!!

Justin Tahilramani · Answer

We use Proper because they specifically insure vacation rentals where you are renting units at the same time that you are occupying the residence. Additionally, their quote was notably less expensive than CBIZ. Vacation rental insurance is definitely more expensive than a typical fire policy, but I would not recommend taking changes with a normal insurance policy.

Thanks for the recommendation on Foremost - I'm going to need to check them out for my long term rentals.

James Carlson · Answer

Hey @Matt Smith . I teach a class on Airbnb and host happy hour events about Airbnb laws in the Denver area. Insurance is always the biggest question people. have. I will just echo what a lot of these people have said. CBIZ and Proper provide a conventional type of insurance product that you'll be familiar with. Pay a monthly premium, know you're covered. As @Michael Greenberg  pointed out, you might also check out Slice (again, Slice.is is the site). They're on-demand coverage that on average costs between $5 and $7/night and only covers your place while you are booked as a short-term rental. I've never used them because I no longer host short-term, but the product sounds pretty interesting.

Leigh Ann Smith · Answer

We use Proper Insurance on our 2 vacation rentals.  Since they are tiny houses on wheels (technically RV's), CBIZ wouldn't cover them.  Each house (valued at about $35K) runs me about $550/year including liability insurance ($1 MM, as I recall), insurance on the dwelling itself, and loss of income.

Michael Greenberg · Answer

Not sure if they are in your area yet, but check out www.slice.is (yep that's their URL).  They have a unique approach to insurance.  They're slowly rolling out their program (my area is slated for July).

Valerie Neng · Answer

Hi!  We've been using CBIZ for our Airbnb listing in Washington State.  I believe they specialize in Airbnb and VRBO short term rentals.  It's covered as a commercial property and the premium is 20% higher than my homeowners insurance.

Account Closed · Answer

Fyi my personal umbrella specifically said if you have a short term rental -- it won't cover it.

Part or full time.

Blair Russell · Answer

Proper here.

Jon Crosby · Answer

Update to my coverage with Foremost since I was getting worried reading these other posts.  :)  No umbrella just straight coverage of $1M on liability of property.

Sean Walton · Answer

I'm using CBIZ and happy with it but thankfully no claims so I can't attest to that.

Which insurance is recommended?

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