Has anyone used Obie Insurance?
Nina ErlandsonPro Member
Rental Property Investor · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2020 · 38 posts · 29 votesHello fellow investors,
I am currently using Farmers and Foremost Insurance. However I ran a few quotes on Obie Insurance (geared specifically towards landlords) and for only the 4 houses I checked, I am saving 1,5k a year if I switch. The only difference on paper is that the deductible for hail and winter storms is 5k instead of the 2,5k that I have with Farmers. Has someone used them and what's your experience so far?
I would NEVER Ever use OBIE INSURANCE --Not honest in their dealings and do not expect refunds on cancellations I am of the opinion that they are legal scammers Just be careful
Zul,
Thanks for posting. I'm sure you'll recall the numerous back and forth emails you and I had, following your many emails to our employees. For context for the readers here, since you posted your comments publicly, a policy was bound and then you requested to cancel shortly thereafter. When we let you know it wouldn't be a full refund because of an earned premium period, you stated that your signature was forged and you didn't actually buy this policy.
As you'll recall from my email, an account with your name, email, and your investment property address bound a policy through Obie and signed all of the documents. The IP address for the signature audit trail matches the IP address from your session when you bound the policy. As I suggested, if you believe your identity had been stolen, please file a police report and we can utilize that to help convince the carrier to make a full refund cancellation request.
I'm very sorry you decided you didn't want the policy after all, and in fact, Obie covered some of the fees from your pro-rated cancellation so we could at least always put the customer first--even in this situation. However, once you began stating that the signature was forged and you would be taking legal action, the agents would understandably not engage in that.
Happy to talk through this further, as I offered in my many emails.
Best,
Aaron Letzeiser
Obie Co-Founder
Hi Nina - I am also considering Obie. Did you hear back from anyone?
Nope, I haven’t heard back from anyone and it is quite tempting to move to them as their prices are so much more competitive!
I am pretty sure I am going to move forward. Its just so much more seamless than any other experience I have had to date. I also looked up the google reviews and people seem to be very satisfied with their service! Will let you know but I am going to go for it :)
That’s where I am at after all the research I did. If something goes wrong we can always move away.
@Nina Erlandson I have not used them before personally but I work in the insure-tech space and know some people there. They are doing great work and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them.
How is everything so far with Obie. I am in the process of shopping for an insurance company for a rental property here in VA. Your feedback will surely be appreciated.
I am with them on 5 rentals. Love working with them!
How is everything so far with Obie. I am in the process of shopping for an insurance company for a rental property here in VA. Your feedback will surely be appreciated.
Hey @Nina Erlandson,
Happy to share my experience using Obie. My rental property insurance in FL jumped up by 100% earlier this year with my old insurance company. Heard about Obie from a friend and decided to give them a try. They beat my existing premium by over 30% without sacrificing coverage (I did choose a slightly higher deductible though to get some extra savings here). Have since insured a triplex with them as well, saving several hundred dollars in the process. They are a broker though, not an insurance company. So do your own due diligence on the actual insurer on the quote.
I've been using Obie for a couple years now - I switched from State Farm. Definitely saved a lot of money. I have a 100 unit portfolio based in Louisville and Lexington KY mixed between SFH, and 4-8 unit apts.
Biggest help for me was their ability to insure closer to the purchase price instead of replacement cost. the team is great and I’ve been happy with the claims process.
@Brian Babbage I know a lot of REI like to save money on their insurance by only insuring for purchase price. I am generally curious as to why you would choose to do this? I have on multiple occasions, once with one of my own properties and a few times for clients been able to not only get the money they paid for a property but also gave them extra money in a total loss (protected the equity that has accrued due to inflation in the industry).
The question that I ask my clients is why would you only want to protect your principal of you investment? Why not protect the growth of your investments?
I am all for saving as much money as possible in your bottom line.
I don't have any experience with Obie but I am always looking for new providers to partner with. I am excited to look into it and see what they have as far as a product offering.
So I'm comparing them w/Foremost on our Short Term Rentals, the quotes are $500-$1000 less than I am currently paying for each property per year. However, I notice that Personal Injury is not included and I'm thinking that may be important to have for a Short Term Rental. There's also no Personal Property coverage, which is not a deal breaker to me. Thoughts?
Thanks to OP for this post! From it I have obtained the name of another competitive insurer to add to my arsenal.
I have not used Opie, but after reading the posts here, I went online and obtained a quote for one SFH rental. The price was lower than anyone else offered.
But ...
The first thing I observed was the replacement cost portion of the quote, was, IMO, less than what it will actually cost to demolish the remains of the existing structure, pay for any hazardous waste removal following a catastrophic loss, and actually pay to replace the property in the event of a total loss, even though I used the quote feature to increase the replacement cost value by 20% (the maximum it would allow). So I would caution everyone to make sure the replacement cost for your improvements will realistically cover your actual replacement cost in the event of a total loss.
And just a reminder. My recollection is (and insurance experts on BP can correct me if my memory is wrong), but most insurers will only pay "replacement cost" policy limits, if you actually replace the damaged property. If you don't actually replace the damaged property, the insurer will normally only pay you the "actual cash value," i.e., the depreciated value of the property. So if your replacement cost valuation on the policy is not high enough to actually rebuild the property (oftentimes this is the situation when contractors are charging premiums because they are so busy with other losses), and unless you are personally willing to pay the shortfall to rebuild the property, the insurer will only pay you the depreciated (ACV) for your loss. And of course, if your actual cash value is less than the current mortgage(s) on the property, all of the cash value payment will go to the lenders.
This post is intriguing as I have never heard of Obie. I own 23 single-family homes in the Southern California market and I am experiencing some challenges with finding coverage this year. After I did find the coverage I am getting notifications from the insurer that a long litany of minor issues must be addressed (at almost every house). These issues were identified by an inspector that drove by each house after the policy was issued.
For those that have Obie - did their process include an inspector "inspecting" each house? If so, how was this process?
Thanks.
I would NEVER Ever use OBIE INSURANCE --Not honest in their dealings and do not expect refunds on cancellations I am of the opinion that they are legal scammers Just be careful
I would NEVER Ever use OBIE INSURANCE --Not honest in their dealings and do not expect refunds on cancellations I am of the opinion that they are legal scammers Just be careful
Zul,
Thanks for posting. I'm sure you'll recall the numerous back and forth emails you and I had, following your many emails to our employees. For context for the readers here, since you posted your comments publicly, a policy was bound and then you requested to cancel shortly thereafter. When we let you know it wouldn't be a full refund because of an earned premium period, you stated that your signature was forged and you didn't actually buy this policy.
As you'll recall from my email, an account with your name, email, and your investment property address bound a policy through Obie and signed all of the documents. The IP address for the signature audit trail matches the IP address from your session when you bound the policy. As I suggested, if you believe your identity had been stolen, please file a police report and we can utilize that to help convince the carrier to make a full refund cancellation request.
I'm very sorry you decided you didn't want the policy after all, and in fact, Obie covered some of the fees from your pro-rated cancellation so we could at least always put the customer first--even in this situation. However, once you began stating that the signature was forged and you would be taking legal action, the agents would understandably not engage in that.
Happy to talk through this further, as I offered in my many emails.
Best,
Aaron Letzeiser
Obie Co-Founder
I am using them for 5 SFH rentals in Montgomery, AL. So far they've been great. I have never had to file a claim though so I can't speak to that experience. But they are simple, respond quickly to questions, Lloyds is their underwriter, etc. I think they're good.
So I'm comparing them w/Foremost on our Short Term Rentals, the quotes are $500-$1000 less than I am currently paying for each property per year. However, I notice that Personal Injury is not included and I'm thinking that may be important to have for a Short Term Rental. There's also no Personal Property coverage, which is not a deal breaker to me. Thoughts?
Thanks to OP for this post! From it I have obtained the name of another competitive insurer to add to my arsenal.
I have not used Opie, but after reading the posts here, I went online and obtained a quote for one SFH rental. The price was lower than anyone else offered.
But ...
The first thing I observed was the replacement cost portion of the quote, was, IMO, less than what it will actually cost to demolish the remains of the existing structure, pay for any hazardous waste removal following a catastrophic loss, and actually pay to replace the property in the event of a total loss, even though I used the quote feature to increase the replacement cost value by 20% (the maximum it would allow). So I would caution everyone to make sure the replacement cost for your improvements will realistically cover your actual replacement cost in the event of a total loss.
And just a reminder. My recollection is (and insurance experts on BP can correct me if my memory is wrong), but most insurers will only pay "replacement cost" policy limits, if you actually replace the damaged property. If you don't actually replace the damaged property, the insurer will normally only pay you the "actual cash value," i.e., the depreciated value of the property. So if your replacement cost valuation on the policy is not high enough to actually rebuild the property (oftentimes this is the situation when contractors are charging premiums because they are so busy with other losses), and unless you are personally willing to pay the shortfall to rebuild the property, the insurer will only pay you the depreciated (ACV) for your loss. And of course, if your actual cash value is less than the current mortgage(s) on the property, all of the cash value payment will go to the lenders.
Good advice. It's interesting that Obie returned a $200K value but they do allow editing so I was able to correct to an amount I feel was midway between principal and replacement value. Insurance costs are going up like crazy. You have to find a middle ground, IMO
Decided to try to use Obie on a new acquisition because my traditional insurance doesn’t do new policies in California and the insurance agent recommended by my loan officer just wasn’t working fast enough (CA Fair Plan seems to be at fault) to meet our closing calendar.
The quoting process was incredibly easy but I needed to know the details of the actual carrier and the rating to get it approved by the loan company. Several hours of work to reach out to Obie’s agent and zero answer from the phone or emails left us unable to confirm the information requested.
It’s a shame but I had to go with a different insurance platform.
Decided to try to use Obie on a new acquisition because my traditional insurance doesn’t do new policies in California and the insurance agent recommended by my loan officer just wasn’t working fast enough (CA Fair Plan seems to be at fault) to meet our closing calendar.
The quoting process was incredibly easy but I needed to know the details of the actual carrier and the rating to get it approved by the loan company. Several hours of work to reach out to Obie’s agent and zero answer from the phone or emails left us unable to confirm the information requested.
It’s a shame but I had to go with a different insurance platform.
Hey Eugenio! I see this is your first post, welcome to Bigger Pockets!
I'm sorry this was your experience -- that certainly sounds frustrating. The carrier name should have been listed on the PDF that's generated at the end of the quoting process. I'm happy to grab that for you from our system if it would help. If you have any remaining questions, please feel free to email me directly.
Best,
Aaron
Obie Co-Founder
Decided to try to use Obie on a new acquisition because my traditional insurance doesn’t do new policies in California and the insurance agent recommended by my loan officer just wasn’t working fast enough (CA Fair Plan seems to be at fault) to meet our closing calendar.
The quoting process was incredibly easy but I needed to know the details of the actual carrier and the rating to get it approved by the loan company. Several hours of work to reach out to Obie’s agent and zero answer from the phone or emails left us unable to confirm the information requested.
It’s a shame but I had to go with a different insurance platform.
Hey Eugenio! I see this is your first post, welcome to Bigger Pockets!
I'm sorry this was your experience -- that certainly sounds frustrating. The carrier name should have been listed on the PDF that's generated at the end of the quoting process. I'm happy to grab that for you from our system if it would help. If you have any remaining questions, please feel free to email me directly.
Best,
Aaron
Obie Co-Founder
Hi Aaron - Thanks ! And happy to talk to another co-founder.
I appreciate the effort to clarify and support your clients. Here is some information that may help you smooth out the last steps for new acquisitions and loan officers that may not yet know your services. The carrier name listed in your quote wasn't the final carrier and didn't come up in an AMB rating search. I now understand that this intermediate has another carrier for the insurance that was proposed to me (Spinnaker (? unconfirmed) - AMB rating A-, Excellent). But I only found out this information after we had decided to go with a different insurer.
Had this information been readily available in the quote (maybe using an AMB number) or on your website or during my two chat attempts or when my agent and her processor tried to call - most likely we would have gone with your services.
I understand that recent events in the insurance field in CA have left everyone running around and closings right now are quite the mess - definitely an opportunity!
I'll definitely look you up on our next property. Your quote process was almost perfect!
@Aaron Letzeiser thank you for posting on here! We all appreciate your input on the ins/outs of Obie. Undoubtedly, your involvement has lead to increased business funneling to Obie...
Two questions:
Does Obie insure free-standing mobile homes (without land)?
Does Obie insure property in the name of an LLC?
Thanks!
@Aaron Letzeiser thank you for posting on here! We all appreciate your input on the ins/outs of Obie. Undoubtedly, your involvement has lead to increased business funneling to Obie...
Two questions:
Does Obie insure free-standing mobile homes (without land)?
Does Obie insure property in the name of an LLC?
Thanks!
@Dave Rav great questions:
1. We can, but depends on the state and certain characteristics. The mobile home insurance market is unfortunately becoming more challenging for insurance companies year after year it seems.
2. Yes, absolutely. A majority of real estate investment properties are held in an LLC. I never understood why companies would build a landlord insurance product and then decline for an LLC. We support multiple insured types.
@Nina Erlandson Personally, I have not heard of Obie Insurance. I use Foremost for my mobile home investing business with the properties I buy and hold. Will be interesting to hear what others have to say here. Always good to know of other companies who provide products and services!