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Sean Beyrouthy
  • Clifton Heights, PA
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Homeowners Insurance, Landlord Insurance, Umbrella Policy

Sean Beyrouthy
  • Clifton Heights, PA
Posted Oct 10 2022, 17:15

Hey everyone! I am closing on my first rental property with some partners at the end of the month and are currently shopping around for insurance. We plan to obtain homeowners insurance (obviously), landlord insurance and an umbrella policy. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good/affordable company that can help us with that bundle? I am curious if anyone has experience with one of the bigger insurance companies (state farm, USAA, etc) and can lead me in the right direction. Thanks in advance for the reply!

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Steve Vaughan#1 Personal Finance Contributor
  • Rental Property Investor
  • East Wenatchee, WA
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Steve Vaughan#1 Personal Finance Contributor
  • Rental Property Investor
  • East Wenatchee, WA
Replied Oct 11 2022, 07:06
Quote from @Sean Beyrouthy:

Hey everyone! I am closing on my first rental property with some partners at the end of the month and are currently shopping around for insurance. We plan to obtain homeowners insurance (obviously), landlord insurance and an umbrella policy. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good/affordable company that can help us with that bundle? I am curious if anyone has experience with one of the bigger insurance companies (state farm, USAA, etc) and can lead me in the right direction. Thanks in advance for the reply!

 I've had good experiences with State Farm, residential and commercial.   

Umbrella insurance is usually with your auto carrier since auto carries the most risk.  They will first require you to max all liability coverage.   Some require you to have a net worth of $1M before providing a million dollar Umbrella.

Back to State Farm.  My son was in an auto accident.  The at fault driver had them and they were great. 

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John Mocker#1 Insurance Contributor
  • Insurance Agent
  • Norwalk, CT
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John Mocker#1 Insurance Contributor
  • Insurance Agent
  • Norwalk, CT
Replied Oct 11 2022, 08:55

Sean,

First, the "Homeowners" policy is reserved for owner occupied dwellings in most insurance companies.  The form most use is the "Dwelling/Fire" (also called Landlord by some carriers) Policy.  

I strongly recommend seeking out Independent Agents that write in the state the property is located.  They will be able to quote multiple Insurance Carriers for the Property.  I have found that it is often true that the regional Insurance companies are especially competitive for the Dwelling/Fire policies.  

Discuss with the agents the amount of coverage (Building Replacement/Rebuilding costs vs Depreciated Value).  Seek Special Form for the Perils insured against if available.  Make sure there is adequate coverage for loss of rents.  Also discuss, the optional coverages that may be important to your situation (Water Backup, Personal Injury Protection, Equipment Breakdown, Utility Line coverage,...)

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Oscar Guzman
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  • Space Coast, FL
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Oscar Guzman
Pro Member
  • Space Coast, FL
Replied Nov 6 2022, 18:12

I would like to hear more about this topic. I recently bought my first rental property as well. With the current home insurance situation in Florida making everything very difficult the only company that was able to insure the property was Citizens which only provides a $100k liability coverage. Since day 1 I have been thinking I need to add liability coverage on the side as well as umbrella insurance. I have been procrastinating it a bit due to needed renovations on the property. We are now getting close to getting the property live, so I have to get very serious about adding additional coverage. 

Since my current policy includes liability insurance to $100k, would I need to get additional liability coverage or can I go straight to an umbrella policy? which is better? 

Thanks for any insight you can all share. 

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Cameron Moore
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#3 Insurance Contributor
  • Insurance Agent
  • DFW, TX
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Cameron Moore
Pro Member
#3 Insurance Contributor
  • Insurance Agent
  • DFW, TX
Replied Nov 7 2022, 09:29

I would recommend finding an Insurance Broker that is familiar with the area you are in. They can shop multiple carriers and keep your cash flow solid through every renewal by re-shopping. 

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Jason Bott
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#2 Insurance Contributor
  • Insurance Agent
  • Nationwide
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Jason Bott
Pro Member
#2 Insurance Contributor
  • Insurance Agent
  • Nationwide
Replied Nov 7 2022, 10:00

@Oscar Guzman Start with your current agent.  The reality is the only agent who is going to be willing to spend time on this is the current agent you have on the Citizens policy.  

If your agent isn't an independent agent, they could be limited on alternatives to increasing you Liability.  You may want to think about moving the Citizens policy to another agent if you aren't getting alternatives your satisfied with.

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Jared Townsend
  • Insurance Agent
  • Orlando, FL
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Jared Townsend
  • Insurance Agent
  • Orlando, FL
Replied Nov 7 2022, 12:27

In my experience, most carriers in FL won't write an umbrella with only $100k underlying liability coverage. You would have to purchase a supplemental liability policy in increase your limit to $300k, then you could qualify for an umbrella. 

Alternatively, you can sometimes purchase commercial liability insurance and exclude the Citizens liability completely. This is likely cost prohibitive for a single property but can be inexpensive when insuring 5+ homes together. 
@Oscar Guzman

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Oscar Guzman
Pro Member
  • Space Coast, FL
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Oscar Guzman
Pro Member
  • Space Coast, FL
Replied Nov 7 2022, 18:35

All sounds like good advice. Thanks for the input! 

I think for now I will take some time to talk with my current agent, as she is an independent one and would have access to multiple insurance companies as suggested above. It also sounds like in my case I may need to start with increasing my liability coverage first before getting umbrella coverage. Let's see what I can find out tomorrow from the agent. 

@Jared Townsend; @Jason Bott; @Cameron Moore

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Jim Rivell
  • Investor
  • Philadelphia, PA
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Jim Rivell
  • Investor
  • Philadelphia, PA
Replied May 16 2023, 14:16

@Oscar Guzman my LLC has the same dwelling/fire/landlord insurance which covers up to $100k liability, but we decided to also do a Commercial Umbrella for the LLC with a $1M liability coverage. Since there are multiple properties within the LLC we thought this was the best route and it was only roughly $250/year from State Farm. Well worth the risk in our opinion to cover our entire LLC

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Samuel Boyd
  • Realtor
  • Melbourne, FL
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Samuel Boyd
  • Realtor
  • Melbourne, FL
Replied May 18 2023, 07:37

@Oscar Guzman Hey Oscar, I see your frustration with the insurance market in Florida. Honestly, it's a nightmare. We used a company called Proper for our short-term rental policy in Palm Bay. They provide a STR-based policy with up to $4M in liability, building replacement costs as well as contents and loss of business income. Super unique policy basically everything that we would have wanted. Only catch is that they no longer offer wind coverage in FL... If you have any more questions about it please message me!

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Adrian Castillo
  • Real Estate Consultant
  • Brandon, FL
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Adrian Castillo
  • Real Estate Consultant
  • Brandon, FL
Replied May 18 2023, 11:04
Quote from @Jim Rivell:

@Oscar Guzman my LLC has the same dwelling/fire/landlord insurance which covers up to $100k liability, but we decided to also do a Commercial Umbrella for the LLC with a $1M liability coverage. Since there are multiple properties within the LLC we thought this was the best route and it was only roughly $250/year from State Farm. Well worth the risk in our opinion to cover our entire LLC


 Can you share that firm's contact information, please...Let's connect thanks. 

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Oscar Guzman
Pro Member
  • Space Coast, FL
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Oscar Guzman
Pro Member
  • Space Coast, FL
Replied May 19 2023, 17:35
Quote from @Jim Rivell:

@Oscar Guzman my LLC has the same dwelling/fire/landlord insurance which covers up to $100k liability, but we decided to also do a Commercial Umbrella for the LLC with a $1M liability coverage. Since there are multiple properties within the LLC we thought this was the best route and it was only roughly $250/year from State Farm. Well worth the risk in our opinion to cover our entire LLC


 This doesn't sound bad. not sure I follow how this can be so cheap and cover you from liability that may come from rental properties. Since making this post I was able to find a company called Obie that was able to write a policy for my situation. I got $1M in laibility coverage for the single family house. It isn't cheap, but feel a lot better having what I think is adequate coverage. 

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Oscar Guzman
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  • Space Coast, FL
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Oscar Guzman
Pro Member
  • Space Coast, FL
Replied May 19 2023, 17:37
Quote from @Samuel Boyd:

@Oscar Guzman Hey Oscar, I see your frustration with the insurance market in Florida. Honestly, it's a nightmare. We used a company called Proper for our short-term rental policy in Palm Bay. They provide a STR-based policy with up to $4M in liability, building replacement costs as well as contents and loss of business income. Super unique policy basically everything that we would have wanted. Only catch is that they no longer offer wind coverage in FL... If you have any more questions about it please message me!


I had heard of Proper through the STR bootcamp, but they specialize in STRs and they were not able to help my case, but like I said on the above post, I was able to find coverage for my situation thankfully! Thanks for sharing!

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