Insurance - Don't have any & not worried. Convince me I'm crazy.
I have 15 rental units and a primary residence in Frederick & Washington Counties, Maryland. Because they were acquired outright and my cash position has been continually strong since the time of the acquisitions I have not seen a pressing need for insurance. Because of my cash position I view insurance (for now) purely as a financial product to protect my investment principal.
The quotes that I've been getting come in around 2% of the total cash paid out for these properties. In the market where I'm most active I could acquire an additional 3-5 units every time five years elapsed without a claim, or fund claims from a premium savings account. This obviously wouldn't help me with a huge catastrophic loss but I haven't found anyone to sell me a product that only addresses that sort of thing.
The properties are in living trusts for estate planning and privacy purposes. Some insurance companies have had a problem with the trusts owning the properties. In a living trust I have all the rights of the deeded owner during my lifetime.
Please if you have ideas on how to make the insurance cost something reasonable in relation to the properties by seeking different types of coverages, know of catastrophic loss or other insurance products that might be a good fit for me, can provide a referral to an insurance broker local to me --- OR MOST OF ALL: can simply tell me why I'm dead wrong and WHY I should give up an additional 15 or so units over the next 20 years to have flagship insurance PLEASE reply to this thread and let's have a discussion.
In 20 years I will likely retire from my primary profession (not RE) and at that time when the rentals are my primary income I'll want a policy that insures my income. That makes sense to me, but the current options don't and I'm not a huge fan of handing out huge sums of money to insurance companies simply for the "peace of mind." If I pay out a big premium, I'm expecting to one day have a claim that brings me within 60-75% of the lifetime premiums I've paid out.