Insurance price Jumped for 9th Property???

[Corey Schaecher]

So we are adding two 4-family buildings to our St. Louis portfolio. Originally the insurance quote was about $1,200 each building. And then the agent came back and said that because we have more than 9 units total, they have to insure them differently and the price to insure the same building jumped to $3,400 each.

Does anyone have experience with this? What’s the rationale and is there a way to avoid this? These units are owned by their own LLCs, but that still doesn’t matter because there are more than 9 units associated with the members of the LLCs (according to the agent).

Any insight here is much appreciated.