I believe I have told you, some time in the past, that I am trying to sell my home. Just as F and I decided not to go down that road that would wipe out my credit score, thankfully, we got an offer to rent. We jumped on it. The Tenant has moved in. He was very anxious to move in. He called and had all the utilities switched over before we even signed the papers. I was a tad concerned about him, not someone I would most likely rent my adorable little house to(he wanted to re-paint the front door BLACK, who paints their door black???), but we need the money. So it's rented. Before we signed the papers I called AAA to change the policy to reflect that it's now a rental property. "We don't do that." Huh??? AAA doesn't do rental property policies? I was dumbfounded. I called F right away. He did not share my shock. "Start calling around then." Um, ok, that's no help. So I Googled. Then I called. If I don't have to talk to people on the phone, that's what I prefer. I'm one of those people that looses all train of thought on the phone. You'd never know I was college educated. Anyway, so far, I've had 2 places tell me "YEAH SURE NO PROBLEM!" and 2 places tell me they'll only insure the secondary property(the rental) if they already hold the insurance on the primary property. And the car. And my first born. Ok, maybe not that last part, but you get the idea. Are rental properties that much of a risk that nobody really wants to insure them? I just find it very odd. And several places don't get what I want (see above) they think I'm the renter and I want renter's insurance. It's very frustrating. I want my little home properly insured. Can I tell you how amazingly hard it was to see someone else's stuff in my house? On my deck? In the garage? He wanted to rip all my flowers out too. Oh holy goodness. I realize it was amazingly over grown, but really, there are all kinds of flowers in there! F thinks I'm a freak because I want to drive by and see what he did to the yard.
Anyway, my insurance hunt continues. If any of you have any experience on this, let me know.
And tell me how a good Land Lady acts, because seriously, I wanted to clean all his stuff, it was kinda dirty.
And cheap looking.
4 comments:
Hahaha that's funny. I often wonder what the lady who I rent my house from thinks about me. I'm too scared to change anything!
Contact an Allstate agent and ask for a quote on a Landlord Package Policy.
I'm an insurance agent, but only licensed in MN, so what I tell you may not be the same where you are. Typically companies don't like to insure rental properties because there is a higher risk of damage, or of damage that isn't caught right away because a renter doesn't care as much about it, and so it gets worse before the owner realizes it and then is harder and more costly to repair. I think that's probably the main concern. And it's pretty typical for a company to ask to insure the primary dwelling if they are going to carry the rental dwelling because insurance for a primary dwelling is a bit more premium (usually), and so it helps offset the chance that they will pay out more in claims than they take in in premium. Plus it's easier to extend your liability coverage to the rental from your primary dwelling, rather than have 2 policies covering your liability at different locations. (That's the coverage for if someone gets hurt on your property and you were determined to be negligent, or if you damage someone else's property accidentally...like hitting a golf ball and it cracks someone's window or something).
Have you contacted whatever company currently writes F's homeowners insurance? Or is that AAA too?
My recomendation would be to call an independent agent if F's homeowners company won't do both. Mostly because independent agents have access to a lot of different companies and so you only need to talk to the one agent and they can probably get a couple quotes for you. Good luck! Hopefully at least some of this makes sense!
Hey guess what? We have a rental property. That is insured through AAA. What the hell? Is it state specific or something? I don't get it. But Yay on renting your house! I think that is a very good idea, considering the real estate market is so bad right now. Let the guy rent for a while and then you can sell in a few years when the property values start going back up again. Rentals are such a great investment right now.
I'm totally behind on my blog reading. Can you tell? I have been so busy. And I have been reading again! Books!! Real books! Oh I love the smell of books. That's the bad thing about blogs. Most of them don't have a smell. But then there are some.... :)
Have a BEAUTIFUL three day weekend!!
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