I have 2 single family properties under contract effective 9/1 from the sellers. I will be doing sandwich lease purchases with them. I’m using the month of August to advertise for tenant/buyers. What kind of insurance do I really need? My business operates as a LLC, but I don’t have any kind of business insurance. I talked to an insurance agent who said that I need a business policy, and that I need to have separate non-owner occupied policies for each of the properties under contract. An insurance agent quoted me $800 on one and $900 on the other (replacement value even though I don’t own them, $1000 deductable, and $500,000 liability). However, the property owners already have homeowner policies (non-owner occupied). Is this agent just trying to sell a lot of insurance? or do I really need all of that? or just some of that?
I’d appreciate any and all input.
You need to make sure that the homeowner is properly covered AND that that coverage is properly paid up. The homeowner now needs a landlord’s type policy to cover the property. If he is still covering it with the original homeowner’s policy, that may not pay if something happens and they find out that it’s now a rental.
I’d also recommend that you give a written suggestion (usually with the lease), or require that your tenants have a tenants policy in place as well. This insures their personal belongings should something happen. Personally, I require also that my tenants have a liability policy for at least $300,000.
As far as business insurance, you need to get you or your business a general liability policy. I prefer a minimum of $1 million in coverage.
Raj