How to Shop for Florida Homeowner Insurance

How to Shop for Florida Homeowner Insurance


Florida is one of the most popular places in our country to live. From the great weather to the numerous attractions to the amazing tax code, in all honesty – who would not want to live in Florida? If you have recently moved to Florida, then chances are that you have yet to invest in a suitable homeowner insurance policy, something that you may have been putting off. After all, who really wants to pay for insurance that they will probably never use? However, it is a different situation in Florida because of one major factor. Hurricanes. Each and every year, hurricanes roll thorough most of Florida, and if your home is not protected by Florida homeowner insurance, you stand to lose all of your valuables in an instant.

When looking for Florida homeowner insurance, there are a few things that you really need to keep in mind. For the most part, homeowner insurance will cover just about everything in your home, but you want to be absolutely sure. Therefore, you should consider investing in a policy that will protect not only your house, but your belongings inside as well. Although your house is probably worth more than your valuables inside, you want to be sure that the insurance company will pay for it all in the event of a catastrophic disaster.

Also, if a hurricane were to come along and damage your home, chances are that it would do so primarily with powerful winds. Most houses are destroyed during a hurricane by winds. However, hurricanes also bring downpours of rain and the possibility of flood. Most home insurance policies do not cover anything if water is involved, so be sure that you invest in a separate policy that deals specifically with flood damage or other types of water damage – because rest assured that if even a few items in your home are wet, your primary Florida homeowner insurance company will claim that water was responsible and you will not be paid a dime for your home or your belongings.


Mayoor Patel is the writer for the website http://www.home-insurance.wares-are.us/. Please visit for information on all things concerned with Florida Homeowner Insurance

Save 30% on Your Florida Home Insurance Premiums

Save 30% on Your Florida Home Insurance Premiums


There are several factors which contribute to the necessity for a mobile Florida homeowners insurance. Most do not want to pay high monthly premiums for their insurance but a lot of people are just doing that. Here are some tips on how you can get an insurance that suits your budget:

Set up an auto debit from your bank account to pay your monthly Florida homeowners insurance premium. This may save you a few dollars or so. Insurance companies need not mail you your monthly bill and spend for business postage. They will be saving money and reasonably enough will return the favor to you through lower monthly premiums.

Improve the security of your home. It will be best if you can install anti burglary devices like motion sensor and floodlights. Quality locks guarding your doors and windows will also mean lower risk to property thereby lower Florida homeowners insurance rates.

Increase your monthly deductible so you can have lower monthly premiums and save a lot of money in the long run.

You may also want to consider buying your policy from an online broker. The insurance company that owns the website will have almost all the information that you need to know. Normally they also have a help desk to handle your inquiries. Online insurance companies has lower operating costs giving them the buffer to charge for lower insurance premiums.

Knowing how you can save around 30% on your monthly Florida homeowners insurance premium is not enough. As a home owner you want to know what your mobile home is covered for. Here are some of them:

Emergency Removal - this will pay for transferring your mobile home to another location to avoid threats like fire, hurricane, floods, and other dangers.

Trip Collision- your insurance company will take care of the repair costs when damaged during transit to another location.

Liability Coverage- this will take care of medical expenses, property damage, or other obligations you may have to other individuals who will be injured due to your actions.

Personal Property- this will be the premium to take care of lost belongings like clothes, gadgets, tools etc. Insurance companies usually set a cap ceiling for expensive valuables like jewelry or art work.

Additional Living Expenses- this can take care of the hotel and restaurant bills when you are temporarily displaced due to inhabitable mobile home.

Structure Coverage- this is the most important part of the insurance policy which covers repairs for your mobile home, any attachment to it or any detached structure like a garage. Flood damage is not covered.

Florida homeowners insurance rates maybe going up but it is an investment worth spending for. All you have to do is have the basic know how of the Florida insurance market.


To get the best homeowner insurance quote possible or to find out how much you could be saving on your current policy, please go to: http://www.bestfreeinsurancequotesonline.com

Florida Homeowners Insurance - Soon or Else it Will be Too Late

Florida Homeowners Insurance - Soon or Else it Will be Too Late


If you are living in an area like Florida where floods, hurricanes or tornados invade frequently, you have to prepare yourself to face the challenges. Life would be devastatingly tough if you are not prepared.

It is sure you cannot fight the forces of nature but you can protect yourself from economic devastation with homeowners insurance. Homeowners insurance can be a blessing during natural calamities or in time of need.

Here are some tips to buy an affordable homeowners insurance in the Florida State:

Make a search: To find a reputed and affordable Florida homeowners insurance, you should shop around. You are recommended to contact all local brokers or insurance agents to know the different home insurance policies provided by them. Today, many home insurance companies have their own websites; you can browse the net and request for home insurance quote. After collecting the entire information make a comparative study to get the best deal. If you are not sure of the policies you can take help of a reliable agent.

Only home insurance comparison is not enough, you should perform a home insurance rate comparison as well. However, home insurance rates do not differ a lot but some companies do provide discounts. You can get a cheaper home insurance by using these discounts. Some home insurance companies offer discounts to senior citizens. If your age is more than 62 years then you can avail the discount offer. These discounts help you to save 10-15% per year.

Installing your home with modern equipments like burglar alarms, deck-bolt locks, home video camera, fire alarms, carbon monoxide detector and smoke detector can also fetch you a discount.

But do not over bargain homeowners insurance. Always remember that you are living in an area, which is prone to hurricane. Therefore always keep an eye on the various coverage offered by your local home insurance agents.


We have made the most comprehensive research on home insurance. Check it out on the Homeowners insurance Florida and major US states website. All about homeowners insurance on http://www.leandernet.com.

Florida Homeowner Insurance Problems Impact Real Estate

Florida Homeowner Insurance Problems Impact Real Estate


Buckle your seat belts folks the Florida Real Estate market is about to take another hit. Many of my colleagues are and as expected eternally optimistic about the Florida Market but as a consultant we must be more objective.

We base our theory on the following premise; property values all depend on “Rents”. Whether we are talking about commercial or residential property the true value of property goes back to RENT. How much on an open and free market will the property bring in rent.

All appraisers are mandated to use three methods in establishing a value of Real Estate, The Comparison sales method, The Depreciation approach and finally income capitalization approach. After doing all three methods the appraisers must “reconcile” the three calculations to establish the value.

Most all of us know the Comparison method, this is what a real estate professional will do to establish a listing value for your property. So if my neighbor’s house, which is identical to mine, sold for $250,000 then mine MUST be worth at least that.

Well, maybe!

Private home sales are driven by a lot more than just price, emotion, the neighborhood, the amenities offered by the area, location to malls, transportation just to name a few but, how much can any home command for rent really is the true test.

What if you get transferred and cannot find a buyer how much can you get in rent?

Rent will drive value. Using the “Income Capitalization” method of appraisal the value is based on the following

How much can the property bring in rents (PGI= Potential Gross Income) Say If you had to rent your home it would bring $1,500 per month Subtract any vacancy or collection losses. Ok so you had a good year the property rented immediately and none of your tenants checks bounced now you have an EGI (effect Gross Income) of $18,000 per year. But you need to subtract your taxes, insurance and other operating expenses Note your mortgage payment is not a factor in this calculation your result is your NOI , Net operating income Ok lets say your taxes are $2,500 and your insurance is $1,200 with a few other miscellaneous expense of $500, your NOI now is $13,800.

Take this number and divide it by the current cap rate. The current capitalization rate is established by evaluating other investments, currently it is about 8%. Take your NOI and divide it by the Cap Rate. 13800/. 08 = $172,500

The value of the property based on Income Cap is $172,500. The problem you paid $250,000. OK in order to cover your mortgage you only need about $1,000 a month you may be able to survive.

Value Drivers

The two factors that drive value are NOI, Net operating income and interest rates. First let’s look at interest. Interest rates run converse to value. Using the NOI of the above let’s see what happens if interest rates climb to 10.5%. 13800/. 105 = $131,428. The property has not changed, the neighborhood has not changed only interest rate and we see a drop in $41,000 + of value.

The next factor is yet more devastating since the impact is noticeable to the owner immediately that is the loss in NOI. Again let’s look at the property value a home now held for rent. You paid $250,000 what is now the value? The neighborhood is great and you have found a person to take a 3 year “Gross lease” at $2,000 per month, assuming the above no collection losses our EGI is $24,000 per year. Now lets take a look at our operating expense. Ok $3,000 for taxes (opps you lost your homestead exemption you had when you were living there) and $1,200 for insurance + $500 for miscellaneous :

PGI $24,000

No Collection losses


EGI $24,000

Less:

Tax 3,000

Insurance 1,500

Misc 500


NOI $19,000 / Cap rate 8%

19000/.08 = $237,500

But you say, “Hey I don’t care, because I was able to put down 10% it looks like I am ahead of the game because my mortgage is only $ 1,496.93 a Month. (30 Years for an Interest Rate of 7.000 % on a Loan Amount of $ 225,000.00) “ With $5000 in other expenses you are at $1913.59 per month and YOU ARE in the black about $86 per month and with your depreciation of about $4,900 per year all is well.

All is well but it is Florida and you receive a noticed from your insurance carrier you are being cancelled your new insurance now is $6,000 per year and the taxes have risen to $3,800 and where are you now?

Mortgage $1,496.93

Insurance 500.00

Taxes 316.00

Misc. 50.00


Out going $2,362.00

In the red $362 per month or $4344 per year

With your depreciation you are just about even.

But your property value?

Insurance now drives values.

Like it or not the insurance Market in Florida has a devastating effect on the value of property? Except for depreciation there is no real reason to make an investment leap in The Florida property market.

I wish I could say relief is in sight but I can’t. The biggest property insurer, “Citizens Property Insurance”, operated by the state of Florida is about $2,700,000,000 (that is 2.7 BILLION) in the red right now. In this light I can only see increases in insurance rates.

What to do?

We are all impacted some of us more than others. The above illustration is not a made up case rather a real example of a property in my neighborhood that I was interested in but was purchased, fortunately for me, by someone else.

Remember this too shall pass and we will have a robust real estate market again but in the mean time

Investors :

· Invest in vacation properties. – although the increase of $300 per month may preclude someone from renting a property in a long term lease, increases in taxes and insurance can be included in weekly vacation rates. A vacationer will just pay an extra $80 per week and not think much of it.

· Lock in mortgage rates – those of you riding the adjustable rate, stop now.

· If possible buy down your mortgage – give yourself a buffer

· If you have significant equity in the property try to get a credit line against it. _ Don’t use it just hold it for an emergency.

· Do not insure personal property at all. This does not work for Condo rentals since the Loss of RENTS, which you dearly need, is tied to your contents. If this is the case DO NOT take replacement cost valuation this will save you a few dollars.

· Max out your property deductibles – a 10% wind deductible may sound like a lot but will save you money . Remember uncovered casualty losses can be deductible.

· Look at lesser forms, folks I can not believe I am suggesting this but Instead of the best landlord policy (known as the DP3) look at the DP2. If the property is newer 1 – 7 years look at the DP 1 (actual cash value adjustments)

· If you are going to acquire property in Florida , go north and center state – buy where that is no one now, trust us you will not be lonely for long.

Real Estate Professionals :

· Don’t despair – Learn who to sell Foreclosed property


· Learn to sell investment properties


· Turn your focus north and center


· Market Vacation properties


I wish I could close with a definite time things would turn around but I will say Florida is Florida and it is desirable our market will turn around.


Christopher Kazor, CIC, is the founder of Florida home insurance and http://www.nusurance.com/auto_insurance_home_insurance.php

agency, Nusurance Corp. Christopher Kazor has been in the insurance and real estate business for over 30 years and was recently featured in Independent Agent Magazine. To learn more visit http://www.nusurance.com

Help On The Way for Floridas Insurance Crisis

Help On The Way for Florida's Insurance Crisis


Over the past few years rising homeowner’s insurance costs in Florida have been showing up in people’s mailboxes and frustrating many homeowners into unsuccessfully seeking lower premiums. Further, rising insurance costs have helped put a damper on the real estate market in Florida also. Worse yet some people are seriously thinking of selling their homes and moving back to the cold snowy north because they say they can’t afford the high premiums.

The state created insurer, Cititzens Property Insurance Corporation, has been the best option for homeowners who found themselves in need of a new policy. Citizens, considered the insurer of last resort, by law charges more than private insurers but has picked up hundreds of thousands of new policies becoming the second largest and soon to be the largest insurer in the state. But due to high hurricane claims in 2005, Citizens was seriously in the red. The Legislature bailed them out but some homeowners are being forced to pick up the difference through assessments to their policies. Additionally, the Legislature has responded by setting aside roughly $250 million in grants and rebates to help property homeowners fortify their homes.

Recently, even better news is on the home front. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the “Government Sponsored Enterprises” created by Congress to provide funding to mortgage lenders have made changes to the insurance requirements that many say will help lower premiums. These GSE’s are now allowing much higher deductibles which will in turn lower the premiums. Historically, they did not allow a deductible to be higher than $1000. But now in many cases they are allowing deductibles as high as $5000 depending on the value of the property.

Also, forecasters have downgraded their initial position of an active 2006 hurricane season for Florida and the Gulf Coast. This can only be good news for homeowners and their insurance rates. Last season was really unusual being the most active season on record. For example between 1995 and 2005, the hurricane season in the Atlantic only averaged eight hurricanes.


Bob Lipply is a top Real Estate Broker Associate in the Tampa Florida Real Estate area.
He and his team have been helping families relocate to Florida and on the selling end get top dollar for their homes with great success. Lipply Real Estate also specializes in Clearwater Real Estate visit his website where you can search the MLS for up to date available homes for sale.

Floridas New Insurance Bill

Florida's New Insurance Bill


In January of 2007 Florida passed a new insurance bill hoping to lower property insurance costs. Although this bill lowers insurance costs for Florida residents, if a catastrophic hurricane hit, it could cost the state billions of dollars just to recover.

The bill was passed to cut the enormous increase in cost of home insurance for people in Florida since 2004 and 2005 after suffering from the damaging hurricanes they have had, especially those who live on the shorelines. Many have experienced, not just double the cost, but some have even seen triple the cost of home insurance.

Although this bill will provide a large number of home owners some relief, how much relief still remains unanswered. It is estimated that anywhere from 5 percent for many inland customers to 20 percent for others will benefit from the bill, particularly those on the shore. However, it has not yet been determined when residents will start seeing a savings from this bill.

With this bill now in place, private insurance companies have more state backup insurance, which in turn will lower the rates for consumers. The state will now be taking the majority of the responsibility to pay out the Hurricane Catastrophe Fund in the event of a damaging storm; in effect the insurer’s risk is greatly reduced. This ultimately means there is no need for insurance companies to raise rates on consumers.

Since the backup coverage for insurance companies will now be cheaper than the private reinsurance that the majority of companies purchase, it instantly cuts one of their largest costs, which is ultimately passed on to consumers.

Consumers are also able to change their coverage under this bill. However if homeowners still owe a mortgage on their home there’s a very strong possibility that many of the changes won’t be available to them since mortgage lenders usually have requirements for home coverage.

Yet, how many people are comfortable with this bill? According to a recent poll done by Quinnipiac University from January 29th, 2007 through February 4th, 2007, it seemingly appears that a majority approves of this bill. Sixty-two percent of the Florida population approves of this new bill, while 14% disapprove and 24% have no opinion either way.

All in all, this bill was designed to keep money in the pockets of Florida residents instead of in the pockets of insurance agencies. Over the next year, we’ll be able to see if this bill is really a Florida resident’s dream come true or a political blunder that will cost taxpayers money.


Calum and Kathy MacKenzie are experienced and professional Tampa, Florida real estate agents who specialize in helping families relocate to the Tampa area. They've lived and worked in New Tampa for eleven years, and their extensive knowledge of New Tampa real estate can help make relocation easy.

Mandating Florida Hurricane Insurance, Additional Property Tax For Homeowners - Are You Eligible?

Mandating Florida Hurricane Insurance, Additional Property Tax For Homeowners - Are You Eligible?


An initiative on the Florida, 2008 general election ballot is a bill to make hurricane insurance as a local property taxing authority at market value. To me this seems very dangerous because it basically passes on to every homeowner, whether they want it or not, additional insurance costs related to hurricane prevention.

Most of us don't have million dollar homes on the beach, so why do we all suddenly need hurricane insurance other than to make insurance companies wealthy or cover their potential losses. Remember insurance companies soak homeowners with premiums, which are precisely to pad their coffers so when the odd disaster occurs they can cover us. Why than do we need to provide more corporate welfare to insurance companies by way of this mandatory hurricane insurance initiative? It just doesn't seem right.

My initial thought was somehow the rich living along the coast would gain from all state homeowners bearing the burden of hurricane insurance. It certainly would be desirable for beach homeowners to pass on some of the hurricane insurance burden to others across the state of Florida. Yet upon further investigation I discovered that this bill has a huge exception in Coastal Barrier Resource Areas making such properties therein "ineligible" of any such hurricane insurance.

That being said it kind of reveals the true motive of the initiative. It obviously isn't interested in seeing that all property owners are insured in the event of a hurricane because coastal area homeowners are ineligible. So basically the hurricane insurance bill is a clever way for insurance companies to purport to care for homeowners and be looking out for us, when nothing is farther from the truth. What this bill does is make clients of all homeowners and collect fees for hurricane insurance from those in the least hazardous areas.

The problem is with this being a "market value" annual assessment, we can expect with a pro-inflation national government that the fees for hurricane insurance will keep going up and never stop. Ironically the initiative proposes that the hurricane insurance assessment to be imposed upon homeowners across the state be a "market value," while at the same time they are removing the freedom of choice for consumers from the market. Suppose a homeowner in an area of Florida where a hurricane has never before hit doesn't want to pay for this insurance? If this bill is passed refusal is not option because like it or not we all pay.

I think homeowners ought to be able to choose whether or not they want to pay for hurricane insurance rather than the state making it mandatory. The poor might prefer to feed their children rather than pay additional property taxes for hurricane insurance.

Of course I can hear the rebuttals as to protecting Florida residents most valuable asset - their homes. Yet shouldn't we the people be thought intelligent enough to care for our own property and insurances without governmental intervention? I am always skeptical when suddenly the government claims to be looking out for me. Particularly when those who stand to benefit most are the insurance companies who simultaneously are denying any coverage to homeowners in coastal areas.

Insurance is good in and of itself. Having to pay additional property tax however to get hurricane coverage is not and should be optional not mandatory. Keep the government out of homeowners pockets and vote no on the hurricane insurance initiative.


Paul Davis is Central Florida's favorite and most reputable property appraiser frequently called upon by banks, homeowners, and savvy real estate investors to assess property values. Mid-State Appraisals is FHA approved. A builder for over twenty years and also a real estate broker, Paul Davis brings a wealth of knowledge to the table as an appraiser.

Paul's company Midstate Appraisals is FHA approved and serves Central Florida (Lake, Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Sumter and Davenport in Polk counties).

Contact Paul Davis and Midstate Appraisals for your next appraisal:

Office: 352-242-9973

Cell: 352-636-6672

Fax: 352-242-4912

midstateappraisals@earthlink.net

http://www.midstateappraisals.org