5 Landlord Insurance Tips to Help you Avoid Distaster

Picture this: you just saved up so much money to get your first investment property. You spent the last three weeks finding the perfect tenants. This is supposed to be the beginning of your real estate career, and literally three weeks later you receive that dreaded phone call and it's all crashing down. There's one thing that we all use on a regular basis that could have your dreams up in smoke. We're going to be talking about home insurance tips to help you avoid potential disaster.

What's up, BiggerPockets channel. My name is Jesse Vasquez. I am a real estate investor, an entrepreneur, a YouTuber, and I've been investing in real estate for quite some time now. Today I'm going to be talking about home insurance tips to help you avoid disaster — one in specific that actually happened to my property. I think you all should be aware about it because I didn't even know this is something that could potentially cause a disaster or a home fire.

But before I get into that — why is it so hard to protect your properties? Traditional insurance companies make it painful to get a policy with long lead times and lengthy paper forms. Landlords deserve better. With steadily.com you can get next-day, affordable landlord insurance in literally just a few clicks — from single family homes to short-term rentals, apartment buildings and beyond. Steadily gets you the best rates on the market. Save serious time and money on your rental property insurance. Visit steadily.com to get a commitment-free quote today.

I'm inspired to share this information with you because even though I'm an experienced investor, I was living in a ticking time bomb. It was because of an appliance that we all literally use on a regular basis. Yes, this is a serious story — it was a dryer. It was literally a dryer that put me in a situation where I could have potentially had a fire.

Just like many of you probably purchased your first property with all the money you had, a chunk of my savings account went into that property. I purchased it, put a lot of money into it, and had to buy appliances from different places. It happened to be a yard sale where I picked up one of those beautiful mint green 1970s washer and dryers. Let me tell you, those things work fabulously — they are literally the best washer and dryer machines. Six months after having that specific washer and dryer, I decided to upgrade, and if I didn't upgrade I would have actually put myself in a really bad situation.

The new dryer I picked up has these new sensors, and those sensors actually tell you if you have a blockage — and that's what happened. It wouldn't run for more than five minutes at a time; it would shut off. I called a technician to come out and he ended up looking at the dryer vent, something I had no idea could potentially be blocked. I had a 99% blockage in that exhaust vent. I had no idea that these things needed to be cleaned on a regular basis. The appliance tech told me I literally could have dealt with a fire — I was this close. If it wasn't for that new appliance, I would have put myself in a really bad situation.

The National Fire Protection Agency reports that dryers and washing machines cause an average of 15,970 fires each year, with dryers being 92% of the fires that actually occur, and an average of over 200 million dollars in property damage. That is freaking crazy. So if you have a dryer, please make sure that you clean your vents at least once a year.

Let's go over a few often-overlooked maintenance and homeowners insurance tips that can help save you from a disaster. If you start to notice your clothes take longer to dry, that could be a telltale sign that something is wrong with your dryer. Before you do the next load, check the plug vent and clean any lint out of the lint trap — I never did that either, so it's definitely something you want to do on a regular basis. Please make sure to place a smoke detector above the dryer, clean your entire duct system at least once a year, clean any lint filter after every load, and do not overload your dryer. That's a lot of wear and tear and a lot of energy used in the dryer.

If your water heater is more than 10 years old, you definitely want to get that inspected each year and consider replacing it. Water heater failure can lead to a huge flood, explosion, or even carbon monoxide poisoning. Not replacing a water heater can cause a ton of damage, so you most definitely want to make sure your water heater is tuned up regularly.

Next up is HVAC. We need to make sure that we get these serviced on a regular basis. I didn't specifically know that until I ran into HVAC issues and a technician came out and said, "Hey man, you really have to make sure that you're having maintenance done on these regularly." Please be sure to check your drain pan lines to make sure they're functioning properly to avoid overflow damage. Faulty HVAC systems can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning if not properly maintained, so we want to make sure that our tenants are safe and secure, as well as our families if these are personal properties.

Another tip: if you have a wood-burning stove and you use it during the winter, please make sure to get that cleaned annually. This is another often-overlooked step that a lot of homeowners or landlords will forget to do, especially if people are using those on a regular basis. It doesn't cost too much to have somebody come sweep those chimneys, so make sure you are taking care of your chimney. Again, we're taking care of our families and the tenants we have in our properties, and all these little tips can help save us thousands of dollars in the long run.

Another important factor — and this happened to me — I purchased a property not too long ago and we didn't get any tree maintenance. There were actually trees on top of the property. Here in California we had literally the craziest weather we've seen in many years. Tree limbs broke and fell on the roof and that caused a huge problem. We actually started to have leaks in the roof because of those trees that fell. They also clogged up a lot of the drains on the property. You definitely want to make sure that you're paying attention to any trees that are hanging above the property.

Another thing to note: if you have trees that hang very close to the property, that's another way for rodents to get into the property. Our entire goal is to make sure that you are keeping your tenants safe and your family safe. Rodents could definitely get into your property, climb up, get into the home, and that is not a fun situation to be in. I have a lot of stories on that for another day.

According to the National Fire Protection Agency, every 93 seconds there is a fire somewhere in the United States. We definitely want to make sure that we're taking care of all these little maintenance tips that can help us save thousands of dollars over the long run.

Thank you all for watching. I really appreciate it. Thanks to our friends over at steadily.com — make sure to head on over to their website at steadily.com to get a commitment-free quote today. Be sure to like and subscribe to the BiggerPockets channel to be the first to be notified about new releases, and give me a follow on Instagram or YouTube at The Real Jesse Vasquez. Have a wonderful day and take care, everybody.