5 Ways to Instantly Lower Landlord Insurance Premiums

In the real estate market we're seeing higher interest rates than we've ever seen before, inflation is at an all-time high, and there are certain ways that we can save more money — and that is through our insurance premiums. Welcome back to Bigger Pockets. My name is Jesse Vasquez. I am a real estate investor in the Central Valley in California, specifically with medium-term rentals. Today we're going to be talking about five ways to instantly lower your landlord insurance premiums.

But before we get started, let's talk about Steadily.com. 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, apartments, buildings, and beyond. Steadily.com gives you the best coverage and helps you save serious time and money on your rental insurance. Visit Steadily.com today to get a commitment-free quote.

Number one: dare to increase your deductible. That is definitely a way that you can lower your insurance premium. Not many people know about this, but if you raise your deductible to a higher level, you will actually have a lower payment.

Number two: bundle up — and no, I don't mean with sweaters. I mean with insurance policies. Bundling home insurance policies such as your car insurance, life insurance, and all those specific things can help lower your premiums relatively quickly. Some insurance companies have different bundle options. For example, Steadily has discounts when you use them for multiple properties. Please make sure that you talk to a specialized insurance adjuster or insurance specialist to know exactly who and how you can be helped in that specific way.

Number three: Safety First, my friends. Install safety features like smoke detectors, burglar alarms, and deadbolt locks to reduce the risk of damage or loss in your home. Plus you'll feel super cool knowing that you're kind of like a spy or Batman having all these crazy features in your house. Those are things that you can do to lower premiums instantly in your properties.

Number four: pay like a boss — and what do I actually mean by that? Pay your insurance premiums annually instead of monthly to save some cash. You'll feel like a boss by having one less bill to pay every single month. This will actually significantly lower your insurance premiums pretty fast, especially if you talk to an agent to go over the details. You want to make sure that you're weighing out the monthly basis versus the yearly basis. In these current situations, I've been able to save quite a bit by paying a yearly premium as opposed to monthly, so that's definitely something you want to think about.

Number five: shop like a pro. Don't settle for the first insurance policy that you come across — you definitely want to shop around like a professional. When I say that, I mean actually reaching out to at least three different companies to get the rates that they have. When I reached out to Steadily.com, I have short-term rentals and midterm rentals, and they happened to be significantly lower than a lot of the other folks I was connecting with. Please make sure to reach out, connect with different agencies, and see who best suits you.

One of the most important things I would bring up is to make sure that you have a solid dialogue with the insurance specialist so that you know exactly the coverage you're going to get. When you're dealing with multiple different companies, you absolutely want to make sure the agent is able to give you a ton of information and that the coverages are all the same — because every company is going to have a different line of coverage.

I would recommend reaching out to Steadily.com. That's who helped me with a lot of my premiums, and I do believe they will help you with yours. When I reached out to many different providers, they just did not give me the information — they didn't break down the premiums with me, they didn't talk about deductibles and how that adjusted my rates significantly, and they didn't talk about the damage or potential coverage details. As I mentioned, I'm a short-term and midterm rental operator, and there were coverages that other companies didn't necessarily break down with me. I really urge everybody to pay attention to who you're talking to and make sure you're getting information that is up to date, especially as you're talking to multiple different companies. Reach out to Steadily.com for more information — the link will be in the description down below.

Thank you for watching this video and thanks to our friends at Steadily.com. Please make sure to like and subscribe to the Bigger Pockets page and hit the bell button to be notified for the next videos coming out. You can also follow me on Instagram at TheRealJesseVasquez or here on YouTube at TheRealJessieVasquez AirVenture. I look forward to seeing you guys in the next video.