I just went through an uncomfortable process of having an insurance company drop me because they do not ‘write’ in the county my park is located in. I have been using one of the big insurance firms, and they found me a policy at the last minute, $4,500 for a 60 space park in south texas. Ouch.While they were looking I contacted a insurance agent who is located in the local market and guess what- $950. Second park just came up- almost $6,000 for a 40 pad park in Colorado. Contacted a local player- they just came in at $2,200… Needless to say- my advise is to shop around. Not every agent uses the same underwriters, and it seems they just auto renew you every year and do not even shop your park to other underwriters. I know we all have certain professionals we use… but if making a few calls and filling out a quick application makes you, ok, lets just use me… this year I will save (make) $7,000 on 2 of my parks… I am not sure where the rates will come in on my other 3 parks but guess what- I will be making a few calls when they come due… Lets CAP that $7,000 at say 11- about $63,000 of ‘value’ in those 2 policy’s… shoot- I’m eating steak tonight not burgers…
Interesting. I just had my insurance renew. paid the down payment and the first couple of payments, then they sent someone to survey my propertiesThat’s when they gave me 30 days notice that they were dropping me due to "increased exposure"My agent told me that meant they were not satisfied with the conditions of my properties. My properties are not in bad condition and have a 60/40 mixture of newer and older homes. Nothing has changed so far as I can see…in fact one park inspection just had a couple of minor recommendations, and the other had a list of strange recommendations such as removing all the hitches from the homes or else building some sort of protection around them. In 50 years in this business I have never heard that. And they wrote up every mobile home step railing that had the railings that were sold up until about a year ago,the ones that have the aluminum railings with the heart like design?. Said that all those railings had to be replaced…but they didn’t mention that for the other property that has more units, more hitches and more of those railings. Strangeare insurance companies just not wanting to write policies for parks?I’m in the process of getting individual quotes for each park.
In operating your business you need to do it smart. You need to surround yourself with professionals of all kinds to make your business as successful as possible.Shopping for insurance is something that should be turned over to a professional. They have ten times the resources a individual has. Go to a insurance broker and have them shop the entire market place for you rather than you going out on a hit and miss approach.My opinion is hire profesionals that do it for a living and stick to operating your own business.