Baltimore Real Estate Investing Blog

Earlier I spoke about getting insurance for a vacant house I bought at auction. It’s important to understand that most typical landlord policies will not cover a vacant house.  Most landlord policies assume the property is livable and someone is in it.  Most will not cover a property that has been vacant over 30 days.

If you are renovating a property you will typically need what is called Builder Risk insurance. This is substantially more expensive than traditional insurance. For a building that might cost $600 a year, builders risk could cost $1500 for 6 months. This should be budgeted into your construction costs. You lender may require it. In Baltimore I have used Chris Scarlett (410) 727-2211, from HU Dove for my Builders Risk. He was easy to deal with and set me up over the phone. Keep in mind builders risk covers the property from damage. It does not cover liability of someone getting hurt on the property. So make sure you get liability coverage also.

Builders risk assumes that you are actively working on the property. If you are not, your property may not be covered.  So what do you do if you have a property that will be vacant for a long time? I recently started to use APIA, inc. They specialize in insurance for bank owned homes and will insure vacant property. Their website is :

 http://www.reoins.com/

Happy rehabbing,

Ned