I Got A Warning From An Insurance Agent (Attention Home Owners)

Hey everyone, I hope you're well. I have received so many sweet messages from many of you wishing me well, wishing us well actually on the journey of leaving Texas and getting to our new home state. I appreciate you so much. Every kind word, all the sweet things that everybody said, it really warmed my heart and I just want to tell you thank you so much because it really does mean a lot to me. We are here. We're safe. We're currently staying in a temporary stay in an Airbnb and we are enjoying where we are and just kind of getting settled in. But I wanted to talk today about some information that I just came across. It's not new information for me, but I was really surprised at what this individual told me and this pertains for those of us that are homeowners or if you are aspiring to be a homeowner any point now in the future. We have basically left Texas and we moved to a new state and I've been shopping around for home insurance now home insurance. I'm sure many of you have it if you are a homeowner and I'm sure you know that prices have been going up. Premiums have been increasing. There's been a lot of talk about premiums continuing to go up due to what's going on with the climate or just for whatever other reason like insurance companies going bankrupt and things like that. So none of this is necessarily a surprise to me, but again, I was talking to an insurance agent and this gentleman, I'm not going to state the name of the company that he worked for, but I will say that it's one of the major, major, major insurance companies. So I mean, there's a handful of them. It's one of those. And I was talking to him on the phone. I talked to several companies since arriving and talking to him about, you know, getting a quote for a new home that we purchased. So this gentleman, he's, you know, kind of going through the whole application process. And it's funny because he was a little bit of a chatter and he just starts kind of talking about different things. And he told me some, some things that were a little bit surprising to me. So he did mention that there have been some storms, you know, throughout the past year, this year in particular, in 2024, there was an active storm season as again, I'm sure you all have known and just throughout the country, really. But because of these storms that a lot more insurance companies have gone bankrupt and even certain insurance companies that are major carriers right now, they've had a lot of their locations closed down because they just can't afford it anymore. And I've heard of insurance companies going bankrupt and a lot of the larger companies just kind of swallowing up the smaller companies. But it's something that you hear a lot about, but it's different when you have somebody from the inside also telling you. And this gentleman was telling me that, yes, a lot of companies have gone bankrupt and they're really struggling right now. He said that just this past year alone in one particular storm or one particular season, I'm not sure which one it is, but they, this, this company that I was speaking with, they had to pay over $300 million in, in claims and that basically they're kind of really hurting from that. So that's a reason why we're going to see premiums going up and premiums are going up all over the country. That's the thing too. It's not just Florida or Texas or Louisiana or just, you know, maybe California because of the wildfires, but it's not just the states that we think are probably going to be going up. Other states are going up as well. States like Maine, for example, it's like what kind of natural disasters hit Maine? They don't really, they just don't. It's actually, I think one of the top or the top safest state from natural disasters, according to certain websites online, but even there, the premiums are going up and some states premiums are going up as far as 50%, which is a great deal. And that's just this coming year. What about the next year and the year after that? So then as he's going through the application, he is asking me a series of questions about the home and he, you know, is doing his research on there and the gentleman says, Oh, okay, great. I see that you do qualify for insurance. So immediately my, my mind just said, Oh, you know, why, why do you say that? I have my assumptions, but why do you say that, sir? And he replied with the fact that because it hasn't had a claim before. So now this particular company is denying, potentially denying insurance if there is a previous claim. Now we know that insurance companies do not have to insure a residence. You know, there is a series of questions that they have to ask and there's guidelines that, you know, basically the property needs to fall within the parameters of, but the thing is, usually if you've had a claim on a house, it doesn't, it previously did not mean necessarily that you would not qualify for insurance. But this gentleman was saying that in this case now it is, and I can't say that if it's a minor claim that they would deny the insurance, but I believe if it was a significant claim and maybe even just a claim, that's not that bad, but they do have that right. They do retain that right. And you know, this is really an issue because, you know, if you are a homeowner and let's say that you do have a mortgage on the property, a lot of people have mortgages on their properties. Then the mortgage company is going to require that you have insurance, right? Because they want to, you know, protect their investment. So that's the thing. And how are people going to be, you know, again, how are people going to be qualifying for insurance if the home is not insurable according to a certain insurance companies? You may have to keep shopping around, but I know there's a lot of states where major companies are dropping individuals and now it's even getting harder just to even get insurance. So thankfully we were able to secure insurance for our property. But you know, it does raise the question that there may come a time that either a home is not going to be able to be insured or what if you can't afford the premiums? I know that, for example, in Florida, the premiums have gone up so much. And again, the premiums are also going to depend on the cost of the house because typically your premium is going to be a percentage of what they deem to be the replacement cost of the dwelling. So if your replacement costs, if they deem the replacement cost of the dwelling to be 1% and the house is $250,000, then that's your premium is going to be based off of that. But if your house costs more than that, then your premiums are only going to go up. And then other states have a higher percentage of the premiums. So again, places in Florida, I mean, I know I personally know of people that are paying close to $9,000 a year just for home insurance. And that $9,000 that you're paying a year, it doesn't mean that if something happens, if you do file a claim, that you're also not going to have to pay necessarily a high deductible. And even if you pay that deductible, it doesn't mean that they're going to cover 100% of the cost of whatever it is that happened. So they may only still pay a percentage of the cost of whatever it is the need is. So it's a really important thing to keep in mind and to take into account because again, this is a really big deal. And it's funny because the way he was talking, I don't know if he was maybe just not having a great day or, or if he's upset with his own company, but it sounded like he wasn't supposed to say some of the things he was telling me. He said a few other things as well, but those were kind of like the main points that I wanted to go ahead and share because again, I've been hearing a lot about insurance companies dropping, uh, their policies and I hear it a lot online in, you know, watch and reading different articles, but I haven't had somebody from the inside kind of share that information with me as well. So that's what I wanted to share. And I'm curious if you know of someone that has had their, uh, their home insurance dropped maybe because they live in a state that they deem that area to be too high risk or maybe there's some other kind of reason. Let me know down below and share with each other. I'd love for us to kind of have a conversation about it just to know just real information from one another. Um, if we have either personally experienced that or know somebody that has personally experienced that, it'd be great to, to share. And I don't know if you have any recommendations for insurance companies, maybe you've had some really great experience with particular insurance companies or really bad experiences. Maybe we can share that down below as well. Um, as of right now, like I said, we were able to secure home insurance, so hopefully all goes well with the insurance company. And typically you don't want any interaction with your insurance company, right? You basically pay them and you hope that you never have to file a claim. So, um, it's just only when a claim needs to be filed that you see basically how good or not good the insurance company is going to be. So and what type of, um, loops they may make you jump through. So anyways, I just wanted to share that and again, I hope you're doing well. Thank you for watching and spending time with me today, friends, and I will catch you in the next video. Bye.