condo insurance

Need condo insurance in Florida?

Hi, can anyone point me to any web sites or insurance agents in Florida that are still writing insurance for condos? Thanks!

www.huttinsurance.com . . . owned by an old buddy of mine, and if he can’t write it, no one can.

Oh, right, no one can. LOL just kidding. condo insurance in FL is like homeowners – really, really expensive, and you might also need flood or wind. Not many companies will do it, but you already know that.

Should my condo insurance cover more than just my stuff like appliances, cabinetry, countertops, flooring?

Your condo association purchases insurance on the building and premises. Broadly speaking there are two approaches condo bylaws take to insure the property.

One approach is the condo association agrees to cover only the exterior and common areas. You are responsible to insure the interior this can include walls, wall coverings, flooring, furnace, appliances, lighting, plumbing fixtures, kitchen and bath cabinets (basically everything inside your condo). In this scenario you are responsible not only for your personal property but also the entire interior of your condo. As an insurance agent I did not like this approach because it is very difficult to determine how much insurance you should have to be able to repair or replace everything in within the walls of your condo.

The other approach, which I always preferred, was more comprehensive where the association agrees to cover the entire unit as it was originally built. In this scenario you only insure your upgrades (i.e. bookcases, upgrades, finished basements. etc.) and your personal property.

You need to carefully review your condo bylaws or have a good insurance agent go over the bylaws with you. If you don’t insure the property that you are responsible for you could find yourself woefully under insured and perhaps unable to rebuild your condo.

In addition to insuring the part of the building you are responsible for you need to determine the replacement cost of your personal property within the condo.

Sorry for the long answer but it is a surprisingly complex question.

New homeowner needs condo insurance? What type of "check" do they run?

My agent said they will run a check, I already have auto insurance and want to know what type of check they plan to run. It wouldn’t be a check on my driving records would it? .

homeinsurance.awardspace.us – try this one. Got my home insurance from them. As I know they provide such a service.

Financing a New Home in Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the state of Illinois and also the third most populated city in the United States of America, with almost 3 million people. Chicago is located along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan and when combined with its suburbs and the nine surrounding counties in Illinois, the metropolitan area known as Chicagoland encompasses a population of 9.4 million. Nowadays Chicago is known as a major transportation, business, and architectural center of the US and it is the economic, business, financial and cultural capital of the Midwest. The Chicago area is moderately expensive; the home price median here is nearer the national median than homes in spots such as New York City. Buyers can probably spend about three times their incomes, depending on the part of the area where they’re house-hunting.

Chicago’s suburban real estate market is as vibrant as the city itself. The suburbs have developed both commercial as well as residential real estate at a tremendous pace. A large number of properties are always available for purchase in Chicago’s suburban areas such as Lake County, Kane and DeKalb counties and DuPage and Will counties. There are real estate firms that specialize in one of the suburbs, while others deal with all of them. When financing a new home in Chicago, have in mind that the real estate prices are high. Northern suburbs are considered “elite”.

There are many ways to finance a new home in Chicago. It all depends on your credit history, the price of the property and your income. The next paragraphs give brief explanations on some of the methods for financing a new home in the city of Chicago.

The first thing to understand is the difference between a variable, or adjustable interest rate mortgage and a fixed rate mortgage. With a fixed rate mortgage, the monthly payments remain the same over the period of the loan. The adjustable rate mortgage has a lower introductory interest rate, but it may vary over the duration of your loan. So depending on the interest rates, whether they are lowered or raised each month, your monthly mortgage payments will also change accordingly.

When financing your new Chicago home through a loan, no matter if it is adjustable or fixed rate, you have to consider the length of the loan, in terms of how long you finance your home. The most common terms are 15, 25, 30, 40 and now even 50 year mortgages in some areas. Of course, the longer the period the more you will pay in interest over the duration of the loan.

With a FHA home loan you can purchase a single family home, condo, house, or apartment in one of the neighborhoods in Chicago. This FHA home loan is mostly used by first time home buyers because it allows the purchase of a home with a lower down payment, in some cases as low as 3%. This form of new home financing requires you to have a good credit history and enough income to cover the loan and your other financial obligations.

The Chicago City Mortgage program offers qualified first-time homebuyers 30-year, fixed-interest mortgages at competitive interest rates and a gift of 4 percent of the mortgage amount to cover down payment and closing costs.

One of the most important things to do when searching for a way to finance the purchase of a new home is to do the math and find out how much money you can spend on it each month. The rule is that all of your housing costs each month, including house note, property taxes and insurance cannot exceed 29% of your gross monthly income. In addition to that, your housing costs plus your other monthly long-term debt should not exceed 41% of your gross monthly income. Furthermore, you must get a copy of your credit report and check your credit score. Having a bad credit score, or one lower than 580, means that you will have problems with obtaining the loan in the first place, not to mention that you will be forced into paying higher interest rates.

Dave Badge
http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/financing-a-new-home-in-chicago-55606.html

what types of car and condo insurance are available to state employee teachers?

The same kind available to everyone else.

What’s the difference between condo and renters insurance?

Thanks!
Thanks so far but I was told I needed renters insurance b/c of our tenant. We own a condo and rent it out. Is this true?

Renter’s insurance only covers your personal belongings inside the home, whether it’s a condo, house, or apartment. It doesn’t cover the structure itself. So if you buy a condo and only have renter’s insurance, if the building catches on fire and burns to the ground your personal stuff is covered but they don’t pay to rebuild the building itself.

If you are buying a condo and the HOA fees include insurance, it means they will pay to rebuild the building if it burns down but NOT cover your personal belongings.

Does that make sense?

does condo insurance ever cover special assessments for roof or siding replacement?

nope. Insurance precludes assessments.

Mr Auto Insurance Inc Island FL

Mr Auto Insurance Inc

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Konecki Insurance San Diego

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Konecki Insurance offers all lines of insurance, including auto, homeowners, condo owners, renters, umbrella, high value homes, dwelling fire, earthquake, watercraft, motorcycle, course of construction, equine, life, health, general liability, commercial property, commercial auto, professional liability, group health, workers compensation, business life, and bonds. Our staff provide personal customer service to find you the most competitive rates for all your insurance needs. We do a complete coverage review to protect all your assets and make sure you have no gaps or overlaps in coverage. At Konecki Insurance, we’ve gotcha covered.

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Buyers Being Creative in a Soft Real Estate Market With a Challenged Credit History

The stars have lined up against many would be buyers with the amount of baggage they bring to the table in the way of challenged credit. They want to buy something. They need to buy something. Whether it be a recent bankruptcy, repossession, foreclosure, large medical bill collections, identity theft or judgements or recent unemployment any one of which can plummet a credit score and put the would be buyer in a financial hole. In a soft real estate market where owners need to sell and have a high degree of motivation to dispose of their property. This is the opportunity that a buyer with challenged credit history can seek to “help” a seller out of their current dilemma by arranging sale terms that will help both buyer and seller. These scenarios may not work for anyone who has zero options, zero income and zero means to pay anything back. It is rather, for those who are fighting their way back and do have options, have income and now have means to meet their obligations on a negotiated deal. This will not work if a buyer throws their hands up and gives up to the possibility of buying a property. This opportunity will work for those buyers who have a need as well as a burning desire in their belly to buy something that will meet their family goals and will do what is necessary to make it happen.

A buyer needs to be aggressive in their efforts to take advantage of this temporary real estate market. Some areas of the country have more opportunities than other areas. However, there are deals in every area. A buyer needs to find them. There is little reward for a buyer to deal with an unmotivated seller. There must be pressure on the seller to move the property. Whether it be for reasons of health, estate situation, job loss, divorce, out of state move, downsizing, upsizing, budget, cash flow or other reasons if a buyer with checkered credit has a shot of doing something. A buyer early on will need to come to the conclusion that the chance of matching the perfect house with the perfectly motivated seller will be slim. Therefore, from the get go the buyer must be willing to compromise on the purchase. The buyer must realize that this is not the last home they will buy, it is the first home they will buy with a high degree of challenged credit. The buy decision, although well thought out, must recognize the purchase is not permanent and is not fatal. It is simply a means to get into a property and get on the equity accumulation train, which will help them over time. So the search begins to find a motivated seller while being somewhat flexible while not having unreasonable expectations that will not fly with the current credit circumstances.

Buyers can try to do it themselves or choose to bring in a professional realtor who knows the market. Right now a lot of realtors have a lot of time on their hands. Six months ago when the market was raging, that was not the case. What a difference a day makes. The criteria then on a broad based approach would be to find a vacant home, on a realtor lock box, with a lower mortgage balance and with a high seller motivational to move the property. If a property is not listed, then the seller may not be motivated enough for a buyer’s purposes. They are not serious enough. If a property has had three or four price reductions in the last few months in the Multiple Listing Service this would be a sign of a motivated seller. Likewise if a seller has indicated a willingness to pay for buyers closing costs, hold a second mortgage, consider a lease option or a lease purchase, these are all signs of the degree of seller motivation necessary for a buyer with challenged credit to find a workable property. Early on in the realtor selection process, a working relationship must be established with a realtor who is willing to make multiple offers and does not take rejection personally until an acceptable deal can be negotiated.

At the same time, a mortgage broker will need to be contacted to determine exactly what is possible in the way of a first mortgage. Banks are not geared to do what will be required to make a deal with challenged credit. It will be assumed that in spite of the past history, the buyer now can make a monthly mortgage payment and may even have some cash to work with. Cash can be gifted from parents or other sources if necessary. The results of the mortgage broker interview will dictate what and how the deal will need to be structured. Pulling credit will determine if the housing history is 0 x 30 (meaning no housing payments more than 30 days late in the last twelve months) or worse. Collections, judgements, repossessions or any other adverse challenge the buyer may face will be noted. From this exercise, a buyer will have a payment number in hand for their monthly housing expense including principal and interest, taxes and insurance and perhaps a maintenance fee (as found in an association or condo) all inclusive in the monthly housing expense. The mortgage broker and realtor will need to work in tandem to structure the deal that is achievable on part of the buyer. Many times, in the market place the deal is negotiated without any thought to the financing. Here it will be necessary to fix the financing first THEN find the house. Most buyers with a 580 score or better can get a 95% Loan To Value first that allows a 100% Combined Loan To Value. This will no doubt be a subprime type loan with the first being one loan with no Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). An offer might look like something like this:

Purchase price would be at say $225,000 with a 95% LTV first mortgage of $213,750 and allow a 5% LTV seller held second of $11,250. The rate on the first would be for this scenario 8.5% on the first and aggressively negotiate the same for the seller held second or less. A seller may rationalize that they were going to reduce the price another $10,000 in 30 days anyway and this way I get most of their cash now. Following then, the first mortgage of $213,750 with a rate of 8.5% with payments on a 2-year fixed ARM of $1,643.55/month. The second of $11,250 at say 8% on a 10 year basis would be $135.95/month for a total principal payment of the first and second of $1,779.50/month plus taxes of $300/month and insurance of $220/month for a total housing expense of $2,299.50/month in housing expense. With a subprime loan, collections and such are not included in the debt service calculation if they are old enough. So for a working couple if the lender allows a 50% debt ratio to income the minimum income on a full documented loan would be $2,299.50/. 50 = $4,599/month. Say the wife makes $3,000 per month and the husband makes $1,599/month then they would just make it. The seller would need to pay all the buyers closing costs and prepaids (tax and insurance escrows and advanced fees) and any buyer cash can be used for monthly lender reserve requirements.

In summary then, this is a temporary buyer’s market in most areas and to be successful buyers need to focus on motivated sellers. Even before looking at any property the seller’s agent must be interviewed to determine if there is a high motivation of selling the property by paying all the buyers closing costs and prepaids and perhaps hold a 2nd mortgage. If there isn’t, the buyer should not be looking at that property. If the buyer has a vacant lot, a small mortgage note, income property or anything of value like a boat or motorcycle can all be brought to bear on a deal. The barter and trading process is how America was built. Working in tandem with a professional realtor and a mortgage broker a buyer can enlist some professional help to meet the needs of their family even with challenged credit. It is not a static situation. During the first two or three years of this scenario the buyers need to put their financial house in order through family budgeting and planning with discipline to qualify for a better rate and terms on their mortgage and other credit needs for their families future. In a few years through a lot of hard work and sacrifice they can be out of their financial hole and back on an even keel.

Dale Rogers
http://www.brokencredit.com
http://www.sellerhelpsbuyer.com

Dale Rogers
http://www.articlesbase.com/credit-articles/buyers-being-creative-in-a-soft-real-estate-market-with-a-challenged-credit-history-65249.html