There Are More Renters Than Ever
Home ownership is the lowest it has been since the 1960s. That means more and more of us are finding ourselves renting in apartments, condos, townhouses, or stand alone housing. And that’s not always a bad thing. Renting gives flexibility, greater freedom of movement, an abundance of choices in living spaces, and lower maintenance costs. But strangely, most renters do not have a simple renters insurance policy to protect their belongings.
That means that in the event of a loss, the majority of renters will have to pay out of pocket to replace their belongings.
Renting Without a Safety Net
According to the Insurance Information Institute, 59% of renters do not have renters insurance. That’s an astounding statistic, because anything that happens to one part of your building can happen to your apartment. And of all of the things that can happen, fire is the worst. There were a staggering 95,000 apartment fires in 2016 alone, resulting in $711 Million dollars in damages. If a fire destroys a building, most apartment dwellers will be faced with a total loss of all valuables, regardless of where the fire started. And most of them will pay to replace their bed, television, computers and priceless memorabilia on their own.
This looks even more surprising when you consider that 95% of homeowners are insured. And most of them don’t have neighbors lighting candles or starting grease fires on the other side of their walls!
The Good News: Renters Insurance is Awesome
It is. It really is. And it isn’t expensive.
Unlike homeowners insurance, renters insurance is flexible in how much it covers. Most insurance agents can help a policyholder determine the value of their belongings, but that doesn’t mean that the amount is set in stone as it is with a house (check out our Replacement Cost guide for more info). Policyholders get a say in how much they want to insure what they own, and can often get outstanding amounts of coverage for not a lot of money.
But renters insurance doesn’t just cover your stuff. It also covers you – from lawsuits and other bad things that can happen. Your renters policy contains liability protection just like a homeowners policy, guaranteeing that if you are found to be at fault for a range of offenses, you’ve got someone on your side to help pay for injuries to other parties or legal fees. That can be pretty handy in today’s legal addicted world.
Did We Mention It’s a Bargain?
While the typical homeowners policy can run from $500 – $1,500 a year, a renters insurance policy is usually from $150 – $300 a year. That is not a typo. You can protect everything you own from risk and protect yourself from liability claims for about the price of an expensive set of shoes. For a year.
There really isn’t a reason to not have renters insurance. The value you get for what you pay is one of the best in the entire industry. That makes it all the more surprising that most renters don’t have it. In fact, there’s one more reason that it is awesome, and that’s because it makes it even more of a killer deal – if you pair it with your auto insurance it becomes a package or bundled policy.
Renters Insurance – The Easy Package
There are tons of people driving around right now that have car insurance but not renters insurance for the valuable things they love in their apartment. What they don’t realize is that by adding a renters policy with the same company as your auto insurance, you create a package or bundle, resulting in even more savings for both policies. And, as you’ve probably already seen on my other blog, package policies are the secret weapons of insurance. They add savings to each policy with the same company, making it doubly or triply valuable (or quadruply or quintuply if you have boats and motorcycles with the same company – if those are even real words).
So Yeah, Awesome
Renters Insurance is awesome. Seriously, it is. And if you rent, it is a must have to protect the things you own.
Fill out the form below and one of our agents will contact you to see how much you have to gain by getting this incredible piece of protection.