An insurance professional’s thoughts on risk management in real estate

Jason Bott joined Robertson Ryan in 2004 as a Vice President and in 2016 he became a Shareholder. Being part of Robertson Ryan, the largest independent insurance agency in Wisconsin, and a Top 100 US Agency, gives Bott the resources to handle standard and non-standard policies. He specializes in real estate risk management and has developed a national reputation for insuring real estate owners and investors of varying sizes. Understanding risk management in real estate is crucial to protecting your hard-earned assets. Being proactive and educating yourself as to where risks lie can save you a lot of time, money, and headaches in the long run. In this episode, Jason talks us through all the things that we need to be aware of as property owners when it comes to insurance.   Episode Links: https://www.robertsonryan.com/ --- Before we jump into the episode, here's a quick disclaimer about our content. The Remote Real Estate Investor podcast is for informational purposes only, and is not intended as investment advice. The views, opinions and strategies of both the hosts and the guests are their own and should not be considered as guidance from Roofstock. Make sure to always run your own numbers, make your own independent decisions and seek investment advice from licensed professionals.   Michael: What’s going on everyone? Welcome to another episode of the Remote Real Estate Investor. Today with me I have Jason Bott who's actually a personal friend and my personal broker for a lot of my Midwest portfolio. Jason is gonna be talking to us today about all the things that we need to be aware of as landlords and as investors when it comes to insurance. So let's get into it.   Jason Bott, man, what's going on? Happy to have you here and thanks for taking the time.   Jason: Thanks, Michael. It's always great to talk with you.   Michael: No, it's always a pleasure. So I, of course, know who you are and we'll get into that in just a minute. But I'm curious if you can give everyone a little bit of background on who you are, where you're come from, and what it is that you're doing with real estate.   Jason: Sure. So my name is Jason Bott, I am based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and I'm a commercial insurance broker and I've been specializing in the space for about six or seven years exclusively and so I currently write about 25,000 units and in about 30 states. So in any state that you can find reasonably priced real estate that cash flows, that's usually more where some of my clients are.   Michael: Okay.   Jason: And I've been part of the firm, I'm a shareholder at the Robert surronding associates we are top 100 Insurance Agency in the US and you have been doing this for bots, about 20 years now.   Michael: Right on and so in full disclosure, for everyone listening, Jason is actually my insurance agent, we got connected like I think three or four years ago now   Jason: I think it's about four now.       Michael: Yeah and Jason has been handling the vast majority of my Midwest portfolio, and I've been a very satisfied customer. So thank you, Jason.   Jason: Hey, thank you, Michael, we always appreciate the business.   Michael: No, absolutely. So for those of our listeners that are brand new to insurance, maybe looking to purchase their first rental or are now taking a look at their insurance. What are some high level terms that people need to be aware of? So they can talk intelligently with insurance brokers or agents?   Jason: Sure. So I would say that the main thing that everybody comes up with is should I do actual cash value replacement cost.   Michael: Okay.   Jason: And I mean, that's probably the most universal question of the mall and it's very difficult sometimes to get replacement costs. If you're buying a let's, I mean, that in this market, but let's say three or four years ago, you could pick up a house for 20, grand 30 grand, and it was really difficult to get replacement costs at that low of a level, so you know, you're