As a landlord, it is in your best interest to require your tenants to maintain Renters insurance for the duration of the lease.  Not only will this protect your tenant, but it will also protect you.

1. The only thing a tenant owns in your building is their personal belongings. The only way to protect those belongings is to buy Renters insurance. Renters insurance will cover personal property in the event of a fire or if stolen or damaged. It also reduces the threat of a lawsuit against you in the event the client claims landlord responsibility for damage to their belongings.
2. There are many different options and endorsements that can be attached to a Renters policy. We can cater the policy to the renter by easily changing coverage amounts on personal property or liability. We can extend property coverage to another property or even cover identity theft. Renters insurance can also cover living expenses for the tenant while the home is being repaired or rebuilt.
3. A Renters policy will provide an extra layer of protection for you from being sued if your tenant owns a vicious dog or is negligent in the injury of another person on the property. Most insurance companies require vicious dog exclusion. While this exclusion protects the insurance company from paying out, it will not protect the landlord from being sued. Renters insurance can cover this risk.
4. Renters insurance is also a clandestine way to weed out potentially bad tenants. If your client cannot afford a renters policy, they may not be able to afford their rent and you may want to reconsider renting to them.

Renters insurance can vary from company to company, but typically costs between $15 and $40 per month. Educate your tenants on the benefits of buying a renters policy. Knowing they are covered will give you and your tenant peace of mind.

If you decide to require Renters insurance, be sure to include the requirement in the lease agreement. And you should require them to name you as an additional insured. You will then be notified if the insurance is ever canceled.  Be sure to consult your attorney about the legal ins and outs of renters insurance and requiring the coverage. Our agency recommends all our landlord clients to require Renters policies on all their investment properties.

Wire Fraud and Email Hacking—Yes, You Will be a Victim

By Dawn Parks, Premier Service Title Agency

Wire fraud isn’t a “new” thing, but it’s become very sophisticated and VERY pervasive. There’s an excellent chance that you’ll become a victim of it unless you take precautions that seem extreme—until it happens to you.

Sadly, we live in an environment where hackers and scammers are reading and monitoring all of our emails.

 They are now sending emails that are so sophisticated that to the naked untrained eye you cannot even tell the difference.   They can hack and change attachments so that they look exactly like the one that was actually sent, except for the routing number and account number, of course. Even very smart, sophisticated investors and companies have had hundreds of thousands—or even millions—of dollars stolen through wire fraud. And unfortunately, this affects real estate investors, who send and receive wire transfers as a matter of course, more than most businesses.

Even when you’re “sure” that the email you got is from the right title company, it is important that you follow ALL of these steps to validate all wire instructions:

1. Google the company you are wiring money to and look for a real phone number for this title company. NEVER rely on a phone number on the wire instructions.   It is very important that you track down the actual real company. Even if you are familiar with a company it is important to always double check for every wire.
2. Call and speak to this company and confirm the wire instructions—read out the routing and account number. It is important that you are speaking to the real title company.
3. When you set up your wire with your bank, please double check the numbers. I have seen bank employees transpose numbers and create a problem when it comes to the wire being sent.  After the wire is sent the bank can give you a federal tracking number for your wire.
4. Call the title company and let them know you sent the wire so they can track it down.
5. If you’re the one who’s supposed to be RECEIVING the wire, like when you sell a property, call the title company and have them read YOU the routing and account number for YOUR account. The instructions they received might not turn out to be the ones you sent.

Wire fraud is scary, and we want to protect money coming in and going out of Escrow accounts.  It is better to be safe than sorry.