How Insurance Mistakes Can Cost Homebuyers Millions | Andrew Ramos Interview

Michelle Kesil (00:01.23)

Hey everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil, and today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Andrew Ramos, who’s been making serious moves in the insurance space. Andrew, really glad to have you here today. I think that our listeners are really going to

take something away from how you’re approaching the insurance business and helping real estate agents and buyers in that market. So let’s dive in.

Andrew A. Ramos (00:43.885)

Okay.

Michelle Kesil (00:45.538)

Yeah, so first off, for people who may not be familiar with you and your world, can you give us the short version of your main focus these days?

Andrew A. Ramos (00:58.115)

Yes, so my main focus right now is Goosehead Insurance, which is a franchise that I own based in Anaheim, California, that really focuses on first-time home buyers and getting them home insurance in place and partnering with realtors and mortgage loan officers to ensure that their clients get the best home insurance policy in place so that they can close on escrow.

Michelle Kesil (01:17.972)

Awesome. And what markets are you operating in?

Andrew A. Ramos (01:21.483)

majority it’s going to be is California.

Michelle Kesil (01:24.564)

Awesome. So yeah, what caught my attention about you is how you mentioned that you’re working with multiple insurance agencies. Is that something that you can share with us?

Andrew A. Ramos (01:38.135)

Yes, so as an insurance agency, we are considered the middleman, the broker, the agent. So we work with a variety of different insurance companies, which allows us, as we consider ourselves an independent agency. So we get to partner with a bunch of different insurance companies that allows us to be that one stop shop for the client to come and say, Hey, this is a property I’m looking at buying. Can you shop it around? We’re able to look at 30 plus different carriers to ensure that we’re getting the best rate and the best coverage, provide that quote to the client and hopefully move forward.

Michelle Kesil (02:05.878)

Awesome. Yeah, that’s not easy in this climate.

Andrew A. Ramos (02:09.155)

Yeah, exactly.

Michelle Kesil (02:11.436)

What do you feel has been the most important key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

Andrew A. Ramos (02:19.405)

Yeah, I think the biggest thing for me, honestly, is really educating people to and educating them on the insurance policy, what is what is covered under a home insurance policy and exactly what they’re paying for. Because I feel like sometimes, you people will come to me and you shop this property, see what the best insurance rate. Sometimes they want the lowest rate. But sometimes you once you have that educational discussion with them, you’re able to see that there’s different coverages you can add on for maybe a small premium increase. But it provides more coverage. And then exactly what that coverage actually

does cover in the event of a claim. So I believe the education part is incredibly important, especially in my role.

Michelle Kesil (02:53.74)

Yeah, absolutely. Is that something you can expand on? Like what are some things that people should look for or know that maybe they aren’t familiar with?

Andrew A. Ramos (03:03.671)

Yes, so I think one of the biggest things, and I’ll take into perspective of the recent fires in January in California, one of the biggest things I was able to find from that was that as we saw people having claims today, they filed a claim back in January when the fires occurred, right? The insurance that they had on that home had they insured it a few years back. And I always give this example. You insure a home in 2020, you bought a home. You bought a home for a million dollars. Now, of course, throughout COVID, we saw that home prices went up.

Equity went up in homes and so these people were sitting on a house that was worth more and the cost to replace it is worth more than they did when they initially bought it and when they initially insured it. But these clients did not up their insurance policies. They didn’t call their state farm and say, hey, my house is now worth two million. We insured it at one million. Can you now increase my policy? Can you now increase the premium because my house is worth more? People didn’t do that. So what we ended up seeing is that when the claims do occur, right,

People are, had my house insured. The claim comes, they won’t rebuild the house the same way. Why? Because the house is worth more. You had it with your initial coverage of when you bought it for a million, now it’s worth two million. They’re only gonna give you a million dollar house, because you only paid for a million dollars in coverage. So that’s something that I’m really starting to find and letting people know is you wanna shop around your insurance coverage, whether it’s your home, whether it’s your auto. Shop it around once a year, just to make sure that you’re in the right place and that as you make changes to your home, as you add in a gold toilet,

as you hit a diamond roof, things like that, any type of addition to your home, you want to ensure that your coverage is increased so that in the event of a claim, that’s covered and you get it replaced at full replacement.

Michelle Kesil (04:42.774)

Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s important for people to look out for.

Andrew A. Ramos (04:47.181)

Yeah, no, exactly. It’s staying informed and just keeping up to date because as we evolve, as we get older, as we make more money, we build more, we invest in our homes, we add on a pool, we added a jacuzzi and these things like we want to make sure that they’re insured. We don’t just automatically assume because I have a home insurance policy that new jacuzzi I put in is automatically covered. You want to make sure you let your insurance company know. And of course, they’re going to raise the premium. So you have to be weary of that as well.

Michelle Kesil (05:15.746)

Yeah, is there anything else that people often miss that you find they should be aware of?

Andrew A. Ramos (05:22.969)

think one of the biggest things is just to be sure that they’re keeping up to date their portfolio. So I know some people, if they are looking to, they have a homeowner’s policy, but they’re also looking to add an ADU. A lot of people are doing that nowadays, especially in Southern California. They want to rent out a detached garage or they want to build a whole separate ADU. It’s making sure that the insurance you’re looking for that ADU can be in place.

prior to even building it. Just make sure that you have that option. Make sure that insurance is available in your area so that you don’t build it. And then once the moment comes where you build it you want to put someone in it, you can’t insure it. Or it becomes a hard time to find insurance. Always want to preemptively start to prepare. Always start to look early. Give it time to make sure that you know that insurance doesn’t move within 24 hours. It takes a few days sometimes. So you always want to be up to date on it and then keeping your information in line.

Michelle Kesil (06:15.406)

Yeah, absolutely. Now, also every operator I know has a moment where things don’t go as planned, maybe a deal went sideways, or you just had to pivot fast. Would you mind sharing one of those moments for you?

Andrew A. Ramos (06:36.503)

Yes. it’s actually a great example is I remember doing this because like I said, I started my agency in September. So I remember in late December, right, I was quoting some policies. I had some homeowners insurance quotes. Each quote is good for 30 days. So end of December, I have some quotes sitting there. People in the beginning of the new year looking at, you know, close on their home, get settled down. The fires occur early January. When the fires occur, they end up the insurance company end up closing the certain zip codes in L.A. County.

So they end up saying, we’re not writing anything in LA while the fires are going on. So that was one of those instances where I had a few quotes that were currently pending. They get automatically, we can’t move forward with them. People are waiting to close on a home. They can’t get home insurance. You can’t get the home insurance. can’t close on your, can’t close on escrow. You can’t close on your mortgage. So that was one of those things where we had to kind of pivot and try to find a way to either find another insurance company that would be willing to take it. But at the moment, the whole LA County, pretty much Southern California, parts of San Diego was closed as well.

So that was something we actually had to postpone the closing of the home and then of course postpone the home insurance as well. But it was letting people know what’s going on. It’s one of those moments where you just have to keep the client informed, walk them through it, make sure they’re not too scared or they don’t get too worried, but letting them know you’re holding their hand, you’re walking them through it and communicating. think that’s incredibly important because especially in my position, a lot of people don’t always speak to their agent. A lot of people don’t know who their agent is or aren’t able to get in contact with them. I think communication is incredibly key.

Michelle Kesil (08:04.022)

Yeah, that’s the stuff people don’t talk about enough.

Andrew A. Ramos (08:07.693)

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Michelle Kesil (08:10.356)

Awesome. So let me ask you this. What are you most focused on scaling or solving right now?

Andrew A. Ramos (08:19.907)

Right now it’s going to be scaling the business, letting people know that we’re here, what we do. And I go to a ton of networking events, letting people know real estate offices, loan officer offices, and making sure people know what we do, how I can help. And also just wanting to see is, do they have someone they’re currently working with? Are they able to speak with that person? How is that relationship doing? And just letting people know I can be an option in their back pocket. That in the worst case scenario, it’s like, hey, the person I usually work with is incredibly swamped at the moment. Can you help me?

I want to let people know to get the opportunity where I can prove myself and what my agency can do.

Michelle Kesil (08:54.88)

Yeah, absolutely. And is there like a big goal that you have right now that you’re working towards?

Andrew A. Ramos (09:02.637)

Yes, I think the biggest goal that I’m really looking to focus on is within the next, I’d say, we’re going to be one year in September. So for me, I think in the next two to three years, I really want to focus on getting a thousand policies under my belt. So right now we’re at almost 200 policies. So we’re looking to get a thousand policies under our belt to really grow our agency. And then of course, with the thousand policies, we’re going to be able to expand to hire more and push ourselves out.

Michelle Kesil (09:28.244)

Amazing. Are you looking to expand outside of California?

Andrew A. Ramos (09:33.505)

At the moment, no. We want to just grow internally more and focus here, especially with the economy of California being so large. It’s like a country in itself. So I’ve always, yeah, I’ve always felt that, you know, being a resident here, being the best agent in California can do just as well as being a great agent in three other middle, middle of the country states. So I think I’m gonna focus in California.

Michelle Kesil (09:56.022)

Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s really powerful and yeah, there’s so many opportunities there for you. Awesome. So is there anything about your business that you feel people don’t fully understand about insurance that you think is an important thing that people should become aware of?

Andrew A. Ramos (10:22.169)

think the most important thing honestly has always been is letting people know that they should know what their insurance covers. They should investigate because at the end of the day, we’re all buying insurance, whether it’s health insurance, home insurance, auto insurance, renter’s insurance, if have a condo, if you rent out a property, if you have a multifamily property, everybody buys insurance. We leave money in the bank, the bank has its FDIC insured. People need to realize what insurance covers and exactly what they’re paying for. I think that’s incredibly beneficial as you

I’m a younger generation myself, a millennial. It’s like, believe it’s something maybe my parents didn’t sit down and teach me, but maybe that’s something they didn’t know. So I feel like insurance is something that’s not going to go away. And it’s always good to educate the next generation and educate ourselves on what we’re paying.

Michelle Kesil (11:06.486)

Yeah, and where can people educate themselves? Like, what’s a good resource?

Andrew A. Ramos (11:12.399)

Honestly, the best resource I always say is you go to the paperwork. So you look at your policy, you take a look at it, and anything that doesn’t make sense, nowadays, AI is all the rave, right? So you can go on any AI website you can put in, what does this term in my policy mean? You can even upload your policy and say, hey, give me simplified terms of what this exactly covers, what does a claim look like, and how that would be responding. So that’s always great. But of course, reach out to me. You can call your agent. I always like to, of course, promote myself. But if you ever just want to

Do it on your own. You can always go on Google or use any AI web.

Michelle Kesil (11:46.892)

Yeah, that’s super valuable. And I know that a lot of people listening to this show are either earlier in their real estate career or they’re looking to level up. And I think they benefit from hearing this, that when it really comes to growing your network, building relationships,

What do you feel has made the biggest difference for you in terms of that?

Andrew A. Ramos (12:20.333)

I think reaching out to people and getting in contact and building those relationships. So like I’ve said before, a lot of my marketing efforts right now, it’s really going and meeting people at different networking events, going into offices, cold meeting people, shaking hands, speaking to them, learning about who these people are, what their business is, and trying to provide value to them in that hope that, you know, they can send value back. So I’ve always feel like what can I do for someone else before, of course, what can they do for me? And then I’ve always been

pretty successful with doing that and meeting people and learning about who they are, their family, what their business is. And at the end of the day, everybody’s trying to grow their business. And so if you help others, I feel like you’ll get that back.

Michelle Kesil (12:59.276)

Yeah, absolutely, that’s super important. Relationships are everything in this space and yeah, we’re all trying to help each other and grow and learn.

Andrew A. Ramos (13:09.967)

Yeah, exactly.

Michelle Kesil (13:12.404)

Awesome, yeah, is there like a specific moment or customer journey that you feel has been like an example of something that like you’ve really overcome or have learned from that you would like to share?

Andrew A. Ramos (13:31.395)

Yeah, I think one of the biggest things is, like I said, my agency is focused on that first time home buyer. So it’s always nice to see somebody who’s either they just got married or they’re making, they’re wanting to buy a house for their mom or their dad or their parents. Right. And they’re taking that step into home buying. And especially in California, that can be daunting, right? The price of homes, the upkeep, the cost of insurance, all those things can be really daunting and people can feel overwhelmed. So it’s really nice to walk people through the home insurance process.

Let them know what’s covered, what’s not covered, because at the end of the day, it’s like you never want to be in a place where you do have a claim and you don’t know what’s covered or you’re scared. Hey, how can I replace my home or my pipe first? Do I let insurance know? Do I not? Do I pay out of pocket? So it’s one of those nice things is really educating people and giving them that peace of mind so that they know in the event of something drastic were to occur, they are covered.

Michelle Kesil (14:23.822)

Yeah, absolutely. That’s super powerful. Do you believe that most people educate themselves in this field or they’re a bit more need to be taught by the agent? How does that work?

Andrew A. Ramos (14:41.987)

I honestly, I always feel like it’s great to speak to somebody and build that relationship with your agent and so that they can not only educate you and that you can feel comfortable too. Cause I believe speaking with someone and explaining to them what the policy entails, they feel more comfortable speaking to someone, someone who has knowledge in that specific field. They can feel more comfortable with buying that because they spoke with someone who was knowledgeable about the policy, right? Whereas some people may feel scared or not sure what to buy if they were to do it on their own, but let alone, you

I always encourage people to do your own investigating. Come to your agent with questions. Happy to answer them, explain, and really tailor your covers to them. So I always recommend people just investigate. Do any type of effort that they can to either learn through your agent or, of course, on your own.

Michelle Kesil (15:28.406)

Yeah, that’s great. All right. So before we wrap up, if someone wants to reach out to you, connect, maybe collaborate, or just get more educated about your business and what you’re doing, what is the best way for them to reach you?

Andrew A. Ramos (15:51.171)

Yes, so they can give me either email at andrew.romos at goosthead.com or they can even give me a call at 714-477-6957. And then I also do have a Instagram page that I always like to share. So helpful tips on insurance, home, auto. Let me get that username for you. I know I have it right here. And it’s always, I always try to give helpful tips on insurance, home, auto, umbrella, anything like that. So the username is

boosthead underscore all underscore star.

Michelle Kesil (16:26.688)

Amazing. Well, listen, I really appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. We really need more people in this space who are out here doing things in this right and educative way. So thank you so much for being here.

Andrew A. Ramos (16:46.327)

Absolutely, thank you for having me.

Michelle Kesil (16:48.426)

Awesome. for those of you tuning into the show, if you got value from this, make sure that you’re subscribed. We’ve got plenty of more conversations coming with operators just like Andrew who are out here building real businesses. And we’re going to see you all in the next episode.