Real Estate Insurance Mistakes That Can Cost Investors Everything | Zach Brisbane

Zach Brisbane (00:00)
I’ve heard of a couple who had a home, they came on up and up, they’d be able to get some more money, they bought a second property, but guess what they did when they moved into that second property? They wanted to rent out that first property. What did they do? They never moved it to a landlord policy, they kept it as a homeowner’s policy and that is a big no no.

Meghan Escobar (01:50)
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to *Real Estate Pros Podcast*, hosted by Investor Fuel. I am your host today, and I have the pleasure of sitting down with a young gentleman by the name of Zach Brisbane, who is really new into the insurance world, but he’s out here serving people in the real estate industry, educating them on insurance needs, making sure that he is building impactful relationships to help people.

And he represents a great company by the name of Goosehead Insurance, but has recently gone independent and has his own brokerage. So happy to have you here, Zach, on the show. Thanks for joining.

Zach Brisbane (02:30)
Yeah, thank you so much, Meghan. I’m glad to be on the show. I’m excited to talk about it. Yes, indeed. Absolutely.

Meghan Escobar (02:35)
And for those folks that might not know, or have ever heard of Goosehead Insurance or the name Zachary Brisbane, tell us, you know, give us a 30,000-foot view of what it is that you’re focused on these days and the markets that you’re operating in.

Zach Brisbane (02:54)
So one, Goosehead is starting off. We’re a national company. We’re a brokerage and we function in all fifty states. And what I do with my agency is we have the ability to have over access to fifty plus different carriers, which allows us to do one thing, right? Be able to give our clients the most coverage for the least amount of money. It also allows us to be able to shop for our clients. And again, we want to be that one-stop shop for our clients when it comes to home insurance, auto insurance, landlord, renters, dwelling, builder’s risk, just about anything that you can name. And from an investor standpoint, the goal is for us is to educate our investors on what type of coverage that they need. I know one day now I like to talk to all my investors, I like to tell them like you got this I like to tell all my investors that you know there’s four different types of in insurance you can get from for owning property, right? So everyone knows, right? You have your homeowners, like duh, right? You have your landlord policy, right? If you’re just renting out.

But you also have two other coverages that are extremely important to investors. That is a vacant dwelling policy. And then you have your builder’s risk policy. And those are coverages that I love to explain to my investors because depending on what you’re doing with your properties, they have different uses and they have different impacts and they have different advantages. And what I like to do is educate my investors and explain to them why you should get these certain type coverages and why these things matter, because too quite often I find that investors, especially newer ones into the industry, don’t necessarily have the right coverage and they’re putting their large asset at risk. And my goal is to mitigate that.

Meghan Escobar (04:29)
Wow, I love that. And, one thing that stuck out to me during our conversation beforehand was your strength in building relationship. I’m somebody who has a background of insurance. So I know building relationships is super important. However, I know a lot of folks really look at this business as more of a transactional business. You know, how can I get the sale? And they’re just looking to sign a contract.

Can you elaborate a little bit deeper on you why it’s important for you to build relationships. And another thing that you mentioned is you’re still trying to learn figuring out an individual’s why, which I think is really key when it comes to building long-term relationships. So would you elaborate on that a little bit?

Zach Brisbane (06:06)
So I think the key to, you know, building out the relationships with an insurance agent is one, they get to know who you are, what’s your story, and again, what is your why. You know, yes, you can absolutely go to any old agent and they can just write you any old policy. But if they don’t really understand what you’re trying to do with that property or what you’re trying to do with that investment, then you may not have the proper coverage that you would need. I know one thing that I like to do is really talk to my clients.

Really understand what is their goal. Is this just a property that you’re trying to fix and flip? So you can go ahead and sell it. Or are you trying to rent this out? Those are different understanding that information allows me to be able to write you the correct policy. So we can go ahead and protect that asset overall. This also allows me to better understand where we headed to. What is the trajectory? So okay, and then allows me to understand what is the better way to structure your insurance portfolio and to see, you know, what are next steps that we can go with that.

Meghan Escobar (07:01)
I love that. Thank you for sharing that. I think it’s really important to understand the building relationships side of being a being an insurance agent or being just an operator in general. And, you know, every operator I know, you know, has a moment and in their journey where things got real or a time that they had to pivot really fast. Would you mind, you know, sharing one of those moments with us, what that was for you? I know you’re fairly green to the industry and, you know, a background of of tech you mentioned and about three, four months as an agent. Talk to us about that transition.

Zach Brisbane (07:45)
The transition was definitely interesting. So I served nearly a decade working in large tech, served in marketing. So I knew the importance of marketing, getting names out, and I also know the importance of insurance. So that’s what got me into this industry. But a time that I had to pivot when especially when working with a client was literally I had a builder’s risk scenario where there were two partners working in a project. One partner, which is mainly, you know, the contractor side, while the other partner was working on hey, getting this insurance policy going. Well,

One partner told me that, hey, we’re changing the stairways to the other side of the building. We’re going to do some joist improvements and work on the joist that’s in the kitchen. And we’re doing all this structural work. I talked to the contractor and they’re like, we’re not doing any of those things. So what did that do? Right. A one, those are two completely different policies that need to be done. So that was one of the moments where, you know.

Sometimes that’s why it’s so important to have that discovery call to really understand what our client needs are. Because for instance, right, the client that was telling me about changing the joists, guess what? That’s no longer something that’s simple. That becomes a structural problem. That’s where we have to now get engineering paperwork. That’s when underwriting is going to want to review. That’s where we have to understand the code and those things like that. And right there, that’s a completely different policy. That will take a few days to write that policy, get it approved by underwriting, get that going, and could potentially cost a little bit more money, right? And that’s where I hit into the difference of the vacant dwelling and a builder’s risk policy. Where after talking with the contractor, I found that there was no joist work. They weren’t removing the stairs. They were just upgrading the stairs. So they weren’t changing anything. And all they were doing was just adding down new flooring, paint, all that. So now this came from a true builder’s risk that required engineering paperwork to now just cosmetic. And guess what I can do?

This is the power of the vacant dwelling, right? So just to kind of give you guys a quick like educational tip what it comes with that, when you guys have a builder’s risk, it only covers from the time that project is started to the time that project is ended. And that’s the only thing that’s covered. But guess what? When it’s time to put that house on the market or you’re waiting for it to get rented, you now have to get another renter’s policy. So that’s a separate policy you need to get. But if you get yourself a vacant dwelling policy, and that’s usually good for cosmetic scenarios, guess what? It’s an all-encompassing policy. So you can work on that policy. You can work on your property. I mean, you could do everything you need to do. But guess what? Once you are done doing your renovations, that policy stays in stand. As long as that property is empty, you now are still covered with that. Now, the beauty of this vacant dwelling, a lot of times, is that it combines your general liability as well as coverage for the building in itself. Where if you get yourself a builder’s risk, a lot of times that does not cover both.

So now that’s additional paperwork. That’s an additional policy that you need to get. And that does not transition over to when you’re done with that construction project. So it’s that type of information that is important to me to be able to help my clients to give them the bigger picture of what’s going on. And I’ll throw this out here as well. Most of the time, not all the time, but most, most lenders require builder’s risk to be one shot where it’s paid in full all the way. But if you have a vacant dwelling, you know, that’s technically another form of like a landlord policy. So you can use it as long as you need it. And once you get the house in the market or you sell it or you actually get it rented out, you can cut it off. But it actually gives you a chance to be able to save money and get some of that money back. So that’s what I like to tell my clients when it comes to that and is definitely help them.

Meghan Escobar (12:09)
Absolutely. Thank you for sharing that information. I think a lot of folks are unaware of, you know, the different types of policies they need when it comes to what you know, while they’re building and vacancy and all that stuff. And I don’t think that’s talked about enough. So not at all. Yeah. I love that. You’re so super passionate about what you’re doing and I and I can just see it in the energy. So and feel it in the energy. And as far as what’s the next focus for you. Talk to us about that. Like, I know you mentioned scaling. You want to scale to the next level. You wanna be able to find, you know, somebody who’s willing to work and as hard as you. What does that look like for you? What’s the next real big goal for Zach Brisbane?

Zach Brisbane (12:51)
Well, I have I would say I’ll have two main goals, right? So the one main goal, right, would be again to scale to be able to hire someone to have that same drive and tenacity as I do, to be able to help my agency grow and to be able to support more clients. Like at the end of the day, I feel like this is God’s work and I feel like this is something that we should definitely be doing is helping clients grow and protect their portfolios. But I would say the main thing focused on me is helping out newer people into the industry. Why I say that too quite often people are making very simple and I don’t like saying I’m gonna say for lack of better words, silly mistakes. Literally I’ve heard of a couple who had a home, you know, they came on up and up, they’d be able to get some more money, they bought a second property, but guess what they did when they moved into that second property? They wanted to rent out that first property. What did they do? They never moved it to a landlord policy, they kept it as a homeowner’s policy and that is a big no no.

That home, when they had renters in it, the house caught on fire. And guess what? Insurance did not cover that. And too quite often, when I explain the situation and I talk to people at networking events, they really did not know that it was that serious to change it from a homeowner’s policy to a landlord policy. Or even then, I’ll talk to people say, Hey, how long has somebody not been in your home? You know, we haven’t lived there in about three months. That’s no longer a simple policy. That’s now a vacant policy. So I—my biggest goal.

It’s less about me and my agency growing, but it’s just educating the most people that I can. I’m a firm believer that you have to give before you can receive. And when you’re doing the right thing and you’re doing good business, everything handles itself. And that’s what I really pride myself on.

Meghan Escobar (14:31)
That was a solid piece of information. Definitely a nugget. So get your pens out and write that down, guys. I mean, when you’re coming from the heart and you have passion, I think that’s really important. And like you said, everything else will follow. You definitely got that. It speaks volume about your character. As far as networking, we talked a little bit about this, and you’re in the business of building relationships.

Zach Brisbane (14:56)
Absolutely.

Meghan Escobar (14:57)
A lot of our listeners, they are either very early on in their journey, just getting in the getting their feet wet when it comes to entrepreneurship or real estate or, we have individuals who’ve been in the game long term and they’re looking for the next best thing. When it comes to building relationships, Zach, like what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Zach Brisbane (15:22)
Showing up. It’s very simple, right? Show up. And there’s so many different ways that you can add value, right? Everything doesn’t always have to be a transaction. And sometimes it’s okay not to necessarily win in the first initial parts of that relationship. Sometimes it’s important to just be able to give out resources and let people know that I’m here to help you. Could I genuinely care? I think that’s like the most important piece. And I’ll say also in regards to building of relationships is talk to people. I tell you what.

The best relationships are the relationships built off of business. And as long as you handle good business, that is one of the most loyal relationships that you will get. Because let’s be real, we’re in business for one thing. We’re not doing this for fun. We’re doing this for funds, as they say, right? So you got two people that are able to make money and do it the right way. That’s a win right there. And collaborate, right? One of the most, I think, underrated I think one of the most underrated tools that a person can have when it comes to trying to grow their network is you know realizing you don’t have to do it by yourself. You know, when you want to host these events, you don’t have to do the event by yourself. Go ahead and talk to that title company, go ahead and talk to that lender, go ahead and talk to those realtors. You could be able to do more with less. It’s like, you know, the old wise tale when they say, if you want to go fast, you do it by yourself, but if you want to go far, you do it with a group. Like that is the key to I think any type of people when it comes to investors, right? Because yeah, you can get one property by yourself.

But if you can get a conglomerate of multiple people, you can get multiple properties and then you can grow and you can scale. You can do it much faster. So that’s the biggest advice that I give when it comes to networking is showing up and don’t think you have to do it by yourself because you can’t. Absolutely.

Meghan Escobar (17:05)
Absolutely. I can’t agree more. I mean, it’s a relationship business. Any business is a relationship business and especially, you know, real estate service businesses. Like it doesn’t run without people. So you need to have the relationships in order to be able to scale and to earn the funds, right?

Zach Brisbane (17:23)
Exactly, exactly.

Meghan Escobar (17:25)
Yeah.

Perfect. Well, listen, thank you so much. I appreciate your time, your story, and more importantly, your perspective and the education that you provided for us here today. I think our audience will definitely be gaining some insight from this conversation and potentially reaching out to you to learn more about what the difference is between those vacant policies and the landlord policies and all of the things that you kind of separated for us today.

Zach Brisbane (17:59)
Absolutely. Thank you so much, Meghan. I appreciate it.

Meghan Escobar (18:01)
Yeah.

And before we do wrap up, if there was somebody who wanted to connect with you, learn more about what it is that you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you? Is there a social media, email, phone number? What would be

Zach Brisbane (18:14)
Yes, there’s three ways you can reach me. So first is this you can email me at [email protected]. So that’s Z-A-C-H-A-R-Y dot B R I S B A N E at goosehead.com. You can give me a phone call at 410-415-9497. Or you can reach me on social media on my Instagram at Zach underscore Brisbane. So that’s Z-A-C-H underscore B-R-I-S-B-A-N-E.

And I’ll be more than glad to help you guys out.

Meghan Escobar (18:46)
Perfect. I love that. And we’ll be sure to provide those links below so that way you can just be able to click right into getting connected with Zach. Thank you so much. And for those of you that are tuning in, if you got any value from this, please be sure to hit like and subscribe. We’ve got more conversations coming in just like this. So we’re talking to people that are building real businesses in real time with real people. We’ll see you on the next episode.