Rental Property Insurance Tips Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know

Eddy DeMars (00:00)
meeting with the customer face to face. This is not a phone conversation. It’s not a 10 subject line internet, cheap insurance query. There’s a lot of gray area and true uniqueness to everybody’s situation with the property insurance nowadays. I’m out of North Texas, it’s worlds different than it was five, eight years ago.

roof coverage a big part of it, the new endorsements, exclusions, how these companies schedule their depreciation has gone nuts and very foggy.

Scott Bursey (02:00)
Hi everyone and welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host Scott Bursey. And today I’m joined by somebody that I’ve really been looking forward to speaking with. Eddy DeMars from Fort Worth, Texas, who is in the real estate insurance space. Every investor knows that a single disaster can wipe out a decade of gains if you aren’t structured correctly.

That’s why we invited Eddy to the show today. He’s the guy the pros call when they want to optimize their risk and gain executive clarity needed to scale with confidence. Eddy, welcome to the show.

Eddy DeMars (02:32)
Hi Scott, thanks for having me.

Scott Bursey (02:34)
It is our pleasure. Eddy, for those that may not be familiar with your journey, please tell us how your career was launched and what path you’re on currently.

Eddy DeMars (02:44)
I’m a third generation insurance broker. Grandpa was a farmer’s agent, I was a farmer’s agent, dad was a farmer’s agent. Went independent 2012ish and haven’t turned back. Now appointed with partner with over 100 different carriers from Allstate, Liberty, Geico. Name it, I probably have access to it.

Scott Bursey (03:05)
Awesome I think our audience is really going to take something away from the way E to Mars Insurance looks at portfolio as a whole, Now, the landscape is shifting faster than most people can keep up with. Let’s start with the hard truth. What are the pros doing right now that the amateurs are missing?

Eddy DeMars (03:25)
I think a lot of agents are missing out on opportunity, being so transactional. I think that’s the main thing. There’s definitely a need for guidance, especially if you’re an investor looking to do this long term and own multiple properties and such and such. It’s gotten a lot more complicated over the last five, six years than ever before.

Scott Bursey (03:46)
Absolutely, I’m with you on that. And what markets are you operating in?

Eddy DeMars (03:51)
Generally all the property and casualty, any building from your single family residential to four unit, commercial, industrial, insured a couple of small airports. If you got a loan on it, I can probably put insurance on it.

Scott Bursey (04:08)
Love it. What caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to view insurance as a strategic asset rather than just a monthly expense, How do you bring clarity to such a confusing industry?

Eddy DeMars (04:23)
meeting with the customer face to face. This is not a phone conversation. It’s not a 10 subject line internet, cheap insurance query. There’s a lot of gray area and true uniqueness to everybody’s situation with the property insurance nowadays. I’m out of North Texas, it’s worlds different than it was five, eight years ago.

roof coverage a big part of it, the new endorsements, exclusions, how these companies schedule their depreciation has gone nuts and very foggy.

There’s a lot of moving parts that if you don’t have that person that can walk you through it, that you’re going to overpay, you’re going to get jammed up, you’re going to get in this rat race of canceling, starting, rewriting, can’t get approved anywhere and…

As margins as thin as they are

Eddy DeMars (06:04)
on rental property with the taxes. mean, the insurance is quadrupled in the last four or five years where it doesn’t give you very much room for any kind of deviation or little mishaps here and there. And like I said, having to find in the right broker or a broker, a true broker that works in this space. There’s kind of like the real estate eight, you know,

real estate business. How many real estate agents are there? How many houses are there for sale? How many people are really truly living in this world? I know a lot of people that are part-time touching, but you know, we truly, this is not a job. I tell everybody works here, this is not a job, this is a vocation. It’s you know, it’s a vital part of every bit of any part of loans. If you’ve got to buy something, you’ve got to borrow something, you’ve got to do something to close something, you have to come see me.

They will not pass your loan through. will not close that or fund anything until you have my piece of paper. You might as well just, you’re paying an agent for consultation if you buy it from 1-800. If you buy it from Joe Smollett knows nothing, you’re paying that consultation fee. It’s not that I charge any additional, it’s all whacked up in that same frame that everyone’s already paying. So it’s not like a hidden magic, you know, but that’s what I think a lot of.

the customers missing out on a lot. Not necessarily the broker. I think the agents and the brokers have capitalized too much on people burying their heads in the sand on a lot of this stuff. So.

Scott Bursey (07:37)
And it sounds to me like you’re taking a different approach and we’re going to touch on that. Eddy, what’s been the anchor for your business that allows you to stay consistent and predictable in an industry that has hard and soft markets?

Eddy DeMars (07:53)
Consistency, is a grid. We’ve gone through some weird, weird times the last 15 years. I think we’ve gone from a horse to buggy to SpaceX literal in the financial world. To me, it ain’t Consistency, willingness to be creative, trying to adapt the best we can, but maintaining a lot of the fundamentals.

It’s all about metrics. all about numbers. It’s all about, you know, I can find a good value spot and I see there’s a big margin there that underutilized customer can use that a lot of brokers and agents are taking advantage of, honestly.

Scott Bursey (08:32)
Yes, and I’m with you on that. Eddy, a lot of our audience, they’re moving a few doors to manage entire complexes or commercial spaces. At what point does a standard landlord policy become a liability?

Eddy DeMars (08:47)
When it costs more than the cash flows, it’s not worth keeping the property. That’s when I’d considered it. There’s lots of ways. Someone could trip and fall on that thing, put a half million dollar lien against them and you know, that property is just part of the liability now. I mean, like I said, every situation is somewhat unique to how many properties they own. There’s a lot of tricks to the trade on how to put this here to there to maximize this and that.

You know, that’s all… That’s tricks… To the trick.

Scott Bursey (09:13)
Yes, yes. And let me ask you this, Eddy. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next?

Eddy DeMars (09:21)
Hmm that’s the tough one

trying to reach more people organically, like true reach. I’m limited on me, time. So I gotta find more people that kind of mirror what I’m looking at, you know. But I can see it.

Scott Bursey (10:14)
Howard how do you feel you’re going to be able to reach more people is there a certain legion that you’re exploring could you…

Eddy DeMars (10:23)
trying to get more savvy

on this podcast and IT stuff, you know, implement all the new fancy AI apps, you know. I’ve bought every subscription to this and that and tried this and sat through every, you know, example sales thing. I don’t know. I’m trying to get more hip on the, on the IT side, you know.

Scott Bursey (10:47)
Thank

And then Eddy, let me ask you this as it relates to your business. AI is such a huge world right now. How big is it going to, what kind of a role is it going to play in your business? Do you think?

Eddy DeMars (11:07)
significant. It’s going to, it’s going to eat all the transactional guys. It’s going to know the value. They’re, definitely going to rise. It’s just going to be a, all the smaller guys that are taking it serious, doing it, doing it right. All the car sales guys, they’ll, just be ripped out, moved on sort of thing or eaten by bigger fish. I see if you’re not adapting, connecting.

You know, it’s not that hard a business. And honestly, I think like I said, I think there are a lot of people that take advantage of this fogginess that it doesn’t take much to line this line out to make sense.

Scott Bursey (11:43)
Yes, it sounds like you’re concentrating very heavily on the fundamentals, the core fundamentals of doing business correctly. And that’s only going to create long lasting relationships. And on that note, Eddy, how do you build those long lasting relationships? What’s one niche that you have that you feel is

your strength for building those relationships.

Eddy DeMars (12:12)
Hmm.

I’m to be genuine. I’ve done the sales thing from tell you whatever you like to hear to close this and that. you know, out of, guarantee them did. I’ve been in 10,000 appointments and in the, you know, the old school Zeke Ziegler style, you know. So I think that that authentic person is going to make it.

Scott Bursey (12:34)
And how do you convey that genuineness, that being authentic? What’s your approach?

Eddy DeMars (12:43)
It’s not that hard. I take your little piece of paper, it says ABC on it, and I compare it to another one that says ABC. And if it’s priced, makes sense. And I can put this in there and say, which one looks better, you like. It’s pretty straightforward. It’s not a magic or any kind of special, you know, it’s just trying to get, people are trained to be in that transactional, put that guard up and you know, that.

Actually being authentic is actually kicked back sometimes helping too much on such and such but it’s a weird We’re going through. I don’t know if you’ve noticed. It’s a weird weird time. I don’t care buying behavior Society or something. It’s Especially if you have kids. I’m a nine-year-old

It’s it’s we’re going through weird changes.

Scott Bursey (13:27)
that face-to-face interactions or the phone is the way to go.

Eddy DeMars (14:13)
I mean, it’s all about the numbers, like I said. But when you’re dealing with investor accounts, multiple properties and so on, if you’re paying significant sums of insurance premiums, you deserve the broker who’s gonna walk you through and explain it. You’re paying for it either way. Rarely people read through the whole hundred pages of that thing and see where this is then.

They just want to get a paycheck, sort of thing.

Scott Bursey (14:43)
What are you seeing in your space that just discourages you?

Eddy DeMars (14:48)
The transactionalness is very dog-eat-dog. Everybody’s kind of in that desperate situation where they have to, you know.

That’s pretty much it. It’s lack of connection with anybody. Pretty much anything. My biggest… You don’t that big of business. You know, if you have 2,000 good people that are there, you don’t need 50 million people. I think people are separated and, you know, reading the big books and the seminars and…

Scott Bursey (15:08)
Thank

Sure sure. Eddy let me ask you this any insurance advice you’d like to give our audience?

Eddy DeMars (15:30)
Find a good insurance broker or an insurance broker. that go interview a few of them, especially if you’re spending significant sums of money on your insurance. I mean, 10,000 to 20,000 is not a big number as it used to be when I first started. That would have been a home run. Now, know, a lot of these property policies are starting at 10 to 15,000.

You deserve one hour of that guy’s time to walk through this thing to make sense of ABC. ⁓ If you’re not getting that, give me a call. I’ll find you one. I’m local. I’m easy to find too.

Scott Bursey (16:05)
And that’s excellent advice. That’s really good advice. Eddy, last question. If a real estate pro is lying awake at 2 a.m. worrying about their portfolio, what is the one specific insurance stress test they can do tomorrow to actually find out if they’re protected or if they’re just lucky?

Eddy DeMars (16:27)
feel bad for that guy but he should definitely give me a call reach out regardless what state or whatever I know that I bought rental property I have a couple now I’ve been through that rat race and if he said 2 a.m. think about his insurance cheese tell him call me now

Scott Bursey (16:46)
Excellent. Well, all right, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out, Eddy, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’ve been doing. What’s the best way for them to contact you?

Eddy DeMars (16:57)
Facebook’s always good. They can give me a call at our office number 817-367-3235. It’s been there for I think 30 something plus years. I’m gonna get it tattooed right here actually I was thinking about but ⁓ There’s a million ways look up Eddy DeMars. I’m excited to see how what new ways I can find. I’m new to the IT ground.

Scott Bursey (17:19)
Awesome, perfect. Well, listen, Eddy, I appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. We need more people in this space who are doing it the right way. Thanks again for being here.

Eddy DeMars (17:31)
Appreciate you Scott, thanks.

Scott Bursey (17:32)
appreciate you and your time, And for those of you tuning in, we truly appreciate you. If you found a gold nugget or two in today’s conversation, make sure you’re subscribed. We’re committed to bringing this level of executive clarity to every episode to help you stay out of the curve. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.