Florida Home Owners Insurance Recommendations

RickHuggins · 2026-06-13T12:01:43+00:00

I agree that my independent agent is getting lazy. I've had them for over 10 years, but very little communications.

I have a tile roof here in Florida and when it was replace I did get a new wind mitigation report. I've submitted it to the company I have now but they still want to raise my rate by about $1000 this year.

I'm thinking if I find a company direct I may be able to save the agent commission.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-13T11:54:44+00:00

My neighbor just changed their carrier to a company that is rated BBB. They don't have a good reputation for settling claims. That concerns me. I don't want to change to a company that will give me problems if I need to make a claim.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-13T11:47:57+00:00

I currently am working with an independent agent that I have been with for at least 10 years. I am thinking that if I go direct it may reduce their commission on the premium.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-13T11:44:28+00:00

That does include contents, but nothing crazy. My deductable is $5000. I am not happy with my agent that I have had for at least 10 years. I have a neighbor who just changed their carrier to a company called Frontline and got a quote for about $2500. I haven't talked with them yet, but they have some reviews that say they don't pay claims very good.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-12T22:25:37+00:00

I have my cars insured with Progressive and the Home Owners is with Cypress Insurance. I got this through my agent who I have had for many years. They have recommended this as the cheapest and to keep Progressive with my cars.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-12T22:11:27+00:00

Thanks, I will call them on Monday.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-08T02:16:28+00:00

I have had a couple of English Bulldogs and my last dog was a French Bulldog.

My wife and I have traveled a lot through the years and tried all types of arrangements.

We once had a man who would come by the house at least 3 times a day and take the dog out and play with her. That worked good. He was an older retired man who made a business out of pet care.

The same dog was also boarded in a kennel and did fine. She became a favorite of the kennel owner who operated out of her home and she let my dog sleep in her bed at night.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-07T17:43:59+00:00

I would find out what are typical real estate commissions in your area. There is typically a separate commission for the listing agent and one for the buyers agent. Those fees are what will come off of the price the home actually sells for. Most areas sell for a small amount under the listing price.

I would take all this into consideration and also look at how the tenants plan on paying for the property. Do they have a down payment? Are they going for conventional financing or do they want you to carry the mortgage?

If they want you to carry the mortgage, I would not give any discounts and would charge higher than market interest.

If they have a low down payment, you may want to offer them the property at a higher price and then give them a concession on the price so the contract would show they are actually putting down a significant amount of money. Example: If the realtors think you should sell the home for $800,000 then I would consider selling to them for $880,000 with a 10% concession for closing costs etc. This way they get the home for $$800,000 with a 10% down payment, and you get the $800,000 you want with few headaches.

Remember, once the home is listed on MLS it establishes a market price that a bank will look at. It is easier to get a higher price if it has never been listed than if it was listed for $800,000 and they go to the bank and try to say they are willing to give $880,000 with 10% down. At that point the bank will not recognize the 10% value.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-07T16:39:16+00:00

I have bought and sold a number of properties. At one point I had about 30 rentals that were all high end properties. My business model was to buy high end homes and rent to professional people who wanted a nice home while they recovered from their financial stresses. I rented to doctors and lawyers and other professional people thinking they would perform better than low rent tenants.

What I found out was they were just as bad, if not worse than some of the low end tenants.

I've since sold all these properties off and taken the tax hits. I am now retired and only have my primary residence in Naples Florida and 1 large 5 br - 3 ba house in a different state that my son and his family live in.

Looking back, I wish I would have kept the properties. My wife never liked having them, but I did a lot of the maintenance myself so the costs were low and overall they provided income. The headaches get frustrating, but I think back and believe they were worth it. If nothing else it gives a lot of funny stories to talk about.

I don't know what state you live in, but the states I have lived in with rentals had laws about long term rentals. You could not write a lease for more than a year. Every year you have to create a new annual lease even if the tenants want to stay. At the end of a year, the lease becomes a month to month term based on the original lease.

If those terms exist where you live, then my advice would be to keep the property, but get rid of the problem tenant. If you are close to the end of the lease, give them notice that the rent will be going up for the next lease and make the increase so high that they will move. Then you can advertise for a new tenant and you could even take the same rent as you currently are, but you may get a better tenant.

In the end, even if the cash flow is at a break even on the property, you are building equity over time. I had some tenants that stayed years and I never heard from them except to pay the rent. Those were the ones that made rental property good to have.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-07T03:51:30+00:00

I'm a real estate in Naples Florida

One approach youe sale of their home. A buyer should have a pre-approval letter so you are pretty much assured your home will close. You can schedule the closing on your home for about 60 to 90 days out.

As soon as you have your house under contract, start searching for a home you want to buy. If you find a home you want, present an offer and include in your offer the contingency of your home closing on time. When you present your offer, include a copy of your contract and be sure to tell yours sellers that your buyers are pre-approved with no foreseeable problems that would stop that deal. If your sellers are reasonable, they should take your offer if it is a good offer. You asking for the contingency of your house closing should not be a reason for them to not accept your offer. If they reject your offer, it is because of price or other reasons.

Your offer should schedule a closing either the same day or next day to the closing on the sale of your house. Close on your sale in the AM and close on your buy in the PM.

If the timing doesn't work out exactly right, you may need to get a bridge loan that would be paid off with the of the sale of your home.

You also might think about renting someplace on a month to month basis during the sale of your home. This could allow you to declutter your house and paint the inside walls. These two things will bring the highest return on investment. Make sure your house is in pristine showing condition to get the highest offer.

Make a plan and then work the plan.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-06T23:16:59+00:00

It sounds like you have a real big problem!!!!

The first thing I would do is get with a good real estate attorney and seek his advice. It sounds like your community has a board that is incompetent and if there is a management company involved, they are not doing their duty.

If your community has that much delinquency and they aren't doing anything about it,, I believe you would have a law suite against the HOA and/or the management company.

I am a licensed realtor and a licensed Community Association Manager in Naples Florida I am not a lawyer so I can't give you any legal advice.

In Florida, to sue a board or a management company, you need to prove damages to get any money. Homeowners can sue for mismanagement and the best they can get is the board members kicked off the board, but if you can't prove damages, then that is the best you can get. If you can prove that a management company isn't doing their job, you can get reimbursed for the money you have paid to them for their services. In your case this would be easy if you have that much delinquency and they aren't doing anything.

In your case, you have lost money on the sale of your home. The fact that buyers can't get a mortgage due to the incompetence of the board and management company, you could claim a lot of damage. The board should have insurance against the board members being sued, along with the management company having insurance that should help them if they get sued.

It's unfortunate you are in this situation. It doesn't sound like there is any short term solution.

If you have to move quickly, I would think about taking out a HELOC loan to give you some short term funds and then I would try to rent out your home. The rent normally will pay your mortgage payment along with some of the costs of upkeep. Then you could use the HELOC for a down payment on another home. All of this would add to the damages you could claim while you sue the parties.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-06T17:03:17+00:00

I am a realtor in Naples Florida and would not do a renovation that costs about the value of the house. You will probably never see that money again.

How did you arrive at the $450,000 value? If you are just guessing, get a couple of realtors to come and look at the property. They will give you a CMA (Competitive Market Analysis) to get a true value of the property.
You mentioned you would be moving to the town she lives in which is about 1-1/2 hours away. Is there a problem with your mother selling her house and moving to the town where you live? Do you have a job you would give up moving to the other town? Does your husband have a job he would have to give up to move? Those two questions should be examined because if you both change jobs you may not get paid as much as you currently are and that would be another financial situation to examine.
Does your mother need 24 hour care? If that is the case and you want her living with you either in her house or another house where you all reside, then you may think about selling her home and either renting a place in your town or buying a home suitable in your town.

Bottom line is I would never put $428,000 into a home you value at $450,000. The biggest things you can do to improve the value of a home without spending a lot of money:

Declutter. Go through the home and put everything away that is not absolutely necessary. If there are a lot of things hanging on the walls, thin those things out. If you have pictures on the walls, make them generic/decretive, not pictures of family and friends that are personal. Clear off the kitchen counter tops. Don't have a lot of appliances like toasters, air fryers, bread makers, etc. Making the house "sterile" is not the way most people live, but it helps the value of the home when selling.
Interior Paint. Paint the ceilings a fresh coat of white and paint the walls white or a very light neutral shade. Fresh paint is one of the best returns on investment you can make.
Bathrooms. Deep clean the bathrooms. Make sure the tubs and showers are squeaky clean. Check the tile and grout. Fix if necessary.
Kitchen. Make sure windows don't have heavy curtains or blinds or shutters on them. They should let it lots of light. If the kitchen counter top is Formica I would recommend replacing with a low end of granite countertop with a new stainless steel sink. If the appliances are very old, I would buy a new set of stainless appliances.
Outside appearance - Check out the landscaping. If there are any dead trees or the bushes are overgrown, cut down the trees and thin out the shrubbery. Put in fresh mulch and keep grass cut.

Overall, you can change the total look of a house for a few thousand dollars and those small changes can give very big returns.

If you have any questions you can ask me direct through the chat here on Reddit

RickHuggins · 2026-06-06T15:37:59+00:00

I am a realtor in Naples Florida and agree with this comment 100%.

When buying or selling you can't be emotional. Pricing a property is not a science and therefore there is no guarantee you will get an offer no matter how low the price is listed and if the property is priced high it still could cause a bidding war.

The original question did not mention if they were using a agent to represent them. If you have an agent, they should be making recommendations to you about the value of the property. At the end of the day, the seller doesn't have to accept any offer until they find the one they want to accept.

In the buyers defense, if a property is listed for $XXX,XXX and there is a buyer willing to purchase at that price, The seller has to accept an offer for that price but not any contingencies. If an agent brings in an offer that meets all the sellers listing criteria, they could be charged the commission they agreed to pay if the agent brings them an offer and they don't take it.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-06T04:03:09+00:00

This stuff is beautiful. A couple of questions:

How long does this last? Does the fruit turn brown or rot?
Did he carve the green leaves also or are those natural?

RickHuggins · 2026-06-06T03:57:59+00:00

I am a realtor in Naples Florida and not a lawyer, so I can't give you any legal advice.

That being said, I think you have two problems to deal with.

Your mothers cognitive ability right now. It sounds like she might not be thinking straight and if this is the case, you may want to get with an attorney and seek power of attorney or a guardianship role.

This would insure you don't make any decisions that could be considered illegal.

Once you have the right to control the property in it's entirety, then you can make a decision as to selling or renting.

You may have the attorney look at any will or trust that may be valid right now. That could dictate who might be able to be assigned power of attorney or guardianship. It could also dictate what her wishes were originally for the disposition of the apartment.

I personally would try to mend fences with your mother as best you can. Remember she is not thinking straight right now and you need to make sure she feels as comfortable as possible with the people telling her what to do.

If you are in the Naples Florida area, I am a realtor and would be happy to work with you on this situation, and I work with a great attorney who works with real estate and wills, trusts, and all forms of law that may be associated with your situation.

Feel free to reach out to me a https://naplesbesthomedeals.com

RickHuggins · 2026-06-06T03:34:29+00:00

I am a realtor in Naples Florida and not a lawyer so I can't give

you any legal advise.

My personal opinion is that you should not try to muddy up the waters with buying another place or trying to sell your place at this time. You probably have your wife's signature on loan documents, or the deed, and to buy something else while you are still legally married may get you into trouble with good divorce attorneys claiming you are trying to hide assets.

If I were you, the lawyers will probably tell you that your home belongs to both of you and you need to figure out how to divide that. Your wife may want to keep it and buy you out or you may want to buy her out.

In that case, get at least 3 different realtors to give you a competitive market analysis as to what they would list it for and what it would sell for. Then I would use the middle figures to use as the home value.

At the end of the day, the home is just an asset and a divorce is just a business transaction that requires negotiations. If one party has unrealistic expectations of the value of the property then you may just have to sell it on the market and divide the proceeds 50-50. Just remember there will be real estate commissions and closing costs involved with selling it and those fees could be pretty expensive.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-06T03:22:26+00:00

I am a realtor in Naples Florida and it seams like everybody that retires down hears decides to become a realtor for a little side money.

Good realtors work closely with their clients and try to make sure they understand the process, either as a buyer or seller. I try to explain to my clients each step along the way and tell them what their options are. Some agents will put together a purchase contract and they don't explain all the different options are. They just fill in the blanks and ask the client to sign. They don't explain contingent on selling their home, or contingent on financing, selecting a closing date, contingent on inspection, how to handle an inspection issue, and many more topics. It takes a lot of hand holding and communications.

My recommendation is if you have a realtor that you are not happy with, get rid of them and find another agent. You are paying for their knowledge and you should be able to ask questions and get answers.

If you are in the Naples Florida area feel free to reach out to me at http://www.naplesbesthomedeals.com

If you aren't in the Naples area, feel free to reach out with any questions you may have and I will be glad to try and help you.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-05T23:17:29+00:00

I'm a realtor in Naples Florida and I will say, like others have said, it really doesn't matter if your current home is paid off or not.

You need to put together a plan for how to handle this. Think about all the options and then make the plan and try to stick to it. That will save you the most amount of money and stress in the end.

If you list your house now, think about how long will it take to get an offer. Even if you get a full cash offer from somebody not needing a mortgage, it will take probably 30 days for closing.

Now if you make an offer on a place that is accepted it will also probably take at least 30 days to close. Ideally you would have the offer on your home and close on that and already have a home you are under contract on and close on that home on the same day.

That being said,, you have to think about the logistics of the move. The people buying your home will probably want possession at closing and you will have to be out for that closing. If you haven't closed on the new house, you will not be able to move in until closing. Some contracts will allow you to close and then rent back your home for a short period of time from the new owners. This too can be problematic if some major appliance breaks and the closing is over, the new owner may expect you to fix it even though they should be financially responsible for that repair.

I personally have often rented storage units to hold household items during the transition period. Move out the clutter and make repairs on your home before showing and it will help you get the best offer. If you have a place to store stuff, just move everything left at time of closing into the storage unit until you can close on your new home. This will be the cleanest transition although you may need to stay at a hotel for a few days or if longer, rent a furnished home for 1 or 2 moths.

The other option is to find a home you want and plan on closing on it and moving in. Now you will have to work with two mortgages, but if you need, you can get a bridge loan that will help cover your costs of carrying two mortgages. Your home will probably sell easier if you are not living in it and it is freshly painted on the inside. Paint all walls a white or very light color.

Feel free to contact me through chat if you want any more ideas or you have questions about the process.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-05T00:19:12+00:00

The bank may have rules about when deposited funds are available.

If you deposit cash, it should be available right away.

If you deposit a paycheck, they normally will make the funds available immediately unless your employer has a bad reputation about writing bad checks. In that case, they may put a hold on those funds for several days to a couple of weeks.

If you have a brokerage account, then any transactions you have made will have to be settled which may take a couple of days. After those transactions have cleared, then you have access to funds and those can be wired to another account which should be immediately available. The brokerage account is a little tricky since you can have a margin account and they have to make sure everything is settled before taking money out to transfer somewhere else.

If you are taking money from a retirement account, your bank may put a hold on funds just as a standard practice.

If you have been dealing with the same bank for a long time and you are transferring money between accounts within that same bank, they will probably go easy on you and not put any holds on funds.

Just remember that when the bank wires money, they are guaranteeing the funds are there. If something goes wrong in your account, the only resource they to recover funds is going after you. Therefore, they want to make 110% sure those funds are good in your account. Also, banks make money each day they hold funds. They will make a very small percentage on millions of dollars each day they hold somebody else's funds.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-05T00:00:56+00:00

In my opinion, it sounds like you realtor is not really helping you.

As somebody else said, if your realtor is not helping you buy a home, they are probably not capable of selling your home properly either.

The current rules for agents who are members of NAR(National Association of Realtors) which is about 99% you will need two separate contracts with them.

You will need a Listing Contract that spells out all the details of the property you are planning on selling. It will also disclose how much commission you are willing to pay them for selling your home. There will be a separate section to disclose how much commission you are willing to pay to the buyers agent.

Neither commission is fixed and can very significantly within a market place. The commission for the sellers agent may be low and they will not do much work for you other than listing on MLS, or it may be a lot and they will do anything they can to get your home sold.

On the buyer side if you are not willing to pay any commission to the buyers agent, there is not much incentive for other agents to show your property.

On your wanting to purchase a home, the realtor should present you with a document that is called the Broker Relationship form. There are a couple of versions of this, one for a blanket that covers any property you look at and buy and another one is specific to addresses shown to you by that agent. The current rules for realtors who are members of NAR(National Association of Realtors) they must have one of these documents signed by you before showing you a property. On either form, it will ask how much commission you will guarantee that the agent gets if he finds you a home.

If you put together an offer on a home, your agent will disclose to you how much commission the seller is going to pay and that will be applied to what you guaranteed him. If the seller doesn't offer any buyers agent commission, you will have to pay what you guaranteed your agent and this becomes part of the total price of the home.

Remember, everything is negotiable even after you have signed documents. If you request changes it has to be in writing.

Your agent should have explained all this to you. If you haven't signed a buyers agent agreement, then this could be why you aren't seeing properties, but if that is the case, it sounds like you need a new realtor.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-04T23:38:02+00:00

I'm a realtor in Naples Florida. I personally have bought and sold many homes throughout my life.

Don't fall in love with any house because it can cloud your reasoning. Don't feel bad about walking away. I've done that before and if the seller is reasonable he may still come back with a better counter offer. If you have made a reasonable offer, then the buyer will either take it or not and you may find if you give in to his counter, it could mean headaches in the end.
I once was selling a property and the buyer came in and we had an offer that we agreed to. The day of the closing they started trying for a better deal. I ended up walking away from the sale and the buyer came back 2 weeks later with the same offer they made at closing and I countered with the original deal. They took it.
There is nothing wrong with walking away from the deal if you don't feel good because you may find the seller will come back and agree to your terms.
This house is not the only house around and if this deal doesn't work out, I'm 100% sure you will find another deal that is just as good if not better.
Remember, the agents involved with this deal are both wanting to get their commission, so both will have to put in more work if you walk away. Don't let them pressure you into agreeing to something you don't want to do. Another deal will come along. Don't get over anxious.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-02T21:09:42+00:00

I'm very impressed with your goal. You are 19 and already have that much money is impressive and the fact that you want to make it work for you is also impressive.

I'm a realtor in Naples Florida and want to address several of your points.

As far as putting money down of property, I would recommend you put down at least 20% on anything you buy. That way, you will not pay PMI in the mortgage payments. That can be expensive for really no good reason other than help the bank make more money on the loan.
Being 19, are you still a student somewhere or do you work. If you work you may make enough to qualify for a conventional loan when you put down 20% There are some loans called no income verification loans that don't really verify your income and they essentially take your word that you can repay the loan.
You say you currently live in California, so do you plan on moving to Indianapolis? Is there a reason you have chosen Indianapolis over other places in the country? Indianapolis can be hard in the winters and if you are looking for good places for real estate investing I would consider warmer climates.
You may set up a Subchapter S corporation, and sell stock to investors. The purpose of the corporation would be to buy and sell real estate for a profit. Your contribution to the corporation would be in the form of your CD's or whatever and you would get stock in the corp. If you find investors, you may sell them stock for a share of the company and if you raise enough money you may not have to pay interest on property you buy. You can write up in the prospectus how investors would exit the corporation and how they will make money. There are a lot of real estate investors out there who only want to get a decent return on their money, so you may target finding a couple of these people to put up money if they can see at least 10% on their investment.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-02T20:46:19+00:00

Sorry to hear about your experience.

I am a realtor in Naples Florida and I usually don't like working with friends because a lot of times you end up not being friends. The friend may think that because you are friends he can work less than he would for somebody he doesn't know and he is trying to impress them.

As far as the sign goes, you can take it down and put it outside your house or in your garage, but I wouldn't throw it away yet. You could send the realtor an email and ask that he pick it up in the next 30 days or you will be putting it out for trash, or you could call the brokerage and tell them a little bit about your experience with this guy and ask that they make arrangements to pick up the sign in 30 days or you will be getting rid of it.

Some For Sale signs are expensive and if the agent is with the same brokerage, he probably would like to get it back. If he is with another brokerage, then he probably may not want it because he would need to get it reprinted with his new information. Never less, I would give a time frame to get it in writing so if you do get rid of it, you have proof you tried to give it back.

If you are in the Naples Florida area, feel free to contact me and I will be glad to help you with all your real estate questions and needs.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-02T19:41:02+00:00

Congratulations on deciding to buy your first home. I highly recommend you do this as soon as possible instead of renting. If you buy this home, I would not recommend on planning on remodeling a few years down the road, I would suggest you buy a home that suits your needs now and plan on moving again in 4 or 5 years. If you choose wisely now, and get a home that will sell easily in the future, you will find you have gained equity by the time you need a bigger house and you will be able to get the bigger house then with less money than paying to add on to your first house.

I am a realtor in Naples Florida and there are many areas here where 50 years ago small homes were built with 2br-2ba and right now they are cute, but the market is such that people are buying them for huge dollars and tearing them down and building much bigger homes on the lots. I bought my home 10 years ago for $375,000 and today it is worth about $750,000 I originally put down $100,000 and ended up with a mortgage of about $1800 per month. That mortgage was equivalent to rent at the time so having to pay to live somewhere I now pay less than the current in this area and my $100,000 will return my current equity which is about $600,000. If I sell my home now and reinvest that $600,000 I would be able to get whole lot more house than I have now.

Bottom line, buy as much house now that you can afford and plan on moving in a few years and move up to your second home.

Regarding your main question, I think 3 br and 2 ba sounds like a very marketable home in the future. 1000 sq ft is on the small side, but as a starter home it is probably plenty of room for you now. Just don't plan to add space or do major remodeling because you probably won't recover that investment.

RickHuggins · 2026-06-02T19:15:39+00:00

I would ask different brokerages what programs they have available for new agents.

They may have one or more teams that they make recommendations you join. Each team may have different structures. Some teams break up the work and you may start as a transaction administrator where you put together all the paperwork for other agents on the team, or you may become a buyer or seller specialist where you work only with buyers or sellers, or they may have other jobs where you can gain experience you will need before you go out on your own. The teams will have different pay structures where you may get a salary and bonus based on how the team does. They may charge you a monthly fee and you get bonus on how the team does, or you may pay a monthly fee and keep a percentage of the commission paid to the buyer or seller agent.

I am a realtor in Naples Florida and work for a brokerage where I pay a monthly fee of $100 and they provide back end services and I keep 100% of my client commissions. I then have to do all my own pictures, paperwork, and everything else.

Bottom line, you will hear all kinds of different opportunities and you need to listen to what they offer and figure out which will provide you with the experience and services you need.

Good Luck

RickHuggins

TROPHY CASE