Investors, Be Smart About Your Property Insurance: BiggerPockets ...

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Property insurance is one of those nuisance expenses you always see calculated into mortgage payments and cash flow projections. It?s the second ?I? in the acronym ?PITI? (Principle, Interest, Taxes, Insurance), which most investors use to describe an overall monthly obligation on a property.? While unexciting and usually begrudgingly paid, I would argue that property insurance is one of the most important components in a real estate transaction.?Interestingly, I have found that even the most meticulous investors often pay little attention to the price and coverage of an insurance policy ? perhaps assuming that all policies and carriers are alike. ?I can assure you after working with numerous insurance agents and carriers over the years, this is definitely not the case.

While I have seen insurance agents bind policies for investors at $900/yr, I?ve seen almost identical policies on similar properties with premiums of $500/yr. At a difference of $400 dollars a year, an investor could potentially give up a large portion of their monthly cash flow simply because they bound a policy without shopping around first. I?ve found that different insurance agents have relationships with different carriers, and as such, have different programs to offer. I?ve also found that many insurance companies are not particularly interested in landlord policies and either don?t offer them at all, or price them less competitively than other carriers who may be more comfortable with this line of business.

In many cases, insurance agents quote a higher premium assuming an investor wants a higher level of coverage. For example, the investor may have a policy with a lower deductible or additional coverages such as contents, rent loss, etc. ?As an investor, it is very important to weigh the cost and benefits of paying extra premium (and sacrificing cash flow) for these types of enhancements to the policy.? While there is not a right or wrong answer, the important questions to ask are:

• Is this policy competitively priced considering the coverages and deductible?
• What level of insurance do I need to feel comfortable while not sacrificing an unnecessary amount of cash flow in the process.

?

Finding a good insurance agent is critical for any real estate investor. ?I encourage investors to shop around and get referrals from other investors before buying an insurance policy. Make sure you are not over-insuring and/or overpaying for your policy. Getting quotes from multiple companies will help you develop a framework for understanding how much you should be paying for insurance. In addition, by speaking to multiple insurers, you may find opportunities to save even more by bundling insurance (i.e. auto and property), association discounts (i.e. military or professional associations), safety discounts (smoke alarms, monitored alarms systems), etc.

As always, it comes back to educating yourself in all aspects of a real estate investment. Property insurance is just another facet to this business that should not be taken for granted. ?Cash Flow margins are already skinny enough without overpaying for property insurance. Take the time to put the right coverage in place that strikes the balance between peace of mind and profitability!

This post by Ken Corsini was originally posted on BiggerPockets.com.

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3. Increase Cash Flow By Appealing Your Property Taxes: BiggerPockets Investor?s Corner
4. Study Shows Surprising Gap Between Insurance Policies
5. Deciding When to Sell Your Rental Property: BiggerPockets Investor?s Corner

About Deidre Woollard

Deidre Woollard is the Community Manager at Realtor.com. She has a Master of Fine Arts from Spalding University and her short fiction has been published in literary magazines and anthologies. She served as the lead editor on Luxist.com for six years writing about real estate, auctions, jewelry and luxury goods.

View all articles by Deidre Woollard

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Hairstyling pioneer Vidal Sassoon dies at 84 in LA

In this Feb. 9, 2011 file photo released by Starpix, hair designer and businessman, Vidal Sassoon, stops for a photo at a special screening of "Vidal Sassoon: The Movie,? in New York. Sassoon, whose 1960s wash-and-wear cuts freed women from endless teasing and hairspray died Wednesday, May 9, 2012, at his home. He was 84. (AP Photo/Starpix, Dave Allocca)

In this Feb. 9, 2011 file photo released by Starpix, hair designer and businessman, Vidal Sassoon, stops for a photo at a special screening of "Vidal Sassoon: The Movie,? in New York. Sassoon, whose 1960s wash-and-wear cuts freed women from endless teasing and hairspray died Wednesday, May 9, 2012, at his home. He was 84. (AP Photo/Starpix, Dave Allocca)

FILE - In this April 23, 2003 file photo, Vidal Sassoon poses in his Beverly Hills, Calif., home. Sassoon, whose 1960s wash-and-wear cuts freed women from endless teasing and hairspray died Wednesday, May 9, 2012, at his home. He was 84. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, file)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Hairstylist Vidal Sassoon, who undid the beehive with his wash-and-wear cuts and went on to become an international name in hair care, died Wednesday. He was 84.

Sassoon died at his home on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, police spokesman Kevin Maiberger said. Officers were summoned to the home at about 10:30 a.m., where they found Sassoon dead with his family. They determined that he died of natural causes, and there will be no further police investigation, Maiberger said.

When Sassoon picked up his shears in the 1950s, styled hair was typically curled, teased, piled high and shellacked into place. Then came the 1960s, and Sassoon's creative cuts, which required little styling and fell into place perfectly every time, fit right in with the fledgling women's liberation movement.

"My idea was to cut shape into the hair, to use it like fabric and take away everything that was superfluous," Sassoon said in 1993 in the Los Angeles Times, which first reported his death Wednesday. "Women were going back to work, they were assuming their own power. They didn't have time to sit under the dryer anymore."

His wash-and-wear styles included the bob, the Five-Point cut and the "Greek Goddess," a short, tousled perm ? inspired by the "Afro-marvelous-looking women" he said he saw in New York's Harlem.

Sassoon opened his first salon in his native London in 1954 but said he didn't perfect his cut-is-everything approach until the mid-'60s. Once the wash-and-wear concept hit, though, it hit big and many women retired their curlers for good.

His shaped cuts were an integral part of the "look" of Mary Quant, the superstar British fashion designer who popularized the miniskirt.

He also often worked in the 1960s with American designer Rudi Gernreich, who became a household name in 1964 with his much-publicized (but seldom-worn) topless bathing suit.

"While Mr. Gernreich has dressed his mannequins to look like little girls," The New York Times wrote after viewing Gernreich's collection for fall 1965, "Vidal Sassoon has cut their hair to look like little boys with eye-level bangs in front, short crop in back. For really big evenings, a pin-on curl is added at the cheek."

In 1966, he did a curly look inspired by 1920s film star Clara Bow for the designer Ungaro. He got more headlines when he was flown to Hollywood from London, at a reputed cost of $5,000, to create Mia Farrow's pixie cut for the 1968 film "Rosemary's Baby."

Sassoon opened more salons in England and expanded to the United States before also developing a line of shampoos and styling products bearing his name. His advertising slogan was "If you don't look good, we don't look good."

The hairdresser also established Vidal Sassoon Academies to teach aspiring stylists how to envision haircuts based on a client's bone structure. In 2006 there were academies in England, the United States and Canada, with additional locations planned in Germany and China.

"Whether long or short, hair should be carved to a woman's bone structure," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1967. "Actually short hair is a state of mind ... not a state of age."

Sassoon's hair-care mantra: "To sculpt a head of hair with scissors is an art form. It's in pursuit of art."

He wrote three books. The first was an autobiography, "Sorry I Kept You Waiting, Madam," published in 1968. "A Year of Beauty and Health," which he wrote with his second wife, Beverly, was published in 1979. In 1984 he released "Cutting Hair the Vidal Sassoon Way."

He sold his business interests in the early 1980s to devote himself to philanthropy. The Boys Clubs of America and the Performing Arts Council of the Music Center of Los Angeles were among the causes he supported through his Vidal Sassoon Foundation. He later became active in post-Hurricane Katrina charities in New Orleans.

He had moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970s in search of a chemist to formulate his hair-care products and had decided to make the city his home.

A veteran of Israel's 1948 War of Independence, Sassoon also had a lifelong commitment to eradicating anti-Semitism. In 1982, he established the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Growing up very poor in London, Sassoon said that when he was 14, his mother declared he was to become a hairdresser. After traveling to Palestine and serving in the Israeli war, he returned home to fulfill her dream.

"I thought I'd be a soccer player but my mother said I should be a hairdresser, and, as often happens, the mother got her way," he told the AP in 2007.

He told the Chicago Tribune in 2004 that he was proud to have entered the field.

"Hairdressers are a wonderful breed," he said. "You work one-on-one with another human being and the object is to make them feel so much better and to look at themselves with a twinkle in their eye. Work on their bone structure, the color, the cut, whatever, but when you've finished, you have an enormous sense of satisfaction."

Married four times, Sassoon had four children with his second wife, Beverly, a sometime film and television actress, usually billed as Beverly Adams.

None of the children went into the family business. The eldest, Catya, an actress and model, died in her sleep on New Year's Day 2002 of an accidental overdose.

__

Associated Press Writer Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Evine: Former HSN CEO Takes On The Bigs, Launches Interactive Shopping Platform For Women

For over a decade, if you were to say "home shopping," you were likely referring to the experience of viewing products on your TV set, and ordering over the phone. After launching in the '80s, it wasn't long before television networks like QVC and The Home Shopping Network (HSN) had become synonymous with "home shopping." The Web and eCommerce changed that. Today, QVC and HSN both have active online shopping experiences, and HSN, for example, does 35 percent of its sales on the Web, which alone represents a multi-billion-dollar business. As the CEO of HSN in the late '90s and early '00s, Mark Bozek oversaw the launch of HSN.com as well the network's expansion overseas, which doubled the networks revenue. Having served as HSN's CEO for four years, and having served as VP of Broadcasting at QVC, Bozek knows the business -- and its target customer -- well. That's why he and team are today launching Evine, a commerce platform that aims to create an engaging and online-only version of the HSN and QVC model.

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Another testicle ticket written in South Carolina

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) ? For the second time in a year, a motorist has been ticketed in South Carolina for displaying a replica of testicles on a vehicle.

A Spartanburg County sheriff's deputy stopped a truck Sunday evening after noticing the "anatomically correct" display on the rear bumper. The incident report says the driver removed the display after being stopped but he was arrested for driving without a license. He was also given a warning ticket for having an obscene display.

Last July, a Berkeley County woman was ticketed for having a similar display on the back of her truck.

That case is to go to trial in municipal court in the town of Bonneau. That trial has been delayed three times and no new trial date has been set.

Associated Press

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Charlize Theron steps out with her adopted son, Jackson! Plus, see more photos of celebs spending time with their loved ones!

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Qualcomm gets on the Band 41 bandwagon, pledges support for Clearwire's upcoming LTE TDD network

Not exactly groundbreaking news here -- Clearwire's impending LTE TDD network is happening, regardless -- but it's always good to have the weight of a mainstay like Qualcomm behind you. Particularly when you're pushing uphill, into the wind, against far more established 4G networks from AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Qually has announced that it'll soon add support for the aforesaid waves, including Clearwire in its list of partners ready to ingest those multi-mode LTE chipsets that are so vital to our future enjoyment. The key here is support for 3GPP's Band 41 (B41) radio frequency, and we're told that the outfit plans to make chipsets supporting that band available "later this year." You're cool to wait, right?

Continue reading Qualcomm gets on the Band 41 bandwagon, pledges support for Clearwire's upcoming LTE TDD network

Qualcomm gets on the Band 41 bandwagon, pledges support for Clearwire's upcoming LTE TDD network originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 15:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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