Why real estate professionals need business insurance

As a real estate professional, by the very nature of your business, you can potentially be subjected to various claims and lawsuits. Even the slightest error on your part, whether intentional or not, can have some major consequences and devastating results. So, as any professional real estate businessman knows, you really can’t expect to get far without proper insurance.

However, when it comes to deciding which insurance policy is best suited for you, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with all the various options out there, which should make the decision a bit easier. So, let’s inspect your options.

General liability coverage

General liability coverage covers the expenses due to damages, lost items or injuries up to the policy limits.

As a real estate agent, you’ll be the one provided with an access to all the listed properties. This means that you’ll be the person in charge of taking potential buyers on house tours. While inspecting the house, accidents are not impossible.

If, for example, a potential buyer slips on the kitchen floor and injures their back, they can sue you, as a real estate agent, for not warning them that the floor is potentially slippery. As crazy as it sounds, this does tend to happen, so it would be best to insure yourself before such a scenario happens to you.

Additionally, you never know who the potential buyers actually are, and it can happen that some of the owner’s belongings go missing. Here, as well, they have all the right to sue you, even though it’s virtually impossible to keep an eye on everybody all the time. A general liability coverage policy will take care of that as well.

Business liability insurance

A business liability insurance covers court defense aids you in court and even covers the damages and settlements that are to be awarded to the person suing you.

In a perfect world, everything regarding buying and selling a property would go smoothly. However, in reality, chances are that not all of your clients will be satisfied at all times. For example, a client decides to press charges against your business because they believe some of the technicalities were not thoroughly met.

That’s where a reliable business liability insurance takes the stage. It’s important to note that this insurance policy will not make you untouchable, but it will aid you in covering all the expenses of a trial and settlement if there happens to be one.

Property insurance

Property insurance, as the name suggests, offers protection against the majority of risks to properties, such as fire and weather damage and theft.

A property insurance policy usually includes replacement and reconstruction insurance policies as well. This insurance policy protects your place of business and it can cover any damages or injuries that occurred in your business premises.

It also covers all the business-related data, which makes it a perfect choice for any professional who wants to make sure that their business is safe and in good hands. If, for example, your place of operations gets damaged during some natural disaster, a property insurance policy will cover all the costs regarding the reconstruction of your property, allowing you to get back to business as soon as possible.

Workers’ compensation insurance

This insurance policy protects your employees in case of any accidents that have occurred while they were on the job.

If you run a real estate company, you probably have a lot of employees in charge of various tasks. While the employees operating from your headquarters are exposed to minimal risk, your field workers potentially face many. For example, your real estate agent can be involved in a car crash while on the way to the property they need to open for viewing.

This scenario can have some serious consequences. For instance, your employee might get seriously hurt which can result in them taking a medical leave and even requiring some serious medical procedures. A workers’ compensation insurance will allow you to cover all of your worker’s treatment costs as well as their salaries while on sick leave but, in return, they will be required to forfeit their right to sue you or your company.

Of course, the aforementioned insurance policies were only some of the policies you should definitely consider obtaining especially if you’re operating in the world of real estate. The point of it all is to make sure that you insure your business, your workers, as well as your premises against any potential legal claims or disasters.

This way, you’ll ensure that you and all the people in your employ can perform their job to their best abilities, without fearing the wrath of potential unsatisfied clients.