sometimes i want to punch people right in the face. two of my closest friends from undergrad had their homes burglarized
in both cases, the event occurred in the middle of the day, in a residential neighborhood. one was in northern baltimore last july 3rd (yea, happy independence day) ; one was last week in arizona. electronics, jewelry and other miscellaneous valuables were taken. both of my friends were/are working on major research papers, stored entirely on their stolen laptops. my baltimore friend was able to recover enough data from previous drafts to finish months of work in a few weeks. my arizona friend has been straining to recall all the research articles and updates she had from the week prior to the robbery using her saved emails. punch in the face to the jackasses that caused them grief
the difference in the two scenarios: only one friend had homeowner's/renter's insurance. i was completely shocked by this bit of information, as it seems that every apartment i've had requires some level of renter's coverage. financially, it's not the worst thing for my friend, but still it's useful so you don't have to pay out of pocket. to offset some of the cost of replacing her laptop, the one friend is selling some of her prints on etsy
i have not done the research, but i always thought renter's/homeowner's insurance was required for renting/purchasing a home. perhaps i've just been at fancy shmancy places that don't want to be liable for accidents and what not. regardless, wherever i live, i would never consider not having insurance. in my opinion you can never be too safe. so for anyone who is on the fence or doesn't think it's worth the expense, i wag my finger at you. it's 100% absolutely worth it, especially if you have a lot of valuable items. or are prone to setting your kitchen on fire when baking cookies. or have carpet on your staircase that constantly trips your visitors. or things of that nature... you can get a large amount of personal liability and possessions coverage for around $10 a month. plus you can get discounts if you have multiple insurance plans with one insurer. for anyone who's moving into your first apartment, make sure this is on your list of things to purchase. also on that list should be an external storage device, whether it's a 2 gigabyte thumb drive or a 3 terabyte external hard drive, you should keep electronic backups of all your important files. you never know when your laptop will crash, get a virus or go missing. and make sure you keep your backup storage in a safe place
as an aside: if anyone's looking at apartments in baltimore/anne arundel (or wants information about an area), check out apartment ratings and police statistics data (typically, reported online by each county). i've found both to be quite useful in my searches. i'll step down from my box now :) hope your weeks are fabulous
Monday, March 1, 2010
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5 comments:
Apartment or renter's insurance is one of those things where you never get it, but then you always wish you had it! I have had good luck with my apartments so far, all three have been well policed by neighbors. However, I have had several car break ins in Baltimore.
Knock on wood, nothing ever happened to me in my rental properties. I lived in my DC apt for 2 years and later moved to Baltimore where here I didn't have renter's insurance either. You'd be amazed at how many people do not even know about renter's insurance. A lot have never even heard of it and don't understand what it is. At best, rental offices should at least have an FAQ sheet or renter's recommendation sheet. It may be true that fancy, schmancy apartments maybe run by bigger corporate companies may require, as opposed to recommend renter's insurance.
lol ok, i'm the outlier. that's great that neither of you have had home break ins :)
@spencer - boo to the car break ins though
@charlene - i agree that having an FAQ sheet would be good. there may not be many renter's who have break ins, but having the information is always a plus in my book
It sucks that their places were broken into, and it sucks even worse when they don't have the insurance to offset costs. I've never had my home broken into *knock on wood*, but I have had my car broken into on Maryland Avenue bridge, hoo-rah for Baltimore City.
As far as real estate offices/renters offices go, in my office they definitely have info on insurance for renters/buyers. I think it may be their own insurance though. They can't give any stats on break ins though, legally, so they can't tell anyone how useful it will be lol.
Real estate agents are bound by Title 17 of the Maryland Code,. You're right they can't disclose if crimes took place in home or neighborhood, if a person had a illness like a communicable disease or if a murder took place in the house or the racial make-up of a nighborhood. They also face a conflict of interest in a lot of situations. They can "suggest" companies but they can't say "go here" so for safety many simply steer clear of telling someone about insurances. This is only from a real estate agent side. You'd be amazed at the complaints my office sees about ppl complaining about things they said their agent TOLD them to do. We license real estate agents but not property management companies. SO a rental office should tell renter's they can get coverage.
@courtney- are you real estate agent or you work in a rental office?
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