Eric Paulos Insurance Services

08/27/2026

Old-school charm? Brand-new build? A little rough around the edges? If other agencies hesitate, I make it happen. I specialize in policies that fit your property like a well-worn baseball glove—no awkward gaps, no surprises, and no one-size-fits-all nonsense. Just the right protection from someone who knows apartment buildings inside and out.

08/26/2026

Coverage for Buildings of Any Age
If your building’s old enough to have its own ghost stories, don’t worry—I can still insure it.

Give me a call at 213-985-2177

08/25/2026

If your building’s been turned down, canceled, or just given the cold shoulder by other insurers, you’re not out of options. I work with specialty carriers who aren’t afraid to cover properties with a little history or extra personality.

08/24/2026

A Guide to Comparing Apartment Insurance Quotes
By Eric Paulos

Most apartment owners have to wear many hats in the course of doing business. To some extent owners are simultaneously entrepreneurs, bookkeepers, and mediators of tenant disputes. Some owners even go as far to double as grounds custodians, gardeners and handymen.

When it comes to examining legal documents, however, most do not get involved and hand the legal work off to an attorney. Ironically, an insurance policy is every bit as much a legal document as a tenant lease or an unlawful detainer. The customs involving insurance are much different. Insurance buying is much more subject to involving multiple bids and turnover of agents than other legal work.

General economic conditions are making it relevant to consider areas to curtail expenses. One of the areas that gets attention is apartment insurance.

A big problem with insurance is that when you compare quotes and have questions; you usually have to ask the agent who gave you the quote. Talking to one eager insurance salesperson, anxious to make a sale is hard enough, but talking to several can be terrible. Woody Allen even depicted torture as being lowered into a room with two insurance salesmen! The agent has a vested interest in selling you on their particular quote so you will hear their spin on their proposal. As a result, it can be hard to get answers without avoiding high-pressure salespeople.

Comparing proposals can be difficult also if not all of the details of the included coverage or exclusions of coverage are included in the quote. Often, a quote will arrive in the form of an extremely simple outline, perhaps building amount, contents amount, liability amount and premium. While this can be a good starting point to ask for more information, it does not offer much information for which to make an informed decision.

Think about it — Picture yourself buying a new car, and after calling a local dealer you received a quote that reads: Four wheels, steering wheel, hardtop, interior seats and outside body, $20,000. Wouldn’t that make you laugh? You might be looking for a station wagon, an SUV, a sports car or a sedan but no information is included in the dealer’s quote. You would want to know the make, model, included options, color, warranty details, etc. These days, you would probably be interested in the gas mileage, horsepower, etc. You might want to know the reputation of the dealership, parts availability and cost, safety ratings, insurance cost, and whether the car is safe to loan to your teenage son.

When you buy insurance or compare insurance for an apartment building, you have considerations also. Most of the time, the starting point is the price. If you are looking for more a more competitive quote, it is a good idea to be sure that you are not gutting your security for the sake of saving a few hundred dollars.

Here are some very basic tips for comparing quotes:

First, check the basics;

Beware of low-balling business practices, which is what happens when an agent lures you with a low price and then the company increases the price later. Be sure that the liability limits, building limits, business-income and property coverage are similar. After all, it is no mean feat for an agent to quote you half the building coverage and save you money. For workers compensation quotes, be sure that the amounts of payroll used (which determines the premium) are similar.

Are the companies comparable in size and reputation? Some agents will not disclose the name of the company they are quoting until you buy the policy. If the agent will not disclose the name of the company, ask the agent for the Best’s rating and financial size of the company. Ask the agent if the company is quoting with an admitted or a non-admitted carrier. Non-admitted carriers are not necessarily bad, but if the agent is quoting with a non-admitted carrier, you have to be sure that the carrier is a well established, solid carrier, because they are not covered by the California Insurance Guarantee Association. Just as a point of information. The Guarantee Association only covers the first $500,000 of a claim, so just because a carrier is admitted, does not make it bullet-proof. The public can log on to http:\\www.ambest.com and enter the name of the insurance company. You can also find an explanation of what the ratings mean on the same site.

Does your quote include special form (preferable to general or basic form) for the building? Is the building coverage on a replacement cost basis? Is there coinsurance on your policy or on the quote, and if so, are these the same percentages? Are the deductibles similar? Does the quote include building ordinance coverage and code upgrade coverage? Is that coverage on your existing policy? If you have a resident manager, does the quote include non-owned automobile liability coverage? Does the quote include personal-injury liability with wrongful eviction coverage?

Here are some other things to think about: Do you have an agent that you are comfortable with, one that attends to business promptly and looks out for you? If so, it could be worth sacrificing some premium savings to continue that relationship. If you insure 2-4 units, check that your carrier does not tie automobile insurance discounts into the deal. Also, new carriers mean new inspections and possible new discovered deficiencies. Some carriers allow in house financing, others do not, so be sure to cover all of your bases.

The moral is that if you are considering switching your coverage and have received a rate proposal that looks interesting, ask for a proposal that details all the coverage and exclusions, along with the company name and Best rating. You will then be armed with more information to make the best decision, safeguard your investment, and maximize your insurance dollars. If you have the patience to ask the agent quoted you for more information, it is okay as long as you remain aware of a certain bias factor toward their quote.

Eric Paulos is a Certified Insurance Counselor, apartment owner advocate, licensed California insurance agent, author and speaker. His agency caters insurance and risk management services exclusively for the apartment owner community. Contact phone: 800-974-6787 Fax: 800-959-9603, Email: [email protected]. Visit www.apartmentins.com for 24 hour/7 day a week online quotes, free articles and reports. Apartment Management readers receive a free subscription to monthly emailed tips & bulletins.

Get tailored insurance for apartment buildings & commercial properties. Trust Eric Paulos Insurance Services for personalized coverage today!

08/23/2026

For more than four decades, Eric Paulos Insurance Services has been helping apartment building owners, mixed-use property investors, and commercial landlords navigate the ever-changing world of insurance. And let’s be honest—it hasn’t gotten any easier. Rates are climbing higher than a squirrel on a power line, and many big-name insurers are backing out of the market. But that’s where we come in.
As an independent agency, we work for you—not the insurance companies. We compare top-rated providers to find the best coverage at the best price, sometimes even using multiple insurers to make sure every part of your property is fully protected. No one-size-fits-all policies, no fine-print surprises—just real coverage that fits your needs.

08/21/2026

Call me, so I can make sure you are protected!

08/20/2026

Not all buildings fit neatly into a box, and neither should your insurance. Whether you own an office, a strip mall, or something a little off the beaten path, you deserve coverage that actually works for your space.

08/19/2026

The Role of a Trusted Insurance Advisor
By Eric Paulos

Why does anyone buy insurance in the first place? Is it so that we can sleep at night? Is it to avoid financial disaster, or to satisfy a lender’s requirements? What kind of insurance is important and how do you know you if you are getting the essentials covered and getting the best value for your hard earned money?

In these times of a fragile economy, as well as in better times, insurance rates often lead the way for businesses that fight to keep some sort of a healthy cash flow. In the automobile insurance industry, insurance companies have sometimes even taken insurance agents out of the loop in the hopes of staying more competitive. But with respect to insuring your business investments and knowing your options, a trained insurance professional is an indispensable ally in offering good guidance to investors and property managers and that adds up to protection for your investment and budget at the same time!

I have been in the insurance business for over thirty years, hold a professional designation and yet sometimes the language in insurance policies can be confusing enough to even send me back to the shelves for an explanation. My insurance clients are generally intelligent and well grounded business people, but at the time of a claim, the experience of having a claim can rattle even the steadiest of nerves. The unvarnished truth is that at the time of a claim, many customers seem to not have the slightest idea about what is covered on the insurance policies. When served with a summons and complaint for a lawsuit for liability that is several hundred thousand dollars or upon receiving news in the middle of the night about a huge fire gutting a building, a feeling of panic often ensues.

The first step is to be sure that you have lined yourself up with a professional independent agent who specializes in apartment insurance. There is one reason for this and that reason is that with the thousands of different business types and thousands of different insurance plans for different businesses, one agency can not possibly be informed about all the insurance needs for all businesses. There are insurance agents who like to sell only life and health insurance, some agents that sell insurance to shoe stores and bicycle shops, others that insure entertainment companies and this list can go on forever. This is not the time to use the brother-in-law simply because he sells insurance or the local corner agency that sells mainly home and automobile insurance. When it comes to knowing the apartment insurance marketplace and protecting real estate investments, apartment owners need an insurance specialist of their own.

Independent insurance agents are free to offer their clients a variety of insurance companies that may offer the best possible combination of price and benefits. This is most often preferable to dealing with one of the one-company agencies whose paychecks depend on only one insurance carrier. An apartment insurance specialist understands the particular needs of apartment owners and after a fact-finding interview, what plan and choices are best suited for the individual apartment owner. That might mean shopping different insurance companies to get the plan that is right or even getting a combination of different companies to offer the best terms and conditions.

It is important to be up front as possible with the agent about the claims history, number of vacancies, prior insurance company cancellations and any lapses in coverage. This may seem a little like leading with your chin, but if an insurance company finds out that there was an important fact that was misrepresented, that could void a claim. Often when the first thing the adjuster does on a new claim is to check the application for important facts that relate to the claim. Typically, small claims are paid without the adjuster auditing the application too closely. But when carriers are hit with an expensive and large claim, anything that raises suspicion might be investigated. If for example, a large water damage claim occurred because there were excessive vacancies and no one to notice the water leaking for several days, that kind of situation could cause problems for the apartment owner.

Have your coverage reviewed. I have worked with new clients whose policies had not been reviewed for years! Some of these buildings were insured for $35.00 a square foot with coverage for only half of the annual business income. Worse, some owners of sizeable buildings come in carrying $300,000 of liability coverage. In other cases, there are very important coverage tweaks that another agent has overlooked and that can be done at no cost to the apartment owner, because the old agent was unaware of the new benefit. These situations are disasters about to happen. Not all reviews end up in buying more insurance. Often there can be fat to trim. Maybe it is not necessary to spend a few hundred on an enhancement endorsement, for example, that covers a few things like signs, shrubs and spoilage. Too low of a deductible on buildings 16 units and up could add up to thousands of dollars of wasted premiums, often enough to make up the difference between the amounts of the deductible over a few years. Sometimes, a company introduces a no-cost benefit but your agent needs to know to request the benefit for you.

Avoid using an insurance policy as a maintenance contract on small items. That can result in cancellations, higher premiums and a poor claims record.

Just as health insurance premiums get higher as we age, buildings have similar growing pains too. Insurance companies most often charge higher rates for older buildings, even for customers who have renewed with the same carrier. While it is not always a good idea to jump from company to company, it is well within reason to know what company choices are available when the companies start piling on the premium when an apartment building turns 50.

A brief word about payments and cancellations: If money becomes an issue and cancellation seems inevitable, call your agent ahead of time to see what sort of arrangements are available rather than simply allowing the policy to cancel.

Having a trusted insurance advisor to help you navigate your insurance needs not only makes good sense, you just might end up with the great insurance rates at the same time!

Call now to connect with business.

08/18/2026

The California insurance market is changing faster than a freeway lane at rush hour. Get in touch today, and let’s make sure your building is covered before things get even pricier.

08/17/2026

Thank you for more than 40 years of serving the great people of with the best insurance and guidance.