Welcome back to another episode of the IRA Cafe podcast! In this informative session, host Kyle Moody sits down with John Hamrick Jr. for a deep dive into the must-know details of insuring real estate owned through your self-directed IRA.

John is a seasoned insurance advisor with Brown Davis Insurance and the current president of the Triad Real Estate Investors Association (REIA) in North Carolina.

Together, Kyle and John unravel the complexities of purchasing real estate inside your self-directed IRA, emphasizing how insurance needs change when property is held within your retirement account. John shares cautionary tales from his decades in insurance, explains why being proactive is critical, and provides practical risk-management strategies. From the importance of naming your IRA as the property’s true owner to the unique challenges investors face when a claim arises, listeners will walk away with actionable tactics and enlightening stories—like the pitfalls of last-minute insurance purchases, trampoline troubles, and what to do if a tree falls on your property.

Key takeaways:

1. Correct Ownership and Insurance Naming: John underscores the necessity of ensuring that the IRA—not the individual investor—is listed as the named insured on any policy, as misnaming can jeopardize claim payouts and coverage.
2. Timing Is Everything: Getting an insurance agent involved as soon as the purchase contract is signed, or even during due diligence, helps avoid last-minute surprises such as insurability issues, undisclosed property damage, or disallowed features like trampolines and certain dog breeds.
3. Cash Allocation and Deductibles: Investors must keep sufficient cash reserves inside their IRA to cover deductibles and unforeseen repairs, since personal funds cannot be used without triggering tax penalties or prohibited transactions.
4. Risk Management Through Tenant Insurance: John recommends requiring tenants to hold renter’s insurance with high personal liability limits, as this protects both the IRA owner and tenant in the event of damage or accidents—keeping owner claims and premiums in check.
5. Full Disclosure and Proactive Inspections: Owners are encouraged to be transparent with their insurance agent about all property risks and periodically inspect properties (without hands-on work), as undisclosed issues or risky animal/pet situations can lead to denied coverage—and even policy cancellation.

Whether you’re new to real estate investing through a self-directed IRA or a seasoned pro, this conversation blends expertise with real-life anecdotes, equipping you to avoid costly mistakes and ensure your retirement investments are well-protected. Don’t miss this essential episode—a must-listen for anyone serious about real estate within their IRA!

You've got your self-directed IRA all established and you're ready to buy real estate inside of it. You're ready to go. You're already under contract on the property, but have you landed the insurance on it? In this podcast, we sit down with John Hamrick of Brown Davis Insurance, who's going to tell you everything you need to know about getting that property insured. Join us then. Welcome once again, everyone, to another installment of the IRA Cafe powered by American IRA. We are so glad you are joining us wherever and whenever you listen or view this podcast. You know that we always like to bring a great show to you with great information. We always try to fill the podcast with all the guests that can give you anything and everything that you might need as your tools in your investing notebooks, uh, to help you move through your investing objectives.

And today is no different. One of the things that we're going to be talking about is real estate, but also the insurance aspect of real estate, right? Remember, we're going to have a little bit of a reminder session really quick before we get to our guest. Think about if you are brand new to this and even some of the seasoned investors as well, this is going to come into play for you. But if you are a brand new investor and brand new to real estate and using your self-directed IRA, remember, IRAs are IRAs, whether it is a retirement account at a Vanguard or a Fidelity, or if it's an account at American IRA. But remember also that you're able to invest differently when using the true self-directed account at American IRA. And in that, I mean, with a true self-directed retirement account, you are able to invest directly into real estate. What does that look like? Well, you're going to open up your account. It's a simple application process.

You're going to get that account funded, and whether that's going to be through a rollover or a transfer or even your contribution, you're going to take those funds and you're going to direct the folks at American IRA to now purchase a piece of real estate. Remember, that real estate does not belong to you. It belongs to your retirement account. There's a lot of similarities of everything that is related to that real estate, right? Let's say you've already gotten the real estate picked out. You've gotten the offer to purchase and contract vested correctly. You have your closing attorney set up. There's going to be HUD statements, deeds, titles, and so on and so forth. But what about that one piece called insurance? Have you picked out your agent? Do you know everything that's going to be involved with it? Have you ever had any issues that you've needed to contact an insurance agent? What happens when the property isn't yours and it sits inside of your retirement account? All of these are going to be questions that might come up when you start using your self-directed retirement account for the purchase of a piece of real estate.

Okay, so we're going to jump in today, and we're so happy to have our guest with us today who is John Hamrick. And John is a multidecade insurance advisor, insurance agent, and currently with Brown Davis Insurance Associates in the Triad of North Carolina, and that services the Winston-Salem, High Point, and Greensboro areas. And he's also currently the president of the Triad REIA. That's a real estate investors association which I am lucky enough to sit on, on a board for. And as you've heard me talk about before, if you have not.

Um, if.

You have not gotten into a REIA group, find one in your local area, and you will be surrounded by people like John who are sharing not only their investor knowledge but also their profession knowledge and how that's going to assist you in your investment objectives, right? Because again, not only is John an insurance agent, but he's also an investor just like you. And so we want to go ahead and bring in John and welcome him to the show. And again, thank you, John, for taking time out of your day, and I'm sure taking time away from your clients today, uh, to speak to the group. We are really looking forward to what we're going to be able to learn from you. So welcome to the IRA Cafe.

Thank you, Kyle. And in your mention of multi-decades, it just reminds me that sometimes old guys rule. One of the things that I've found helpful in my career is that you never stop learning.

And.

You know, I took my first insurance exam for licensing back in the early '90s. But the one thing I've done is I've continued to study. And learn, uh, not just about insurance, but about the business that my clients are in. And someone gave me a tip, uh, years ago, probably 15 or 16 or 17 years ago, that I should come visit this group called Triad Real Estate Investors Association. And so I came and visited and ended up joining. And, uh, this year I find myself acting as president. It's not that I know everything there is about real estate investing. It's more of a, a job that requires organizational skills and maybe perhaps some leadership skill.

So I continue to learn, but along the way I have studied the way investors study and I've studied the way they invest. And so it's important to understand that so that you can properly ensure whatever it is that you have inside your IRA. And so I, it's serving as president is my way of giving back. But I will say that the Real Estate Investors Association, whether it's ours or one local to where you are, it's a great, great thing to join and participate in because you can absolutely learn so much and Instantly, it's how I met Kyle, and that's how I find myself here.

We're always appreciative of the relationships that we develop over the years, and I've been doing this not quite an entire decade, but I can see it from there. Well, obviously, too, being involved with RIAS, that has been over the past 13 or 14 years, coming from a real estate background myself. And so it's always great joy to have these types of connections because, as I said earlier, we know the importance of not only being a provider of the self-directed retirement account for all of our thousands of clients across the country but also making sure that these educational bits here are brought to everyone from the real people. And they're not only practicing in their profession, but they are practicing right alongside all of you who are showing up to your group events. Throughout the week, weekend trainings, and things like that. John, some of the things that you'll do when you get up in front of the room, you're always asking us for a tip of the day, but then you're giving a tip of the day as well. And so really, one thing that I've always gleaned from you is some of your examples and some of your stories that you will tell. Hey, you know, this one happened just the other day, or I've actually been with you when somebody called you right before you took the front of the room at one of our regular meetings.

And I want to say there was a tree that came down on a house. So I want to look at a couple of those examples that you can share with us. The first question that I actually have for you though, John, is, is there a difference in what someone can expect when insuring a property, whether that is just themselves that they have purchased, whether it's their primary home, whether it is their investment property that they purchased with their own funds, or whether it is property that is inside of their self-directed IRA and as such titled by the IRA itself. Can you break that down for us and let us know any of the differences?

I think probably one of the first things that I will tell folks is to make sure that you understand who owns the property. Because the owner of the property is also going to need to be the named insured on the insurance policy. It's kind of hard to collect a claims check when the check is made out to somebody that has no interest in the property. And a lot of times you're jeopardizing your coverage, actually. And so I, So I encourage people to, you know, when they evaluate the property for purchase, you know, look at all the things that you normally would. And if you're happy with the property, if it's your home, it's a place that you're going to want to live. It's a place you can afford. And part of that cost is going to be in the insurance.

Oddly enough. The problem I run into most of the time is that, as you said earlier, you know, you, they, you do it, have an attorney run a title search and, and you do all the, ask all the questions and, and get all the answers. And you're about a day and a half from closing and suddenly you think, oh, wait a minute, I gotta call John for insurance, or I gotta call my agent for insurance. Uh, you know, a lot of times we can perform miracles and turn it around that quickly, but sometimes we do, uh, run into some issues. I think I told you about a client that was purchasing, uh, a property inside of an IRA. And, uh, I actually, he was buying it from another one of my clients. So I was already familiar with the property. Uh, but I hadn't seen it in a while.

And so I thought, well, this is easy. I'll just, create a new quote, uh, with the same company that was currently on it. And the problem I ran into is that this company had, uh, taken an, uh, I guess a satellite photo, overhead photo of the property, and it had a trampoline on it. And that stopped me dead in my tracks in terms of, of even providing a cost. Um, I, I, with my clients, sometimes they're, they know they're gonna deal with me. And so cost isn't exactly that much of an issue, um, because I'm, I'm very competitive. Uh, but I'm also smart about what they're buying. And so, uh, a lot of times they just think, oh, well, I'll just, just call, uh, when I think about it.

We would prefer to have more time to work on things. But in this case, uh, I had to call him back, tell him, listen, I can't do anything until that trampoline is removed from the premises. Fortunately, he already had a relationship with the, uh, property manager and they had it removed. And I ended up binding coverage on that property 2 days after he asked me to, which was about a day after it closed. Um, I was able to backdate it. So, um, that, those are some of the things you run into. And, uh, I, my tip of the day recently was to make sure you, uh, go by and look at the property before you close on it because, uh, sometimes, uh, there's a change you may not be aware of. I was on my way to a REIA meeting and, uh, happened to see this building and, and had a for sale sign out front, commercial building, said it was under contract and, uh, looked good except for the part of it that was on fire.

So I'm not sure what happens in that case, but I would hate to buy something that burnt down without my knowledge.

Gotcha. I want to unpack a couple of things that you were talking about there, and this again proves as being perfect education for someone to consider when again setting up your self-directed IRA. You know that that might be something different than you've done in the past. You might be a real estate investor who's done this for years outside of a retirement account, and now you want to put it inside of your retirement account. So you're going through all the, the motions of the things that you, that you do remember and understand. And then just like John said, lo and behold, you're getting ready to close. It's 48 hours before everybody's showing up at the attorney's office, and you go, oh gosh, it's, it's not insured. So John, tell us really quick, what is— I mean, is, is there a magic time limit? You know, does someone— how far does someone get in the investment process? Again, whether it is— I mean, let's talk about it in general.

Somebody is moving through with a real estate investment, again, whether it's outside of the retirement account, inside the retirement account, at what point, you know, should they say, okay, I've gotten past this phase, I've gotten past my I'm turning in my earnest money, I've gotten past the due diligence phase, I know that I'm now wanting to move forward on this. At what point is the earliest should an insurance agent be brought in? And really, what would be your— and let's take out the example that you just gave of 2 days before— what should be that drop-dead last date that you need to be brought in for everyone to be able to comfortably do their job effectively?

I think, you know, the minute you execute the contract to purchase, not execute the contract, but sign the purchase agreement, go ahead and give us contact. Let us know that you're gonna buy that property so that, or even before, during your due diligence phase, because we may find something in searching for insurance that can help with the purchase price. Sometimes when we go in to quote an insurance policy, we find out that that dwelling had prior water damage that may not have been disclosed. It could have had smoke damage. It could have had a lot of things. And sometimes we're notified of that as agents. When we're trying to write something, you know, the insurance companies have way deeper pockets than I have, and they have many more resources than I have. And so I use theirs and they can give me a lot of information about a property that, that more than I can glean just from a street view or a, or a walk around.

So, I think that the sooner you involve an insurance agent, uh, the better. I was just talking to one of my investment clients this morning and we were talking about costs. Uh, insurance premiums have risen over the last few years and, uh, in a fairly substantial way. And, uh, he said that between his insurance costs and property tax increases that he's gotta rent a particular property for somewhere between a month and a half or 2 months just to clear the money spent on those 2 items alone. So, keep in mind that if you have it financed or you've gotta set aside money for maintenance and that type of thing, then you should know what, or have a really good idea of what your insurance cost is gonna be.

I appreciate you bringing that up and I wanted to shift back to just a second of what John did. So, for everyone who just heard what he said, let me unpack it a little bit in talking about doing the due diligence of what all is gonna be involved in all the steps. And really every aspect, say, of the piece of real estate, things that you might not always think about. That's going to lead to another question I'm going to have for him in a second, so you want to stick around to hear that as well. But remember, when you are doing your investment with your self-directed IRA— and if you don't mind, I actually want to take a second here to tell you about American IRA. If you're new to this and you want to learn more about our company that can be a resource for for you in, uh, to be a tool in your real estate investing toolbox, and that you get to work along people like John for those insurance. Remember, you can visit us at AmericanIRA.com, a wealth of knowledge on there. You can open up your account directly from our website there, and then also find our schedule of events to learn more about these podcasts, when they're going to be aired.

Also learn more about our live webinars. If you're somebody that loves social media and you are on Facebook, find American IRA LLC on there and like us. You will also be able to get the chance to get all of these types of things in your feed, learning more about when John is going to be coming up on the podcast or when you might see John's webinar. If YouTube is your thing, well, guess what? We've got you covered there as well. Find us on our YouTube channel, and that's where you will see all of the podcasts and all the webinars. Subscribe and always be able to dial in and get all of this and other information that's going to help you in your real estate investing journey. So one of the things, John, on there is that, okay, you've identified a property, you may have gone through it, and at this point I really do want to kind of dig in and talk about if it is going to be truly owned by the self-directed IRA. Remember, folks, there's a lot of things that you cannot do.

You cannot do any of— put in any sweat equity on the property. You can't go in and beautify or try to make any fixes or do any maintenance or updating or anything like that. You can't, you know, stroke a paintbrush. You can't even twist in a light bulb if one is missing. And if my real estate days serve me correctly, I remember, hey, if there's not light bulbs, sometimes that can trigger an insurance thing, every little thing. You are allowed as the account holder, and the account is going to be the owner of the property, to go in and make all your notes of everything, okay? Keep that list and then tear that off the sheet and hand it to a contractor who's going to go in and maybe handle all these maintenance issues for you, all of which you know that will be taken care of after closing, but now we're before closing. And just the way the buyer or the account holder has been able to walk through the property, John, you had mentioned something earlier about a satellite shot or a drive-by. Is that really all that's involved, or are there times that an agent might require seeing the inside? Do they know that this is going to be owned by a retirement account or it's going to be an investment property as opposed to primary residence? And are there any differences in that, first of all? And then number two, can you elaborate on some of those?

Well, one of the things I should probably share with you is, is I know that the premiums are paid by the IRA account. So when you purchase it, You need to have, I guess, an invoice, and to have an invoice, it's gotta be quoted. So again, give your agent plenty of notice. Insurance companies are using roofing scores that come from overhead shots. The roof is a major concern in all habitational risks as far as the insurance company Looks at it, that looks like that might be their biggest expenditure on the claim side outside of a total loss fire. But they, they also take overhead shots to look for things like above-ground swimming pools and trampolines that are not allowed. I do have one company that will let you waive coverage on a trampoline if you just don't have the heart to tell, tell the tenant they can't have it. But then again, you've got a, inside of an IRA, you've got a property manager because as you said, Kyle, there's only so much you can do.

One of the things that I would suggest when you're looking at a property to put in your IRA, and it's something that you're going to consider with any investment property or personal property that you have is, uh, you know, insurance is just a part of your personal risk management, uh, philosophy or whatever. And so when, when you evaluate the deductible that you are going to.

Uh.

Take with the policy, uh, I think that you probably ought to consider how much money you have inside your IRA from a cash basis so that if you did have a loss, my understanding is you can't stroke a check to the contractor out of your personal account on a loss. So, one of the things I was thinking is that you'd want to make sure that you have, if you choose a $5,000 deductible, you're going to have to be able to handle that, potentially early in, in the IRA., and so, something you might want to consider is having enough cash in there for that, because if, if you don't and you have a loss and, you've already made your contribution for the year and your deductible's higher than that, that I assume there could be some tax consequences.

You know, John, I really appreciate folks. We didn't practice this. I kid you not, but he couldn't have mention that at a better time. And, you know, we're starting off, we're still here in January. I get a lot of questions, uh, about this. And so I'm going to go ahead and springboard off of that to again have a little bit of a review of questions that I normally get. And it will be, well, if I spend all the money on that I have in my retirement account on the property, Kyle, what happens if it needs a new roof? What happens if I need money for something if it's not cash flowing? What happens if my tenant moves out and I'm not cash flowing? What do I do? I remember one of my friends one time, he was, you know, talking about a Porsche. He was like, and he finally got it, and he said, you know what, you have to make sure if you're going to get the Porsche, you got to be able to afford the 3,000-mile services because it's not just like me taking my Ford.

In. Okay, what are those tires costing that thing? The battery alone, anything like that, it's a, it's a bigger investment, right, than, you know, my, my American-made car when I go in for $48.99 oil change and service. Okay, so regardless if it's the car you're buying, you want to make sure that you've, you know, got enough set aside for a rainy day, or when it's getting ready to get really cold here next week, cold snaps, shoot a battery. Do you have enough sitting in an account somewhere to be able to take care of that? Because it can happen at any Fast forward to your self-directed IRA, and now you got something even bigger. You've got a house in there. Hey, you may have been able to afford this in 100% cash from the retirement account, but to John's point, what do you have left over? And this is sometimes you may have heard people have said it in the past, being cash poor. Well, even if the property's cash flowing, what is that current cash flow going to? Okay, so to John's point, well, if something comes up and you don't have the money in there and you've already made your contribution from the year, you might find yourself a little bit backed into a corner. So what can you do on the front end? Let's talk about being proactive instead of having to be reactive to a situation that might be a lot tighter than, than you think.

On the proactive end, there's multiple things that you can do when you're investing in the property. If you know that you've got enough to at least procure the property, but maybe not anything else, well, is it time for you to start considering a loan on the property up front? Be able to keep some of that cash behind, have money in there that came from a loan, and then the retirement account still owns the property 100%, keeping in mind that there's only one type of loan that you're able to secure when using a self-directed IRA, and that's a non-recourse loan. A non-recourse loan. Okay, for any information you want to delve into those types of things, you're more than welcome to get in touch with me directly, and I'll answer questions on non-recourse at that time if it, if it's something that you need to discuss with me. A second thing that you can do, partnering with someone. Now, whether it's going to be disqualified or a qualified or non-disqualified person to the retirement account, you can partner the funds to go in on the purchase of the property. There. Obviously, it's not just the funds from your retirement account, but also where are the remainder of the funds coming from to also take care of the maintenance and, and upfitting issues.

So again, John, I appreciate you bringing that up because it, it is questions that we have on the front end. Make sure you're not on the back end of that question and didn't plan accordingly and have one of these issues arise where John's talking about, you know, just because something's insured, it's still going to cost something for repair, tree removal or something. And are you going to have that money in your retirement account?

Yeah, I think one of the other differences between a property owned in an IRA and one outside of the IRA is what you do at a time of a loss. It's a major loss. I would think that you guys as American IRA would need to be notified or would want to be notified. I also think that most suggest that you notify the IRS too, to make sure that everybody is on the same page in terms of what consequences may be if money is dispersed from different sources. Kyle, you just mentioned a word that triggered something in my mind when you said tenant. And one of the things that I like to counsel clients on is tenant renters insurance. Make sure that your renters have insurance because it's difficult— that it provides for a lot of stuff that's useful. Not only to the landlord, but also to the tenant themselves.

And I think a lot of people just don't give much thought to it because it's a pain to keep up with. You can have your property manager keep up with that. But when, when a tenant has renter's insurance, they're gonna carry personal liability. And I will tell you the, the minimum that you typically see is $100,000. You know, for about $12 more a year, they can buy half a million. And if you're renting a $400,000 or a $500,000 home to them, you ought to ask for the highest limit they can give you. I've even suggested that you pay the $12 to bump it up to the half million. But when, when the tenant does something that causes damage to your dwelling, like a kitchen fire or something like that, then at the time of loss, we can actually file the claim with the tenant's insurance and they will take care of all of it.

That way you don't have to deal with deductibles. You don't have to deal with claim history with your carrier. It also, the last thing we want is a vacant dwelling. They don't realize it, but their renter's insurance provides coverage for them to live somewhere else while the home is being repaired. And so it, and along with providing property coverage for their contents, I think a lot of times when even if they are responsible for starting the fire, the first thing they do is look at the landlord and say, well, you know, what are you gonna do about where I'm gonna live? Or what are you gonna do about the stuff that I lost? And it's kind of difficult at that point to say, well, you know, you should have carried insurance on it. So part of your risk management is, I think, should be to require your tenants to carry insurance and carry specific limits in terms of liability and to keep up with whether that's in in force or not, you know, by asking for a renewal certificate each year. But that can really help you out of a situation. You know, if you have multiple claims with an insurance company, it used to be if you had 2 claims a year, you'd have to look for another carrier.

With a lot of the stuff that these companies have had to cover, like wildfires in California, California, and of course the flooding and related losses that we had in North Carolina in the past year, not to mention just the everyday stuff, tornadoes and windstorms and fires and lightning and hail. You know, you can find yourself evaluating whether or not you're gonna file a claim or not. And companies actually will go back somewhere between 3 and 5 years, depending on the company, and look at what the loss history is, not only for the owner of the property, but they'll go back and look and see what the loss history was on that particular property. So if you bought the property from someone who filed a claim the prior year, and then you have a claim on it 2 years later, and they go back 5 years, they may see 2 claims and that may result in, some type of adverse, reaction, either an increase in premium or a desire to move on from that property and let someone else insure it. So if we can put the coverage where it should go, if the tenant's responsible, make sure they have a policy that will respond to the claim, then it's gonna keep your investment way cleaner.

If that makes sense. No, gotcha, gotcha. You had mentioned something earlier. I want to kind of get through this last question, then I'd like to end it with you telling us one of your, say, one of your more infamous or a story that stands out to you, because those who know John best know that he's got a wealth of knowledge, but he's got a wealth of great stories that are really true and honest to goodness. When he tells these, uh, it may draw some groans or it may draw some laughs in the audience, but it's all based on exactly what he has seen. And as we all know, in a lot of the presentations that we hear, sometimes it's not, uh, everything that you learn when things go great, but it's also the that you learn when things maybe take that turn for the worse. One really quick thing, anything else— we talked about pools, we talked about trampolines— any differences that people need to consider when thinking about investment property, or any differences in primary residences and investment properties when it comes to things that you need to consider that really you just can't have. One thing when I was in property management was the dogs.

Okay, cats are one thing, but there was a dog, a list of dogs, I believe. Right. What are some things that you can tell us? And, you know, if it's your own property, this is your house, you live there 365 days a year, year after year. There's obviously breeders out there that you can get dogs from. Are there sometimes that you can get a dog that you might have coverage issues with at your own property and then translate this over to an investment property? Do you need to have certain rules that tenants would need to abide by because of not just their renter's insurance, but to your point, your own insurance might be an issue if tenants show up in a self-directed IRA-owned property with certain pets.

Can you elaborate on that a little bit? Yeah, I, I think it's really important to have a pet policy, whether you're going to allow cats or dogs, and then specify what you will allow because there is a list of prohibited dog breeds, Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Chow Chows. There's a full list. And I know that, I know people that have those dogs and those dogs are as sweet as they can be. But then there, it's always the bad ones that make it bad for the rest. And insurance companies, if If they don't know about a dog, then they're not gonna do anything about it. But I, I will tell you this, and, and I meant to mention this earlier, is that when you purchase a property and you insure it for the first time, you can just about count on, within 2 to 3 weeks, someone from the insurance company is gonna come by and inspect that home. And so there are things that you can do to spruce it up and make it look better.. And one of the things to make sure there aren't any objects or animals that shouldn't be there.

And it's not just dogs that have bite histories or bite tendencies or other tendencies that can result in a claim. And not only can you jeopardize your coverage, you can actually jeopardize the relationship with the insurance company. In other words, they can go back and, and if there's a claim involving a dog bite and you didn't disclose that there was a dog on the property, then they can just come, come in and say, well, you weren't honest on your application. So we're just gonna pull coverage from the date of application and we'll refund your premium. We are not gonna cover this loss. Some of the other things that you need to make the insurance companies aware of, if you have a rural type property, you need to get approval for animals like cows and horses and things like that, large animals, because, you know, if they get out of their pen and wander across the street in front of a car, you could be held responsible for the damage to that vehicle. And, it can be severe at times. And so those are other things to consider.

But I, and the other thing too is evaluating your property and evaluating the risks in it. Know what questions, don't be afraid to ask questions of your agent, but know how to ask those questions. And I kind of joke around and say, you know, call them up and say, John, I've got a friend that has this issue. What would you tell him to do? And I can tell them what I would intend for them to do. If, as an independent agent, if I represent the company and there are two different types of policies that I use a lot. And for tenant-occupied dwellings, I usually represent the company. And so if a client calls me and tells me that That there is a claim, I have a duty to notify the company of that. And then you've got claims history, whether they pay out or not.

Some of the fix and flip stuff, which I know some people will start out with, some of those policies, I actually broker those. And so I actually represent the insured and I don't have to worry about that, but Uh, it just in, in keeping with let your insurance agent know as much as you can about the property, you know, as much as you know about the history of the property. Uh, because a lot of times if, if the insurance company is on the fence as to whether or not they want to offer coverage, uh, and I can influence that decision in a positive way for the client, that's what I'm gonna do., and so having as much information in my head, everything that, that, you know about it, I should know about it. I'm your friend. I'm not your enemy. And so, I think some people just think, well, I don't really want to tell him about that because it may not look good. And sometimes the answer is just really easy. You know, if you got a pile of debris that's stacked up against the garage, you know, and, and, uh, it's not a problem as long as you're willing to remove it.

And I know that you can't do it yourself, but you can, uh, get the property manager to do it. Or if you see it before you actually buy the property, have the seller remove it, um, and not leave it there. So that's, that's one of the biggest things is that After the purchase, a lot of times the seller moves out or the prior tenant moves out and whatever they leave behind, the new property owner may not be aware of. And so one of my tips of the day, I tell people, you know, just every once in a while, just drive by and look at your property. And so that you know what's going on, because sometimes you'll see something that the property manager's not aware of. And then it can be handled before it becomes a claim. So, you know, the fact that your IRA owns it doesn't mean that you can't be a good steward of your IRA by visually inspecting. Now, you know, if you see something wrong with it, don't get out of the car and do it yourself.

Call somebody and have them do it. But that, that's sometimes we We buy.

Things and then we forget about it. Tell you what, if you've got just one of your stories, if you've got something that you can squeeze into about a minute or a minute and a half, love for you to send us off, uh, before I wrap us up with just, uh, a great.

Insurance story. Uh, probably, uh, the one that, that probably answers the most questions is, is, uh, one that happened to me in, in that I live in a very old neighborhood. And when I bought this property, uh, I had, I think, 13 trees that were at least 75 feet tall. And over the years through storms and, and just 30 years of living here, I've lost a lot of 'em, but one in particular, uh, blew down across my neighbor's brick courtyard. And slammed across top of his Ford Expedition and just basically broke the roof of that thing in half. And in the middle of the night, power lines down. I heard it. I got up.

I went over. And he said, what do I do now? And I said, well, here's what you have to do. You have to file a homeowner's claim and you have to file an auto claim because my tree damaged both of your, uh, different types of property. Uh, unfortunately I can't call my insurance company because that tree was healthy before the wind decided to take it down. Now, fortunately he was a good sport about it and I walked him through the process, but I think A lot of times we think when a tree comes down out of a neighbor's yard, it's automatically their problem. I have a backdoor neighbor that has a tree that's somewhat dead and covered with ivy. And so, 2 years ago, I sent them a letter letting them know that they have a tree in the backyard that's dead and covered with ivy, and it's hanging over one of my outbuildings. And now if that tree goes down and I let them know that there was a problem, that's going to be their responsibility.

And, but it was really the tree that went across my neighbor's courtyard. They got all the brick put back up. They got the car put back together. The good part about it is he had a '64 '64.5 Ford Mustang, first year they made them, original car, and the tree did not hit that car. So I was so happy, and they were so happy that it didn't hit that car. But sometimes you just find yourselves in an awkward situation.

Blessings around on all that one. Well, listen, I know that we've got to get everyone listening to us back to the rest of their day. John, we need to let you hop to get back to your day as well, but we'd be remiss if we didn't and say thank you so much for everything that you shared with us today. Thank you so much for the conversation. We know that for those of you who are listening here, you have probably already heard John in his— either live on his webinar, or if you have not, remember that you can always catch the rebroadcast of that webinar on our YouTube channel. And then you can also find out more about it at our website at americanira.com. So, to go ahead and let everyone head out for the rest of their day and the rest of their week. We thank you for joining us on another episode of the IRA Cafe powered by American IRA, where you can come to us with all your self-directed IRA needs and then also invest in that real estate.

And hey, you never know, John Hammrick might end up being your insurance agent. So until next time when we meet.

Thanks again for joining us and We'll see you then. American IRA, LLC, a North Carolina LLC, acts as a third-party administrator for New Vision Trust Company, a state-chartered South Dakota trust company. As a neutral self-directed IRA administrator, American IRA does not recommend or endorse any investments, individuals, or entities, including financial representatives, promoters, or companies. American IRA and the IRA Cafe are not responsible for others' statements, representations or agreements, nor do we evaluate the quality or profitability of any investment. American IRA does not endorse guests on the IRA Cafe podcast. Guest opinions are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of American IRA, its subsidiaries, associates, or custodian. Participation in the podcast is voluntary and no compensation is provided. American IRA is not a fiduciary and cannot offer financial advice.

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