We own a townhome that we use as a rental and are looking for advice on the insurance which has increased ~$1600 over the past two years. The house is 22 years old with original roof.

Just got the insurance quote and it's ~$4500 with 2% wind and hail deductible. The house is a 3 story unattached townhome with a roof that I estimate to be 1500 sq. ft. with one pitch from front to back, one large rectangle.

House is valued around $500k so the 2% deductible would be ~$10k. I'm guessing that replacing the entire roof would be around the $10k mark if not done through insurance and not sure if it's worth paying the increased insurance cost just to have to pay the same amount of money for a new roof. I also think that if a leak were to occur, we'd more likely patch the roof than completely replace.

The other options are:
1. 5% deductible for $3700 (saving $800 for the year)
2. No wind and hail coverage for $2700 (saving $1800 for the year)

What would you do in this situation?

22 year old roof? I'd replace it out of pocket. One leak and it'll just get worse. Like patching pinhole leaked in plumbing.

I would just do out of pocket. Definitely no wind and hail if I knew I was replacing it.

Where is this located?

Houston

That sounds insanely high for an area out of the hail belt.

Have you shopped this to other carriers?

ChoppinDs40 said:

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That sounds insanely high for an area out of the hail belt.

Have you shopped this to other carriers?

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The 2% deductible applies to wind and hail.......I suspect the wind damage potential is the primary reason for it in the Houston area instead of hail

These quotes are from two different carriers currently. But I may try to get a couple other quotes as well.

If you're asphalt roof is 22 years old, you may be living on borrowed time and possibly have been for a while. Prepare to Replace that out of pocket sooner than later. Repairing a leaky 22 year old roof might not be feasible and if you do might be a recurring issue.

My advice for insurance is always the same, keep the highest deductible you are comfortable with for catastrophic losses. For a roof that is truly the size you think yours is, then it doesn't make sense to keep a low deductible to cover a roof in Houston that may or may not be needed every 10-15 years. It's small enough to be manageable out of pocket. Don't buy for the deductible to replace a roof every 15 years, buy in case everything burns to the ground one time in your life.

You have a pretty good situation. If you had a 9500 square foot asphalt or tile roof in the hill country like one of my customers I replace 3-4 times per decade, that might be a different conversation….and it would likely revolve around a different roofing material first.

If you want some metrics, text or email me and I'll send you the hail report for your address for as long as I have data for. You'll be able to see if you ger hail, how often, and the size. It's no guarantee of future storms but it can help establish a trend that might be useful. Contact is in my profile.