Canadian real estate agents help make dreams come true. As a real estate agent, you’re working diligently to help Canadians find their dream homes. You try your best to make sure that the homes are perfect but many things can go awry. Who knew that the home’s roof was leaking? You didn’t and you sold the home to your client. Now, you’re facing a lawsuit that could potentially ruin your business. With this in mind, you need to prepare your company for such problems. One of the best ways to shield your Canadian real estate agent is by purchasing business insurance.
While business insurance for Canadian real estate agents is expensive, it’ll prove to be worth it. With real estate insurance, you can protect your company and your future. Furthermore, insurance can help protect your clients and so much more. Within this guide, you’re going to learn more about the insurance needs of real estate agents and brokers.
Understanding The Types Of Insurance Real Estate Agents Need
Real estate agents need insurance to cover their bases. Otherwise, you’re going to face a lawsuit and you’ll experience major issues. You won’t be able to defend yourself and you’ll have to pay a large settlement. Suffice to say, you don’t want this to happen since you want to make money and run a successful business. The best solution is to obtain insurance before your firm is sued. But, which insurance is pertinent for real estate brokers and agents? For real estate agents, you’ll need to obtain general liability insurance, commercial automobile insurance, and so much more. Below, you’ll learn more about the policies that you need.
General Liability Insurance
Having general liability insurance is pertinent. Without this insurance, your company is facing numerous risks. With general liability insurance, you don’t have to worry about people visiting your office. If they visit your office and they get hurt, they’re going to sue your company. To prevent this from happening, you need to protect your real estate agency with general liability insurance. This will ensure that your company can fight lawsuits and other problems. General liability insurance defends your company from accidents that happen in your place of business. If someone gets tripped and crashes to the ground, they could get hurt and they might sue your company. General liability insurance can protect your firm from such problems.
While you keep your property spic and span, problems can happen. So, you’ll want to protect your agency by acquiring sufficient general liability insurance. If problems happen, general liability insurance will help. It can cover lawsuit costs linked to slip-and-fall accidents. Don’t let anyone visit your agency’s property until you’ve acquired this insurance or you may regret it. Remember that you can team up with ProfessionalsCoverage so you can get the insurance you need for maximum protection.
E&O Insurance
You’ll also want to protect your firm with errors and omissions insurance. E&O insurance or professional liability insurance helps you pay for legal fees when your company is sued for mistakes you’ve made. If you fail to complete a real estate inspection and something goes wrong, E&O insurance will cover your bases. This insurance will protect your business when you’ve failed to disclose disputes and you’ve made mistakes in the paperwork. All workers are prone to mistakes. You never know. If you sell your client a bad property, they may blame you and your real estate agency. This could cause a lawsuit to be filed against your agency.
Before that happens, you’ll want to acquire errors and omissions insurance. Once you’ve acquired this insurance, you won’t have to worry too much about making mistakes. So, you’ll be able to make the tough decisions for your clients. If something goes wrong, the insurance will be there to help you.
Workers’ Compensation Insurance
Real estate agents do not work alone. You’re going to hire photographers so they can snap pictures of the properties you’re trying to sell. Furthermore, you’ll hire others to help run your business. Since you’re hiring workers, you need workers’ compensation insurance. With workers’ compensation insurance, you can help these individuals when they’re injured on the job. If they’re hurt and have to go through surgery, this insurance will help pay their medical bills. Plus, it is required by law. Since you rely heavily on your workers, you need to treat them right. You should respect these individuals and do what you can to help them when they need your assistance the most.
This is why you’ll want to acquire workers’ compensation insurance. It shows your valued employees that you care and want the best for them. So, you should not let them work until you’ve obtained workers’ compensation insurance. It is costly but it’ll make a big difference for you and your workers. If an injured worker sued your company, you can fight back thanks to this insurance.
Business Owner’s Policy
While you want to protect your real estate agency with insurance, you don’t want to overspend for insurance. With this in mind, you should bundle and save. You can do that by purchasing a business owner’s insurance policy. With this policy, you’re going to combine general liability and property insurance. You need both so it is best to bundle and save. This is why you’ll want to acquire a business owner’s policy. This insurance protects your property and your clients. Whether they get hurt at your place of business or your property is destroyed, this insurance is going to help you. You have to have insurance so you can defend your business. A good starting point is a business owner’s policy.
It helps that you’re going to save money when bundling these two policies. By combining both policies, you’ll save money and you’ll protect your company. Just remember that you’ll need a few other policies to ensure that your company is going to be protected to the fullest.
Commercial Auto Insurance
Since you’re working as a real estate agent, you’re going to be driving back and forth to properties. You’ll have to visit your properties so you can show them to potential buyers. With that being said, you have to be concerned about crashing your company’s vehicle. What happens if you cause a wreck and injure someone? This could lead to a major problem. Thankfully, you can solve this problem by purchasing commercial auto insurance. This insurance is designed to protect victims and business owners. Living in Canada means you’re going to be driving on icy roads so a crash isn’t unthinkable. When driving a vehicle, you’ll want to drive slowly and protect yourself with commercial auto insurance.
If someone gets injured, this insurance will help pay for the repairs and injuries. Furthermore, it can help repair your vehicle when storms damage it. Don’t get behind the wheel until you’re protected yourself with commercial auto insurance.
Cyber Liability Insurance
While the Internet can be very helpful, it has numerous risks. You never know when someone is going to try to break into your computer network. With that being said, you need to make sure that you’re protecting your network from breaches. Also, you need to be ready for the worst. If someone managed to break into your database, your clients’ data is going to be released to the public. This is very dangerous and your clients are going to blame you for this problem. So, you cannot ignore cyber liability insurance. Cyber liability insurance can help you survive the storm. You never know who is targeting your system. One mistake from one of your workers could lead to a compromised network and your client’s information being stolen.
You have to prevent this from happening but you can’t always do that. Instead, you’ll want to use cyber liability insurance to your benefit. This insurance offers protection from data breach lawsuits. It can also help you pay for breach notification services and fraud monitoring for your clients. If your real estate agent uses the Internet, you need this insurance.
What Will You Pay For Real Estate Agent Insurance In Canada?
One of the best things about Canada is the country’s diversity. When you visit Canada, you’re going to see people from all backgrounds. Furthermore, you will find tons of unique companies. While there are many insurance companies in Canada, you’ll find that they’re all different in one way or another. So, you have to realize that the premiums for real estate brokerage insurance are going to vary widely. Each insurance company is different so they’ll charge different prices. In addition to this, you have to know that insurance companies are going to determine your premiums by looking at several aspects of your company. They’ll ask a lot about your company’s revenue, employees, and assets.
If you own more property and equipment, you’re a bigger risk. So, you’ll end up paying more. It can be tough to know how much you’re going to pay. With this in mind, you will need to consult with the insurance company to find out how much you’ll pay in premiums. If you’re having trouble finding a good insurance company, you’ll want to contact ProfessionalsCoverage. With their assistance, you’ll have no trouble pinpointing a good insurance broker.
Do You Need Real Estate Agency Insurance?
You’ve worked for several years as a real estate agent and you haven’t had any problems yet. Naturally, you believe that problems are not going to occur. When things are going great, you may believe that is going to continue but a surprise may be in your future. With that being said, you cannot take this risk. Problems could occur and they could easily ruin your company. Do you want to take this risk and put your livelihood at risk? You don’t and you shouldn’t. You need to protect your company from these problems by obtaining a comprehensive real estate broker insurance policy. You shouldn’t take any risks because your business means the world to you.
Real estate agents face many risks including breach of duty, breach of contract, negligence, failure to disclose, and misleading clients. You work hard to prevent problems but you still may make a mistake. This is why you’ll want to obtain real estate brokerage insurance. It is a must for your company.
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