Real Estate Insurance in South Carolina
The real estate industry can be exciting, fast-paced, and on-the-go especially in times when the real estate market is on the rise. This makes it a fun and profitable profession, but at the same time increases the likelihood for insurance claims against real estate professionals. Whether you work in Charleston, Columbia, North Charleston, or anywhere in between, if you work in South Carolina odds are 98+% of real estate professionals invest in various insurance policies to manage their exposure. Below we explain the 3 main types of real estate insurance and how working in South Carolina may be different.
Types of Real Estate Insurance in South Carolina
There are 3 main types of insurance for real estate:
- errors and omissions
- cyber liability
- general liability insurance
Although errors and omissions insurance is not mandated by South Carolina, E&O insurance is often required by another authority such as your real estate franchise or bank partners. Regardless of whether it is actually mandatory, common sense or past experiences often make signing up for errors and omissions insurance in South Carolina an obvious choice.
Errors and Omissions Insurance in South Carolina
Just as the name would suggest, errors and omissions insurance covers errors and omissions made by real estate professionals working on behalf of a real estate brokerage. Specifically, E&O typically covers situations like not disclosing relevant information about the property, or not showing a property to a prospective buyer to even bodily injury or damage that could happen during a showing. In general terms, broadform E&O policies protect both the brokerages and individual real estate agents if they’re sued by a client because of a mistake they’ve made related to transactions in real estate.
Errors and omissions insurance for real estate often covers defense costs, legal costs, and court costs related to a claim.
Cyber Liability Insurance for Real Estate in South Carolina
Cyber Liability Insurance for real estate is a relatively new type of insurance policy in South Carolina that is designed to protect businesses from both 1st and 3rd party risks associated with cyber attacks and fraud. Real Estate professionals are a prime target for these types of attacks, because real estate deals involve complicated, multi-party, high value transactions and sensitive personal data.
First party Cyber Liability policies cover the real estate agent directly and include things like Cyber Extortion, Electronic Transfer Fraud, Deceptive Funds Transfer, and Telephone Tolls, to name a few. Direct coverage is important, but from what we have seen are rarely the reason why real estate professionals decide to purchase cyber liability policies. It’s the 3rd party protection that is usually the consideration, because that coverage would protect the vendor/partner or clients and in real estate deals, this is where the majority of the money is.
General Liability Insurance for Real Estate in South Carolina
General Liability Insurance or business liability insurance is a common type of coverage in any industry that protects businesses from claims resulting from normal business operations not specifically related to the real estate industry.
Specifically, General Liability Insurance in South Carolina will cover personal and advertising injury, damage to properties that are rented to your business, as well as, bodily injury or medical claims, and other common business liability exposure.
Finding the Right Partner
Navigating the regulations and designing a comprehensive policy for real estate professionals requires finding a partner with the right knowledge and experience. At PBI Group, we have written over 50,000 real estate E&O policies for thousands of real estate companies throughout the 50 states. For Cyber Liability insurance, a comprehensive plan specifically for real estate professionals doesn’t yet exist and the risks are changing and evolving constantly. PBI Group is committed to researching and working with carriers to create the best plan.
PBI Group is founded on the principles of trust, partnership, fanatical service and, most of all, industry leading E&O coverages. We do what we do because we believe there is a better way to buy professional liability insurance than online portals with cheap premiums and minimalist coverage. When your policy comes up for review, don’t just accept your renewal quote without finding out the benefits that come along with best.
RECOGNIZE ANY OF THESE RESPECTED REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS?We Love our Clients!
Great Company been dealing with Paul for years and years. Very friendly and helpful for my real estate E&O insurance.
He was a “young” man when we started this E&O insurance relationship!
PBI Group was recommended by our parent corporation for real estate E&O Insurance. We made the change and never plan on trying another company! 2022 Update… They are always professional and helpful with all of our insurance needs.
Paul Bondy and PBI Group has always provided a quick response to any questions I may have and has provided real estate E&O insurance coverage with a reputable company at a very competitive price for 8 + years for my South Carolina company.
I’m the Broker-in-Charge of Keller Williams Drive in Greenville, SC, and we just finished our first year of having PBI Group as our E&O insurance agent, and have been very pleased, as evidenced by the fact that we just renewed our policy. Paul and his staff are knowledgeable and very responsive – would recommend them for your real estate E&O insurance without hesitation.
Working with Paul Bondy was a pure delight! Thank you PBI group, for making it so easy to get our real estate E&O insurance policy in place!
