You would be lucky if you could at a reasonable price. Too many things could happen and with the stock market/insurance companies it is probably worst now than before. You might try an agent who handles a variety of companies.

We have more than one home. Obviously, we are not always at both places at the same time. We have put mitigation in place to lower the risks & that helped tremendously in getting insurance at an affordable cost. Ask your carrier about risk mitigation.

/tricia

The first thing that falls away on vacant property is vandalism damage.

There are companies that write for vacant houses, but they usually place limits on the policies.

Expect high deductibles, and exclusions for things like broken pipes from freezing, broken windows, etc.

My brothers and I had the same problem when we tryed to renew the insurance on my mother's house after we cleaned it all out to get it ready to put on the market. I made the 'mistake' of telling them the house was vacant with NO furniture and they really upped the price of the renewal.I went to several places and they all gave me a high quote. I did a Google search for insurance for vacant homes and came up with www.foremost.com and checked to see if there was an agent in our area...and I was very relieved as our own (for our farm) agent was on the list! I then contacted them and they looked at it and gave us insurance. Yes, it was a little higher than what we were paying but not nearly as high as the other agents quoted. The other agents told me if there was furniture in the house the "maybe" that would make a difference in getting it insured as it "could" be lived in. But I am just happy to have it insured!

Our inlaws house has been vacant since December! I've been paying the insurance ever since. I met with the agent early on, and they know she is deceased. Turned in her leased van, and cancelled ins. and even got a rider removed for the pistol that had been removed and they sent a refund for both.

There was no mention of insuring a vacant house--nor if it was furnished. They knew we would be cleaning it out and putting it up for sale. There has been no change in the price.

For those that keep their existing policies, and don't tell their agents it is vacant - or even for breenthumb (whose agent knows) - please check the policy documents. Most likely, it will state that a home is considered vacant once not lived in for 30 days. Then, it likely excludes coverage after this period, or possibly excludes vandaism after this period.

I have read case law where people had vacant homes and then had a claim, and the insurance carrier refused to pay because it was vacant. and the policy excluded vacant homes.

So if you have a vacant home, make sure the policy documents don't exclude your vacant property. It is worth the extra money to make sure you are covered. The last thing you want is to be paying your premium, then have a claim that won't be covered because the policy excluded vacant property. There can be different descriptions for vacant. Even if there is furniture or someone checking on the place often, it likley is still considered vacant because someone doesn't live there on a daily basis.

sweet_tea......good advice. When checking other agents, I told them upfront the house was vacant. I didn't want any surprises in the event something happened later and we found we had no coverage! As it happened, we found someone else and we KNOW we have coverage on it. Now if we can just sell it!

Yes. Very good advice. Otherwise, the only ones we're fooling is ourselves. Sandy

I would surely be afraid of not letting your agent know exactly what the status of a house you are insuring with them is. It's misrepresentation, and you may find out after the fact when you try to file a claim that you aren't covered, when you've been paying premiums and think you were.

what is risk mitigation?

Risk mitigation means things like burglar & fire alarms hooked directly to the police station, alarms that go off in case of power failure, having somebody pick-up mail, newspapers, perform routine yard maintenance when we're not around, snow removal...stuff that 'mitigates' the insurer's risk.

/tricia