Florida's insurance industry is in crisis, but even crises
provide business opportunities.
For Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate Inc., insurance
might be a new edge to help it move houses.
On Tuesday, the state's largest real estate broker will start
offering its customers a broad palette of insurance, everything
from homeowner's to automobile, through NRT Insurance Agency
Inc., part of Coldwell Banker's parent company.
This large-scale convergence of real estate and insurance is not
open to everyone seeking to avoid huge rates, such as those
offered by Citizens Property Insurance, the state-run insurer of
last resort.
Only Coldwell's customers can tap it, and only NRT-owned
brokerages will participate. Franchised Coldwell Banker offices
are not in the program.
"We're not trying to insure the world," said Budge Huskey,
president of Coldwell/NRT in Florida, which is based in
Sarasota.
Besides attracting more real estate business, another of
Coldwell Banker's goals is to simply close deals, Huskey said.
More and more these days, deals are being snarled by insurance
issues.
The program could have a strong impact in Florida, where many
hurricane-battered property insurers are raising premiums,
cutting back on coverage or bailing out altogether.
Coldwell and NRT also are examining the idea of extending
insurance services to developers and commercial clients, where
the lack of coverage is regularly holding up or quashing deals.
Policies will be offered by companies such as Chubb, American
Strategic Insurance, ASI-Lloyds of London, Fireman's Fund,
Travelers, Encompass, The Hartford and Liberty Mutual.
NRT Insurance spokesman Joe Gibbons suggested that the companies
could provide savings over comparable products because of NRT's
size and economies of scale.
The company's move was news to Greg Bustle, president of the
98-year-old Bradenton-based insurance agency Wyman, Green and
Blalock.
But Bustle, whose company also plays in the real estate game,
noted that it is a natural progression: Banks have been playing
in insurance in recent years, so why not real estate agents?
"It's diversification and a logical place for them to go,"
Bustle said.
Scott Johnson, executive vice president of the Florida
Association of Insurance Agents, agreed. "The two businesses,
real estate and insurance, are compatible with each other. It's
an affinity relationship."
As another example, Johnson pointed to Frank Kowalski Sr.,
immediate past president of the Florida Association of Realtors
who also is head of his own insurance agency.
Waltham, Mass.-based NRT Insurance, formerly called Coldwell
Banker Residential Insurance Agency, is licensed in all states,
and its program is active in 45. Its insurance program started
five years ago in the Northeast and moved to California this
year.
The insurance products are geared primarily to buyers and
include homeowner, renter, auto, boat and recreational vehicle
coverage.
The sale of the policies will not financially benefit the real
estate associate who brings the client in the door, Huskey said.
Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate Inc., with 168 offices
in Florida, handled about 70,000 transaction sides in the state
last year, or more than $23 billion in volume.
The insurance program will begin much more modestly, with six
workers in the Tampa-St. Petersburg market and telephone support
from NRT Insurance outside of the Sunshine State.
But Huskey expects that Coldwell's 7,200 sales associates will
likely provide a tremendous feeder system for insurance sales.
Click here to see all that Coldwell Banker
Insurance now offers.
See what
Planet Realtor says about Coldwell Banker
introducing NRT Insurance.
