u/strikecat18

I will first of all acknowledge that the information I had from my source at corporate was wrong. I’m truly thankful it was, and I wasn’t intending to mislead anyone with it. That was part of why I hesitated to share the specifics I’d heard.

My general thought is that we dodged what could have been much worse. Fire commission being unchanged from AA05- and having the ability to get back to current AA05 comp levels on auto without IPS- makes this survivable for most agents.

There being a variable component for life app count is also nice for agents who aren’t in markets where writing giant permanent policies is common. The minimum premium numbers for life in the current SMVC system meant you needed multiple years of high production even to see a payout. I’m thankful that was addressed.

As for the negative… health insurance and AIPP hurts. For us specifically, we have a disabled child who needs specialists. Group insurance was part of what made me choose the SF opportunity over opening independent. There isn’t a marketplace PPO in our state, and it doesn’t look like there’s a EPO that has his doctors in-network. I can imagine lots of other agents will soon discover how bad having no group option will really be. It isn’t even a money issue- it creates access issues.

AIPP represents $500k+ in lifetime income reduction for the average agent. It also eliminates the illusion that we have a way to monetize our equity in the book like independents can. That’s a big pill to swallow.

I do worry that crossing the rubicon on changing existing contracts like this means nothing is permanent going forward. The new contract adds language that clearly states pay schedules can be adjusted at any time with 30 days notice. Yes they could do that before, but intentionally adding that wording is concerning.

My last thought is that I think corporate misunderstands how most agents operate. Yes, some bleed their agency dry. But most are taking home what they must and investing heavily back into the business with the rest. Reducing agent pay is going to change agency staff and marketing budgets more than it changes agent profits. That will hurt the enterprise as a whole.

I only have the captive model framework to reference and I know it won’t be the same.

On paper, $30k of new premium per month, split 60/40 auto/fire with a 15% lapse rate would put you at $1M just about exactly 2 years in.

Curious in real life how people have experienced it playing out.

Someone mentioned Firefly. I’m looking at them, but would love to hear the other best regarded ones to compare.

I’d love one with access to some higher-end home carriers. I don’t want be stuck offering HO-3s from small companies.

Due to recent events - which I won’t elaborate on, but that have been discussed here today - I’m realizing I probably need a backup plan.

From what I gather, there isn’t an abundance of quality independent books up for sale at any given time.

I may not be opposed to opening scratch if I could get appointments. Are carriers going to give appointments to someone leaving a $5M captive book, or am I going to need an aggregator?

I know some of you guys have made this jump. Would love more info on how you did it.

This is a new one and I’d love a second opinion.

Our outside unit has been short cycling. I had a tech out today from a reputable company. His diagnosis was that the fan motor is failing and that the fan is now spinning backward. That sounded bizarre.

I asked him if he checked the capacitor wiring to make sure the replacement we had done wasn’t reversed. He was confident all the wiring looked correct.

He also says dying motors can cause the fans to reverse direction.

I went outside and checked tonight. Sure enough, it’s spinning counter-clockwise and pulling air into the unit rather than pushing air up and out.

Should I have someone double check the wiring or is this a real thing?

Wife and I have both driven Subarus since we met. A year ago a hit-and-run driver struck me and my son and totaled our car. That shook me up enough to focus even more on safety, and I switched to a Volvo.

It’s now time to upgrade my wife’s car. Based on safety, I’ve pretty much narrowed it to Volvo or Mercedes, and she likes the Mercedes designs more.

We need GLE or bigger to fit everyone.

We’d be buying preowned. I know how much maintenance will be, but I’m hoping to at least avoid any known “trouble” models/engines.

Any suggestions on specific models to either buy or avoid?

Appreciate the help!

Wife and I have both driven Subarus since we met. A year ago a hit-and-run driver struck me and my son and totaled our car. That shook me up enough to focus even more on safety, and I switched to a Volvo.

It’s now time to upgrade my wife’s car. Based on safety, I’ve pretty much narrowed it to Volvo or Mercedes, and she likes the Mercedes designs more.

We need GLE or bigger to fit everyone.

We’d be buying preowned. I know how much maintenance will be, but I’m hoping to at least avoid any known “trouble” models/engines.

Any suggestions on specific models to either buy or avoid?

Had posted a while back asking how many people really offered bedroom TVs. Well, the guest checking in today for a week-long stay texted last night asking if bedrooms had TVs. That’s the 7th person and I decided it was time to give in.

Went to Walmart and was shocked how cheap smaller TVs have gotten.

Felt sort of silly I had resisted for so long. $420 later and I’ll never have to field a complaint about this again.

I know it was a while ago now, but it’s amazing USBC and even Wikipedia still are standing by them.

I’m pretty sure if he rolled three 900 series over the span of a few months, (“plus two more in practice”), he’d have rolled another one sometime in the past 20 years.

Okay so this isn’t as weird as it sounds. I’m a 40 year old white guy, but my son believes, and tells other people, I’m 93 and Japanese.

When he was 5, he asked me how old I was. I said “really old” (it feels like it). He says “how old?” and I joking said “90”.

A few days later, he told one of his friends that I’m 90. He actually took it literally. At that point it was funny to go along with. Now every birthday since then, he’s been adding a year. He tells people all the time now I’m 93.

A couple of years ago, he overheard me mention something about speaking Japanese to my wife. I’m not fluent at all- just took a couple classes in college. He asked me to say something in Japanese, so I did. He responded with “omg I never knew you were Japanese”.

He then started telling friends and their parents that his dad is Japanese.

I figured he’d figure this out over time, but it was cute, so I didn’t correct it. The issue is that now he’s 8 years old and it’s getting awkward for my wife when he tells other parents that his mom is married to a 93 year old Japanese man.

AITAH for not correcting this sooner or still being slightly amused?

Had a new one today and don’t know if I’m autistic and read it wrong.

Was emailing with an auto client of mine last week about quoting her home policy. Went back and forth a couple of times. She emailed me a reply last night saying “I’m okay to move forward if you let me know what I have to do. Can we invoice my mortgage escrow?”

I was busy and rather than emailing her saying “Great. Yes, we can invoice your mortgage”, I just went ahead and bound it. Sent her the dec page, thanked her, and told her the mortgage was being sent an invoice.

I get an email back immediately saying “I didn’t approve that” (??)

I respond back apologizing for the misunderstanding, pointing out she had said “I’m good to move forward” and asking if we could invoice her mortgage. Told her I’d withdraw the application if she’d like.

She writes back “No problem, just miscommunication. I said ‘move forward IF’”

An hour later she had corporate transfer her auto policies to another agent. And I’m just over here like 🤷‍♂️

Long story short, we’ve coming up on a year of hosting. It’s gone incredibly well. We have a perfect 5-star rating. We’re top 5% guest favorite. We’re also booked more than most any other property in our immediate area.

I attribute a lot of this to the fact I’ve personally handled every turnover. All ~50 of them. I notice all the stupid little things- spots on sheets, a hair in the sink, a slightly cloudy hot tub, etc.

My plan was always to stop doing this myself at some point. I own an office and honestly I’m losing money spending my time doing cleaning instead of my day job.

I’ve tried handing some of it over to my wife, but that hasn’t gone wonderfully. She won’t notice stains on sheets, or will forget to fold stuff before it wrinkles. I end up taking even longer trying to fix stuff I assumed was already done. It’s not her business and the level of focus just isn’t the same.

I’d love to contract with a cleaning service and just get it all off my plate- but I’m honestly paranoid they are going to screw up and ruin my perfect track record. We’re in a competitive, saturated market and losing top 5% or Superhost might legitimately bury us in the search algorithm.

How did you guys handle the transition to delegating this stuff?