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After talk about phenomenal profits to be made in real estate deals, it’s the new hot topic around the water cooler: insurance rates.

From people living in waterfront condos to inland single-family homes — and from new construction to older homes — everyone is experiencing sticker shock when their insurance bills arrive.

Businesses and homeowners alike are struggling with premiums that have doubled or tripled. Then there are those whose policies aren’t renewed.

Now, a group of citizens has decided to fight against skyrocketing insurance costs in Collier County.

The group, mostly local Realtors, is calling itself FAIR, for Fighting Against Insurance Rates. The name is a modification on FIRM — Fair Insurance Rates in Monroe — a group formed in the Florida Keys, and from which FAIR founder Bobbie Dusek takes her inspiration.

She heard Teri Johnston, the founder of the Monroe group, speak at a state Realtor association meeting, Dusek said. She listened to Johnston talk about organizing, lobbying the legislators and fighting insurance companies and decided to do likewise.

What she realized from Johnston’s presentation was that Collier County had some of the highest insurance rates in the state, second in some instances only to Monroe County.

Numbers compiled by Johnston from Citizens Property Insurance rates effective March 1 of this year showed Monroe paying an average of $8,890 for every $350,000 of windstorm coverage for single-family homes. Miami-Dade is from $3,980 to $6,703, Broward at $3,353 to $5,320 and Collier at $4,011.

Estimated rates for the same coverage from Florida Peninsula Insurance were $17,580 for Monroe. Collier was at $8,288 — below higher premiums for Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.

Dusek set about organizing a grassroots effort in Collier.

What gave her hope was the success Johnston and her group had with insurance rates in Monroe County. They fought for and won a rollback in insurance premiums to 35 percent below the last increase from Citizens and Peninsula, the only two companies that write insurance in the Keys.

Dusek started from within a group of Realtors she worked with. She soon was joined by people like Don and Sandy Lasch and Kevin Shanahan, Realtors who had both personal and professional reasons for wanting to fight the increase in insurance rates.

The Laschs’ insurance went from $2,800 to more than $5,300 a year for windstorm. Sandy’s mother, who lives in a condo complex off Davis Boulevard in East Naples, found her share of the building insurance go up by $3,100 from $4,000 a year.

“The condo association is having to cut back on improvements to pay insurance premiums,” Sandy Lasch said. “And that is going to cost them in the long run.”

They also hear the same stories from their customers, as does Shanahan.

“It happens on a fairly regular basis that people can’t get insurance (policies) or get them at a rate they can afford and have to walk away from the deal,” Shanahan said.

The other reason Realtors are concerned is because insurance is further slowing down an already down market.

Shanahan knows the pain of rising insurance personally as well. The insurance for his condo building in Pelican Bay was $300,000 for the current year.

Based on the renewal rates just received, the association is short $542,000 — that after a significantly increased deductible and eliminating coverage for certain things.

It will fall on the owners of the 133 units to make up the shortfall and they already have been assessed $900 as just the first portion of the payment.

Shanahan had just joined a volunteer committee at Pelican Bay to try to figure out a solution when he heard about Dusek’s efforts. So he joined her and is now working with both groups.

They have hired an attorney and an actuary and are trying to form a nonprofit organization. That will allow them to invite more members and generate funding, Dusek said.

In the meantime, she already has met with the Collier County Commission, Naples Area Board of Realtors and state Rep. Mike Davis, R-Naples, to rustle up some political muscle.

The commission directed that someone from within county government act as a liaison with the group, Commissioner Tom Henning said.

Of Dusek’s fight, he said, “she seems to be very dedicated and dedication is how you make it happen.”

There’s another reason why a grassroots organization like FAIR would have a greater chance for success, Commissioner Fred Coyle said, noting the commission doesn’t have the power to compel the Legislature to do anything.

“The politicians in Tallahassee respond to the votes of their constituents and their constituents are the people of Collier,” Coyle said.

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For more information, go to http://fairforcollier.wordpress.com