There were more than 430,000 new RV shipments in 2016—marking a 15% year-over-year increase and a 40-year record for the industry, according to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA).

Those numbers are expected to pick up even more this year, as baby boomers continue to retire in droves and more millennials snub homeownership in favor of alternative living situations for their young families.

Ariel Menkin, RV product manager at Progressive Insurance, says some research suggests as many as 40% of RV owners have children under the age of 18. “Some agents might be surprised to learn that some of their customers, who may not fall into your traditional RVer profile, actually do own an RV,” he points out.

Clearly, selling RV insurance could be a worthwhile investment in your agency’s personal lines book. But don’t make the mistake of winging it based on the assumption that RV insurance can’t be much different than auto: Recent research from Safeco estimates that about 25-30% of specialty vehicles are either underinsured, uninsured or just don’t have the right coverage to meet their needs, says Heather Rowe, Safeco RV product director.

“RVs are homes on wheels,” Rowe says. “There’s a lot of stuff in them, the liability exposure is different than auto liability exposure, and they’re huge vehicles, which means you have different roadside needs. Agents could really benefit from selling the value of specialty vehicle coverage.”

Here are four unique RV characteristics that could have a big impact on coverage for your personal lines clients.

1) Valuation language. Actual cash value, replacement value or agreed value? Depends on what your customer wants at claim time. According to Lauri Atkinson, head of specialty product development and rec casualty at Foremost Insurance Group, actual cash value will pay fair market value based on what the RV was deemed to be worth prior to a total loss event.

That means depreciation applies—and because “RVs depreciate really rapidly, insureds might find themselves not getting necessarily the vehicle they think they should get,” Rowe points out.

By contrast, “replacement value will pay out the cost to replace the RV, and agreed value will pay out the agreed-upon value—the insured value on the dec page,” Atkinson explains.

These types of coverages are “really valuable to customers,” Rowe says. Safeco’s RV product, for example, uses replacement cost to provide a brand-new RV in the event of a total loss, and covers up to 120% of the original purchase price for a new vehicle.

2) Condition. On a similar note, Menkin says there’s often a gap between how a loving owner views their RV and what it’s actually like. “RV owners often think their vehicle is in mint condition, when there may be a need for maintenance or treatment—especially when buying a used vehicle,” he says.

Compared to an auto, an RV has a lot more items to inspect, which means your clients could probably benefit from a more professional set of eyes. “I would recommend agents help their customers with the inspection process, and pay special attention to the condition of the roof,” Menkin suggests.

3) Structure. If you’re dealing with an RV that’s actually a tiny home, your client faces unique exposures that the insurance industry is still struggling to tackle.

What makes a tiny home different from a run-of-the-mill RV? “Some tiny homes are homemade, and they’re made very differently,” Rowe explains. “The structure and the way we would repair those vehicles would be significantly different from a traditional RV. You’d need a contractor to repair a tiny home, whereas you would ask an RV repair shop to be repair your RV.”

A good first step is encouraging your clients to get their tiny homes inspected and certified by organizations like the RVIA or the National Organization of Alternative Housing. If an underwriter knows the risk meets the structural standards of an expert third party, they can make sure they only accept the ones with “the structural integrity we would think would be acceptable,” explains Jeff Bair, head of independent agent and affinity marketing at Foremost Insurance Group.

Zoning is another issue for tiny homes, and many laws have minimum square footage requirements which most tiny homes don’t fulfill, Atkinson says. “Even if you place them in a mobile home or RV park, they’re subject to zoning there too,” she adds. “That forces buyers to place them on private land.”

In order to prevent unwelcome surprises, talk to your personal lines clients today about whether tiny homeownership is in their future. “Long before you contemplate buying or building, the most important question to ask yourself is, ‘Where are you going to place this tiny home?’” Atkinson says. “If you can answer that, you may be able to negotiate some variances and work through the necessary regulations.”

4) Function. If you ask your RV insureds only one question this year, it should be: What do you use your RV for?

“Agents can really save themselves a lot of heartache on the backend by just talking to the potential policyholder about how they use the RV,” Bair says. “Are they camping? Is it in a lot? Are they stationary? Do they have people coming over? Just a general conversation helps fit those coverages a lot more neatly.”

The question will become increasingly important as the sharing economy continues creeping into more and more industries. Although it’s not necessarily sweeping the culture, peer-to-peer marketplaces are already “cropping up” for RVs, Rowe says.

“It allows an individual RV owner to offset some of their costs and even make some money while they’re not using their RVs, because they don’t need them all the time,” Rowe explains. “There’s also interest from consumers who want to try before they buy.”

What does that mean for insurance solutions and coverage gaps? “It’s still developing,” Rowe says. “Some of those platforms offer coverage as part of the rental or make that coverage available for purchase, but many are just pointing customers to their auto insurance carrier for coverage. And that’s a problem, because not all auto insurance carriers offer that coverage.”

The proper solution, Rowe says, would be a rental endorsement for the RV on the auto policy. But it’s not coverage that is universally available for you and your clients—yet. Rowe says that from an agent perspective, it’s important to have those conversations about usage and whether they’re renting their RVs out, “so they can look into the nuances and make sure they’re getting supplemental coverage if they need it.”

Jacquelyn Connelly is IA senior editor.