[Music]
Welcome everyone once again to another
edition of the Selling Greenville
podcast I'm your host Stan McCune realtor
here in Greenville South Carolina and
just a little housekeeping you can
always find my contact information in
the show notes at any time that you want
to you can always email or text me or
call me based on that contact
information that you find in the show
notes if if you don't already have my
contact
information and additionally if you like
this podcast if you love it please rate
US please subscribe to us to make sure
that you get this podcast regularly
in your feed with whatever service you
use we're on Apple we're on Audi boom
Spotify Google Play Etc you should be
able to listen to it on whatever
platform you want and you can go ahead
and subscribe to it on there if you need
to download it or anything like that
please go ahead any of that activity
helps to boost the podcast and helps
Apple and Google and Spotify Etc helps
their algorithm to be able to deliver it
to more people so without further Ado we
are going to be talking about a very
practical subject today which is Storm
season and how you approach storm season
from a real estate point of view and
this storm season here in Greenville has
been a doozy already we have had
multiple tornadoes me and my family
we have had multiple times to have to go
down into our basement because we've had
actual tornado
warnings and back in my childhood I
used to be interested in being a
stormchaser SL maybe meteorologist and I
actually did a lot of armchair
meteorology and studied a lot of it so
I'm actually pretty knowledgeable about
some of that stuff and so it's
fascinating to me and and I can tell you
this weather is unusual it's it's
looking like it's going to be a bad
spring storm season overall we've
already had lots of like I already said
lots of tornadoes lots of hail lots of
we even had heavy winds the other day
tropical storm Force wins I don't
know what this means for the fall if
maybe in the fall we'll have a bad
hurricane season here we'll just have
to wait and see as far as that goes but
how do we prepare and how do we approach
storm season and everything that goes
along with that from a real estate
perspective that's what we're going to
be talking about today both from the
standpoint of when you're looking at
buying a home and also from the
standpoint of just as a homeowner how
do you approach it as a homeowner I
used to be an insurance adjuster back in
the day that's something that I did for
a for a little while and I actually
did adjusting in a wide variety of
capacity I did homeowners claims I
did commercial property claims I did
liability insurance claims so I know a
little bit on that side as well I'm
certainly no expert anymore I'm a
realtor now so don't consider me to be
an expert on this topic but I do have
some knowledge that probably a lot of
Realtors don't because I've been on the
inside and I've seen how some of these
insurance companies work when it comes
to this kind of stuff as well
so let's start by talking about when
you're buying a home how do you assess
whether there is storm damage or how do
you approach that how do you how should
you be thinking about it how should you
be looking at it the vast majority of
storm damage when when we're thinking
about storm damage often times we're
talking about the roof that is what is
most likely to be damaged by wind or by
hail
or possibly something coming in
through the roof as well there's a term
used in the insurance world called
wind driven rain we'll talk about that
in a second here when you're looking
at a roof there's a lot of different
things to consider obviously there's
different types of shingles there's
architectural shingles which are kind
of the ones that are kind of stacked on
each other and then there is the three
tab shingles which are just kind of kind
of laid out flat almost like a tile
those shingles tend to be rated for
like a 20year lifespan and the
architectural shingles are considered to
have a 30 plus year lifespan you can get
architectural shingles that have a 35
or 40y year lifespan if you want but
for the most part most people if they
have architectural shingles they're just
going to be a 30-year
shingle so when you walk up to a roof
when I guess you're not going to walk up
to the roof but when you walk up to a
house and you're kind of looking at the
roof that's the first thing you
should notice okay is it a 20-year
shingle or a 30-year shingle based on
whether or not it's architectural or not
and if you're still confused by the
difference most people will understand
it so I'm not going to belabor the point
but you can just
Google those different types of
shingles architectural versus three tab
online you can find it without any
problem the next thing that you're going
to see is you're probably going to see
kind almost like waves in in the in
the finish of the shingles so shingles
are overlaid with
asphalt and the asphalt protects the
shingle itself and then underneath the
shingle is what we call roofing felt and
then there might also be an ice and
water shield underneath that those are
actually the things the the felt the ice
water Shield those are the things that
actually really protect your home from
having water come in the the shingles
themselves more protect your your
home from from forceful things for
instance hail or you know tree limbs or
those types of things it also provides
another layer of protection against
water but that's just so that you
understand what all is happening there
are multiple components and then there's
roof decking Underneath It All that just
holds it all up above the rafters or
however your your roof is
structured so when you're looking at it
from the ground you're going to probably
see like little waves or ripples in the
shingles and that is from the asphalt
granules having worn down probably by
rain over time that's a very common
thing to see for a roof that is over 10
years old because as rain comes down it
will cause some of that asphalt to come
off that's not a big deal that that is
normal that's why these roofs are only
graded to to last for 20 or 30 years and
if you pull a ladder up and look inside
your gutters you will probably see
asphalt granules in the gutters in just
about every roof that is very normal
what is not normal is if you see dark
circles on the roof little little
circles like like quarter size
circles on the roof that is evidence of
hail damage and I pulled up to a roof
recently when I was showing a house
to some clients and I got out of my car
and I was amazed that it looked like
someone had taken a paintball gun to
this roof and I may have I apologize if
I've shared this story on this podcast
before it's hard for me to keep up with
it we're now over 10 podcasts which I'm
very happy about but it turns out the
sour didn't know that there was hail
damage I mean we're talking about
massive hail damage the seller didn't
know that the listing agent didn't know
that it was I mean that roof was was
pretty much shot through but it
didn't have any roof leaks yet but that
was one of those things that was kind
of inevitable and so I warned my buyer
clients about that and long story
short they didn't end up getting the
house but sometimes you can see that
from the ground sometimes you can't
often times it takes someone getting up
on the roof to actually assess hail
damage hail is is interesting right
because just normal granular loss
on a roof can result in in little specks
here and there being missing but ha does
this thing where because it hits the
roof at such velocity it will actually
cause the spot to be a little bit spongy
and and so you honestly have to get
up there close and personal with it and
kind of press it and kind of see you
know what exactly how the roof responds
to a little bit of pressure obviously
you got to be careful that you don't
take more granules off as you're doing
that but that's really a good indication
that there's hail damage if if there are
a bunch of spots up there and there are
a little bit
spongy often times you can't see that
from the ground but if you can then it's
probably some significant hail damage
another thing to look for is shingles
that are just out of position all right
if you see any shingles that appear to
be out of position that's an indication
that you have wind damage really the
shingles should look very uniform and
obviously you have hips and Gables and
ridge vents and things like that I'm not
talking about you know changes for
those areas but if you see like a a flat
part of the slope and there is a shingle
that looks out of place or bent or
something like that that might be wind
damage you can sees a decent bit of wind
damage like that up close from from
the from the road from the ground
what you need to get closer for is to
see if there is wind damage from a
shingle that is laying down but may have
been damaged by by a prior storms that
could be hard to see from the ground it
usually manifests itself on those three
tab shingles as a line at the very top
of the tab what happens is the shingles
flap up and where they flap up there
ends up being granual loss and a line
that goes across the shingle in the back
You probably won't be able to see
that from the ground but if you can
again that's an indication that there is
substantial wind damage that would be a
roof that would definitely need to be
replaced what insurance companies are
looking for when they determine whether
or not to replace a roof with with wind
you need to see wind damage really
throughout the roof you need to see
shingles that all over the roof that
have that line across it that show that
they have been delaminated from the roof
there there's different problems like
that I'm not going to get into all those
details but they really want to see a
lot of those shingles to show evidence
of wind Dam
hail is a little bit simpler hail the
adjuster will get on your roof and will
typically draw a 10 by 10 10t x 10t
square on your roof and they are looking
usually for 10 hail marks within that
10x10 square and if they find 10 hail
marks within that 10 x10 Square and
on every slope that they find that so a
typical roof has either two or four
slopes right if it's just a single Gable
it has two slopes if it has Gables
facing each Direction then it has four
slopes so they'll need to do that 10
X1 Square probably on each slope and if
there are 10 hail marks in each 10 X1
Square they will then usually replace
your roof obviously it depends on your
insurance it depends on your adjuster it
depends on a lot of different things
you should know that a lot of it
adjusters are not employed directly by
the insurance company that sent them
out so a lot of adjusters work for
adjusting firms that are then
independently contracted by insurance
companies and a lot of adjusters are
paid in essence a commission based on
how expensive the claim is so this is
very interesting that if they end up
having a more expensive claim a roof
replacement
plus siding replacement plus interior
damages the more damage there is that
they write up because it takes them more
time to to do all of that they actually
get paid more so most adjusters
absolutely love being able to replace
your roof because that's actually an
easy claim for them to write up it
doesn't take very much work and but
it it pays them very well because a roof
replacement will typically be6 7 $8,000
depending on the size size of the roof
and they're very simple claims for
them to handle now what can happen
sometimes is some insurance companies
they do have staff
adjusters that that come out that work
on the field and those staff
adjusters do not get paid more based
on how difficult the claim is so they
don't want there to be any damage you
can if you don't like your adjuster you
can ask for a different adjuster okay so
that's something to factor as well now
there's going to be a different adjuster
that you're going to be talking to on
what we call the inside adjuster or the
desk adjuster that person often times
will be working with the insurance
company it it depends it depends and it
does depend on whether it's hurricane
season or not because insurance
companies tend to get overwhelmed during
Hurricane Season they will Outsource
more stuff at that time but the person
who actually physically comes to your
house more often than not will be an
independent adjuster and not a staff
adjuster of course you could always feel
free to ask them that they might think
that's a little bit of a weird question
but only weird because not very many
people would know to ask that but
and they may give you an indirect answer
but that's just something to keep in
mind if you get a staff adjuster that
comes out you won't be able to ask for a
independent adjuster to come out you're
just kind of stuck at that point that's
a firm whatever insurance company it
is that you're with that that likes to
keep things in
house let's move to the inside of the
house what can you see from the inside
of the house well the most obvious thing
is ceiling spots okay and and obviously
if if it's a two-story home and there
are ceiling spots on the bottom part of
the home that that's evidence that there
was a Plumbing Leak at some point not a
roof leak why because the roof leak
would occur over the top level of the
home so if you go to the top level of
the home and you find that there are
stains that could be evidence that there
is an active leak happening now you can
take a moisture meter to that and see if
it's actively wet because of my
background as an adjuster I do have a
moisture meter I actually just used it
at a showing that I did for for some
clients to to look at there was some
water just sitting on the floor of a
vacant home and I was trying to figure
out the source of the water I was able
to use my moisture meter to to find the
water appeared to be coming in from from
some French doors and it seemed like it
was kind of traveling underneath the
floors and settling in one spot so
that's something that that can be done
that that can help you to determine if a
leak is active if it's not active
some inspectors will will be willing to
do that as well you have to be careful
because there are moisture meters that
have those probes on them and those
probes can be considered destructive
particularly if you put them you know
onto the ceiling the moisture meter I
have is non-destructive it just has a
flat back on it and I can just place it
right up against the wall or whatever it
may be and it'll give me a
reading
just because there are ceiling spots
though doesn't necessarily mean that
there is a roof problem particularly
when there are high winds like tropical
storm or hurricane Forest winds we can
have this phenomenon that's simply
called wind driven rain and it's exactly
what it sounds like it's when wind so
so when there's a storm wind
doesn't usually just go in a complete
straight line when you do have really
heavy straight line wind that's when you
see trees fall down but there's a reason
why often times when there's a major
storm we saw this happen in Greenville
just recently there's a reason why
usually there won't be like a a whole
row of trees that fall down there would
just be like one tree that falls down
because that straight line wind is not
the norm usually the wind and the storm
will swirl a bit even if even if it's
not a tornado just in a normal wind a
normal Windstorm the wind will swirl
well that swirling wind can cause water
to find little crevices you know if it's
heavy heavy wind and heavy rain the rain
can blow up into places it normally
would Wen for instance like a a gable
vent Google that if you don't know what
I'm talking about but the little vents
underneath the Gable of your roof you
know that there might be a substantial
amount of water that comes in there
that's very unusual that shouldn't ever
happen but it it could and that water
could then come down soak through your
insulation and and come down into your
ceiling whether that is covered by
your insurance company or Not by the
way or by the seller's insurance Company
If you're looking at a house that kind
of varies on their coverage wind driven
rain is a lot of insurance companies
will cover it but some insurances some
insurance policies I should say have
Clauses that kind of protect the
insurance company like for instance it
may say if rain is driven through a
storm created
opening then it is covered well that is
a big difference than just okay the
storm blew blew the rain through a
gable vent your gable vent isn't a storm
created opening so in that case again it
would be denied if if you had rain that
came in through your gable vent in an
abnormal type of storm and then cause
drywall damage to your ceiling or or
whatever it might be your insurance
company is is going to deny that if your
if your claim requires a storm created
opening so make sure that you're aware
with your of what your policy actually
says there's a lot of legal EAS in there
you got to be careful if your insurance
company can deny the claim I can assure
you they will those are some basic
things that you can look for and that
you can be thinking about as you're
looking through homes always be looking
at the roof looking around even look at
the siding see if there's any siding
that's loose on the interior be
looking at the ceilings look up look and
see are there stains on these ceilings
again if even if if you're not on the
top level if you're on the bottom level
and you see stains there could be
plumbing problems that aren't being
fixed there's a whole lot of things that
they could be that's something you
need to be on the lookout that you need
to check for but at the end of the day
you need to have a licensed home
inspector come in the home do their job
look at everything and and tell you what
they find now most home inspectors will
not be roof experts some of them are are
better better than other in this regard
but they're probably not going to be
able to really identify clearly hail
damage they they're more likely to be
able to see wind damage they might be
able to notate if there's something
strange in terms of of the roof but
they're not going to be roof experts so
you can always have a roofing company
come out as well and a lot of
inspectors if they find something up
there on the roof they will defer to a
a roofing company they'll say you
know recommend having a licensed roofer
come out and look at this a lot of
roofing companies in this area will do
free roof inspections because they're
hoping to get new business out of that
roof inspection you get what you pay
for though right and so a free
inspection it's free for a reason
they're trying to sell you on something
odds are they are going to find damage
on that roof and odds are they're going
to make it sound like that roof needs to
be replaced so you just need to keep
that in mind put all of the data
together use some common sense there
are Professional Services out there
that will give a more unbiased
opinion for instance there's a
service I've heard of again you would
need to check them out and and to see if
if if they would do a good job for
what you might need but there is a
Handcock Hancock claim service and
I I believe that you could call them up
and ask them to inspect the roof and
they will do that for you I think that's
that's kind of off the record I'm
kind of drawing back from my from my
adjusting years again look at that if
look into that if you need like a
really professional roof inspection done
they might be willing to do that I'm
in a situation right now where I have
clients under contract for home that to
my eye has hail damage and so we have
agreed with the seller to have the the
the seller go ahead and file a
homeowner's insurance claim and the
adjuster will come out and we're going
to proceed with whatever the homeowners
insurance decides they decide the roof
needs to be replaced then the seller is
going to do that if they deny the claim
then we are asking for them to just
provide evidence that the claim has been
denied basically the documentation from
the insurance
companies so that's a lot to consider
when you're buying a home how about when
you own the home how do you prepare for
storm damage how do you approach
storm season here in Greenville we have
an interesting storm season because we
do get tornadoes we do get hail we get a
decent bit of hail down here
tornadoes are kind of sporadic and
occasionally we will get those tropical
storms and hurricanes they're thankfully
we're far enough away from the coast
that they typically don't cause a ton of
damage here but you never know there
were there was a hurricane what was
it Irma a few years ago in Atlanta in
in the Greater Atlanta area I mean
that's very unusual but it caused
substantial damage a lot of people
had trees on their homes and all
kinds of different things so you never
know we we do have a lot of Storms and
this storm season has been at least
here in the spring has been kind of a do
so far so it'll be interesting to see
what happens you know when hurricane
season comes around but my
recommendation to everyone is start with
taking photos of
everything yes take photos of everything
that you own this will really help you
and here's why let's say that a
hurricane or a tornado comes through and
does substantial damage to your home and
substantial damage to the contents with
in your home having those
photographs detailed of everything that
you own will really help you down the
road it it it will also help you if you
have a break in your home and you have a
bunch of stuff stolen that kind of
evidence having photo evidence really
goes a long way with with most insurance
companies so take pictures of of all the
rooms in your house of your furniture of
your
possessions anything like that that
will help you in in the long
run another piece of advice I would give
you is
don't try to to update your roof
cosmetically okay if you think that your
roof you know needs a good pressure
washing listen call your insurance
company before you do anything like that
because a lot of insurance companies if
you pressure wash your roof they will
consider that actually damaging the roof
because that does take away from the LIF
span of the roof you will be taking
asphalt off that roof and you will be
causing abnormal damage normal
rain that comes down does not have the
pressure of a pressure washer and so
you're causing more you're causing the
equivalent damage of like possibly
several years worth of Rain by pressure
washing your roof so don't don't do
stuff like that don't don't go up
there and start
you know cocking a bunch of stuff up
there again unless you've spoken to your
insurance company and they give you the
okay to do that but insurance companies
if they come out if they send an
adjuster out when you've made a claim
and they look at this stuff and they see
you've been cocking all these things and
and they see unusual granual loss
they're going to start asking questions
and they may deny a claim because of
that so for the average person it if
there are
if you don't like some of the Cosmetics
of your roof be very careful with trying
to fix something that's not already
broken trim trees that are hanging
over your house please trim back big
limbs hanging over your house that
that's for a few different reasons one
is that moss and other fungus will
will grow on your roof if there's a tree
hanging over it that happens all the
time you'll have more Critters
getting on your roof which you know
sometimes squirrels and and whatnot will
will chew parts of of your roof I
don't know why I don't know if they're
just filing down their teeth or what
that whatever the case may be acorns
can be blown by the wind onto your roof
and cause damages and hate to break it
to you but that Acorn damage is not
storm damage but just a limb can
fall on your roof and you just don't
want that to happen you don't want to
have to go through the process of filing
a claim remember you do have a
deductible with your homeowners
insurance so nothing is free here that
you know insurance companies make sure
that that the insured has skin in the
game you don't want to have to pay your
deductible you don't want to have you
know things damaged that don't need to
be damaged there it's a lot of headache
when you're replacing a roof and other
things trim those trees back make sure
that there aren't limbs hanging over
your
house now if you do have storm damage
that
occurs the first thing you want to do
just take a photo right in the worst
case
scenario like a tree falls on your house
and there's water coming into your house
okay in that
case kind of skip the photo step but if
there's not like an
active leak or active damage
happening as a result of of the storm
or whatever damage it is that we're
talking
about let's say that there's a tree
laying on the side of your house but
it's sunny outside you you don't have to
worry you don't have any immediate
damages happening the damage has already
happened before you remove the tree take
a picture of it take a few pictures of
it your insurance company will want you
to do that but they'll also want you to
mitigate future damages so if you leave
that tree on your house for multiple
days and one of those days and you make
no effort to get that tree off and on
one of those days it rains your
insurance company can deny the damages
caused by the rain if you did not make
adequate effort to try to get that tree
removed so this is why you'll see people
with tarps over their roofs because
that's something that needs to be done
if if your roof has substantial wind
damage and water is coming in you need
to have a roofing company come out and
make sure that future damages don't
happen your insurance company will
reimburse you for that depending on your
coverage most most coverages do
stipulate that you need to mitigate and
any future damages and that they will
cover that obviously look at your policy
language but after you've done all of
that at at some point in that process
you also need to contact your insurance
company and make sure that they know
that if if it's a bad claim
they'll send someone out you know they
they'll prioritize it and send someone
out sooner if it's just like you know
you think that there might be hail
damage it might take a little bit longer
just kind of depends it depends on the
on the season as well so so there's a
lot to consider there
now if you have storm damages that
that you think you see but it's not the
type of damage that appears to be
causing future damage for instance
coming back to that the hail example you
have hail damage to your roof but your
roof doesn't appear to be leaking yet
don't try to to to do a whole bunch of
stuff don't don't spend a bunch of money
tarping your your roof and whatnot
because you had some hail but you don't
have a leak your insurance company is
not going to like that go ahead and call
the insurance company first in that
instance and and don't overdo it
right you you're responsible to mitigate
damages but if you start going out and
like let's say that for instance that
you're your siding gets blown off a
section of your house having even if
there's rain having siding blown off a
section of your house for most homes
that will not like permanently damage
the the home if if the siding is off for
a few days if you go ahead and start you
know hiring people to put all that
siding back up and whatnot you're
actually making the the job of the
insurance company more difficult and
you're making it more likely that
they're going to reject your claim they
want to see the siding down now you can
obviously take take pictures and all of
that but nothing is quite like in their
mind the ability for them to actually
look on it and and see it with their
own eyes that's why they send an
adjuster out to your house so keep that
in mind it's always a good idea to talk
if you have any questions about that
each insurance company is a little bit
different in this regard talk to them
directly call them talk to a desk
adjuster and have them tell you okay yes
we want you to go ahead and hire someone
to to put up the siding yes we want you
to tarp the roof yes we want you to do
this or that
they will tell you exactly what you
need to know and exactly what that
insurance company's protocol is in the
event of storm damages but overall
storm damage is not something to be
scared of this is why we have homeowners
insurance this is why for a lot of
people it's a good idea to to not have
too high of a deductible you know if you
have a a $2,500 deductible then
you're going to be coming out of pocket2
$500 when when you have storm
damage that comes through so you want
to be careful with that I have at
various times had as low as a $500
deductible some insurance companies
won't even do that they want you to have
more skin in the game so there's a
lot of different things to consider if
you guys have any further questions
about that any questions about
what I think as a realtor with my
adjuster
background about storm damage or about
insurance policies I will do my best to
try to answer those questions but
it's always a good idea to have a
realtor on your side who kind of
understands how the game works and how
the insurance World Works what different
damages are to different homes that's
something that I feel like is definitely
a strength of mind with my background
and if I can help you or anyone else out
with buying or selling a house I have
that background this is what I do for a
living now and I would be more than
happy to help you or to help them you
got my contact information in the show
notes and until next time stay safe
[Music]