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Hello everyone and Welcome to another
episode of Selling Greenville your
favorite real estate podcast here in
Greenville South Carolina I am your host
Stan McCune realtor right here in the
upstate and you can find all of my
contact information in the show notes I
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of those we're going to be talking today
about some insurance gotas
specifically when it comes to homeowners
insurance there is a lot going on in the
homeowners insurance world and we need
to update I need to update all of you
guys as to what's happening now I had an
episode way way way back I mean like a
year ago where I covered a bunch of
different aspects of homeowners
insurance that I highly recommend you
listen to it really covers just a
variety of things that I'm not going to
cover in this episode I I might overlap
a couple things from it but I highly
recommend you listen to that but for
this episode I want to talk about some
of the things that are changing and some
of the things that that have changed
recently in the world of homeowners
insurance that you might not know about
and that could be kind of a gotcha
moment if you don't know about them
and just as a warning you need to
always read your policy read your policy
so that you know what's in it the
language is very specific and I promise
you I promise you if you read your
homeowners insurance policy you will
learn something there will be something
in there that is covered or isn't
covered that you didn't know and often
times you'll find some pleasant
surprises in there you'll find some
things that's like oh well I didn't know
that that would be covered if if if
that happened and so it's it's really
beneficial to review your policy every
now and then to make sure that you
know what is actually being covered what
you're actually paying your homeowners
insurance company for but the
homeowners insurance companies the
carriers as we call them they exist for
one purpose and one purpose only and
that is to make money right they are a
they are companies they are corporations
just like several any others that we
know out there and so they exist to make
a profit at the end of the day nothing
wrong with that they're providing a
service to make a profit but guess what
happens when things change in terms
of the amount of claims that they're
getting or in terms of new risks that
are posed to them that that end upus
cusing them to lose more money they will
change how they how they handle things
they will change their policies in order
to ensure that they are insured
against having to spend tons and tons of
money and so they will do things that
benefit themselves that don't benefit
you and so I think it's worth
bringing up a few things that I've
noticed lately that I think are are
particularly important for our area now
one thing that is common in the
insurance world for places that are near
storm centers so for instance if you
live on the coast if you live near the
ocean it is very common that they will
have a percent
deductible for hurricanes tropical
storms any named storm that's usually
how the language is worded in your
policy again if you live on the coast
look at your policy and and double check
that and if you don't live on the
coast double check it because I'm about
to explain why but they will have a
special deductible that is just for
named storms and it might be an addition
to the deductible that you already have
it might be its own special thing often
times it is a percent deductible and
here's what that means if if your house
is worth
$500,000 and you have a 2% name storm
deductible a named storm comes through
tropical storm
boa I could barely even say that
tropical storm
boaa comes through and causes damage to
your house your $500,000 house you have
a 2% Nam storm deductible guess what
you're going to have to pay the first
$110,000 2% of 500,000 you're going to
have to pay the first
$10,000 of your claim before your
insurance gets involved so if you have a
$115,000 claim your insurance is only
going to pay you $5,000 because they're
going to subtract the 2% right off the
top first before they pay out anything
to you well guess what this is starting
to become more and more common even in
non- coastal areas but specifically here
in the upstate because we have had so
many wind hail tornado storms in our
area and some tropical storms and the
not so much hurricanes because usually
they're tropical storms by the time they
come here but just name storms in
general and what we're starting to see
is now some of these insurance
carriers are actually starting to
require for any name storm or even a
wind or hail storm now that deductible
that you use to have that was like
$11,000 now it's a percent
deductible and that can be anywhere from
1% to I've seen 10% not in our area but
I've seen it up to 10% before it's crazy
and and that's a major major change
if you get a hail storm you know on a
very expensive house and you have a one
or 2% hail deductible I mean you could
end up
having to pay almost the entire roof
out of pocket your insurance might not
cover hardly anything with regard to
that roof now this is a really important
development because not that long ago
insurance companies in our area would
would allow even deductibles as low as
$500 and even before that sometimes as
low as
$250 that was not as common but not
that long ago I had a homeowners
insurance deductible of
$500 that is almost non-existent now
almost always at least the minimis a
th000 and now we're starting to see that
some of these carriers are now on not on
everything but on on some types of
properties and in some certain areas
they're now starting to require special
wind hail Nam storm Etc deductibles that
are in a different bracket a percent
deductible rather than that set okay you
just pay the first
$1,000 you need to be very careful to
make sure that that you know what your
policy what your homeowners policy says
because they may have made that change
recently some of them are starting to
make those changes now and that is
really significant if you can get a
policy I would pay a little bit more per
year for a policy that has $1,000 flat
deductible more or less across the board
versus paying just a little bit less
for a policy that has a 1 or 2% or
whatever the case may be deductible for
wind and hail storms cuz we get a lot
of wind and hail storms in the
area another important development
increasingly insurance carriers are
starting to put special exclusions in
their policies for roofs that have what
we call three tab composition
shingles so if you look at a roof
you'll see basically two main types of
shingle roofs one is the the classic
architectural shingle and that's
really at this point I feel like in the
upstate the majority of our roofs do
thankfully have those architectural
shingles but the other one is the
three tab shingles and these are the
ones that are they look like long horiz
horizontal rectangles that are just
placed throughout the roof and they
don't really overlap it's just like a
flat type of type of roof well
a lot of roofs that have the three
tab shingles have just been completely
destroyed by windstorms they also don't
hold up very well against hail they they
really aren't a good roof product to
begin with but they're a little bit
cheaper than the architectural shingles
so you'll see people that are buil not
so much Builders anymore although it
used to be the case but more people when
they get their roof replac sometimes
they'll get a little chintzy they'll try
to save themselves you know $800 $1,000
by instead of getting an architectural
shingle which you know should last
for up to 30 years they'll get one of
these three tab shingles which is
supposed to last significantly less
than than that 30-year Mark but
regardless of what it's supposed to last
for they do not hold up well against the
elements they I have seen this cuz I
used to be an an insurance adjuster they
don't hold up well
against wind they hold up terribly
against wind they they don't stick very
well to to the roof itself and and so
you get a a sustained gust of wind you
get a tornado nearby those shingles
are going to start flapping and what
happens then when they start flapping is
it can permanently damage the shingle
additionally as I already mentioned they
don't hold up very well against hail
it's not a good shingle if you replace
your roof get a 30-year architectural
shingle at least I mean you can also get
40 and 50-year architectural shingles if
if you really want to but definitely
get some type of
architectural roof and if you have a
three tab sh shingle on your current
roof make sure that there isn't some
kind of exclusion or special provision
in your policy that would hurt you if
you get a wind or hail claim or
something similar to that for that roof
that's something that we're starting to
see more of as well here's something
that is kind of on the positive I
guess end of the spectrit's something
to to just keep in mind so due to the
fact that there's been a lot of
protests over the past couple of years
at least I I should say they've been
highly publicized I don't know if
there's been more protests the past
couple of years than in the past but but
they're getting a lot of television time
and so now some insurance companies
are now offering some protection of
property coverages so if there is
imminent risk of civil unrest in your
area you may actually be eligible to
protect your property for instance
boarding up Windows or that type of
thing if you're in an urban environment
that is at risk of civil unrest you may
be eligible to to do some things and and
to protect your property and be
reimbursed for that some insurance
companies are starting to do that they
there may be other aspects of that
that are covered really at the end of
the day they're they're implementing
that strictly because of of the
protesting but they can't say that you
know that that's not really allowable
for them to just say due to an uptick
and protest we are now encouraging
people to board up their Windows so
they'll add language like for
instance if you have an excess amount of
snow or ice on your roof you can if
you show evidence of that and you take
Extraordinary Measures to ensure that
your roof doesn't collapse because it
might have so much ice and snow on it
that it might actually be risk of
collapsing you take measures you you
spend money out of pocket to to get
that off the roof to save your roof you
could be eligible for protection of
property coverage down here there's
not a whole lot of options there
or or not a whole lot of risk in terms
of snow or ice or whatever the case may
be but if anything ever happens if you
have a tree limb that falls in your
house or whatever or if you do have
damage to your roof you need to
immediately take action to protect your
property if you don't then you're liable
potentially for any damages so if you
ever have that happen if you ever have a
storm created opening in your property
and the potential for water coming in
get a tarp on that call a roofer get
that tarped up you know even if you
you might want to call your insurance
company first I would recommend that but
even if you're having a hard time you
know getting your insurance company to
whatever shoot you straight give you
answers that you want if you don't
protect your property you are opening
yourself up to your insurance company
denying you coverage and you don't want
to do that by the way while we're on the
topic of
roofs be very careful when you're up on
your roof doing different things there
are some companies now that will try
to advertise like pressure washing roofs
and and sometimes you'll you know people
that are have roofs that are under trees
sometimes you'll have some little
fungal growth on your roof a that
fungal growth is a is a bad thing so
trim your trees back so that that
doesn't happen Okay that you could have
your policy have a Homeowner's
claim excluded because of that but if
you get up there and you start like
scraping that you know algae or or
whatever Moss off your roof or you
pressure wash it or you get one of these
companies that are pulling you know that
one of these roof extension type of
things where they spray something on the
roof that is supposed to extend the life
of the roof you are taking so much risk
that your insurance company will not
cover your roof in the event that you
have future damage yes even if you're
trying to do things to help your roof at
the end of the day an insurance
company is going to see that as you
tampered with the roof the they the
insurance is there to ensure a normal
roof that hasn't been tampered with if
it's starts getting tampered with that
gives the insurance company a reason to
back out again all they care about is
making money at the end of the day
that's what they exist to do they're
going to try to find ways to get out of
paying money so don't give them that out
make sure that you don't overthink it
make sure that you don't give them a
reason as you tamper with aspects of
your house keep up with your house but
don't do unusual things that could cause
your insurance company to say you know
what you've tampered with this property
and we're not going to cover you now
by the way it's also worth
mentioning this is not a new thing but
and and I believe I covered this on the
first one that I that I recorded but
we've had a lot of flooding in the past
couple of years and
flooding as in like a creek floods and
floods your house that is not covered by
homeowners insurance just FY if you are
in a flood plane you get flood insurance
from FEMA well through FEMA I shouldn't
say from FEMA but through FEMA that
is what protects you against a flood
your homeowners insurance is not going
to protect you against a flood odds are
it's also not going to protect you
against an earthquake again look at your
policy and look at those things that's
not something we run into a whole lot
here in the upstate flooding is much
more of a concern but there are a lot
of little things like that that a lot of
people don't realize oh I'm not in
insured against flooding or earthquakes
or those types of things we mentioned
civil unrest earlier and and that one's
a tricky one as well because there are
so many different exclusions that a
typical policy has they might exclude
for instance terrorism they might
exclude for instance insurrection well
who defines that insurance companies
have a gazillion ways of wiggling their
way out of these things and saying well
that was actually an Insurrection we're
not going to cover you for that that
was actually terrorism we're not going
to cover you from that damage from
war usually Wars are not covered so
let's hope that we don't have you know
anything like that happening anytime
soon so when it comes to if if you
feel like you're at risk
potentially of civil unrest and damage
to property due to that you need to
really look into your insurance policy
talk to your insurance agent make sure
that you're covered see if you need to
take any preventative measures to
protect your property and what coverage
there is for that and do your homework
make sure that you are fully prepared
for that
scenario one more gotcha and then I'm
going to be done I'm busy I can barely
squeeze This Record recording in this
week properties that have been vacant
for a long period of time if you go on a
on a trip you know a nice long trip
to Europe you're out there for for the
whole summer your house is vacant for
you know three months you get back
there's hail damage your insurance
company may have something in there that
gets them out if your property has
remained vacant for a period of time
look in your policy it's not uncommon
for them to have language in there that
says a vacant property that has been
vacant for only 2 months we're not
talking about like a year two years or
whatever it may be a vacant property for
just a couple of months that they're
able to wiggle their way out of paying
any claims during that two-month period
look at your policy and see what it
protects you against if you're going to
be vacant for several months if if
you're going on on that long trip or
whatever the case may be or you know if
you're if you decided I'm going to buy a
second home and the home that you've
been living in is not going to be a home
that you're going to be in all the time
that's a conversation you need to have
with your insurance agent and make sure
that your current policy protects you
there the policies are designed in a way
to assume that typically that they are
always occupied if if you're flipping
a house that's its own special policy
that's not going that's going to be a
vacant house you have to have a special
policy that covers you in that instance
I had a situation recently where
where someone tried to provide
coverage on a vacant house as if it were
a rented house but it was vacant
being flipped that can be a problem okay
because at the end of the day you
have a claim Insurance adjuster goes
out there they're going to be like well
this policy says that this is a rental
property who's renting this this doesn't
even look like it's livable well okay
that is a bit of a problem so make
sure that you have the appropriate
coverage for what you are actually doing
with your property if you change the use
of the property you probably need to
change your homeowner insurance in some
way as well
that's it for today I hope that was
helpful I'm not an insurance agent so
if you have any questions about any of
this of course you can ask me what my
opinion is but go to your insurance
agent ask your insurance agent make sure
that they are competent to answer the
questions go to someone that's competent
to answer questions that you may have
but that's it for this week's episode of
selling Greenville I hope you guys have
a great week till next time stay safe
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