Hello everyone and Welcome to another
episode of Selling Greenville your
favorite real estate podcast here in the
upstate of South Carolina I'm your host
Stan McCune realtor right here in the
greater Greenville area of South
Carolina and you can find all of my
contact information in the show notes if
you need to reach out to me for any
reason I particularly would like for you
to reach out to me if you need a realtor
in the Greenville area so please keep me
in mind for that all my contact
information if you need to reach out to
me for any reason is right there in the
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you guys now I am recording this on
Friday September 30th just before we get
hit by the outer bands ofwhat is Ian
the hurricane it was a hurricaneI
don't think it is any longer or if it is
it's soon going to be downgradedbut
we are about to get get hit by the outer
bands of this stormit's already I'm
I'm looking at my office window the
weather is kind of weird kind of a weird
Huea lot of swirling winds and so I
have on my mind these storms that happen
and the weather that happens in
Greenville and how this impacts real
estate now generally speaking Greenville
has fairly mild weather if you've lived
here for a while you already know that
usually the worst things that we
experience are flooding and the
occasional tornado we have a lot of
thunderstormswe will have hail every
now and then but but major hail events
are pretty rare for our area
tornadoes are a little bit more more
commonbut even those tend to be I
don't want to call any tornado mild but
they tend to not be the massive
tornadoes that that you get in the in
the Midwest and some of these parts of
the
USbut that being said we do
occasionally have some major storms and
again like I said before flooding is a
very common thing here in in the
Greenville area and and as I'm looking
at some of the the radar by the way I'm
a bit of a weather nerdand you guys
might remember that I used to be an
insurance adjuster so I have a unique
perspective on some of these things
I've been on a lot of roofs for a lot of
houses inspecting them for hail damage
wind damageall sorts of different
things so I have some experience when
quite a bit of experience actually I'm
kind of underplaying it by saying some
experience I've got quite a bit of
experience when it comes tostorm
related damage toto homesbut
with all that being saidI'm
monitoring what's happening here very
closely and I I expect that there will
be some floodingGreenville does have
flooding that's a pretty common thing
we might have a tornado or two that
comes out of this I'll be interested to
seewhat happens once the the main
storm kind of parks over the Greenville
area if it doesyou know it's very
possible that it'll just bypass us I
think right now they're kind of
predicting that the that the the main
part of the storm the central part of
the storm will actually stay east of
Greenville soso we'll see what
happens thereby the time you're
listening to this you'll already have
known what what has happened sothere
won't be any suspense for you but for me
at the moment there's some suspense
and I expect that there will probably be
a lot of trees down a lot of Limbs down
and some electrical outages before it's
all said and doneDuke Energy is
already sending me multiple notices on
my phoneto let me know that they're
expecting some outagesso we'll have
tosee how all that goes hopefully
it's not too bad I'm keeping all of my
devices charged just to be safebut
how how in the end does all of this
pertain to real estate pertain to our
homes our real estate Investments Etc
I did an episode in 2020 I believe was
the yearon the Storm season and the
impact that storms have on real estate
but that was two years ago and I've
got some fresh content since then and
again this is kind of front of mine
because we have a storm coming through
right nowI believe even the episode
that I did in 2020 was during a a storm
as wellso apparently these storms
get me excited andand inspire me
with with new
contentbut I want to discuss some a
fresh perspective that I have that I've
gotten in the past couple of years some
of this will overlap with that podcast
in 2020 some will overlap with a recent
podcast I did onon flood zones
but but I think for the most part this
will be new content for you allso
speaking of flood zones I I want to
start there and some people will call
them flood planes those are essentially
the same thing flood zones flood planes
I'm not going to overlap too much
from my from my previous podcast but but
it is important to discuss these as part
of storm relatedreal estate related
items okay flood zones are play a big
role in our local market because
Greenville has a lot of them we have a
lot of flood zones some some parts of
the country don't have very many flood
zones don't have very many flood planes
in Greenville we do and a lot of people
don't really understand them and how
they work and and what's important about
themnow for starters most flood
planes in our area are around creeks and
rivers that's a very important thing to
keep in mind usually when there's a
creek when there's a river there is some
sort of flood plane that is associated
with that Creek or river now lakes and
ponds are not that way typically when
there is a lake or a pondthere is
not I personally have found that FEMA
has not deemed those flood zone areas
which is interesting again we're talking
about the land itself not the not the
water obviously the water itself you
can't build on water but once you get
outside of the lake or the pond I
typically find thatFEMA does not
deem those flood zones I guess lakes and
ponds even when theywhen they get a
lot of water dumped into themthey
don't expand to the extent that Creeks
or streams or Rivers do now I have a
creek that runs along my property line
at the housethat I'm in the process
of moving to and it's barely anything I
mean it's not much of a creek at all
it's maybe like 1 to two Ines of water
on a normal day and the banks on either
side of the creeki' I've not climbed
down there but they have to be about 10
ft High the odds that this Creek right
one to two inches it's like the the size
of the area where the creek itself is is
probably like five feet wideThe
Gorge if you want to call it it's like a
5 foot wide Gorge and again 10ft banks
on either sidethe odds that that
would ever fill up with enough water
that it would overflow its banks like I
can't even imagine that I can't imagine
how much water it would take for for
that Creek to overflow nonetheless that
little bit of water that one to two
inches of water inthis tiny little
Gorgethat has that has banks that
are 10 ft tall that results in a large
portion of my lot being in a flood zone
interestingly now that lot is about one
and a half acresso the good news is
that my house is not in the flood zone
that's the important
detailand because my house is not in
the flood zone I'm not required to get
flood insurance my lender does not
require for me to getflood insurance
that being said that doesn't mean that I
can't get flood insurance rightflood
insurance is always an option for anyone
at any time and and I have actually
gotten flood insurance priced out just
out of curiosity curiosity can't speak
therejust out of curiosity I got a
quote on flood insurance just to see
what it might costand just to kind
of weigh the the risk versus the reward
and and I've just determined at this
point I'm not going to get it because
it's just it's really hard for me to
imagine that thatCreek would ever a
overflow its banks and then B if it
overflowed my house is far enough from
the creek that it would have to overflow
a such a tremendous amount to even get
to my house I mean it would have to be
an apocalyptic rain event and so at this
point that's not something I'm worried
about that being said I am going to be
watching closely as we get Ian passing
through to see what it does to my Creek
so stay stay tunedthis will be a
really good test run to see how much it
fills
upnow I've said this before on other
podcasts but it's important to say again
your homeowner's insurance does not
protect you against flooding it does not
protects you against flooding that is
what flood insurance does and even if
you're not in a flood plane Common Sense
May dictate that you should go ahead and
purchase flood insurance remember the
flood mapscan change right FEMA
updates their flood mapstopography
can change so you could actually end up
in a flood plane even if you aren't in
one right now you have to ra the weigh
the risk versus the reward of protecting
yourself with flood insurance that's
just something to keep in mindnow
often during a major rain flood event
moving on from the kind of flooding
aspect of it to more of the rain wind
aspect of itof a storm people will
often times see ceiling spots on their
ceiling this will happen after one of
these kind of weirder storms and many
will say that the quote and quote roof
is leaking oh there I forgot to turn my
phone off and of course my phone is
going off let me put do not disturb on
all right so many will say that
they're roof is leaking or will assume
that a roof is leaking because they see
ceiling spotsbut ceiling spots can
result from a variety of issues I don't
really like the term leaking roof
that implies an ongoing leakbut
often times roof leaks are not ongoing
oftentimes it is a one-timesort of
thing that happensthat being said
I'm just going to use the term because
it's mostly usedit's the most
commonly used phrase in real estate and
because this is a real estate podcast
not a insurance podcast I'm just going
to for the sake of this podcast use the
term roof leakso the most common
reasons for roof leaks are two reasons
really one is that the roof is old and
worn out and just can't handle the
elements anymore and in the event of a
worn out roof that just starts to leak I
I've got bad news if you've got an old
roof that just start to leak you are
likely going to be denied coverage by
your homeowners insurance roof leaks are
covered by homeowners insurance
typically but if your roof is just old
and worn out then they're just going to
say hey this is just an old worn out
roofthis wasn't sudden accidental
damage this is O this is a roof that
just needs to be replacedthat you
were just negligent and not replacing it
and now this is your
responsibility that is is one of the
most commonreasons for roof leaks
the second most common reason and I
shouldn't say that one is more common
than the other I don't really know how
the percentages work out but the other
most common reason is that there is
actual storm damage specifically hail or
wind damage that messes up the roof and
results in it leaking now this is
generally speaking a covered loss by
insurance if you have roofwind or
hail damage typically your homeowners
insurance will cover that and allow you
then to either do repairs or replacement
to your roof gutters you know what
whatever is actually damaged in the
process now let me pause for a second
and just say one thing I've said this
before I'm going to say it
again there are two the two common types
of shingles and common types of roofs
that are used in the the upstate one is
what we call a three tab shingle
which is kind of the shingles that are
kind of long and and horizontallike
rectangular types of shingles those are
called three tab shinglesalso known
as a 20year roof and then the others are
the more compact looking shingles
again if any of my insurance adjusting
buddies are listening to this they're
going to that's going to hurt their ears
but I'm not talking to the insurance
crowd I'm talking to the real estate
crowdbut the others are the shingles
that kind of look more compact those are
commonly called architectural shingles
and those are typically rated for 30
years now you think the difference
between a 20-year roof and a 30-year
roof well what difference does it make
and most people aren't going to live in
a house for 20 years at leastunless
they're you know older and not planning
to move most people do move every 5 to
10 yearsand so it will often times
theor ically makes sense if you're
replacing a roof to just go with the
cheaper 20-year shingle versus the
30-year shingle right wrong the three
tab shingle I despisewhen I was
doing Insurance adjusting work those
three tab shingles they can become
what's called delaminated they they can
just very easilylose their
seal and just basically just be damaged
by wind damage very very quicklyand
and so so because of that I'm not a fan
I am not a fan of the three tab shingle
they it's just it just is not a good
shingle you shouldn't use it it it's not
that much more to upgrade to a 30-year
architectural shingle just do it trust
me it you do not want to have constant
roof leaks happening and those three tab
shingles are a lot more exposed to that
all right that Shameless plug I I am not
getting paid by the architectural
shingle industry big shingle they're not
paying me to say that that is just me
trying to help you guys out all right
so to bring it all back the two most
common reasons for roof leaks are the
roof is old and worn out or there is
storm damage all right now all that said
there could be other potential reasons
for a roof leaking one is what we call
in the insurance World a manufacturer's
defect basically
for
whatever for whatever reason or however
there is a bad batch of shinglesthey
are not caught by the roofing company
they just install the shingleseven
though they are not good shingles and
then the shingles end up leaking that
becomes then a a problem that your
homeowner insurance is not going to
cover however you might have recourse
with yourroofing company a lot of
roofing compan companies will say you
know hey there's a warranty onon the
work that we're doing at that point
that's where that warranty becomes an
important
detailthere can also be installation
issues also where the warranty becomes
an important detailnow the most
common installation issues are related
to how shingles are nailed to the roof
because ultimately that's that's how the
shingles are up there they're actually
nailed to the roof
and it's it's really really important
where the nails are and of course if
you've ever seen roofers up there you
can see that they're not often times
paying very close attention to where
they're nailing the shinglesand and
that's where getting a good roofing
company is really importantbecause
in terms of installing a roof and
nailing the shingles there are two very
minor things that can be done wrong that
will have a major impact that can result
in a roof leaking one is if they drive
the nails too far into the shingles and
so what'll happen is the nail will
actually go straight through the
shingles and and and this can only be
I'm not saying that they do this all
throughout the roof just in a few spots
they will the nail will go straight
through the shingles and then that
causes a little hole in the shingle that
water can thenget into the other
thing thing that I've seen happen is
roofers nailing in between shingles
that's also a very common thing that can
happenand when that happens
basically again the nail is exposed and
sowater in the in the right or wrong
depending on how you're looking at it
environment water can then seep through
the the little area around the nail head
and then can get into the roof that way
now there's also a phenomenon known
as roof zippering which is also an
installation typically an installation
related issue which most commonly looks
like shingles being blown up along the
edges of the shingles so typical wind
damage that you have the front of the
shingle comes up and perhaps just gets
ripped offin with zippering it's the
side of the shingle that ends up getting
getting blown upand again this is
most common withwith three tab
shingles but it it can also happen with
architectural shinglesnow even
though this would appear to be wind
damage right you you have the wind
lifting the shingle up on the side
homeowners insurance companies are going
to deny this and say that this was an
installation problem the roofer
misinstalled the roof and I agree a good
rooferis capable of installing
shingles in a way that they won't be
able to be lifted along the edges
there are different ways of laying down
shingles without getting too much into
the weeds and there is a quicker like
vertical racking method that you can
Google if you're really interested
that is more susceptible toto
zippering it is not the right way to do
it you want the roofing company to do it
the correct waybasically start in
the corners work their wayup the
side
and that
is that combined with some other things
will result in in your roof being strong
enough to withhold those vertical winds
and not lift the shingles up by the
edges now another phenomenon that we
have run into that I have run into you
know during my insurance adjusting days
was called wind driven rainnow
this is something that can happen during
particularly during major storms and so
when you have heavy swirling winds
combined with a major rain event again
typically hurricanes tropical storms Etc
it can push rainwater into all sorts of
places up under sophitz behind fascia
into gable vents all sorts of areas that
typically are not exposed to rainwater
at all typically are not going to have
issues with rainwaterand and so what
ends up happening in these instances is
you think okay the roof is leaking and
you call your homeowners insurance
company they come out there's absolutely
no wind damage no hail damage no nothing
wrong with the roof so why do we have
water spots all around the house
specifically kind of not really in the
middle of the house but along more the
edges of the house wind driven rain and
now I've seen wind driven rain happen
when I say the edges of the house I
don't mean like directly you know where
where the outer wall meets the ceiling I
mean it can be several feet away from
there but if if we're looking at
water that's like in literally like
right in the middle part of the house
I would be skeptical whether that's wind
driven rain at that pointall that to
be said wind driven rain is typically a
covered loss by your homeowners
insurance company sodon't fret as
long as it wasn'ta manufacturer def
defect or an installation problem your
homeowners insurance should cover
thatthe buildup of of ice or snow on
a roof can also cause issues in leaks
but this isn't usually a problem in
South Carolina so I'm not going to get
into that at all the only thing I'll
mention is that a poorly constructed
roof and and by that I mean the actual
structure the trusses the raftersa a
poorly constructed roof down here might
not be able to withstandheavy ice or
snow sitting on it like just the weight
of it it might not be able to withstand
and this is something a mistake that
some people will make is they willin
order to save costs they will just
install shingles new shingles over over
old shingles right because it costs
laborand demo to take off the old
shingles and then reinstall new shingles
there's a lot of reasons why that's a
really bad idea but one of them is that
the roof's substructure is not intended
to hold multiple layers of shingles and
then if you get snow and ice on top of
that you might findyour roof
collapsing in on itselfso that's
just something to keep in
mind now moving on from rain and wind or
at least rainif you have trees
around your house you need to be wary of
wind either pushing the tree down onto
your house or a limb breaking and
falling onto your house I've seen a lot
of roofs in Greenville destroyed by
large limbs falling on them now this is
covered by Insurance thankfullybut
one common misconception that people
have and I and I get this question
honestly quite frequentlya common
misconception that people have is that
if the tree or Lim that damaged their
house came from the neighbor's yard that
it's their neighbor's fault and their
neighbor neighbor needs to Ffile an
insurance claim that from an insurance
standpoint is not true it does not
matter where the tree or the limb came
from if it damaged your house it is your
homeowner's insurance that needs to pay
for it think about it this way if a
tornado came through town and picked up
a bunch of Limbs from your neighbor and
blew those limbs onto your house and
cause damage would it be the fault of
your neighbor whose tree was torn
that the N that the tornado did this
would it be your neighbor's fault that
the tornado transported these limbs from
their house onto your house no I mean
you couldn't even prove that it was I
may perhaps you could find a way to do
it but it would be very difficult to
prove that it was your neighbor's limbs
that damaged your houseand and it's
really not any different with straight
line speed you it was straight line wind
rathernow I I will say this and this
is not legal advicebut I will just
kind of throw this out there as an idea
as a thoughtif your neighbor in your
opinion was negligent and allowed a
dying or dead tree to stay in place near
your house and wouldn't remove it even
though you asked them to and perhaps
offered to do it yourselfat that
point you might have some legal options
to explore talk to an attorney about
thatI can't provide any legal advice
because I am not an attorney and it's a
I believe a felony in the state of
South Carolina for me to act as an
attorney when I'm notall right now
in general aside from the wind potential
aspect of trees in general it's not good
to have trees right next to your house
now when I say right next to your house
I mean within a few feet of your house
and again I'm not going to get too
specific with that
if you are concerned about about your
house have a contractor come look at it
but generally speaking we we all like
trees but there is a distance they they
need to have some distance from the
house because they can not only collapse
on the housebut also tree roots can
wreak havoc on your foundation on
your sewer system on your septic system
and those types of issues typically are
not going to be covered by your
homeowners insurance
so be very wary of trees near your house
they can cause all sorts of damage and
again trees hanging over a home they
will also attract Critters onto your
roof and potentially into your attic
bats squirrelsmaybe even mice
they also cause typicallymoss and
fungus to grow on the roof which then
damages the roof and then to add insult
to injury some people will then try to
get the fungus off by pressure washing
doing stuff like that no no no no no no
do not do that you are destroying your
roof if you go up there and do that
and also while I'm talking about this
don't buy any of those roof extending
sprays I think I've I've mentioned this
before there are some companies that are
offering to to like spray your roof with
something that's like supposed to extend
it by so many years listen your
homeowners insurance if they find out
that you've done that they are going to
absolutely say you just voidedany
coverage on your roof that have in your
homeowners insurance policy by doing
that they will not accept that you have
made unauthorized modifications toto
the shingles they do not want anything
sprayed on that roof do not spray your
roofthat's just my my personal
opinion talk to your insurance company
if you need more
details what about hail damagenot
all hail is equalwhich is obvious
size is the most important detail at the
end of the day and in Greenville we get
a lot of small hailoccasionally
we'll get decent sized hail again very
rare that we get anything that resembles
like those massive like baseball or
softball-sized hail that that you'll see
sometimes in the midwesttypically we
just have P marbleized hailand often
times that is not causing any damage to
the roof it's just not heavy enough to

to truly damage the roof in any
meaningful waybut and and so hail
that actually damages a house in in
Greenville is fairly rarebut if
you're curious if your home has hail
damagemost of the time your
homeowners insurance won't dock you for
asking them to come take a look to see
if you have hail damage or not that's
somethingagain talk to your
homeowners insurance company about it to
make sure that they won't dock you for
that but most of the good ones won't
most of the good ones will send an
adjuster out to your house if there's no
ha damagethey'll just call a day and
just say you don't have hail damage
however just remember that you they are
going to then document everything that
they see around your house to make sure
that you're keeping it in good condition
and so there's a little bit of a risk
to that right it's kind of like letting
the police into your house without a
search warrant
you might not want that I'm just
going to throw that out
thereand now I've seen multiple
instances of people purchasing a home
that already has held damage to the roof
not my clients I have seen other
people's clients and I'm not just saying
thatif if I have clients that want
to buy a roof and I can see hail damage
on it I will strongly discourage them
from doing that and up to this point
I've never had a clientpurchase a
home
knowinglythat it had knowing that it
had hail damage unless it was a fixer
upper and you know they need to replace
the roof anywaythat's
that's a problem right because unlike
Obamacare homeowners insurance doesn't
allow for pre-existing conditions to
your roof if your roof is has hail
damage wind damage whatever when you
purchase ityour homeowner's
insurance is not going to then come in
and replace that roof for you and if you
make a claim here's what they're going
to do you would say well how do they
knowhow do they know that this
happened prior to me purchasing it well
they have waysthey will look up when
the last major hail event happened and
if your roofshas damage that the
rest of the neighborhood doesn't have
because they all replace their roofs in
a hail storm that happened prior to you
taking ownership your roof's coverage
will then likely be voidso that's a
big risk it is a big risk if you're
purchasing a home that has pre-existing
hail or wind damageyou're exposing
yourself to a scenario where you might
not be able to make a claim if or you
might have your claim denied if you do
in the future need to make a roof claim
so be very careful with thatthat's
where my expertise comes in handy I have
part of why I've not had clients buy
homes that have hail damage is because I
can see the hail damage prior to them
purchasing it and I will point it out I
will say hey just so you know I I see
some major hail damage on this house
and so that's something something that
has protected a lot of my clients over
the
years so here we gowe have I coming
into town as I'm recording this
hopefully it won't cause a ton of damage
but but that's a little bit of an
idea of some of what happens in
Greenville some of how to think about it
how it relates to homeowners insurance
and I hope that was helpful if it was go
back and listen to the episode I don't
know what episode number it was but
episode I did way way earlier the audio
quality is terrible on it I listened to
it recently and was cringingbut it
wasan episode that a lot of people
said gave them some really useful
content content back in 2020about
storm seasonis what I remember that
I called it something about storm season
so go back and listen to that if you if
you found this episode to be helpful
and make sure as we always say to
subscribe to the show download episodes
rate and review if you are using an app
that allows for ratings and reviews and
I'd appreciate if you guys need a
realtor to reach out to me my contact
information is in the show notes hope
you guys stay safe through the storm and
we'll talk again next week
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