In this episode, Craig and Joey provide the latest updates on Hurricane Milton. Craig covers key preparations, including evacuation zones, securing construction sites, and verifying insurance coverage. Tropical Depression Fourteen formed in the southwest Gulf of Mexico on Oct. 5, quickly strengthening into Tropical Storm Milton and then Hurricane Milton by 1 p.m. CDT on Oct. 6.
In this episode, Craig and Joey dive into the latest updates on Hurricane Milton and share crucial preparedness tips. Learn from the impact of Hurricane Ian in 2022 and the ongoing recovery efforts. They discuss how to secure your property, understand evacuation zones, and ensure your insurance coverage is up-to-date.
Discover the importance of proper documentation for insurance claims and hear about local resources for community support. Stay informed and prepared with practical advice to help you navigate the storm safely.
Topics Covered:
- Hurricane Milton Updates
- Lessons from Hurricane Ian (2022)
- Post-Ian Recovery Efforts
- Insurance Coverage & Claims Tips
- Evacuation Zones & Safety
- Community Support Resources
🔔 Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe for more updates and safety tips! Stay safe out there! 🌪️
#HurricaneMilton #HurricanePreparedness #EvacuationZones #InsuranceCoverage #HurricaneSafety #HurricaneIanLessons #StormRecovery
You can follow along at the National Hurricane Center at this link:
www.nhc.noaa.gov
Check out these websites for updates on Hurricane Milton:
WINK News HERE
Wink News FB HERE
Lee County News HERE
Cape Coral News HERE
Charlotte County News HERE
I Suvived Real Estate is on October 25, 2024
To purchase an individual ticket please Click HERE!
More info HERE
The Norris Group originates and services loans in California and Florida under California DRE License 01219911, Florida Mortgage Lender License 1577, and NMLS License 1623669. For more information on hard money lending, go www.thenorrisgroup.com and click the Hard Money tab.
Video Link
Radio Show
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Narrator (00:01):
Welcome to The Norris Group real estate podcast, a
show committed to bringing youinsights from thought leaders
shaping the real estateindustry. In each episode, we'll
dive into conversations withindustry experts and local
insiders, all aimed at helpingyou thrive in an ever-changing
real estate market. continuingthe legacy that Bruce Norris
(00:24):
created, sharing valuableknowledge, and empowering you on
your real estate journey.
Whether you're a seasoned pro ora newcomer, this is your go-to
source for insider tips, markettrends and success strategies.
Here's your host, Craig Evans.
(00:45):
The Norris Group, proudlypresents, I Survived Real
Estate. industry experts discussevolving industry trends, real
estate bubbles, inflation, andopportunities emerging for real
estate professionals. We want tothank our Platinum partners.
uDirect IRA Services, San DiegoCreative Investors Association,
(01:11):
White Feather Investments, MVTProductions, Inland Empire Real
Estate Investment Club, andRealty 411 Magazine. See,
isurvivedrealestate.com forevent details, information on
all our generous sponsors and toconnect with our speakers.
Joey Romero (01:32):
Welcome everybody.
This is Joey with the Norrisgroup. With me today is Craig
Evans, our CEO. We're heretoday, we're actually going to
put this out two days early,because it's been a rough couple
of weeks for our friends andfolks in Florida, and now we
have another hurricane bearingdown on the Gulf side the west
coast of Florida, and right now,while it doesn't look like it's
(01:58):
going to directly hit us, wherewe built and where we are all
with our bootcamp folks, thereis some urgency, you know,
because we wanted to get youguys an update from people on
the ground, you know, I'vespoken to Joanna, our property
manager, and I'll get into someof the things that she's doing
(02:19):
to get ahead of this and prepareour, you know, our renters and
our tenants and our in ourrental homes that are that are
down there, but wanted to getinformation, because we've had
over 175 you know, investorscome to our bootcamp. Not all of
them have built with us. Manydid, but there's also a lot of
them that built with otherbuilders. Other bought existing
(02:43):
and then there's people whodidn't even come to the
bootcamp. But, you know, a lotof times when Bruce does
something, a lot of folksfollow. So Craig, I want to
touch a little first of all,thank you for being on I know
it's a rough, you know, kind ofcouple of days, last couple
days, really hectic for you,your family, being the the
leader of your company too, youknow, trying to make sure your
(03:05):
people are safe and make all thepreparations that you need. So I
really appreciate you being on.
Welcome to the show as a guest.
Craig Evans (03:13):
It's been a while since I've been on here as a
guest again.
Joey Romero (03:15):
So I want to talk about a little bit about, you
know, our experience that wewent through just two years ago
with Ian. Now this was a catfive that hit directly into Fort
Myers and Cape Coral. Can youtalk a little bit about what
those sustained winds and youknow what those few days were
before it came? I know there was$113 billion worth of damage,
(03:38):
and it was mostly surge, butI'll let you talk about it a
little bit.
Craig Evans (03:42):
Yeah, we, you know, Ian was one of those storms. It
was just kind of an unforeseenthing of, first, how it turned
and came in on us, and the sizeand scope of that storm, much
like what Helene has turned intofor Florida, but even for more
so for, you know, friends andfamily in North Carolina and
(04:04):
western North Carolina, and thethings that they're experiencing
now, but Ian, there's a lotgoing on with Ian, because, you
know, it was only classified asa level four, storm for Category
(04:24):
store for storm through FEMA.
The reality is that that stormwas a Category Five. We had
sustained winds over 200 milesan hour at my house. We've got
sustained winds at severallocations that are documentable
as a Category five storm. Butthe, you know, the old saying,
(04:47):
you know, you hide from the windand you run from the water is
really kind of true, you know,the wind is a lot of stuff.
You're gonna lose some, someshingles. You're gonna, you
know, maybe you've got a watersystem tank that blows off or
something. You know, thosethings can be replaced very
easily. You know, the water isthe thing that is so damaging.
(05:10):
You know, Fort Myers Beach, wehad right at almost 19 feet of
storm surge. You know, when youdon't, when you got almost a 20
foot wall of water coming in,those are things that just
become devastating, you know,because it's not just the
pressure, it's the salt, andwhat the salt then does to
(05:31):
everything. So there's a lot ofthings that come out of that
type of storm surge, you know.
Joey Romero (05:37):
And not to help it.
There was a lot of old, oldbuildings in Fort Myers Beach,
right?
Craig Evans (05:43):
Yeah, Fort Myers Beach had stuff, you know, going
back to 50s and 60s that werebuilt on it. And, you know,
there was just a lot ofstructure that that really, you
know, first big storm it wasgoing, you know, there's been a
lot of redevelopment going on inFort Myers Beach. Again, there's
a lot of opinions on what that'sdoing to the beach but the
(06:07):
reality is, Fort Myers Beachwill never be what it was in the
aspect of the the old cottagesand things like that. But the
reality is it needed to besomething different with for
safety of structure and lifesafety things like that. The
reality is we've got too muchgood technology to be able to
build quality structures andthings that can sustain storm
(06:31):
surge and wind levels and thingslike that, to sustain life now.
So there'sa lot of lot of goodstuff going on, on Fort Myers
Beach, and it is definitelycoming back and coming back
strong. Been some newdevelopments that have opened
down there. So a lot of goodthings happening there. But
obviously, you know, Helene camethrough last week, we had, I
(06:55):
think, three feet of water downon, maybe four feet of water
down on, on Fort Myers Beach, insome areas, those are tough
things. But, you know, most ofthe stuff that was backed up and
running is stuff that was kindof grandfathered into some of
the stuff and would would be,you know, some of the commercial
properties, things like that,and around as they're built and
(07:15):
they're used to and ready to letthat happen, let the water flow
through, they clean up, and theyget back to going again, you
know? And so, but when you'vegot four feet of water coming
one week, and then, you know, aweek and a half later, all of a
sudden, you're dealing with thesame potential thing coming
through again. It's, it's, it'sfrustrating, and lot of things
going on, so.
Joey Romero (07:37):
Yeah, one of the prettiest places I've ever
visited in Sanibel Island, andthat during Ian the the whole
island was wiped out. There was,you know, no services, you know,
the causeway went down. Youknow, I remember stories of you
take, taking your boat and likeactually rescuing people,
(07:58):
getting them off the island,bringing them back to the
shores. We had our our bootcampthe following year in 2023 in
April. And it's amazing to methe speed and the action that
Florida takes to recover and howpeople come together to just get
back to normal, or back to closeto normal, as you can we were
(08:20):
just there six months, six shortmonths afterwards, and I went to
Sanibel, and there was just tonsof construction. There was
people on the island. Thecauseway was back up. And it was
just amazing.
Craig Evans (08:33):
Well, what I was going to say is, you know, there
was a lot that went into that.
Because obviously, when, whenstorms come through, devastating
storms like what's you know,again, you know, I've got family
in western North Carolina, andso my heart goes out, because I
know we've had some contact withthem and and I know the
(08:54):
devastation that they are goingthrough right now. But when
things like that happen, andwhat happened with Hurricane Ian
and things like that. There'stwo scopes of mine, and a lot of
people look for the federalgovernment to come in and bail
people out, right? What wasunique about that situation is
(09:15):
within about 36 to 40 hours, wehad a meeting with Governor
DeSantis, and there was aboutseven of us in that meeting,
from contractors, plus a lot ofother, you know, people and
dignitaries and stuff outside ofthat. But there was about seven
contractors in that, and withinabout 10 days, we had the
(09:37):
bridges and everything. Wedidn't have the bridges be
rebuilt, but we had the causewayaccessibility back out to Matt
Lachey Island, Pine Island, aswell as the availability to get
on and off of Sanibel withinabout 10 days, we had both of
those completely rebuilt, towhere we had access points. Now
(09:58):
that doesn't mean that roadswere completed, but there was
clear accessibility where peoplecould access the islands to get
on. And it really became becauseat the end of the day, you know,
the state government stepped in,and our governor stepped in and
said, our government, we'regoing to get out of the way and
(10:20):
we're going to bring in privatepeople that can do the job and
do it quickly and efficientlyand cost effectively. And it
just showed a lot that in 10days, literally, we rebuilt,
cleared out and rebuilt twomassive causeways that there was
nothing there, and now rebuiltaccess roads to be able to get
(10:42):
back out to major civilizations.
What was a huge testament to thepeople, not just my company, but
other companies and people thatstand in and do that work to see
our communities get put back onthe right so.
Joey Romero (11:00):
One of the things that, not only do you guys react
very well, the codes changeevery time something like this
happens. There's adjustmentsmade, there's things that are
learned. One of the great thingsthat our our builds, that we had
in Cape Coral, you know, therewas no broken windows, there was
no water in any of our homes,and that had a lot to do with
(11:23):
the new coats. Can you talkabout, you know, base flood
elevation and things like that.
So what can you tell us aboutthe building code that changed
in 2017?
Craig Evans (11:33):
Yeah. So the codes changed in '17 from how some of
the structures put to place, youknow, and how we make certain
attachments in the house, andhow things are strapped together
and strapped down within thebuilding codes of things. So
that made things a lot stronger.
But all of that is reallycarried through since Hurricane
(11:54):
Andrew, back in '91 there's beena big push at looking at, how do
we build stuff? You know, now,with that, the reality is,
everybody looks at, you know,why is it expensive? Well, the
to make these changes can costmore money, right? But at the
end of the day, when you havestorms that come through, and
(12:16):
your house is still standing,and you don't necessarily even
have to pay for a deductible toput stuff back that's there's a
lot of value that you start tosee in the money that you spent
up front, you know, even ininvestment properties, right?
Because, you know, you've gotsomething that stands. From an
elevation perspective,floodplains are always being
(12:38):
evaluated and where they're atand what the elevations need to
be. And fortunately, we had nohouses even remotely underwater.
Within a few months after Ianthere was an additional
adjustment to the FEMAfloodplains, which actually then
raised most every flood plain inthat area raised in an
(13:01):
additional foot. So not onlywere we did, we have nothing
even close to being underwaterat that point. You know now
since then, everything we'vebeen building since the
beginning of '23 is even a foothigher now. So, that's very
encouraging, you know, as wewere making our rounds the last
(13:23):
couple days to secure job sites,and, you know, I think we've got
close to 70 job sites open andactive.
Joey Romero (13:30):
Yeah, let's get into that a little bit. But
before we move on the base floodelevation, we're talking about
the code actually mandates thatyou build a foot above whatever
the base flood elevation is,right,?
Craig Evans (13:42):
Correct. Yeah. And so that's the interesting thing,
is the base flood elevationswere all raised an additional
foot in most areas. And then ontop of that, we still have to
build at least another footabove that.
Joey Romero (13:57):
What's the wind requirement also?
Craig Evans (14:01):
And that can vary depending on where you're at,
you know, you can be 150 to 180mile an hour depending on which
zone you're in, you know. So, ofcourse, that's all taken care of
within the engineering whenwe're building houses, you know,
like if you're building down onFort Myers Beach. You're, you're
(14:22):
in a different you know,typically you're in a V zone of
flooding and a V zone of wind.
And so, there's definite changesthat have to happen to a
structure. The places that we'rebuilding, in Cape Coral, even in
Northwest Cape Coral, whereyou're still closer to the
water, because there's so muchof a barrier there, we're not in
a v situation there. So thatprovides a lot of stability from
(14:46):
wind things like that. Now thatdoesn't mean that, you know, as
this storm comes through overthe next 48 hours or so, that we
won't potentially see some highwinds, but it won't be anything
like you're out on a barrierisland being buffeted by those
directly, you know.
Joey Romero (15:04):
Can you talk about where you get your updates from
people there? Because, you know,we get our information from
different sources. By the way,we're going to put some links in
the show so that, you know,investors can go ahead and track
it the same way we are. ButCraig, can you tell us what the
latest update has been forMilton?
Craig Evans (15:24):
Most of the things that I'm looking at, I'm looking
at directly at the NationalHurricane Institute, NOAA there.
So,with that, you know, I followthat. I'm watching that at every
one of their major updates,their major update came out at
five o'clock this morning EastCoast Standard Time. So, in that
(15:45):
there was no cone change onthat. So currently, the center
of the cone of uncertainty isstill just about 1520 miles
north of Tampa, so about 95miles north of where we are. So,
if the storm stays on thatcurrent path, we would be well
(16:07):
outside of hurricane forcewinds, and we would be still
having tropical force winds,which could be, you know, 50 to
90 miles an hour. But, and I saythat kind of shockingly, again,
it's nothing to have 50, 60,mile an hour winds on a Tuesday
afternoon here, you know. Sowe've talked about that a lot,
(16:29):
you know. But, but thedifference in the hurricane
force winds and tropical forces,it's a big difference. The storm
is was downgraded last night. Inthe middle of the night, there
was a repositioning of the eye.
There was a new eye form, so itlost some of its integrity, and
it dropped back down from a fiveit was classified as a category
five as of last night, stillthroughout the evening, at the
(16:52):
two o'clock and then again atthe five o'clock, it was
downgraded back down to acategory four storm just due to
the kind of resetting of thestorm itself. They're suggesting
as it gets back out over to openwater off of the Yucatan, that
it could strengthen again. Butthen there's a lot of wind shear
and things that are coming fromoff of the mainland of Florida
(17:17):
and off the peninsula andcurrently where that low
pressure system would be going,and so because of that, they're
really looking at that willstart to deconstruct the storm a
little bit and lower that soeverything is back to looking
like the storm. The storm shouldmake landfall as a category
three. Now that's still apowerful storm, but it's a long
(17:39):
way away from a category four oreven a five, you know, we'll
take a category three all daylong if you got a choice on it,
you know. And again, the wind,you know, any structure built in
the last 35 years can withstandthat kind of wind for the most
(18:03):
part. The biggest thing is goingto be storm surge, you know, and
there really has not been stormsof this size coming from
directly headed west to eastsince the 1800s there was two in
the 1800s of this size andstrength that came from the
west. So this is an odd anglethat the storm is attacking, or
(18:26):
is kind of coming to Florida. Soyou know, we've been studying a
lot of that, and I've beentrying to look at a lot of that,
of how is that going to affectwhat we're doing and how we need
to prepare differently.
Joey Romero (18:39):
So let's talk about that, Craig, let's talk about it
from a standpoint of just, howare people in Florida preparing?
Craig Evans (18:46):
Okay, so, yeah. So you know, one of the biggest
things you people have to maketheir decisions as to, are they
comfortable staying? Are they dothey feel like they need to
leave, right? So if you'rethere's currently two zones. We
have what's called evacuationzones. And you know, we always
encourage everybody. The stateencourages everybody, if you're
(19:06):
in coastal areas, know yourevacuation zones, right? Because
they're going to call outevacuation zones and say, hey,
you need to leave, right? Socurrently, the only zones
they're evacuating are Zone Aand Zone B. And again, that's
from from a storm surgeperspective, those are, the A is
always right on the coast andright up against rivers and, you
(19:27):
know, waterways, things likethat. B's can be a little more
inland, but typically low lyingstuff, you know, that was again,
where older developments, wherethey were developing and
building streets that weren't ashigh, right? So, and then
obviously, C, and it becomesmore inland, higher level things
like that. So the biggest thingis people have to know their
(19:50):
evacuation zones and then youknow, if it's mandatory, they've
got to get out. If it's notthat, they have to make the
determination for the self, ifthey feel like they can stay or
go, depending on where they'reat and their level tolerance,
right? Because a lot of timesit's not so much the storm. It's
the aftermath in the storm, if,if we lose power, are they
available, you know, do theyhave the availability to provide
(20:12):
power for themselves? Do theyhave generators? Do they have
things, you know?
Joey Romero (20:14):
Take a couple days for the in rows to even be
accessible, cut sometimes,right?
Craig Evans (20:19):
Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, with Ian, I mean, we,
we were working for days just tobe able to get access. I mean,
you know, we had power linesdown everywhere. Power Poles
were down. I mean, you know,it's a massive operation to
start putting things backtogether again, you know, but
the power companies, they do agreat job. I mean, I know a lot
of people get frustrated withthe power companies, but
(20:40):
there's, there's specificdirections that they have to go
and a lot of times, people getfrustrated saying, well, they
were in my neighborhood and theydidn't do my lines. Well, you
know, there's certain lines thatthey have to address first, that
may be feeder lines before theyget off into secondary lines.
And so it's not that, you know,linemen just pick and choose.
(21:02):
There's very definite directionsthey have to go. And so there's
a lot of things that happen inthat aftermath, but in the
heading up to in thepreparation, if you're going to
stay reality is you got to lookand say, Okay, are we in
flooding prone areas, right?
Even for storefronts, thingslike that, you got to look and
say, okay, is our do parkinglots have a tendency to flood?
(21:23):
If so, we need to prep andpotentially sandbag things. And,
you know, we those types ofareas, right? Same thing for
home, stuff like that. And thenyou've got to deal with food,
water, electricity, prep,preparing for the netville If,
if you lose electricity, right?
(21:43):
You got to make sure you've gotwater, you got food and ways to
cook it, things like that. So,so that's the biggest thing that
people, people in general, arelooking as to do. They evacuate
or not, right? You know, lot ofpeople that don't have impact
windows, they're out puttingshutters on, you know, for older
houses, they're screwing plywoodto them, things like that,
(22:05):
anything just to protect windowsagain, to keep from the wind,
having airborne projectilesbreaking windows, things like
that, you know, because the mostdestruction on the house,
honestly, from a catastrophicfailure of a structure is really
about the changes of pressure ina house, right? So when, when
(22:28):
windows break, not only do youget and there's high winds going
on, not only do you get waterinside, but when the pressure
inside those houses start tochange and there's high winds
involved, that's when roofs canstart to come off things like
that. So protecting the windows,protecting entrances, making
sure that there's no points thatthat things can break, you know,
(22:50):
projectiles can break windows.
That's a big deal, that you wantto protect your structure that
way. So there's people outputting up storm shutters and
things like that, so.
Joey Romero (23:01):
What are you guys doing specifically as a company,
for the construction sites?
Craig Evans (23:06):
So for construction sites, obviously we've got to go
through we make sure that all ofdumpsters are cleaned and
emptied and protected. We, youknow, we've got porta potties on
every job site, so those have tobe tipped over and laid on their
side, so that way they don'tbecome, you know, sales, right?
(23:27):
Because it's little things thatyou don't think about, right? If
we leave that thing standing up,the door opens up, it gets
caught by the wind all of asudden, you know, you got a 1100
pound Porta Potty blowing downthrough the air and hitting
somebody's house and stuff likethat. And a simple thing of just
literally laying it down on theground, on the door, they
typically don't go anywhere atthat point, you know, so things
(23:50):
like that that you gotta do. Wegotta make sure that there's no
airborne debris that can be, youknow, grabbed by wind, things
like that. Obviously, the housesthat have windows and doors. We
make sure those are shut andlocked and barricaded things
like that. We use all impact,Hurricane rated windows and
doors. So, you know, once we'vegot windows and doors on there,
(24:11):
I'm really not as concernedabout our structures, you know.
There were certain houses thatwe were in the middle of
construction and had certainthings going and we actually
paused construction several daysago, preparing for the aspect,
because we didn't want to be inbetween certain tasks, and those
can actually create a biggerdamage, right? So, we were
(24:34):
flying some trusses on houses,and we decided not to put the
plywood sheathing on those,because that creates bigger
deflections versus the trussesthemselves, bracing them up
correctly. Now the wind can blowthrough them, and there's really
nothing to be caught. And whilewe may have some topple over, a
few things, those can be pickedright back up and put back on
(24:55):
right versus, if we see that anddon't get the job finished, then
all of a sudden we've got muchbigger problem and create a
catastrophe that couldpotentially damage other
people's homes. So while we wantto protect our homes that we're
building and the products thatwe're using, we also really want
to be good neighbors and makesure we're trying to do
everything we can to try toprotect the homes around us from
(25:17):
anything that would fly off ofour job sites.
Joey Romero (25:20):
Now, one of the, one of the things that has
happened in the last, you know,two or three years is the
insurance crisis in bothCalifornia and Florida. Now,
knock on wood, you know,hopefully we don't get too big,
you know, claims I know, withIan, I had a roof replace on my
rental, and the insurancecompany came through and took
(25:43):
care of it, and everything wasgreat. All of our sites and
builds are protected, correct?
Craig Evans (25:50):
Correct, Yep, yeah.
With everything that we havegoing every house that goes
under construction in the stateof Florida, you got to have
builders risk on it. You have tohave liability insurance. So
obviously, we carry ourliabilities, but there's got to
be builders risk. There's, youknow, if you're in flood zones,
you've got to have floodinsurance on it. So everything
that we have that's underconstruction has all of the
correct insurance, you know,that is needed and required to
(26:13):
be able to sustain storms likethis. You know, the insurance
game in Florida right now, aswell as California, you know.
And I believe it's probablygoing to be the same thing in
North Carolina now. It's abattle right now, right, but
praise God, we've got 14 newcompanies that have started
writing in the state of Floridathis year. So that's been a huge
(26:36):
boost to starting to bring backsome normalcy of of what's
happening in the state. So, youknow, we'll have to wait and see
how the storm surge does on thisone. I mean, it's calling for
big storm surge, and that coulddefinitely do some damage, but
we just got to see how thisshakes out, and where it's at,
and how much damage it does, tobe able to determine how we kind
(27:00):
of fare out of the insuranceside of this one, you know? And
it's not, it's not about payingnow. It's really about what I
what I'm really more what I'mgoing to is, what does it look
like six months from now? Whatdoes that picture for writing
look like, you know? So.
Joey Romero (27:15):
Yeah, one of the things I was pleasantly
surprised to see was an emailyesterday from my insurance
company, talking aboutresources. And hey, if you've
got a claim, start with us. Andit was just refreshing to hear
that, you know, that they'renot, you know, avoiding it.
They're trying to be proactiveand give us all the resources
that we can, because insurancecompanies are only good as the
(27:39):
ability to pay. You know, I usedto work for Aflac. And you know,
Aflac was one of the firstcompanies during 911 that said,
You know what? Although, youknow, President Bush declared it
an act of war and a lot of timesthat will nullify insurance
policies, Aflac was the firstone who said, "We don't care.
We're going to pay every singleone of those claims." And so to
(28:02):
me, that's where companies likethat really make their money, is
by being there when we needthem. So that'll transition to
the conversation that I hadyesterday with Joanna and Empire
Property Management, ourproperty management company. She
was, they were all in the officeprinting out every address with
(28:23):
contact from the tenant,contacts for the owners, because
there's a possibility that theinternet could go out, the power
could go out. So they want tostill have the ability to find
where, where the homes that theywere, you know, in charge of
managing they've been in contactwith every tenant. They asked
(28:45):
every tenant to clean up theproperties, take pictures, which
is a very important aspect ofthat. Take pictures, because the
before and after will be veryhelpful in your insurance
claims. And with Ian, Joanna andEmpire Property Management
handled everything I didn'tlike. Have a single conversation
(29:06):
with my insurance company. Shetook care of it. She got me all
the bids for the roof, and itwas so hands off. So another one
of those aspects where you lookto, you know, the partners that
you have in place to be able tohelp you on and take care of
everything that you're doing.
And so what it's been realhelpful for us is what people
don't know is, unless you wentto our bootcamp, we've been
(29:27):
communicating with folks thatwent to our boot camps. You
know, for the last few days, wecommunicated through Helene, and
we'll continue to communicate.
But we thought this was reallyimportant that we got on here
and, you know, let people knowwhat's going on, boots on the
ground, if, by the grace of Godthat we get lucky and it gets
downgraded, and it isn't, youknow, as devastating as it look,
(29:49):
especially yesterday. If youlisten to any of the the news
they want to, they're going tosensationalize. And it's a
category five, and it's theworst storm ever. And we could
still hope. And pray that itdoes dissipate, and the damage
is not as bad as it could be,but the reality is that there's
going to be people that arethey're going to need help. So
(30:12):
when those things come across,if I know, during Ian, our
investors put together, youknow, some, some gift cards,
things. There's going to be manyways to help as we come across
some of those opportunities, ifit's close to us, we'll post
those links on our website goingforward, so that if people feel
like they want to help, theycan.
Craig Evans (30:33):
You know, from an aspect of helping, just like
what we're seeing in in westernNorth Carolina right now, the
things that are getting done,and the main things that are
happening because of citizens,you know, just stepping up and
caring for one another andwanting to volunteer and wanting
to help and wanting to putthings into play. So there's
(30:55):
definitely gonna be a lot ofpeople that will be in need
after this storm comes through.
We'll see how that shakes out.
Obviously, Joey, you know me,I'm very active in our
community, in our church, notjust in business, but with
people, right? And so, you know,as a company, we've taken a lot
of care to make sure that ourall of our employees, are ready.
(31:18):
We're staying in contact withthem on several times a day to
make sure that, you know,everybody's taken care of, and
we're putting plans on how wewill contact, and once the storm
is over, how we contact, becauseI've got to start, and I've got
to focus and make sure that Istart in our inner circle and
start to work out from there,right once from there I've
(31:39):
already been even though, Imean, you know, my personal
situation, you know, I've gotfamily members in the hospital.
I'm just coming off ofbronchitis, things like that.
But, you know, I've already beenin meetings last night with our
church on some strategicplanning for communities and how
we're going to be preparing andhow we're organizing things like
that. So there'll be a lot ofinformation that we'll have over
(32:02):
the next few days coming out tobe able to start getting out to
people that want to help. Sowe'll definitely do some things
to follow up over the next fewdays after the storm has passed
and we're able to evaluatethings like that, because
obviously the first thing thatwe've got to do as a business is
we've got to evaluate ourinternal people to make sure how
(32:22):
to how do we need to take careof them so we can take care of
the job we do once I'm assuredthat everybody is safe and
protected and that we're able tokeep moving from there, then our
next plans that we've alreadybeen working on is okay now, how
do we go back in and we startaddressing the homes? We've got
policies of how do we do thatprocedures of, how do we do that
from, you know, we have picturesfrom before now we'll have
(32:44):
pictures afterwards. Whathappened with each house?
There's a lot of documentationthat goes on. And then our team
will start to work with that.
And then, you know, of course,I'll jump back into a lot of
things within the community thatwe're doing. You know, there's a
chance, you know, as you said, Idid a lot of search and rescue
last time with Ian. You know,we'll see what realm I'm working
in this storm. But you know,it's, you know, me, I love
(33:08):
people, and I want to see thatwe're all safe and sound to the
best of our ability and takingcare of people, so.
Joey Romero (33:17):
Yeah, we've had several investors reach out to
me via email saying, hey, youknow, if there's any way that
they can help, you know, pleaselet them know. So they're
already thinking about that.
Another couple investors, well,quite a few of them have asked
how Bruce is doing. Bruce isactually one of the folks that
did choose to, you know, stepaway from his home. So he's he's
(33:37):
nowhere near his home inSarasota. He's up in Georgia,
but I'm sure when he comes back,he'll jump into the efforts
wholeheartedly, like he did lasttime. And the last thing I'll
say is that Joanna is doing thesame thing with our property
management. They're going to goahead and triage the importance
of the calls if there's damage,they'll go visit the most
(34:00):
damaged ones first. But everyone of our homes will be visited
by her team afterwards also. Sowe've got some good people on
the ground there. We'll, we'll,you know, keep keep them in our
thoughts, keep them in ourprayers. And hopefully, you
know, we can have the bestpossible outcome out of all of
this, you know, and minimize theimpact on folks, because we
(34:23):
could use some good news. Craig,thank you for jumping on. I know
you got a ton of stuff. I seeyou working already, so I'll let
you go. You let me know if youneed anything, and just, I know
we'll be in contact. But thankyou for jumping on and getting
us an update for everybody athome, we're going to go ahead
and post this two days early.
(34:45):
I'll go ahead and make sure thisgets out tomorrow, so you'll
you'll see our podcast a littlebit early this week so that
everybody can get theinformation before the hurricane
makes landfall.
Craig Evans (34:54):
Thank you, everyone.
Joey Romero (34:55):
Thanks, Craig.
Narrator (34:56):
We'd also like to thank our Gold Sponsors, Inland
Valley Association of Realtors,Keystone CPA, NorCal REIA,
NSDREI, Pasadena FIBI,PropertyRadar, The Collective
Genius. See,isurvivedrealestate.com for
(35:21):
event details. For moreinformation on hard money loans,
trust deed investing, andupcoming events with The Norris
group. Check outthenorrisgroup.com. For more
information on passive investingthrough the DBL Capital Real
Estate Investment Fund, pleasevisit dblapital.com.
Joey Romero (35:42):
The Norris group originates and services loans in
California and Florida underCalifornia DRE license 01219911.
Florida mortgage lender license1577 and NMLS license 1623669.
For more information on hardmoney lending go to
thenorrisgroup.com and click thehard money tab.
Welcome to The Norris Group real estate podcast, a
show committed to bringing youinsights from thought leaders
shaping the real estateindustry. In each episode, we'll
dive into conversations withindustry experts and local
insiders, all aimed at helpingyou thrive in an ever-changing
real estate market. continuingthe legacy that Bruce Norris
(00:24):
created, sharing valuableknowledge, and empowering you on
your real estate journey.
Whether you're a seasoned pro ora newcomer, this is your go-to
source for insider tips, markettrends and success strategies.
Here's your host, Craig Evans.
(00:45):
The Norris Group, proudlypresents, I Survived Real
Estate. industry experts discussevolving industry trends, real
estate bubbles, inflation, andopportunities emerging for real
estate professionals. We want tothank our Platinum partners.
uDirect IRA Services, San DiegoCreative Investors Association,
(01:11):
White Feather Investments, MVTProductions, Inland Empire Real
Estate Investment Club, andRealty 411 Magazine. See,
isurvivedrealestate.com forevent details, information on
all our generous sponsors and toconnect with our speakers.
Joey Romero (01:32):
Welcome everybody.
This is Joey with the Norrisgroup. With me today is Craig
Evans, our CEO. We're heretoday, we're actually going to
put this out two days early,because it's been a rough couple
of weeks for our friends andfolks in Florida, and now we
have another hurricane bearingdown on the Gulf side the west
coast of Florida, and right now,while it doesn't look like it's
(01:58):
going to directly hit us, wherewe built and where we are all
with our bootcamp folks, thereis some urgency, you know,
because we wanted to get youguys an update from people on
the ground, you know, I'vespoken to Joanna, our property
manager, and I'll get into someof the things that she's doing
(02:19):
to get ahead of this and prepareour, you know, our renters and
our tenants and our in ourrental homes that are that are
down there, but wanted to getinformation, because we've had
over 175 you know, investorscome to our bootcamp. Not all of
them have built with us. Manydid, but there's also a lot of
them that built with otherbuilders. Other bought existing
(02:43):
and then there's people whodidn't even come to the
bootcamp. But, you know, a lotof times when Bruce does
something, a lot of folksfollow. So Craig, I want to
touch a little first of all,thank you for being on I know
it's a rough, you know, kind ofcouple of days, last couple
days, really hectic for you,your family, being the the
leader of your company too, youknow, trying to make sure your
(03:05):
people are safe and make all thepreparations that you need. So I
really appreciate you being on.
Welcome to the show as a guest.
Craig Evans (03:13):
It's been a while since I've been on here as a
guest again.
Joey Romero (03:15):
So I want to talk about a little bit about, you
know, our experience that wewent through just two years ago
with Ian. Now this was a catfive that hit directly into Fort
Myers and Cape Coral. Can youtalk a little bit about what
those sustained winds and youknow what those few days were
before it came? I know there was$113 billion worth of damage,
(03:38):
and it was mostly surge, butI'll let you talk about it a
little bit.
Craig Evans (03:42):
Yeah, we, you know, Ian was one of those storms. It
was just kind of an unforeseenthing of, first, how it turned
and came in on us, and the sizeand scope of that storm, much
like what Helene has turned intofor Florida, but even for more
so for, you know, friends andfamily in North Carolina and
(04:04):
western North Carolina, and thethings that they're experiencing
now, but Ian, there's a lotgoing on with Ian, because, you
know, it was only classified asa level four, storm for Category
(04:24):
store for storm through FEMA.
The reality is that that stormwas a Category Five. We had
sustained winds over 200 milesan hour at my house. We've got
sustained winds at severallocations that are documentable
as a Category five storm. Butthe, you know, the old saying,
(04:47):
you know, you hide from the windand you run from the water is
really kind of true, you know,the wind is a lot of stuff.
You're gonna lose some, someshingles. You're gonna, you
know, maybe you've got a watersystem tank that blows off or
something. You know, thosethings can be replaced very
easily. You know, the water isthe thing that is so damaging.
(05:10):
You know, Fort Myers Beach, wehad right at almost 19 feet of
storm surge. You know, when youdon't, when you got almost a 20
foot wall of water coming in,those are things that just
become devastating, you know,because it's not just the
pressure, it's the salt, andwhat the salt then does to
(05:31):
everything. So there's a lot ofthings that come out of that
type of storm surge, you know.
Joey Romero (05:37):
And not to help it.
There was a lot of old, oldbuildings in Fort Myers Beach,
right?
Craig Evans (05:43):
Yeah, Fort Myers Beach had stuff, you know, going
back to 50s and 60s that werebuilt on it. And, you know,
there was just a lot ofstructure that that really, you
know, first big storm it wasgoing, you know, there's been a
lot of redevelopment going on inFort Myers Beach. Again, there's
a lot of opinions on what that'sdoing to the beach but the
(06:07):
reality is, Fort Myers Beachwill never be what it was in the
aspect of the the old cottagesand things like that. But the
reality is it needed to besomething different with for
safety of structure and lifesafety things like that. The
reality is we've got too muchgood technology to be able to
build quality structures andthings that can sustain storm
(06:31):
surge and wind levels and thingslike that, to sustain life now.
So there'sa lot of lot of goodstuff going on, on Fort Myers
Beach, and it is definitelycoming back and coming back
strong. Been some newdevelopments that have opened
down there. So a lot of goodthings happening there. But
obviously, you know, Helene camethrough last week, we had, I
(06:55):
think, three feet of water downon, maybe four feet of water
down on, on Fort Myers Beach, insome areas, those are tough
things. But, you know, most ofthe stuff that was backed up and
running is stuff that was kindof grandfathered into some of
the stuff and would would be,you know, some of the commercial
properties, things like that,and around as they're built and
(07:15):
they're used to and ready to letthat happen, let the water flow
through, they clean up, and theyget back to going again, you
know? And so, but when you'vegot four feet of water coming
one week, and then, you know, aweek and a half later, all of a
sudden, you're dealing with thesame potential thing coming
through again. It's, it's, it'sfrustrating, and lot of things
going on, so.
Joey Romero (07:37):
Yeah, one of the prettiest places I've ever
visited in Sanibel Island, andthat during Ian the the whole
island was wiped out. There was,you know, no services, you know,
the causeway went down. Youknow, I remember stories of you
take, taking your boat and likeactually rescuing people,
(07:58):
getting them off the island,bringing them back to the
shores. We had our our bootcampthe following year in 2023 in
April. And it's amazing to methe speed and the action that
Florida takes to recover and howpeople come together to just get
back to normal, or back to closeto normal, as you can we were
(08:20):
just there six months, six shortmonths afterwards, and I went to
Sanibel, and there was just tonsof construction. There was
people on the island. Thecauseway was back up. And it was
just amazing.
Craig Evans (08:33):
Well, what I was going to say is, you know, there
was a lot that went into that.
Because obviously, when, whenstorms come through, devastating
storms like what's you know,again, you know, I've got family
in western North Carolina, andso my heart goes out, because I
know we've had some contact withthem and and I know the
(08:54):
devastation that they are goingthrough right now. But when
things like that happen, andwhat happened with Hurricane Ian
and things like that. There'stwo scopes of mine, and a lot of
people look for the federalgovernment to come in and bail
people out, right? What wasunique about that situation is
(09:15):
within about 36 to 40 hours, wehad a meeting with Governor
DeSantis, and there was aboutseven of us in that meeting,
from contractors, plus a lot ofother, you know, people and
dignitaries and stuff outside ofthat. But there was about seven
contractors in that, and withinabout 10 days, we had the
(09:37):
bridges and everything. Wedidn't have the bridges be
rebuilt, but we had the causewayaccessibility back out to Matt
Lachey Island, Pine Island, aswell as the availability to get
on and off of Sanibel withinabout 10 days, we had both of
those completely rebuilt, towhere we had access points. Now
(09:58):
that doesn't mean that roadswere completed, but there was
clear accessibility where peoplecould access the islands to get
on. And it really became becauseat the end of the day, you know,
the state government stepped in,and our governor stepped in and
said, our government, we'regoing to get out of the way and
(10:20):
we're going to bring in privatepeople that can do the job and
do it quickly and efficientlyand cost effectively. And it
just showed a lot that in 10days, literally, we rebuilt,
cleared out and rebuilt twomassive causeways that there was
nothing there, and now rebuiltaccess roads to be able to get
(10:42):
back out to major civilizations.
What was a huge testament to thepeople, not just my company, but
other companies and people thatstand in and do that work to see
our communities get put back onthe right so.
Joey Romero (11:00):
One of the things that, not only do you guys react
very well, the codes changeevery time something like this
happens. There's adjustmentsmade, there's things that are
learned. One of the great thingsthat our our builds, that we had
in Cape Coral, you know, therewas no broken windows, there was
no water in any of our homes,and that had a lot to do with
(11:23):
the new coats. Can you talkabout, you know, base flood
elevation and things like that.
So what can you tell us aboutthe building code that changed
in 2017?
Craig Evans (11:33):
Yeah. So the codes changed in '17 from how some of
the structures put to place, youknow, and how we make certain
attachments in the house, andhow things are strapped together
and strapped down within thebuilding codes of things. So
that made things a lot stronger.
But all of that is reallycarried through since Hurricane
(11:54):
Andrew, back in '91 there's beena big push at looking at, how do
we build stuff? You know, now,with that, the reality is,
everybody looks at, you know,why is it expensive? Well, the
to make these changes can costmore money, right? But at the
end of the day, when you havestorms that come through, and
(12:16):
your house is still standing,and you don't necessarily even
have to pay for a deductible toput stuff back that's there's a
lot of value that you start tosee in the money that you spent
up front, you know, even ininvestment properties, right?
Because, you know, you've gotsomething that stands. From an
elevation perspective,floodplains are always being
(12:38):
evaluated and where they're atand what the elevations need to
be. And fortunately, we had nohouses even remotely underwater.
Within a few months after Ianthere was an additional
adjustment to the FEMAfloodplains, which actually then
raised most every flood plain inthat area raised in an
(13:01):
additional foot. So not onlywere we did, we have nothing
even close to being underwaterat that point. You know now
since then, everything we'vebeen building since the
beginning of '23 is even a foothigher now. So, that's very
encouraging, you know, as wewere making our rounds the last
(13:23):
couple days to secure job sites,and, you know, I think we've got
close to 70 job sites open andactive.
Joey Romero (13:30):
Yeah, let's get into that a little bit. But
before we move on the base floodelevation, we're talking about
the code actually mandates thatyou build a foot above whatever
the base flood elevation is,right,?
Craig Evans (13:42):
Correct. Yeah. And so that's the interesting thing,
is the base flood elevationswere all raised an additional
foot in most areas. And then ontop of that, we still have to
build at least another footabove that.
Joey Romero (13:57):
What's the wind requirement also?
Craig Evans (14:01):
And that can vary depending on where you're at,
you know, you can be 150 to 180mile an hour depending on which
zone you're in, you know. So, ofcourse, that's all taken care of
within the engineering whenwe're building houses, you know,
like if you're building down onFort Myers Beach. You're, you're
(14:22):
in a different you know,typically you're in a V zone of
flooding and a V zone of wind.
And so, there's definite changesthat have to happen to a
structure. The places that we'rebuilding, in Cape Coral, even in
Northwest Cape Coral, whereyou're still closer to the
water, because there's so muchof a barrier there, we're not in
a v situation there. So thatprovides a lot of stability from
(14:46):
wind things like that. Now thatdoesn't mean that, you know, as
this storm comes through overthe next 48 hours or so, that we
won't potentially see some highwinds, but it won't be anything
like you're out on a barrierisland being buffeted by those
directly, you know.
Joey Romero (15:04):
Can you talk about where you get your updates from
people there? Because, you know,we get our information from
different sources. By the way,we're going to put some links in
the show so that, you know,investors can go ahead and track
it the same way we are. ButCraig, can you tell us what the
latest update has been forMilton?
Craig Evans (15:24):
Most of the things that I'm looking at, I'm looking
at directly at the NationalHurricane Institute, NOAA there.
So,with that, you know, I followthat. I'm watching that at every
one of their major updates,their major update came out at
five o'clock this morning EastCoast Standard Time. So, in that
(15:45):
there was no cone change onthat. So currently, the center
of the cone of uncertainty isstill just about 1520 miles
north of Tampa, so about 95miles north of where we are. So,
if the storm stays on thatcurrent path, we would be well
(16:07):
outside of hurricane forcewinds, and we would be still
having tropical force winds,which could be, you know, 50 to
90 miles an hour. But, and I saythat kind of shockingly, again,
it's nothing to have 50, 60,mile an hour winds on a Tuesday
afternoon here, you know. Sowe've talked about that a lot,
(16:29):
you know. But, but thedifference in the hurricane
force winds and tropical forces,it's a big difference. The storm
is was downgraded last night. Inthe middle of the night, there
was a repositioning of the eye.
There was a new eye form, so itlost some of its integrity, and
it dropped back down from a fiveit was classified as a category
five as of last night, stillthroughout the evening, at the
(16:52):
two o'clock and then again atthe five o'clock, it was
downgraded back down to acategory four storm just due to
the kind of resetting of thestorm itself. They're suggesting
as it gets back out over to openwater off of the Yucatan, that
it could strengthen again. Butthen there's a lot of wind shear
and things that are coming fromoff of the mainland of Florida
(17:17):
and off the peninsula andcurrently where that low
pressure system would be going,and so because of that, they're
really looking at that willstart to deconstruct the storm a
little bit and lower that soeverything is back to looking
like the storm. The storm shouldmake landfall as a category
three. Now that's still apowerful storm, but it's a long
(17:39):
way away from a category four oreven a five, you know, we'll
take a category three all daylong if you got a choice on it,
you know. And again, the wind,you know, any structure built in
the last 35 years can withstandthat kind of wind for the most
(18:03):
part. The biggest thing is goingto be storm surge, you know, and
there really has not been stormsof this size coming from
directly headed west to eastsince the 1800s there was two in
the 1800s of this size andstrength that came from the
west. So this is an odd anglethat the storm is attacking, or
(18:26):
is kind of coming to Florida. Soyou know, we've been studying a
lot of that, and I've beentrying to look at a lot of that,
of how is that going to affectwhat we're doing and how we need
to prepare differently.
Joey Romero (18:39):
So let's talk about that, Craig, let's talk about it
from a standpoint of just, howare people in Florida preparing?
Craig Evans (18:46):
Okay, so, yeah. So you know, one of the biggest
things you people have to maketheir decisions as to, are they
comfortable staying? Are they dothey feel like they need to
leave, right? So if you'rethere's currently two zones. We
have what's called evacuationzones. And you know, we always
encourage everybody. The stateencourages everybody, if you're
(19:06):
in coastal areas, know yourevacuation zones, right? Because
they're going to call outevacuation zones and say, hey,
you need to leave, right? Socurrently, the only zones
they're evacuating are Zone Aand Zone B. And again, that's
from from a storm surgeperspective, those are, the A is
always right on the coast andright up against rivers and, you
(19:27):
know, waterways, things likethat. B's can be a little more
inland, but typically low lyingstuff, you know, that was again,
where older developments, wherethey were developing and
building streets that weren't ashigh, right? So, and then
obviously, C, and it becomesmore inland, higher level things
like that. So the biggest thingis people have to know their
(19:50):
evacuation zones and then youknow, if it's mandatory, they've
got to get out. If it's notthat, they have to make the
determination for the self, ifthey feel like they can stay or
go, depending on where they'reat and their level tolerance,
right? Because a lot of timesit's not so much the storm. It's
the aftermath in the storm, if,if we lose power, are they
available, you know, do theyhave the availability to provide
(20:12):
power for themselves? Do theyhave generators? Do they have
things, you know?
Joey Romero (20:14):
Take a couple days for the in rows to even be
accessible, cut sometimes,right?
Craig Evans (20:19):
Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, with Ian, I mean, we,
we were working for days just tobe able to get access. I mean,
you know, we had power linesdown everywhere. Power Poles
were down. I mean, you know,it's a massive operation to
start putting things backtogether again, you know, but
the power companies, they do agreat job. I mean, I know a lot
of people get frustrated withthe power companies, but
(20:40):
there's, there's specificdirections that they have to go
and a lot of times, people getfrustrated saying, well, they
were in my neighborhood and theydidn't do my lines. Well, you
know, there's certain lines thatthey have to address first, that
may be feeder lines before theyget off into secondary lines.
And so it's not that, you know,linemen just pick and choose.
(21:02):
There's very definite directionsthey have to go. And so there's
a lot of things that happen inthat aftermath, but in the
heading up to in thepreparation, if you're going to
stay reality is you got to lookand say, Okay, are we in
flooding prone areas, right?
Even for storefronts, thingslike that, you got to look and
say, okay, is our do parkinglots have a tendency to flood?
(21:23):
If so, we need to prep andpotentially sandbag things. And,
you know, we those types ofareas, right? Same thing for
home, stuff like that. And thenyou've got to deal with food,
water, electricity, prep,preparing for the netville If,
if you lose electricity, right?
(21:43):
You got to make sure you've gotwater, you got food and ways to
cook it, things like that. So,so that's the biggest thing that
people, people in general, arelooking as to do. They evacuate
or not, right? You know, lot ofpeople that don't have impact
windows, they're out puttingshutters on, you know, for older
houses, they're screwing plywoodto them, things like that,
(22:05):
anything just to protect windowsagain, to keep from the wind,
having airborne projectilesbreaking windows, things like
that, you know, because the mostdestruction on the house,
honestly, from a catastrophicfailure of a structure is really
about the changes of pressure ina house, right? So when, when
(22:28):
windows break, not only do youget and there's high winds going
on, not only do you get waterinside, but when the pressure
inside those houses start tochange and there's high winds
involved, that's when roofs canstart to come off things like
that. So protecting the windows,protecting entrances, making
sure that there's no points thatthat things can break, you know,
(22:50):
projectiles can break windows.
That's a big deal, that you wantto protect your structure that
way. So there's people outputting up storm shutters and
things like that, so.
Joey Romero (23:01):
What are you guys doing specifically as a company,
for the construction sites?
Craig Evans (23:06):
So for construction sites, obviously we've got to go
through we make sure that all ofdumpsters are cleaned and
emptied and protected. We, youknow, we've got porta potties on
every job site, so those have tobe tipped over and laid on their
side, so that way they don'tbecome, you know, sales, right?
(23:27):
Because it's little things thatyou don't think about, right? If
we leave that thing standing up,the door opens up, it gets
caught by the wind all of asudden, you know, you got a 1100
pound Porta Potty blowing downthrough the air and hitting
somebody's house and stuff likethat. And a simple thing of just
literally laying it down on theground, on the door, they
typically don't go anywhere atthat point, you know, so things
(23:50):
like that that you gotta do. Wegotta make sure that there's no
airborne debris that can be, youknow, grabbed by wind, things
like that. Obviously, the housesthat have windows and doors. We
make sure those are shut andlocked and barricaded things
like that. We use all impact,Hurricane rated windows and
doors. So, you know, once we'vegot windows and doors on there,
(24:11):
I'm really not as concernedabout our structures, you know.
There were certain houses thatwe were in the middle of
construction and had certainthings going and we actually
paused construction several daysago, preparing for the aspect,
because we didn't want to be inbetween certain tasks, and those
can actually create a biggerdamage, right? So, we were
(24:34):
flying some trusses on houses,and we decided not to put the
plywood sheathing on those,because that creates bigger
deflections versus the trussesthemselves, bracing them up
correctly. Now the wind can blowthrough them, and there's really
nothing to be caught. And whilewe may have some topple over, a
few things, those can be pickedright back up and put back on
(24:55):
right versus, if we see that anddon't get the job finished, then
all of a sudden we've got muchbigger problem and create a
catastrophe that couldpotentially damage other
people's homes. So while we wantto protect our homes that we're
building and the products thatwe're using, we also really want
to be good neighbors and makesure we're trying to do
everything we can to try toprotect the homes around us from
(25:17):
anything that would fly off ofour job sites.
Joey Romero (25:20):
Now, one of the, one of the things that has
happened in the last, you know,two or three years is the
insurance crisis in bothCalifornia and Florida. Now,
knock on wood, you know,hopefully we don't get too big,
you know, claims I know, withIan, I had a roof replace on my
rental, and the insurancecompany came through and took
(25:43):
care of it, and everything wasgreat. All of our sites and
builds are protected, correct?
Craig Evans (25:50):
Correct, Yep, yeah.
With everything that we havegoing every house that goes
under construction in the stateof Florida, you got to have
builders risk on it. You have tohave liability insurance. So
obviously, we carry ourliabilities, but there's got to
be builders risk. There's, youknow, if you're in flood zones,
you've got to have floodinsurance on it. So everything
that we have that's underconstruction has all of the
correct insurance, you know,that is needed and required to
(26:13):
be able to sustain storms likethis. You know, the insurance
game in Florida right now, aswell as California, you know.
And I believe it's probablygoing to be the same thing in
North Carolina now. It's abattle right now, right, but
praise God, we've got 14 newcompanies that have started
writing in the state of Floridathis year. So that's been a huge
(26:36):
boost to starting to bring backsome normalcy of of what's
happening in the state. So, youknow, we'll have to wait and see
how the storm surge does on thisone. I mean, it's calling for
big storm surge, and that coulddefinitely do some damage, but
we just got to see how thisshakes out, and where it's at,
and how much damage it does, tobe able to determine how we kind
(27:00):
of fare out of the insuranceside of this one, you know? And
it's not, it's not about payingnow. It's really about what I
what I'm really more what I'mgoing to is, what does it look
like six months from now? Whatdoes that picture for writing
look like, you know? So.
Joey Romero (27:15):
Yeah, one of the things I was pleasantly
surprised to see was an emailyesterday from my insurance
company, talking aboutresources. And hey, if you've
got a claim, start with us. Andit was just refreshing to hear
that, you know, that they'renot, you know, avoiding it.
They're trying to be proactiveand give us all the resources
that we can, because insurancecompanies are only good as the
(27:39):
ability to pay. You know, I usedto work for Aflac. And you know,
Aflac was one of the firstcompanies during 911 that said,
You know what? Although, youknow, President Bush declared it
an act of war and a lot of timesthat will nullify insurance
policies, Aflac was the firstone who said, "We don't care.
We're going to pay every singleone of those claims." And so to
(28:02):
me, that's where companies likethat really make their money, is
by being there when we needthem. So that'll transition to
the conversation that I hadyesterday with Joanna and Empire
Property Management, ourproperty management company. She
was, they were all in the officeprinting out every address with
(28:23):
contact from the tenant,contacts for the owners, because
there's a possibility that theinternet could go out, the power
could go out. So they want tostill have the ability to find
where, where the homes that theywere, you know, in charge of
managing they've been in contactwith every tenant. They asked
(28:45):
every tenant to clean up theproperties, take pictures, which
is a very important aspect ofthat. Take pictures, because the
before and after will be veryhelpful in your insurance
claims. And with Ian, Joanna andEmpire Property Management
handled everything I didn'tlike. Have a single conversation
(29:06):
with my insurance company. Shetook care of it. She got me all
the bids for the roof, and itwas so hands off. So another one
of those aspects where you lookto, you know, the partners that
you have in place to be able tohelp you on and take care of
everything that you're doing.
And so what it's been realhelpful for us is what people
don't know is, unless you wentto our bootcamp, we've been
(29:27):
communicating with folks thatwent to our boot camps. You
know, for the last few days, wecommunicated through Helene, and
we'll continue to communicate.
But we thought this was reallyimportant that we got on here
and, you know, let people knowwhat's going on, boots on the
ground, if, by the grace of Godthat we get lucky and it gets
downgraded, and it isn't, youknow, as devastating as it look,
(29:49):
especially yesterday. If youlisten to any of the the news
they want to, they're going tosensationalize. And it's a
category five, and it's theworst storm ever. And we could
still hope. And pray that itdoes dissipate, and the damage
is not as bad as it could be,but the reality is that there's
going to be people that arethey're going to need help. So
(30:12):
when those things come across,if I know, during Ian, our
investors put together, youknow, some, some gift cards,
things. There's going to be manyways to help as we come across
some of those opportunities, ifit's close to us, we'll post
those links on our website goingforward, so that if people feel
like they want to help, theycan.
Craig Evans (30:33):
You know, from an aspect of helping, just like
what we're seeing in in westernNorth Carolina right now, the
things that are getting done,and the main things that are
happening because of citizens,you know, just stepping up and
caring for one another andwanting to volunteer and wanting
to help and wanting to putthings into play. So there's
(30:55):
definitely gonna be a lot ofpeople that will be in need
after this storm comes through.
We'll see how that shakes out.
Obviously, Joey, you know me,I'm very active in our
community, in our church, notjust in business, but with
people, right? And so, you know,as a company, we've taken a lot
of care to make sure that ourall of our employees, are ready.
(31:18):
We're staying in contact withthem on several times a day to
make sure that, you know,everybody's taken care of, and
we're putting plans on how wewill contact, and once the storm
is over, how we contact, becauseI've got to start, and I've got
to focus and make sure that Istart in our inner circle and
start to work out from there,right once from there I've
(31:39):
already been even though, Imean, you know, my personal
situation, you know, I've gotfamily members in the hospital.
I'm just coming off ofbronchitis, things like that.
But, you know, I've already beenin meetings last night with our
church on some strategicplanning for communities and how
we're going to be preparing andhow we're organizing things like
that. So there'll be a lot ofinformation that we'll have over
(32:02):
the next few days coming out tobe able to start getting out to
people that want to help. Sowe'll definitely do some things
to follow up over the next fewdays after the storm has passed
and we're able to evaluatethings like that, because
obviously the first thing thatwe've got to do as a business is
we've got to evaluate ourinternal people to make sure how
(32:22):
to how do we need to take careof them so we can take care of
the job we do once I'm assuredthat everybody is safe and
protected and that we're able tokeep moving from there, then our
next plans that we've alreadybeen working on is okay now, how
do we go back in and we startaddressing the homes? We've got
policies of how do we do thatprocedures of, how do we do that
from, you know, we have picturesfrom before now we'll have
(32:44):
pictures afterwards. Whathappened with each house?
There's a lot of documentationthat goes on. And then our team
will start to work with that.
And then, you know, of course,I'll jump back into a lot of
things within the community thatwe're doing. You know, there's a
chance, you know, as you said, Idid a lot of search and rescue
last time with Ian. You know,we'll see what realm I'm working
in this storm. But you know,it's, you know, me, I love
(33:08):
people, and I want to see thatwe're all safe and sound to the
best of our ability and takingcare of people, so.
Joey Romero (33:17):
Yeah, we've had several investors reach out to
me via email saying, hey, youknow, if there's any way that
they can help, you know, pleaselet them know. So they're
already thinking about that.
Another couple investors, well,quite a few of them have asked
how Bruce is doing. Bruce isactually one of the folks that
did choose to, you know, stepaway from his home. So he's he's
(33:37):
nowhere near his home inSarasota. He's up in Georgia,
but I'm sure when he comes back,he'll jump into the efforts
wholeheartedly, like he did lasttime. And the last thing I'll
say is that Joanna is doing thesame thing with our property
management. They're going to goahead and triage the importance
of the calls if there's damage,they'll go visit the most
(34:00):
damaged ones first. But everyone of our homes will be visited
by her team afterwards also. Sowe've got some good people on
the ground there. We'll, we'll,you know, keep keep them in our
thoughts, keep them in ourprayers. And hopefully, you
know, we can have the bestpossible outcome out of all of
this, you know, and minimize theimpact on folks, because we
(34:23):
could use some good news. Craig,thank you for jumping on. I know
you got a ton of stuff. I seeyou working already, so I'll let
you go. You let me know if youneed anything, and just, I know
we'll be in contact. But thankyou for jumping on and getting
us an update for everybody athome, we're going to go ahead
and post this two days early.
(34:45):
I'll go ahead and make sure thisgets out tomorrow, so you'll
you'll see our podcast a littlebit early this week so that
everybody can get theinformation before the hurricane
makes landfall.
Craig Evans (34:54):
Thank you, everyone.
Joey Romero (34:55):
Thanks, Craig.
Narrator (34:56):
We'd also like to thank our Gold Sponsors, Inland
Valley Association of Realtors,Keystone CPA, NorCal REIA,
NSDREI, Pasadena FIBI,PropertyRadar, The Collective
Genius. See,isurvivedrealestate.com for
(35:21):
event details. For moreinformation on hard money loans,
trust deed investing, andupcoming events with The Norris
group. Check outthenorrisgroup.com. For more
information on passive investingthrough the DBL Capital Real
Estate Investment Fund, pleasevisit dblapital.com.
Joey Romero (35:42):
The Norris group originates and services loans in
California and Florida underCalifornia DRE license 01219911.
Florida mortgage lender license1577 and NMLS license 1623669.
For more information on hardmoney lending go to
thenorrisgroup.com and click thehard money tab.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.