September 19, 2024 • 22 mins
Unlock the secrets behind securing affordable and comprehensive home insurance in Florida as we welcome back Kevin from TopQuote Insurance. Discover how TopQuote sets itself apart by offering policies from a multitude of carriers, ensuring you find the best premiums and coverage options. Kevin sheds light on common misconceptions surrounding Florida's home insurance market, explains the significance of wind mitigation and four-point inspections in a hurricane-prone environment, and assures that despite certain restrictions, there are still plenty of viable options for homeowners.
Stay ahead of the curve with expert insights into insurance bundling and the evolving landscape of Florida's insurance market. Learn about the crucial role of building codes influenced by events like Hurricane Katrina, and how they impact insurance credits and quoting processes. Kevin also provides a forecast of the market’s future, addressing the departure and potential return of companies, the effects of reinsurance costs, and the importance of periodically re-shopping your insurance policies. Don't miss out on this treasure trove of information that could help you navigate the complexities of Florida home insurance and benefit from TopQuote Insurance's comprehensive services.
To contact Kevin Enderle:
Kevin@topquoteins.com
TOPQUOTEINS.COM
Sarah Thress
614-893-5885
First Time Home Buyer course: https://sarahthress.graphy.com/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sarah_thress_realtor/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SarahThressRealtor/
https://www.youtube.com/@LIFEINCOLUMBUS
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hi and welcome to this week's episode of Come to
Find Out.
This week we have Kevin withTopQuote Insurance.
He is a senior agent with themand the last time we had him on
the show, unfortunately we werehaving some technical
difficulties and a lot of thevery, very important information
that he had to share with usdid not come through clearly.
(00:23):
So thank you so much for comingback on and taking the time out
of your super busy schedule totalk to us about insurance.
I know you had kind of thrownout some things like wind
mitigation and all of that stuff, so I'd love for you to kind of
break that down.
But to start with, if you'dlike to just tell us a little
bit more about TopQuote kind ofwhat you do, what your process
(00:46):
is and we'll go from there.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Good, yes, thanks for having me back.
Hopefully the connections arebetter this time, yeah.
So yeah, just to kind of goover, you know about the company
and what we do and how we kindof differentiate from other
agencies and stuff.
So we do have every carrierthat's writing in Florida, we
have an appointment with them.
So that gives us a lot moreoptions for all the, you know,
(01:11):
for the customer, as far as, yes, we might not get 40 quotes
back, you know, if you know, butit's going to narrow it down as
far as some agencies only haveyou know, five carriers, well,
that means they're going to goto citizens, you know, citizens,
100% probably.
But it gives us more optionsfor the customer, gives them a
better product, hopefully, and,you know, add a better premium
(01:34):
and stuff like that.
That's one thing that makes usdifferent.
Another thing I always tellpeople is kind of like, once you
get in our agency, since we dooffer everything, we have health
, we have a health, we have life, we have auto, we have
commercial.
So I mean we can take theclient.
If he's got his own business,we can do everything for him
home, personal, everything.
(01:54):
So it's kind of one agency forall your insurance needs.
Basically.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, that's amazing and it's nice to hear that you
have that ability to talk to allthe different companies,
because you know what we'rehearing and you know outside of
the insurance world is oh mygosh.
You know no one can get insuredin Florida and there's no
insurance available and you knowit's all, it's all horrible.
(02:19):
So I love hearing that from you, are you?
Are you seeing that in theinsurance world Like lots of
people not writing anymore andpeople jumping in like hey,
we'll write?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
There's definitely new companies that are coming
into the market.
We have a company, a couple ofcompanies, that kind of how they
started when they come into themarket is they basically do a
depopulation from citizens.
So they go in and take citizenspolicies to kind of alleviate
you know, help them reduce theirpolicy count and help the state
(02:51):
basically, since it is thestate run insured.
And then after I would sayabout six months to a year, you
see that that company, once theyhave their policies from
citizens and have a firmfoundation, they open up markets
to start writing for everybody.
So, yes, we do see a couple ofbrand new companies that are
starting that.
So that's a good sign.
Yes, there are plenty ofcompanies that once the roof
(03:15):
gets over 15 years old, nope,we're not writing it.
Once the water heater gets over15 years old, we're not writing
it.
So, yes, there are a lot ofrestrictions, but is there
insurance available?
Yes, it's just withrestrictions.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, well, I mean that's good to know, though I
mean because, like I said, Imean people are hearing, like
you know, with me being licensedin Ohio and in Florida.
You know, if someone's talkingto me about buying something in
Florida, they're like but wecan't get insurance, so we can't
buy anything.
And I'm like, no, no, calm down, there is insurance out there.
I can't imagine that everyonein Florida is just living down
(03:50):
there living their best lifewith no insurance.
No, that's not happening.
Yeah, I love it.
Well, and so, being here in Ohio, we clearly have plenty of
things that we deal with.
But when you throw out termslike wind mitigation and
hurricane proof and all of thatstuff, those are not terms that
(04:10):
we hear in central Ohio.
So I'd love for you to kind ofexplain what is that test?
You know, what is it thatyou're looking for whenever you
know?
Is that an inspector that goesout?
Is there a special windmitigation person?
You know, just kind of walk usthrough that, because I'd love
for someone that's thinkingabout purchasing something in
(04:31):
Florida or maybe they alreadylive in Florida and they're
thinking about purchasing, youknow, their first home and
they've never heard these terms.
I'd love for you to just kindof break it down for us.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yes, yeah, so, yeah.
So basically there's two forms.
Well, once the home gets over20 years old, they would both
are definitely required forpretty much, I would say, 75
percent of our carriers.
So one of them is called a fourpoint inspection and what that
one does is it looks at yourelectrical, your plumbing, your
(05:00):
AC and then the roof system,your AC and then the roof system
, and it basically looks to seeis there any issues with the
electrical, is there any issueswith the plumbing?
Is it leaking?
Is the roof in good shape?
That's more what I calleligibility, because everybody's
like hey, I got a new AC unit,is it going to save me money?
No, that's going to help youwith eligibility.
(05:20):
So that's more an eligibilityform with all the companies.
And then the second, like youmentioned, is the wind
mitigation and what that looksat is how the roof deck for one
is attached to the roof trussesand then it goes in to look like
how the roof trusses areattached to the actual structure
of the home.
And then there's what's calleda secondary water barrier, so
(05:44):
it's an underlayment that'sunderneath the shingles.
If that's installed, that's anextra credit that they get,
because it provides anotherbarrier for water for the
customer.
And then the third anotherdiscount that they can get is
the opening protection.
So that's for hurricane.
There's two different forms ofthat.
There's a large missile theycall it level a and level b,
(06:07):
which is a medium, small missile.
Um, don't know why they callthem missiles, but that's what
they call them.
So that's what we go with.
But yeah, so it's just like adifferent poundage of what the
window and you know, if you havelike hurricane shutters, what
they can handle being hitwithout breaking.
Basically.
So, yeah, there's different,you know things for those.
But yeah, those are the.
(06:28):
Those are the main things thatlooks at, like I said, like how
the roof's attached to theactual you know trusses from the
like the plywood's attached tothe trusses and then how the
trusses are attached to theactual structure so if you said,
like is there a specialinspector that comes out and
does those things?
Yeah.
So typically your normal homeinspector in the state of
(06:50):
Florida can go out and do allthe four points and win-mits.
So when you have your full homeinspection that most I would
say 95% of the clients do, theyadd those in there because they
know they're an insurancerequirement, basically to get
insurance on the property.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
So if they went through the four-point
inspection or the you know windmitigation process and they
deemed it that was not proper,is that something that would
have to be repaired before youcould even close on it because
you couldn't get insured it?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
have to be repaired before you could even close on
it because you couldn't getinsured.
There are a few thingsElectrical and plumbing will
always have to be fixed for ourstandard market carriers.
So the Florida Pens, theCitizens, all that.
You know more of the standardmarket carriers.
You go excess and surplus lines, lloyd's in London you can
possibly get it, but they'regoing to exclude certain
coverages and stuff like that.
So your standard market carriesyes, your plumbing and
(07:48):
electrical all that will alwayshave to be done.
Citizens is one of the onesthat will offer you if your
roof's in bad shape, as long asyou have a roof contract.
You can basically have a roofcontract signed saying that it's
going to be completed within 60days of closing and then they
will, 99.9% of the time, approvethe policy and you just have to
(08:11):
have the roof done within the60 days.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Okay, and do you see?
You may not know this, but doyou see, if that comes up, does
the seller normally have to payfor that, or does the buyer
normally pay for that, or isthat part of negotiation?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I see that more of a negotiation.
I've seen it split down themiddle.
I mean I've had I think in thelast month I've actually had
four of them.
So two of them has been a buyerand then two of them have
actually been the seller, youknow, paying for it, just
getting it done after closing.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
So yeah, okay, well, that's good to know.
And then I've heard that they,you know, sometimes, whenever
they're doing that windmitigation or that four-pointer
or whatever you know, they'llmention something about tie
downs.
And in my head I'm alwaysthinking like a, you know, like
a tent, and you have the tiedowns that are holding it down,
(09:04):
and I'm like why would you havethat on the roof?
Like so what does that evenmean?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yeah, so that's how the roof trusses are attached to
the building.
So there's five differentversions.
There's what's called a toenail, that's with a basically a
metal strap that's got two nailson one side.
Then there's a clip next levelup.
That's the same metal strapwith three nails.
(09:32):
So you know a little bit betterthan there's what's called a
single wrap three nails.
So you know a little bit better.
Then there's what's called asingle wrap.
That's when the actual metalstrap goes around the truss and
is nailed on the other side, andthen you have a double wrap too
.
So, yeah, it just kind of keepson going up from there.
I mean, the last is structural,where it's like it's metal.
You know more like a I-beamtype thing and you know more
(09:55):
structural versus that.
But yeah, there's differentlevels, but most of the time you
would see either clips orsingle wrap is pretty much your
standard.
That you see, you really don'tsee too many double wraps.
You see a lot of toenailsbecause that's how the building
code used to be.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Okay, interesting.
Yeah, I just always wonderedwhat that meant and I figured
that it was the, uh, the tiedowns, you know, from the the
roof down, um, you know, I meanobviously, like going through
this process with home buyers,like I had had learned it.
But you know, I just thought itwas really funny that when I
first, you know, heard that, Iwas thinking like, oh, do you
just have like lines that areholding your?
(10:36):
That's really weird to me.
Yeah, now, um, I know that, uh,you know, obviously, living in
Florida, lots of people like tohave um pools.
I know here, um, it doesn'treally help, it doesn't really
give much value to the home, youknow, to have a pool here, but
(10:59):
it does affect your insurance.
You know, your insurance goeshigher.
You have to have, um, you know,certain gates and things like
that.
Is that a requirement also inflorida?
I never knew if that was likean international, you know like
a national rule, or if that wasjust state by state.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, that is a I mean.
So there is certain things thatyou know are required.
So you know, I have a pool, isit screened and fenced?
Or, you know, screened andfenced?
If it's not, then they companyjust won't offer you like the
liability part of it, um, foryour personal liability, because
now it's wide open and anybodycan go in there and, you know,
(11:38):
get hurt and drown possibly andstuff like that.
So, yeah, so there's that, um,I would say it does increase
your premium because, especiallyif it's like an attached pool,
um, so if it's close to thestructure and it's attached,
well then that means it's addedto your dwelling, so that
increases your dwelling amount,which in turn increases your
premium on your insurance.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, okay, I had a feeling that it would affect it.
I couldn't imagine that.
You know, it was just like anOhio thing.
That you know insurance, yeah,I love that.
So walk me through.
Like so, if someone reaches outto you and says, hey, like I'm,
(12:20):
you know I'm looking at thisproperty, you know, walk me
through kind of the process.
Like you know, obviously you'retalking to them, talking about
their needs, talking about youknow, a property that maybe
they're interested in or maybethey've put a contract on, or
whatever, walk me through kindof your process.
What do you do with peoplewhenever they call?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, so once you know, like, like you said, once
they come to us, basically I youknow, take their application,
you know, take, take theirinformation down, put it in our
system, then I go in and updateall the information as far as
the house, how many squarefootage it is, levels, building
(13:00):
type, is it masonry, is it?
You know?
If it's two stories, is itmasonry and frame?
You know, is it just allmasonry Stuff like that?
So I basically put in all theinformation.
If they have a wind mitigationand a four point, add that in
(13:21):
there.
If they don't, basically what wedo is we look at the last time
that, like the roof was replacedand know that at certain times,
depending on the year it wasreplaced, they're going to get
these wind credits.
The roofer should haveinstalled certain things,
because that was the basicallyyou know the building code at
that time.
So there's certain things likethat that we can automatically
add that we know.
Yes, we do need the winmitigation and the four point to
(13:43):
actually bind the policy, butat least we can give them a
quote with that.
So, yeah, then we put it on ourquoting system and run a quote
with all the different curvesthat we have.
Once we get the quote back, webasically firm it up with our
the different carriers that wehave.
Once we get the quote back, webasically firm it up with you
know our couple best optionsthat we have send that to the
carrier, talk it over, or sendthat to the customer, talk it
(14:03):
over with them and, you know, gofrom there.
If they're ready to bind, thenwe bind and move forward.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Yeah, that's great and I love that you have all of
that, and I can imagine thatbuilding codes especially
because of, like the tropicalstorms and hurricanes and things
that you get, your buildingcodes probably get updated much
more than maybe ours do here inOhio, ohio.
(14:34):
Um, is there like a rhyme or areason or is it like, hey, after
this big hurricane you knowcame through, now we need to
update it.
Um, you know it like, how did,how did they figure that out?
Like what the building codeshould be?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah, I mean.
So, like I know, you know, thebiggest one was after Katrina,
of course, um.
That's when a lot of stuff cameon Um, and there's been updates
since then, but ones like thatone that that was definitely the
biggest um, just because allthe damage that it did do back
then um, so that was the biggest.
Now you don't see the bigchanges as as much um as you did
(15:05):
before um, but yeah, it's yeah,and I think you know building
code, the jurisdictions kind oflook at it as okay, this is an
old one, we need to update it.
You know?
Speaker 1 (15:17):
yeah, I just wondered because I know, you know, there
was that big hurricane, um,just gosh, I guess it's been
three years now um, down in likethe fort myers area.
You know it was one of the thelarger ones than you know
they've seen in a long time,especially in that area.
Um, and so I know everythingdown there.
You know, as they've seen in along time, especially in that
area, and so I know everythingdown there.
You know, as they're rebuilding, they're like, oh gosh, this
(15:40):
isn't up to code, and you know,especially as you're closer to
the water, and things like that.
So I just wondered how you know, how you guys came up with that
, or if it was kind of on a youknow like, oh, a hurricane
happened and now we need toupdate, or this much damage that
we saw, like okay, now we needto up it to this, you know,
(16:01):
because you know our hurricanesare getting stronger or whatever
.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Right, yeah, I mean I definitely think the
jurisdictions look at, you know,look at that information when
they're, you know, once a stormcomes through and sees, sees the
damage and you know, probablyinvestigates like what did this
roof have versus the roof nextdoor that didn't get as much
damage, stuff like that.
So they definitely probablylook at that and update, like
you said, update the code fromthere.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, I love that.
So you mentioned that peoplecan get like car and health and
life insurance you know all thethings, all the insurances from
you guys you know, and there areseveral companies out there
that offer, you know, like abundle discount that we've all
like heard about.
(16:47):
Do you guys have that?
You know, like with thedifferent carriers that you work
with, if everybody kind ofbundles into like one thing,
like if a household you knowbundles like their car, their
health, all that stuff, do theyget some type of discount?
Or is there a sliding scale orhow does that work?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, we don't have any like carriers themselves
that you know one carrier thatoffers auto.
Your most common are the autoand home, so we don't have a
carrier that offers both.
We do have a couple ofhomeowner carriers that it says
like, as you're filling out theapplication, does the customer
have auto insurance through youragency?
(17:25):
So if you say yes, they do geta.
It's not a huge discount butthey do get a little bit of a
discount since they are.
I guess keeping it in the sameagency is what the customer
carrier looks at.
So yeah, there's that, but forthe most part, no, we don't
offer anything that has a truebundle, as you could call it.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yeah, yeah, which totally makes sense.
I just wondered because youhear all the commercials of all
the bundling services and things.
So I just wondered if that wassomething.
So I always like to ask thisand I always preface it with
none of us have a crystal ballat all.
So you know, no one can hold usto, we can't see the future.
(18:09):
But I'd love your predictionson, you know kind of the the
insurance world down there inFlorida.
You know cause of the theinsurance world down there in
Florida.
You know cause we've heard allof these varying things.
You've now assured us thatthere are actually in fact
people writing policies sopeople can get insurance.
Do you think that some of thecompanies that maybe left um
Florida will end up coming back,uh, or do you think that it's
(18:31):
just going to kind of be a wholenew wave of new companies?
And just any other predictionsthat you have for the market or
the insurance world I'd love tohear.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Yeah, so there's definitely some companies that
haven't wrote a policy inprobably two years Now they've
kept some of their existingpolicies.
We hear that starting into thisyear, possibly into beginning
of next year, they're going toopen back up and start writing
brand new policies.
So that's a promising sign thatyou know if they haven't wrote
(19:05):
policies in two years and nowthey're looking at that they
will, then that's good.
As far as, like the companiesthat went out and that are, we
don't see them coming back asthe same name.
Basically they're getting tiedunder somebody else and that
person's basically taking overtheir whole book that they had
and starting it that way.
So yeah, that's where we see wedon't see like an actual the
(19:29):
same company coming back intothe market that was, you know,
went insolvent before.
They're just coming in undersomebody else.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Basically, yeah, well , that's good.
I mean again, I just think thatyou know, anytime we can hear
good news like that, it kind ofcounterbalances all the negative
stuff we hear, you know in themedia and all the chicken little
sky is falling stuff, and allthe chicken little sky is
falling stuff, yeah, I love that, I love that.
(19:57):
Well, thank you so much fortaking time out to come back and
explain that stuff.
Is there anything else that youcan think of that?
Maybe we haven't covered thatyou think would be really good
for a future client to knowabout working with you or about
purchasing in Florida.
You know just any last.
You know words that you kind ofhave.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Not really.
I mean, you know, we do see.
You know, as far as, like, youknow, if you've got your
existing policy and you're not anot a new purchase, you know,
we do see some companies thatare basically asking for a
dequeue from their office ofinsurance regulations.
We see some companies that arebasically asking for a decrease
from their office of insuranceregulations.
We see some companies that arejust asking for a zero increase.
So we do see some, like I said,some signs of it's getting
(20:43):
better, and one of the mainthings driving that is the
reinsurance.
We see that helping and reducingthe reinsurance costs for the
carrier so they're able to notbasically charge more for their
policies.
So that's really about it.
I mean, yeah, we definitely,you know we'll reshop anybody's
(21:04):
policy, even if they're not withus.
That's, you know, why we'rehere is we got all the different
carriers to kind of help youout and try to save you as much
as we can, cause, like you said,insurance is crazy right now.
So if we can save some money,hey, we'll save us some money.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, yeah, I love that, I love it.
Well, thank you so much fortaking time out telling us all
of this great information andhelping us, to, you know, have a
better understanding ofinsurance.
So I'm definitely going to haveall of your information in the
show notes so anybody that isinterested in reaching out to
Top Quote Insurance and askingquestions or finding out if
(21:43):
that's the right place for you,they'll be able to get in
contact with you.
Sounds good.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yeah Well, thank you so much for tuning in this week.
Please make sure that you leavea review, because feedback is
the greatest gift, and pleasemake sure you're sharing this
with anyone, because that is thegreatest compliment that you
can give Kevin and myself.
And also make sure that you aresubscribing so you never miss
another episode.
Thanks so much and we'll seeyou next time on Come to Find
(22:12):
Out.
Hi and welcome to this week's episode of Come to
Find Out.
This week we have Kevin withTopQuote Insurance.
He is a senior agent with themand the last time we had him on
the show, unfortunately we werehaving some technical
difficulties and a lot of thevery, very important information
that he had to share with usdid not come through clearly.
(00:23):
So thank you so much for comingback on and taking the time out
of your super busy schedule totalk to us about insurance.
I know you had kind of thrownout some things like wind
mitigation and all of that stuff, so I'd love for you to kind of
break that down.
But to start with, if you'dlike to just tell us a little
bit more about TopQuote kind ofwhat you do, what your process
(00:46):
is and we'll go from there.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Good, yes, thanks for having me back.
Hopefully the connections arebetter this time, yeah.
So yeah, just to kind of goover, you know about the company
and what we do and how we kindof differentiate from other
agencies and stuff.
So we do have every carrierthat's writing in Florida, we
have an appointment with them.
So that gives us a lot moreoptions for all the, you know,
(01:11):
for the customer, as far as, yes, we might not get 40 quotes
back, you know, if you know, butit's going to narrow it down as
far as some agencies only haveyou know, five carriers, well,
that means they're going to goto citizens, you know, citizens,
100% probably.
But it gives us more optionsfor the customer, gives them a
better product, hopefully, and,you know, add a better premium
(01:34):
and stuff like that.
That's one thing that makes usdifferent.
Another thing I always tellpeople is kind of like, once you
get in our agency, since we dooffer everything, we have health
, we have a health, we have life, we have auto, we have
commercial.
So I mean we can take theclient.
If he's got his own business,we can do everything for him
home, personal, everything.
(01:54):
So it's kind of one agency forall your insurance needs.
Basically.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, that's amazing and it's nice to hear that you
have that ability to talk to allthe different companies,
because you know what we'rehearing and you know outside of
the insurance world is oh mygosh.
You know no one can get insuredin Florida and there's no
insurance available and you knowit's all, it's all horrible.
(02:19):
So I love hearing that from you, are you?
Are you seeing that in theinsurance world Like lots of
people not writing anymore andpeople jumping in like hey,
we'll write?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
There's definitely new companies that are coming
into the market.
We have a company, a couple ofcompanies, that kind of how they
started when they come into themarket is they basically do a
depopulation from citizens.
So they go in and take citizenspolicies to kind of alleviate
you know, help them reduce theirpolicy count and help the state
(02:51):
basically, since it is thestate run insured.
And then after I would sayabout six months to a year, you
see that that company, once theyhave their policies from
citizens and have a firmfoundation, they open up markets
to start writing for everybody.
So, yes, we do see a couple ofbrand new companies that are
starting that.
So that's a good sign.
Yes, there are plenty ofcompanies that once the roof
(03:15):
gets over 15 years old, nope,we're not writing it.
Once the water heater gets over15 years old, we're not writing
it.
So, yes, there are a lot ofrestrictions, but is there
insurance available?
Yes, it's just withrestrictions.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, well, I mean that's good to know, though I
mean because, like I said, Imean people are hearing, like
you know, with me being licensedin Ohio and in Florida.
You know, if someone's talkingto me about buying something in
Florida, they're like but wecan't get insurance, so we can't
buy anything.
And I'm like, no, no, calm down, there is insurance out there.
I can't imagine that everyonein Florida is just living down
(03:50):
there living their best lifewith no insurance.
No, that's not happening.
Yeah, I love it.
Well, and so, being here in Ohio, we clearly have plenty of
things that we deal with.
But when you throw out termslike wind mitigation and
hurricane proof and all of thatstuff, those are not terms that
(04:10):
we hear in central Ohio.
So I'd love for you to kind ofexplain what is that test?
You know, what is it thatyou're looking for whenever you
know?
Is that an inspector that goesout?
Is there a special windmitigation person?
You know, just kind of walk usthrough that, because I'd love
for someone that's thinkingabout purchasing something in
(04:31):
Florida or maybe they alreadylive in Florida and they're
thinking about purchasing, youknow, their first home and
they've never heard these terms.
I'd love for you to just kindof break it down for us.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yes, yeah, so, yeah.
So basically there's two forms.
Well, once the home gets over20 years old, they would both
are definitely required forpretty much, I would say, 75
percent of our carriers.
So one of them is called a fourpoint inspection and what that
one does is it looks at yourelectrical, your plumbing, your
(05:00):
AC and then the roof system,your AC and then the roof system
, and it basically looks to seeis there any issues with the
electrical, is there any issueswith the plumbing?
Is it leaking?
Is the roof in good shape?
That's more what I calleligibility, because everybody's
like hey, I got a new AC unit,is it going to save me money?
No, that's going to help youwith eligibility.
(05:20):
So that's more an eligibilityform with all the companies.
And then the second, like youmentioned, is the wind
mitigation and what that looksat is how the roof deck for one
is attached to the roof trussesand then it goes in to look like
how the roof trusses areattached to the actual structure
of the home.
And then there's what's calleda secondary water barrier, so
(05:44):
it's an underlayment that'sunderneath the shingles.
If that's installed, that's anextra credit that they get,
because it provides anotherbarrier for water for the
customer.
And then the third anotherdiscount that they can get is
the opening protection.
So that's for hurricane.
There's two different forms ofthat.
There's a large missile theycall it level a and level b,
(06:07):
which is a medium, small missile.
Um, don't know why they callthem missiles, but that's what
they call them.
So that's what we go with.
But yeah, so it's just like adifferent poundage of what the
window and you know, if you havelike hurricane shutters, what
they can handle being hitwithout breaking.
Basically.
So, yeah, there's different,you know things for those.
But yeah, those are the.
(06:28):
Those are the main things thatlooks at, like I said, like how
the roof's attached to theactual you know trusses from the
like the plywood's attached tothe trusses and then how the
trusses are attached to theactual structure so if you said,
like is there a specialinspector that comes out and
does those things?
Yeah.
So typically your normal homeinspector in the state of
(06:50):
Florida can go out and do allthe four points and win-mits.
So when you have your full homeinspection that most I would
say 95% of the clients do, theyadd those in there because they
know they're an insurancerequirement, basically to get
insurance on the property.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
So if they went through the four-point
inspection or the you know windmitigation process and they
deemed it that was not proper,is that something that would
have to be repaired before youcould even close on it because
you couldn't get insured it?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
have to be repaired before you could even close on
it because you couldn't getinsured.
There are a few thingsElectrical and plumbing will
always have to be fixed for ourstandard market carriers.
So the Florida Pens, theCitizens, all that.
You know more of the standardmarket carriers.
You go excess and surplus lines, lloyd's in London you can
possibly get it, but they'regoing to exclude certain
coverages and stuff like that.
So your standard market carriesyes, your plumbing and
(07:48):
electrical all that will alwayshave to be done.
Citizens is one of the onesthat will offer you if your
roof's in bad shape, as long asyou have a roof contract.
You can basically have a roofcontract signed saying that it's
going to be completed within 60days of closing and then they
will, 99.9% of the time, approvethe policy and you just have to
(08:11):
have the roof done within the60 days.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Okay, and do you see?
You may not know this, but doyou see, if that comes up, does
the seller normally have to payfor that, or does the buyer
normally pay for that, or isthat part of negotiation?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I see that more of a negotiation.
I've seen it split down themiddle.
I mean I've had I think in thelast month I've actually had
four of them.
So two of them has been a buyerand then two of them have
actually been the seller, youknow, paying for it, just
getting it done after closing.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
So yeah, okay, well, that's good to know.
And then I've heard that they,you know, sometimes, whenever
they're doing that windmitigation or that four-pointer
or whatever you know, they'llmention something about tie
downs.
And in my head I'm alwaysthinking like a, you know, like
a tent, and you have the tiedowns that are holding it down,
(09:04):
and I'm like why would you havethat on the roof?
Like so what does that evenmean?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yeah, so that's how the roof trusses are attached to
the building.
So there's five differentversions.
There's what's called a toenail, that's with a basically a
metal strap that's got two nailson one side.
Then there's a clip next levelup.
That's the same metal strapwith three nails.
(09:32):
So you know a little bit betterthan there's what's called a
single wrap three nails.
So you know a little bit better.
Then there's what's called asingle wrap.
That's when the actual metalstrap goes around the truss and
is nailed on the other side, andthen you have a double wrap too
.
So, yeah, it just kind of keepson going up from there.
I mean, the last is structural,where it's like it's metal.
You know more like a I-beamtype thing and you know more
(09:55):
structural versus that.
But yeah, there's differentlevels, but most of the time you
would see either clips orsingle wrap is pretty much your
standard.
That you see, you really don'tsee too many double wraps.
You see a lot of toenailsbecause that's how the building
code used to be.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Okay, interesting.
Yeah, I just always wonderedwhat that meant and I figured
that it was the, uh, the tiedowns, you know, from the the
roof down, um, you know, I meanobviously, like going through
this process with home buyers,like I had had learned it.
But you know, I just thought itwas really funny that when I
first, you know, heard that, Iwas thinking like, oh, do you
just have like lines that areholding your?
(10:36):
That's really weird to me.
Yeah, now, um, I know that, uh,you know, obviously, living in
Florida, lots of people like tohave um pools.
I know here, um, it doesn'treally help, it doesn't really
give much value to the home, youknow, to have a pool here, but
(10:59):
it does affect your insurance.
You know, your insurance goeshigher.
You have to have, um, you know,certain gates and things like
that.
Is that a requirement also inflorida?
I never knew if that was likean international, you know like
a national rule, or if that wasjust state by state.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, that is a I mean.
So there is certain things thatyou know are required.
So you know, I have a pool, isit screened and fenced?
Or, you know, screened andfenced?
If it's not, then they companyjust won't offer you like the
liability part of it, um, foryour personal liability, because
now it's wide open and anybodycan go in there and, you know,
(11:38):
get hurt and drown possibly andstuff like that.
So, yeah, so there's that, um,I would say it does increase
your premium because, especiallyif it's like an attached pool,
um, so if it's close to thestructure and it's attached,
well then that means it's addedto your dwelling, so that
increases your dwelling amount,which in turn increases your
premium on your insurance.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, okay, I had a feeling that it would affect it.
I couldn't imagine that.
You know, it was just like anOhio thing.
That you know insurance, yeah,I love that.
So walk me through.
Like so, if someone reaches outto you and says, hey, like I'm,
(12:20):
you know I'm looking at thisproperty, you know, walk me
through kind of the process.
Like you know, obviously you'retalking to them, talking about
their needs, talking about youknow, a property that maybe
they're interested in or maybethey've put a contract on, or
whatever, walk me through kindof your process.
What do you do with peoplewhenever they call?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, so once you know, like, like you said, once
they come to us, basically I youknow, take their application,
you know, take, take theirinformation down, put it in our
system, then I go in and updateall the information as far as
the house, how many squarefootage it is, levels, building
(13:00):
type, is it masonry, is it?
You know?
If it's two stories, is itmasonry and frame?
You know, is it just allmasonry Stuff like that?
So I basically put in all theinformation.
If they have a wind mitigationand a four point, add that in
(13:21):
there.
If they don't, basically what wedo is we look at the last time
that, like the roof was replacedand know that at certain times,
depending on the year it wasreplaced, they're going to get
these wind credits.
The roofer should haveinstalled certain things,
because that was the basicallyyou know the building code at
that time.
So there's certain things likethat that we can automatically
add that we know.
Yes, we do need the winmitigation and the four point to
(13:43):
actually bind the policy, butat least we can give them a
quote with that.
So, yeah, then we put it on ourquoting system and run a quote
with all the different curvesthat we have.
Once we get the quote back, webasically firm it up with our
the different carriers that wehave.
Once we get the quote back, webasically firm it up with you
know our couple best optionsthat we have send that to the
carrier, talk it over, or sendthat to the customer, talk it
(14:03):
over with them and, you know, gofrom there.
If they're ready to bind, thenwe bind and move forward.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Yeah, that's great and I love that you have all of
that, and I can imagine thatbuilding codes especially
because of, like the tropicalstorms and hurricanes and things
that you get, your buildingcodes probably get updated much
more than maybe ours do here inOhio, ohio.
(14:34):
Um, is there like a rhyme or areason or is it like, hey, after
this big hurricane you knowcame through, now we need to
update it.
Um, you know it like, how did,how did they figure that out?
Like what the building codeshould be?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah, I mean.
So, like I know, you know, thebiggest one was after Katrina,
of course, um.
That's when a lot of stuff cameon Um, and there's been updates
since then, but ones like thatone that that was definitely the
biggest um, just because allthe damage that it did do back
then um, so that was the biggest.
Now you don't see the bigchanges as as much um as you did
(15:05):
before um, but yeah, it's yeah,and I think you know building
code, the jurisdictions kind oflook at it as okay, this is an
old one, we need to update it.
You know?
Speaker 1 (15:17):
yeah, I just wondered because I know, you know, there
was that big hurricane, um,just gosh, I guess it's been
three years now um, down in likethe fort myers area.
You know it was one of the thelarger ones than you know
they've seen in a long time,especially in that area.
Um, and so I know everythingdown there.
You know, as they've seen in along time, especially in that
area, and so I know everythingdown there.
You know, as they're rebuilding, they're like, oh gosh, this
(15:40):
isn't up to code, and you know,especially as you're closer to
the water, and things like that.
So I just wondered how you know, how you guys came up with that
, or if it was kind of on a youknow like, oh, a hurricane
happened and now we need toupdate, or this much damage that
we saw, like okay, now we needto up it to this, you know,
(16:01):
because you know our hurricanesare getting stronger or whatever
.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Right, yeah, I mean I definitely think the
jurisdictions look at, you know,look at that information when
they're, you know, once a stormcomes through and sees, sees the
damage and you know, probablyinvestigates like what did this
roof have versus the roof nextdoor that didn't get as much
damage, stuff like that.
So they definitely probablylook at that and update, like
you said, update the code fromthere.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, I love that.
So you mentioned that peoplecan get like car and health and
life insurance you know all thethings, all the insurances from
you guys you know, and there areseveral companies out there
that offer, you know, like abundle discount that we've all
like heard about.
(16:47):
Do you guys have that?
You know, like with thedifferent carriers that you work
with, if everybody kind ofbundles into like one thing,
like if a household you knowbundles like their car, their
health, all that stuff, do theyget some type of discount?
Or is there a sliding scale orhow does that work?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, we don't have any like carriers themselves
that you know one carrier thatoffers auto.
Your most common are the autoand home, so we don't have a
carrier that offers both.
We do have a couple ofhomeowner carriers that it says
like, as you're filling out theapplication, does the customer
have auto insurance through youragency?
(17:25):
So if you say yes, they do geta.
It's not a huge discount butthey do get a little bit of a
discount since they are.
I guess keeping it in the sameagency is what the customer
carrier looks at.
So yeah, there's that, but forthe most part, no, we don't
offer anything that has a truebundle, as you could call it.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yeah, yeah, which totally makes sense.
I just wondered because youhear all the commercials of all
the bundling services and things.
So I just wondered if that wassomething.
So I always like to ask thisand I always preface it with
none of us have a crystal ballat all.
So you know, no one can hold usto, we can't see the future.
(18:09):
But I'd love your predictionson, you know kind of the the
insurance world down there inFlorida.
You know cause of the theinsurance world down there in
Florida.
You know cause we've heard allof these varying things.
You've now assured us thatthere are actually in fact
people writing policies sopeople can get insurance.
Do you think that some of thecompanies that maybe left um
Florida will end up coming back,uh, or do you think that it's
(18:31):
just going to kind of be a wholenew wave of new companies?
And just any other predictionsthat you have for the market or
the insurance world I'd love tohear.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Yeah, so there's definitely some companies that
haven't wrote a policy inprobably two years Now they've
kept some of their existingpolicies.
We hear that starting into thisyear, possibly into beginning
of next year, they're going toopen back up and start writing
brand new policies.
So that's a promising sign thatyou know if they haven't wrote
(19:05):
policies in two years and nowthey're looking at that they
will, then that's good.
As far as, like the companiesthat went out and that are, we
don't see them coming back asthe same name.
Basically they're getting tiedunder somebody else and that
person's basically taking overtheir whole book that they had
and starting it that way.
So yeah, that's where we see wedon't see like an actual the
(19:29):
same company coming back intothe market that was, you know,
went insolvent before.
They're just coming in undersomebody else.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Basically, yeah, well , that's good.
I mean again, I just think thatyou know, anytime we can hear
good news like that, it kind ofcounterbalances all the negative
stuff we hear, you know in themedia and all the chicken little
sky is falling stuff, and allthe chicken little sky is
falling stuff, yeah, I love that, I love that.
(19:57):
Well, thank you so much fortaking time out to come back and
explain that stuff.
Is there anything else that youcan think of that?
Maybe we haven't covered thatyou think would be really good
for a future client to knowabout working with you or about
purchasing in Florida.
You know just any last.
You know words that you kind ofhave.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Not really.
I mean, you know, we do see.
You know, as far as, like, youknow, if you've got your
existing policy and you're not anot a new purchase, you know,
we do see some companies thatare basically asking for a
dequeue from their office ofinsurance regulations.
We see some companies that arebasically asking for a decrease
from their office of insuranceregulations.
We see some companies that arejust asking for a zero increase.
So we do see some, like I said,some signs of it's getting
(20:43):
better, and one of the mainthings driving that is the
reinsurance.
We see that helping and reducingthe reinsurance costs for the
carrier so they're able to notbasically charge more for their
policies.
So that's really about it.
I mean, yeah, we definitely,you know we'll reshop anybody's
(21:04):
policy, even if they're not withus.
That's, you know, why we'rehere is we got all the different
carriers to kind of help youout and try to save you as much
as we can, cause, like you said,insurance is crazy right now.
So if we can save some money,hey, we'll save us some money.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, yeah, I love that, I love it.
Well, thank you so much fortaking time out telling us all
of this great information andhelping us, to, you know, have a
better understanding ofinsurance.
So I'm definitely going to haveall of your information in the
show notes so anybody that isinterested in reaching out to
Top Quote Insurance and askingquestions or finding out if
(21:43):
that's the right place for you,they'll be able to get in
contact with you.
Sounds good.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yeah Well, thank you so much for tuning in this week.
Please make sure that you leavea review, because feedback is
the greatest gift, and pleasemake sure you're sharing this
with anyone, because that is thegreatest compliment that you
can give Kevin and myself.
And also make sure that you aresubscribing so you never miss
another episode.
Thanks so much and we'll seeyou next time on Come to Find
(22:12):
Out.
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