January 17, 2025 • 29 mins
Join us for a groundbreaking conversation with the Honorable Mike Twitty, the Pinellas County Property Appraiser, as we unlock the mysteries behind the innovative updates to the PCPAOgov site. We promise you'll gain valuable insights into the often-confusing FEMA 50% rule letter, understanding its true origins and how it assists property owners in navigating the aftermath of storms. Discover how this massive three-year project enhances user experience with cutting-edge tools and architecture, especially for residents dealing with storm-induced challenges. This episode is a treasure trove of knowledge for property owners, offering practical guidance on handling property appraisal intricacies and storm-related repairs with confidence.
We also tackle the complex world of FEMA regulations and permitting processes in Pinellas County, drawing lessons from Hurricane Ian's impact. Learn about the critical importance of flood insurance compliance and the potential pitfalls of neglecting FEMA guidelines, as evidenced by Lee County's loss of NFIP insurance discounts. Our discussion shines a light on the crucial role floodplain managers play in efficiently managing the rebuilding appraisal process, ensuring timely permit approvals amidst the bureaucracy. With insights from Mike Twitty, we equip you with the tools to navigate governmental red tape and streamline your storm-related permit endeavors.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome back to the pod.
This is the Real EstateDisruptors show launching out in
January of 25.
I'm here with my co-host, amir.
What's happening, amir?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hey, good morning Mike.
Welcome to 2025.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hey, hey, hey.
We got here somehow, didn't we?
We sure did.
2024 was a hell of a year.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm ready to say goodbye to 24.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
All right.
Hey guys, we have our frequentflyer guest returner on the show
today.
I think this is three timesyou've been back on our favorite
special guest on the show, theHonorable Mike Twitty, Pinellas
County Property Appraiser, ishere today to join us and share
a little information aboutwhat's going on out there.
(00:42):
Mike, welcome to the show.
I appreciate it.
Glad to be back.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
All right.
Thank you, Mike, for coming intoday.
Appreciate it Sure, of course.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah, and before the show started, amir was talking
to you about thanks for jumpingon social and calming some
people down with yeah, it wasgreat to see you popping on
social.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I mean, some of those next door chat rooms and
Facebook chat rooms can get kindof heated with some, well, a
lot of misinformation and youknow I was like, oh wow, look,
mike just popped in there andshut it down.
It was really cool.
So kudos to you for doing that.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Thank you.
Thank you, I'll keep an eye onthem, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So, mike, I'm sure it's been a slow year.
The 2024 was slow, not muchgoing on over there in your
department, in your world.
I will say that I personallybelieve that you know you lead
the way, and I mean that fromthe bottom of my heart.
You lead the way with the localproperty appraisers.
I don't know much other thanyou know our local surrounding
(01:40):
counties, but you havedefinitely set the bar and been
a pioneer of what you've done.
I have your site pulled upright now.
Take a quick minute and tell usthe site is fully up and
running and has been for alittle while.
But this is your baby.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
So it was about a three-yearproject to build a new ground up
PCPAOgov and you know we wewanted to have all the best of
what was in the old site thatpeople loved, but then put it
into a modern architecturalframework that allows us to grow
into the future, put more toolsinto it.
(02:14):
Uh, we've got some excitingtools to talk about today and
new processes that we'rebuilding into the site as we
speak to help our um people thathave been impacted by these
storms.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And that's definitely what we're going to focus on
today.
I know Amir actually found thisI don't know well, over a month
ago when a lot of people werewondering about this whole FEMA,
fema 50 thing and they were allconfused after the storms and
he said, look, mike's got itright here on his site.
So if you go to your site,we've got.
I just pulled it up and I'mlooking at it right now.
(02:48):
You've got the Storm DamageFAQs.
Guys, I would definitely go onthere.
You can help yourself becomeknowledgeable and you can
certainly sell that informationwith your clients.
But we're going to go over someof these FAQs with you today.
If that's all right, that'sgreat, and have you totally
expound on what you got here?
The first one that I want totalk about is this how do I find
(03:13):
my FEMA 50% slash 49% ruleletter?
Talk to us about that and howyou came up with that.
Yeah, sure.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
So first I want to talk a little bit, debunk some
myths with that.
Fema 50% letter because peopleget confused over that.
So, first of all, fema does notproduce that letter.
Secondly, we do generate that.
It's been around for over adecade.
My predecessor actually startedit back when Biggert Waters was
(03:41):
rearing its head in the floodinsurance realm.
And they were stripping talkedabout, you know, stripping away
discounts and taking everybodyto full risk rate back.
You know, 15, 16 years ago sothat's when the FEMA letter came
into existence on our websiteand it was really there to help
people that had to deal with 50%rule compliance and to give
(04:02):
them a max repair number fortheir homes in a convenient way
without necessarily having to goout and get a third party
appraisal.
It was really.
It was really designed more forsubstantial improvement than
substantial damage.
So substantial improvement isjust, you know, I'm putting a
new roof on, replacing my doorsand windows, making some
(04:25):
plumbing changes or electricalchanges, and that mechanism
worked pretty well.
It was never really designedfor substantial damage.
So now, boom, we havesubstantial damage and
unfortunately, some of ourcitizens are coming up a little
short when they look at thatletter.
The way to find that is to goto your parcel and once you've
(04:48):
searched, pulled up your parcel,you're in our little toolbox
off to the right-hand side.
You'll see a series of buttonsand one of those says FEMA slash
WLM letter and that stands forwin-loss mitigation, because
that letter actually does twodifferent things.
But we're just going to focuson the FEMA piece right now and
FEMA really wants me to changethe name of that letter.
(05:08):
They don't like me usingputting their name on there.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
They don't like that.
You delivered their bad newsRight.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
But I said well, what's a better name for this?
They said, well, call it anSISD letter or whatever I go.
Well, nobody knows what that is.
So I said, when you come upwith something better and when
you consider being more friendlyto Floridians when they elevate
their homes and giving them amore appropriate rate on their
flood insurance when they'veelevated via risk rating 2.0,
(05:40):
then we can talk about it.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, leverage them right back a little bit.
Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Right.
So I said I'm not changinghorses midstream and relabeling
it when that's what people areused to right now.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
They wouldn't know where to find it Exactly, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Awesome.
So again, what that letter doeswe take?
And people get confused overwhether it's the whole value of
their property or-.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Right, you want to break that down real quick for
us.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
So the way FEMA and NFIP look at that, it's just
your structure, so just yourbuilding value, so it's your
primary structure on thatproperty.
If you have multiple structuresyou have to look at each one of
them independently.
You can't aggregate them andwe'll talk about condos later.
They're a whole different beastwhen you get into that.
(06:28):
But so if it's a home, it's thestructure only, doesn't include
your other site improvements.
You know, your pool, your doc,all the, all those types of
things do not, do not get rolledup into that value.
So structure only.
And then 49 or 50% of thatnumber is what you're not able
to equal or exceed.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
And is that number the 49% or 50% of the
replacement cost of thatstructure when it was built?
Did I hear that somewhere?
How's that Is?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
it a replacement of today's current.
No, it's depreciated structurevalue Depreciated structure Okay
.
So FEMA calls it market valueof the structure.
So market value would bedepreciated.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
I gotcha.
So you know.
When people think, oh you know,I just got an estimate for a
hundred grand or 200 grand, noproblem, I'm way under my
assessed value, that's certainlynot the case at all.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Right, and that's why they have to go in and look at
the letter, see what that numberis, and you know it comes up
short on a lot because a lot ofthese homes are older.
You know a lot of them.
They had haven't had much of apermit history of activity.
You know some of that becausethey haven't done anything and
some of it because maybe they'vedone some things without a
permit permit.
(07:46):
Our job is not to be the permitpolice.
We look at what's there and weput it on the roll or don't put
it on the roll, based on itsphysical existence.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So just to clarify for the listeners out there the
depreciated values if I had astructure that, let's say, was
assessed at 200 grand, that's 20years old, and you're doing a
straight 39 year depreciation orthey're doing a straight 39
year depreciation off that,that's basically half the value,
right, am I?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
on base here.
Yeah, we're using a longer lifethan 39 years okay, yeah, okay
we're using.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
It depends on what it's made out of, but okay, so
that can be a moving time yeah,frame or or block okay, yeah all
right, did not know, how thatworked and if you're, you know
when you, when a consumer pullsup this letter and you know
they're looking at their values,their structure value, and then
what their um, you know, uh,what their repair improvements
(08:37):
can exceed.
If they are not, they feel thatthat number is low.
What, what, what can they do?
Is there, is that the end ofthe road for them, or can there
be something?
It's really a first stop.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
So so that's, that's the freebie.
Quick look If, if that numberworks for you, you, you know
that's what the buildingdepartment's going to use
they're going to pull it upright off our site and and you
bring in your, you know yourrepair numbers and if you're
under that number then they'regoing to issue your permits.
You can move forward.
Yeah, go ahead.
So the other and some of thisgets down to the methods that
(09:14):
are approved by the variousjurisdictions and what they've
put in their flood ordinances.
So it can get down in the weedswhen you have 24 different
cities and the unincorporatedcounty, but but most of them
will say some form of marketvalue of the structure in their,
in their thing.
So another alternative is toget what's called an actual cash
(09:37):
value appraisal.
It's a specialized specialtyproduct.
They're basically going rightat depreciated cost of the
improvements.
They're even using typically alonger depreciation schedule
because they're removingobsolescence from it.
It's just straight physical.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
No functional obsolescence is factored in
there, so you're a lot of timesyou're.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
they're able to use 150 year life.
Okay, so that helps soften thedepreciation some.
So you're going to get adifferent, you're going to get a
higher number with a privateappraisal doing, doing a ACV
appraisal, as opposed to what wewere going to have, cause our
number has obsolescence in it.
It has, you know, other thingsand we don't have.
(10:19):
We don't put that super longscale on a little more
conservative.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, you guys have to base yourself on doing mass
appraisals.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
And now something we have rolled out because, as this
was unfolding I knew in ourmarket we didn't have a lot of
appraisers that had theexperience to do ACV appraisers,
appraisals, and I knew theyneeded to get up to speed.
We have had some some coursesin recent years to help educate
them, get them up to speed.
We have had some some coursesin recent years to help educate
them, get them up to speed onthat.
But not all of them have gottenon board yet.
Now they're starting to jump inbecause residential market's
(10:53):
been slower.
So they've had a good incentiveto to learn how to do these and
jump over and serve, fill thatneed.
But I was worried people may getbacklogged a month or more with
some of those and you know,obviously they cost money too,
and so I said there's gotta be away we could produce something
that Give another free look.
(11:15):
You know, if people can come inwith documentation mostly
photographic or contractorinvoices the last couple of
years, things like that thatshows that we can justify a
factual change because we don'tsee the inside of most houses
Right and they may have done,you know, $100,000, $200,000
remodel really extended the lifeof that home might allow us to
(11:38):
adjust the effective age on thatproperty some.
So we rolled that out, rolledthat out to my team, proposed it
to them.
They embraced it.
We figured out how to do it.
We stood up a differentdatabase just to deal with these
.
We're calling them BVRsbuilding value reconsideration.
So we're going right in lookingat it.
Pre-storm, so we put aneffective date value on that
(12:00):
pre-storm, based on whicheverevent it was.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
And and we do a relook.
So the team goes in, they lookat the documentation submitted.
It's really easy to do rightthrough the website.
There's a, there's a portal orsomething.
There's a fillable PDF form.
They they fill out and itlaunches an email and they can
attach their documentation onthere.
We're building out a moreinteractive web form that will
(12:24):
hopefully be out soon, where itwill be even easier for them to
engage direct through and dotheir attachments.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And can they do that without getting the private
appraisal?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Yes, okay.
Would you recommend that be the?
Speaker 1 (12:37):
first step.
Mike didn't mean to interrupt,but before they get a private
appraisal, yes, okay, yes, sothey can Would you recommend
that be the first step?
Mike Didn't mean to interrupt,but before they get a private
appraisal, let's see if you guyscan it's certainly.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
It's yes, especially if they're close.
You know, if they're close andthey know they've done stuff and
we've had cases where so a yearago we had Idalia yeah.
So a bunch of people gotimpacted by Idalia.
Well, when it came aroundJanuary 1 of this year, their
house was still tore apart.
They were putting it backtogether for Idalia.
(13:04):
They didn't complete it untilmid 2024.
So their number on our site isdrastically low because we wrote
down their improvements becauseof the damage they had
sustained.
So they are very likelycandidates.
They're going to get prettymajor movement if they've if
they've repaired their homeprior to Helene hitting them.
(13:24):
So that's a good example ofwhere it's definitely going to
help you.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, definitely.
And then if, if they're goingthat route, you know they want
to try that before they do, youknow, hire a private appraiser,
Is there benefit for that ownerto reach out to their local
realtor to maybe get apre-hurricane comp report to be
(13:50):
able to provide to you guys?
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Well, when we're doing those, we're not using
sales.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Oh, okay, yeah, Gotcha.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
So we're doing it.
We are, but we're using lastyear's sales.
They're already in our database.
We're running it through oursame system that we valued for
January 1 of 2024.
But we're moving that date tocapture any of the factual
(14:17):
changes Understood.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah, so, mike, digressing back to something we
said about five, six minutes ago, I think you said 24 different
municipalities, is it 24, 27different, 24.
In his Pinellas County.
So you've got to deal with thecity of St Pete and Madeira, and
then the counties as well, andMadeira and then the counties as
well, kind of.
(14:45):
Maybe give everybody a quickexplanation as to how it's
working with FEMA.
Putting you know they havetheir, they're putting pressure,
so to speak, on the governmentsand municipalities to enforce
these code restrictions on therebuild, because that's how they
get their reinsurance correct.
I'm butchering that Iunderstand, but please clarify
for me.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Sure sure.
So you're referring to kind ofthe substantial damage process
that people are having tonavigate and it's very, very
tricky, very confusing.
We know there's a lot ofmisinformation floating around
out there and a lot of the slowprogression that's happening
with our county and our citiesis because of what happened in
(15:25):
lee county um, fort myers arearight.
So some of the cities and andunincorporated county down there
, so they they've gotten.
Uh, one of them is alreadyunder what are they in?
I'm trying to remember what theycalled it, but they're in a
probationary period.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Which means they've lost their NFIP discounts.
So they had a 25% discount ontheir NFIP insurance.
Well, that's gone.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Because they could not come into compliance.
They had FEMA inspectors comingin on the ground after
Hurricane Ian and finding thatpeople were building back
without permits.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
So this is a function of the government's not
enforcing and that would becomea function of code enforcement.
I guess finding people doingthis after the fact.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Yeah, ultimately.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Okay, so what would be the normal?
If there is a normal discountthat you're getting for being in
compliance with the floodprograms?
You know where I'm going withall this is.
We can't handle any moreinsurance rate increases and it
looks like if thesemunicipalities and governments
aren't enforcing this properly,they could lose it like Lee
(16:36):
County did.
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Well, so it's all based on what's called their
community rating system, or CRSrating, and Pinellas
unincorporated Pinellas actuallyis a number two now, so that's
as high as.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
It's a good rating.
That's a great rating.
That's not a bad rating.
That's a great rating.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
So it means their discount's substantially higher.
I'm trying to remember what theactual discount is.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Do you guys have to get together, Like when they
come in and talk about this?
Which branch of government orwhich department of government
is completely responsible forthis, or do you work in
conjunction?
I know you're not your stateconstitutional office, but where
does that lay?
Whose feet does that lay at?
Speaker 3 (17:22):
So the floodplain administrators have to work with
federal, so with NFIP and FEMA.
But then you also have thestate layer with Department of
Emergency Management, have thestate layer with department of
emergency management and thenyou've got so each jurisdiction,
like I said, it's the, it's thebuilding departments in
(17:47):
conjunction with the floodplainmanagers working together.
They're the ones that that haveto kind of control this
substantial damage process.
Fema is just there to be thatfederal oversight, Like hey,
make sure you follow ourguidelines, because we're going
to come back in after the factand audit.
And you need to make sure youcan justify what you're doing.
Okay, gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
So, yeah, I get a little anxious hearing all these
government bodies involved inmaking this decision and, wow,
that could be a lot of red tapeif we're not careful.
Now, that could be a lot of redtape if we're not careful and
if we lose this discount.
I hear that we're not withPinellas County, but it really
comes down to the enforcementbranch of the county making sure
that we don't build back likethey did in Lee County, is that?
what I'm hearing Right rightwithout following the proper
(18:31):
steps.
And that's part of thefrustration that we're hearing
with the delayed permits and thetimeliness of everything.
Because I know I had a callfrom a friend yesterday and
talked to him a long time and hethought I might have some
insight on on permitting hadnothing to do with the storm
damage, but he was in asituation where he was doing an
addition to his house and he waslike this is just you know well
, yeah, so in any blue sky,permitting like what he's
(18:53):
dealing with is put on the backburner because storm permitting
has been moved to the front.
Aha, gotcha, I'll have him callyou tomorrow.
No, please don't.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Permitting is not my specialty Building and
permitting department there.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
I basically hear myths and rumors about the
building department.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
And every one of them is a little bit different in
how they're handling it.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
That's what I find From.
Madeira Beach might bedifferent from Indian Rocks, and
Indian Rocks could be differentfrom City of Clearwater and
that could be different from thecounty.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Now the county has contracts with seven
municipalities To handle theirpermitting To handle building
and permitting.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I have found that the counties are pretty consistent
and a little more user-friendlyfor the public out there
Pinellas County anyway.
So that's been my experience.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Just to tie back into the FEMA letter or the whatever
word whatever you're going tocall it later at some point in
time, the new name.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So if somebody has to hire an appraisal, provided
they're able to get theappraisal done within.
I don't know, let's just saythey order it, they get the
appraisal back and then theypresent able to get the
appraisal done within.
I don't know, let's just saythey order it, they get the
appraisal back and then theypresent it to do.
They present it to you, theypresent it to the floodplain
manager.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, so basically they'll end up submitting it to
their respective buildingdepartment and it'll get.
It'll get.
It'll either end up getting areview by the building or the
floodplain manager or some ofthe subcontractor team that
they've brought in.
So because of the shortage ofman, people power to support all
(20:26):
this, they've used somegovernment contract third-party
vendors to come in and helpsupport that substantial damage
process.
So they have inspectors in thefield, both within
anincorporated County and withit working directly for engaged
with some of the cities.
Then they're putting that datain what they call it a
(20:46):
substantial damage estimatortool, which is actually a FEMA
software package.
They're plugging data base,cost data in that they actually
get from our office to runthrough so that it's apples to
apples on on when they do therepair costs compared to our
values on our FEMA letters.
It allows those things to matchup better so that they don't
(21:09):
use overblown repair numbers.
And but that's still so.
So they go through that process.
That's that initial brush todetermine all right, you know
they're they don't meet, thatthey're under the threshold,
they can get a permit, orthey're over the threshold and
we're going to have to send thema substantial damage letter.
(21:29):
So that's what they're goingthrough right now.
Those SD letters have beencoming out of the county I think
they've probably sent out,probably in the neighborhood of
about 800 that I'm aware of.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
So substantial damage letters.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Well, so that's total letters, but the last number I
heard was that only about 15%were actually getting a true SD
letter.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Okay, that's better news than we initially might
have heard.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Now I can't, I can't, I don't know exactly where
those properties were located.
So you know, and what fashionthey're navigating through their
grids to send those out.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
So if you get and I know you're not in the building
department, but you're a veryknowledgeable guy and you
certainly have some insight Ifyou get the substantial damage
letter, what are your remediesfor that?
You either have to raise it theexisting structure which I'm
not so sure that's always thebest way to go or you've got to
demo it and build up correct.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Right, so you can relocate it.
If you can put it on a truckand take it somewhere, you can
elevate it.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
That doesn't work real good on a slab, does it no?
Speaker 3 (22:38):
And elevating even on a slab is tricky.
It can be done but it's tricky.
And then people have to weighthat out whether it makes sense
to do it.
But some of the grants that areavailable out there, that's
really their elevation grants.
So they really want you toretain that old home to be able
to qualify.
So those get tricky.
(22:59):
That is tricky.
Plus, you're going to have towait many years before you ever
get those funds.
So I don't think that's reallya practical solution.
In most cases you can alsoabandon your first floor and
build on top Right.
That's an option.
You know you turn the lowerlevel into uninhabitable space.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
A big garage, man cave, yeah no no, don't close it
in no living space.
That's right You've got to havethose breakaway walls.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Right, right, or obviously the rebuild is the
cleanest and probably you'regoing to get the best
improvement there and you'regoing to be more resilient to
storms in the future.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
So my simple mind goes to here I got the SD letter
and I've got to rebuild and Idon't like the first two options
and I just knock the place downand build, which is I would do.
Now my simple mind says didn'tI just flood my neighbors?
Because I'm up to you know myelevation today and what is the
infrastructure in place tohandle these?
(24:00):
You know, let's say we've got acommunity with 500 homes and 25
of them now are significantlyhigher than the other.
Isn't that causing damage stillto the community, to my
neighbors, possibly on aflooding?
Speaker 3 (24:13):
event.
Well, it depends if you'refilling the site at all, I mean,
if you're leaving the site atyou know, leaving the natural
grade, the impervious soil Right, and there are some
jurisdictions where they'retrying to do some floodplain
compensation.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Have you heard any issues with this?
What I'm talking about?
Yet?
Speaker 3 (24:29):
I've heard more about that before the storm.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Just with some people that were wrestling with things
, where they tried to put somestructural fill on their site
and actually raise it up alittle and then it sheds water
under their neighbors.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Yeah, so there are issues there.
Water under their neighbors,yeah, yeah, so there there are
issues there.
Um, but generally, if you, ifyou build it on on piers or
piles and get it up in the airand the water comes through, in
an event and it just shedsacross the island and goes away.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Yeah, you know it was this.
Uh, we were talking earlier.
With these storms we had, wereally had the trifecta.
You know, with these storms youget surge, you get freshwater
flooding and you get wind.
Well, between all of them, wehad all the events.
It was an interesting time tobe here, all right.
So listen, we have a lot goingon with Mike.
(25:17):
We've got a lot more to cover.
We are going to bring him backto hit you guys with another
podcast.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
One thing I wanted to throw in.
So they do have thatopportunity to to come back for
a reconsideration under whatthey call it a reassessment.
So if you get that SD letter, Iwant to let people know that
that's not the death sentence.
No, no, it's not.
It's not the end, right, thatjust means that the inspectors
(25:46):
were out.
They may.
No, it's not.
It's not the end that, right.
That just means that theinspectors were out.
They may not have even seen theinside of your home.
They, um, they had to gauge offwatermarks.
They're using damagepercentages based on water lines
for the different structuralcomponents within the FEMA
software, and so that was theinitial determination.
You can request a reassessmentprocess, which means then that's
(26:10):
when you either get that BVR,that building value
reconsideration from us, or youget an outside ACV appraisal,
you bring that in along withyour permit package and all your
repair costs from yourcontractor and basically say,
hey, my numbers work.
You know I'm not substantiallydamaged.
They'll review that.
(26:31):
There'll be another team thatlooks at that with building and
floodplain, and then they'llissue a reassessment
determination.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
So then, so you may pass there.
If you still don't pass there,the county I know is going to
actually put a true appealprocess in which will go before
a special magistrate.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Okay, kind of like when we appeal our taxes that
you assess us for.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
That's kind of how they came to me to talk to about
that and I said, yeah, I can.
I think the way to do that isyou leverage the special
magistrate process that theclerk of the court already
manages.
So they took that and ran withit and that's what they're
setting.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
So, basically, you've got some recourse, you get the
letter, you've got the BVRthrough you and then there's one
more formal appeals processthat they're going to be able to
employ before they just goahead and start looking at other
options.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
The one thing I can't guarantee right now.
I don't know how the cities aregoing to do, if the cities are
going to offer a true appeal, soI don't know if they're going
to offer that last step.
That's something they have towork out with the county.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
So it's more for unincorporated Pinellas and the
cities that contract withPinellas, but everybody has that
opportunity for thatreassessment.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Guys, I hope you're all listening.
By the way, on his site, whathe just talked to you about is
this independent appraiser.
He's got two sources listedright here under question four.
I would jump all over that if Iwere you.
We're going to come back onanother podcast with Mike and
I'm going to ask hey, do I get abreak in my taxes?
Should I get some kind ofdiscount or something?
So, guys, tune back in.
(28:07):
We appreciate you all.
Thanks, mike for coming andwe'll catch you all next time.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Thanks, for having me .
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Take care guys.
Hello everyone and welcome back to the pod.
This is the Real EstateDisruptors show launching out in
January of 25.
I'm here with my co-host, amir.
What's happening, amir?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hey, good morning Mike.
Welcome to 2025.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hey, hey, hey.
We got here somehow, didn't we?
We sure did.
2024 was a hell of a year.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I'm ready to say goodbye to 24.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
All right.
Hey guys, we have our frequentflyer guest returner on the show
today.
I think this is three timesyou've been back on our favorite
special guest on the show, theHonorable Mike Twitty, Pinellas
County Property Appraiser, ishere today to join us and share
a little information aboutwhat's going on out there.
(00:42):
Mike, welcome to the show.
I appreciate it.
Glad to be back.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
All right.
Thank you, Mike, for coming intoday.
Appreciate it Sure, of course.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah, and before the show started, amir was talking
to you about thanks for jumpingon social and calming some
people down with yeah, it wasgreat to see you popping on
social.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I mean, some of those next door chat rooms and
Facebook chat rooms can get kindof heated with some, well, a
lot of misinformation and youknow I was like, oh wow, look,
mike just popped in there andshut it down.
It was really cool.
So kudos to you for doing that.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Thank you.
Thank you, I'll keep an eye onthem, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
So, mike, I'm sure it's been a slow year.
The 2024 was slow, not muchgoing on over there in your
department, in your world.
I will say that I personallybelieve that you know you lead
the way, and I mean that fromthe bottom of my heart.
You lead the way with the localproperty appraisers.
I don't know much other thanyou know our local surrounding
(01:40):
counties, but you havedefinitely set the bar and been
a pioneer of what you've done.
I have your site pulled upright now.
Take a quick minute and tell usthe site is fully up and
running and has been for alittle while.
But this is your baby.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
So it was about a three-yearproject to build a new ground up
PCPAOgov and you know we wewanted to have all the best of
what was in the old site thatpeople loved, but then put it
into a modern architecturalframework that allows us to grow
into the future, put more toolsinto it.
(02:14):
Uh, we've got some excitingtools to talk about today and
new processes that we'rebuilding into the site as we
speak to help our um people thathave been impacted by these
storms.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And that's definitely what we're going to focus on
today.
I know Amir actually found thisI don't know well, over a month
ago when a lot of people werewondering about this whole FEMA,
fema 50 thing and they were allconfused after the storms and
he said, look, mike's got itright here on his site.
So if you go to your site,we've got.
I just pulled it up and I'mlooking at it right now.
(02:48):
You've got the Storm DamageFAQs.
Guys, I would definitely go onthere.
You can help yourself becomeknowledgeable and you can
certainly sell that informationwith your clients.
But we're going to go over someof these FAQs with you today.
If that's all right, that'sgreat, and have you totally
expound on what you got here?
The first one that I want totalk about is this how do I find
(03:13):
my FEMA 50% slash 49% ruleletter?
Talk to us about that and howyou came up with that.
Yeah, sure.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
So first I want to talk a little bit, debunk some
myths with that.
Fema 50% letter because peopleget confused over that.
So, first of all, fema does notproduce that letter.
Secondly, we do generate that.
It's been around for over adecade.
My predecessor actually startedit back when Biggert Waters was
(03:41):
rearing its head in the floodinsurance realm.
And they were stripping talkedabout, you know, stripping away
discounts and taking everybodyto full risk rate back.
You know, 15, 16 years ago sothat's when the FEMA letter came
into existence on our websiteand it was really there to help
people that had to deal with 50%rule compliance and to give
(04:02):
them a max repair number fortheir homes in a convenient way
without necessarily having to goout and get a third party
appraisal.
It was really.
It was really designed more forsubstantial improvement than
substantial damage.
So substantial improvement isjust, you know, I'm putting a
new roof on, replacing my doorsand windows, making some
(04:25):
plumbing changes or electricalchanges, and that mechanism
worked pretty well.
It was never really designedfor substantial damage.
So now, boom, we havesubstantial damage and
unfortunately, some of ourcitizens are coming up a little
short when they look at thatletter.
The way to find that is to goto your parcel and once you've
(04:48):
searched, pulled up your parcel,you're in our little toolbox
off to the right-hand side.
You'll see a series of buttonsand one of those says FEMA slash
WLM letter and that stands forwin-loss mitigation, because
that letter actually does twodifferent things.
But we're just going to focuson the FEMA piece right now and
FEMA really wants me to changethe name of that letter.
(05:08):
They don't like me usingputting their name on there.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
They don't like that.
You delivered their bad newsRight.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
But I said well, what's a better name for this?
They said, well, call it anSISD letter or whatever I go.
Well, nobody knows what that is.
So I said, when you come upwith something better and when
you consider being more friendlyto Floridians when they elevate
their homes and giving them amore appropriate rate on their
flood insurance when they'veelevated via risk rating 2.0,
(05:40):
then we can talk about it.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, leverage them right back a little bit.
Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Right.
So I said I'm not changinghorses midstream and relabeling
it when that's what people areused to right now.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
They wouldn't know where to find it Exactly, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Awesome.
So again, what that letter doeswe take?
And people get confused overwhether it's the whole value of
their property or-.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Right, you want to break that down real quick for
us.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
So the way FEMA and NFIP look at that, it's just
your structure, so just yourbuilding value, so it's your
primary structure on thatproperty.
If you have multiple structuresyou have to look at each one of
them independently.
You can't aggregate them andwe'll talk about condos later.
They're a whole different beastwhen you get into that.
(06:28):
But so if it's a home, it's thestructure only, doesn't include
your other site improvements.
You know, your pool, your doc,all the, all those types of
things do not, do not get rolledup into that value.
So structure only.
And then 49 or 50% of thatnumber is what you're not able
to equal or exceed.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
And is that number the 49% or 50% of the
replacement cost of thatstructure when it was built?
Did I hear that somewhere?
How's that Is?
Speaker 3 (06:57):
it a replacement of today's current.
No, it's depreciated structurevalue Depreciated structure Okay
.
So FEMA calls it market valueof the structure.
So market value would bedepreciated.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
I gotcha.
So you know.
When people think, oh you know,I just got an estimate for a
hundred grand or 200 grand, noproblem, I'm way under my
assessed value, that's certainlynot the case at all.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Right, and that's why they have to go in and look at
the letter, see what that numberis, and you know it comes up
short on a lot because a lot ofthese homes are older.
You know a lot of them.
They had haven't had much of apermit history of activity.
You know some of that becausethey haven't done anything and
some of it because maybe they'vedone some things without a
permit permit.
(07:46):
Our job is not to be the permitpolice.
We look at what's there and weput it on the roll or don't put
it on the roll, based on itsphysical existence.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So just to clarify for the listeners out there the
depreciated values if I had astructure that, let's say, was
assessed at 200 grand, that's 20years old, and you're doing a
straight 39 year depreciation orthey're doing a straight 39
year depreciation off that,that's basically half the value,
right, am I?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
on base here.
Yeah, we're using a longer lifethan 39 years okay, yeah, okay
we're using.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
It depends on what it's made out of, but okay, so
that can be a moving time yeah,frame or or block okay, yeah all
right, did not know, how thatworked and if you're, you know
when you, when a consumer pullsup this letter and you know
they're looking at their values,their structure value, and then
what their um, you know, uh,what their repair improvements
(08:37):
can exceed.
If they are not, they feel thatthat number is low.
What, what, what can they do?
Is there, is that the end ofthe road for them, or can there
be something?
It's really a first stop.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
So so that's, that's the freebie.
Quick look If, if that numberworks for you, you, you know
that's what the buildingdepartment's going to use
they're going to pull it upright off our site and and you
bring in your, you know yourrepair numbers and if you're
under that number then they'regoing to issue your permits.
You can move forward.
Yeah, go ahead.
So the other and some of thisgets down to the methods that
(09:14):
are approved by the variousjurisdictions and what they've
put in their flood ordinances.
So it can get down in the weedswhen you have 24 different
cities and the unincorporatedcounty, but but most of them
will say some form of marketvalue of the structure in their,
in their thing.
So another alternative is toget what's called an actual cash
(09:37):
value appraisal.
It's a specialized specialtyproduct.
They're basically going rightat depreciated cost of the
improvements.
They're even using typically alonger depreciation schedule
because they're removingobsolescence from it.
It's just straight physical.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
No functional obsolescence is factored in
there, so you're a lot of timesyou're.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
they're able to use 150 year life.
Okay, so that helps soften thedepreciation some.
So you're going to get adifferent, you're going to get a
higher number with a privateappraisal doing, doing a ACV
appraisal, as opposed to what wewere going to have, cause our
number has obsolescence in it.
It has, you know, other thingsand we don't have.
(10:19):
We don't put that super longscale on a little more
conservative.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, you guys have to base yourself on doing mass
appraisals.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
And now something we have rolled out because, as this
was unfolding I knew in ourmarket we didn't have a lot of
appraisers that had theexperience to do ACV appraisers,
appraisals, and I knew theyneeded to get up to speed.
We have had some some coursesin recent years to help educate
them, get them up to speed.
We have had some some coursesin recent years to help educate
them, get them up to speed onthat.
But not all of them have gottenon board yet.
Now they're starting to jump inbecause residential market's
(10:53):
been slower.
So they've had a good incentiveto to learn how to do these and
jump over and serve, fill thatneed.
But I was worried people may getbacklogged a month or more with
some of those and you know,obviously they cost money too,
and so I said there's gotta be away we could produce something
that Give another free look.
(11:15):
You know, if people can come inwith documentation mostly
photographic or contractorinvoices the last couple of
years, things like that thatshows that we can justify a
factual change because we don'tsee the inside of most houses
Right and they may have done,you know, $100,000, $200,000
remodel really extended the lifeof that home might allow us to
(11:38):
adjust the effective age on thatproperty some.
So we rolled that out, rolledthat out to my team, proposed it
to them.
They embraced it.
We figured out how to do it.
We stood up a differentdatabase just to deal with these
.
We're calling them BVRsbuilding value reconsideration.
So we're going right in lookingat it.
Pre-storm, so we put aneffective date value on that
(12:00):
pre-storm, based on whicheverevent it was.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
And and we do a relook.
So the team goes in, they lookat the documentation submitted.
It's really easy to do rightthrough the website.
There's a, there's a portal orsomething.
There's a fillable PDF form.
They they fill out and itlaunches an email and they can
attach their documentation onthere.
We're building out a moreinteractive web form that will
(12:24):
hopefully be out soon, where itwill be even easier for them to
engage direct through and dotheir attachments.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And can they do that without getting the private
appraisal?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Yes, okay.
Would you recommend that be the?
Speaker 1 (12:37):
first step.
Mike didn't mean to interrupt,but before they get a private
appraisal, yes, okay, yes, sothey can Would you recommend
that be the first step?
Mike Didn't mean to interrupt,but before they get a private
appraisal, let's see if you guyscan it's certainly.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
It's yes, especially if they're close.
You know, if they're close andthey know they've done stuff and
we've had cases where so a yearago we had Idalia yeah.
So a bunch of people gotimpacted by Idalia.
Well, when it came aroundJanuary 1 of this year, their
house was still tore apart.
They were putting it backtogether for Idalia.
(13:04):
They didn't complete it untilmid 2024.
So their number on our site isdrastically low because we wrote
down their improvements becauseof the damage they had
sustained.
So they are very likelycandidates.
They're going to get prettymajor movement if they've if
they've repaired their homeprior to Helene hitting them.
(13:24):
So that's a good example ofwhere it's definitely going to
help you.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, definitely.
And then if, if they're goingthat route, you know they want
to try that before they do, youknow, hire a private appraiser,
Is there benefit for that ownerto reach out to their local
realtor to maybe get apre-hurricane comp report to be
(13:50):
able to provide to you guys?
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Well, when we're doing those, we're not using
sales.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Oh, okay, yeah, Gotcha.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
So we're doing it.
We are, but we're using lastyear's sales.
They're already in our database.
We're running it through oursame system that we valued for
January 1 of 2024.
But we're moving that date tocapture any of the factual
(14:17):
changes Understood.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah, so, mike, digressing back to something we
said about five, six minutes ago, I think you said 24 different
municipalities, is it 24, 27different, 24.
In his Pinellas County.
So you've got to deal with thecity of St Pete and Madeira, and
then the counties as well, andMadeira and then the counties as
well, kind of.
(14:45):
Maybe give everybody a quickexplanation as to how it's
working with FEMA.
Putting you know they havetheir, they're putting pressure,
so to speak, on the governmentsand municipalities to enforce
these code restrictions on therebuild, because that's how they
get their reinsurance correct.
I'm butchering that Iunderstand, but please clarify
for me.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Sure sure.
So you're referring to kind ofthe substantial damage process
that people are having tonavigate and it's very, very
tricky, very confusing.
We know there's a lot ofmisinformation floating around
out there and a lot of the slowprogression that's happening
with our county and our citiesis because of what happened in
(15:25):
lee county um, fort myers arearight.
So some of the cities and andunincorporated county down there
, so they they've gotten.
Uh, one of them is alreadyunder what are they in?
I'm trying to remember what theycalled it, but they're in a
probationary period.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Which means they've lost their NFIP discounts.
So they had a 25% discount ontheir NFIP insurance.
Well, that's gone.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Because they could not come into compliance.
They had FEMA inspectors comingin on the ground after
Hurricane Ian and finding thatpeople were building back
without permits.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
So this is a function of the government's not
enforcing and that would becomea function of code enforcement.
I guess finding people doingthis after the fact.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Yeah, ultimately.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Okay, so what would be the normal?
If there is a normal discountthat you're getting for being in
compliance with the floodprograms?
You know where I'm going withall this is.
We can't handle any moreinsurance rate increases and it
looks like if thesemunicipalities and governments
aren't enforcing this properly,they could lose it like Lee
(16:36):
County did.
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Well, so it's all based on what's called their
community rating system, or CRSrating, and Pinellas
unincorporated Pinellas actuallyis a number two now, so that's
as high as.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
It's a good rating.
That's a great rating.
That's not a bad rating.
That's a great rating.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
So it means their discount's substantially higher.
I'm trying to remember what theactual discount is.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Do you guys have to get together, Like when they
come in and talk about this?
Which branch of government orwhich department of government
is completely responsible forthis, or do you work in
conjunction?
I know you're not your stateconstitutional office, but where
does that lay?
Whose feet does that lay at?
Speaker 3 (17:22):
So the floodplain administrators have to work with
federal, so with NFIP and FEMA.
But then you also have thestate layer with Department of
Emergency Management, have thestate layer with department of
emergency management and thenyou've got so each jurisdiction,
like I said, it's the, it's thebuilding departments in
(17:47):
conjunction with the floodplainmanagers working together.
They're the ones that that haveto kind of control this
substantial damage process.
Fema is just there to be thatfederal oversight, Like hey,
make sure you follow ourguidelines, because we're going
to come back in after the factand audit.
And you need to make sure youcan justify what you're doing.
Okay, gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
So, yeah, I get a little anxious hearing all these
government bodies involved inmaking this decision and, wow,
that could be a lot of red tapeif we're not careful.
Now, that could be a lot of redtape if we're not careful and
if we lose this discount.
I hear that we're not withPinellas County, but it really
comes down to the enforcementbranch of the county making sure
that we don't build back likethey did in Lee County, is that?
what I'm hearing Right rightwithout following the proper
(18:31):
steps.
And that's part of thefrustration that we're hearing
with the delayed permits and thetimeliness of everything.
Because I know I had a callfrom a friend yesterday and
talked to him a long time and hethought I might have some
insight on on permitting hadnothing to do with the storm
damage, but he was in asituation where he was doing an
addition to his house and he waslike this is just you know well
, yeah, so in any blue sky,permitting like what he's
(18:53):
dealing with is put on the backburner because storm permitting
has been moved to the front.
Aha, gotcha, I'll have him callyou tomorrow.
No, please don't.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Permitting is not my specialty Building and
permitting department there.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
I basically hear myths and rumors about the
building department.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
And every one of them is a little bit different in
how they're handling it.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
That's what I find From.
Madeira Beach might bedifferent from Indian Rocks, and
Indian Rocks could be differentfrom City of Clearwater and
that could be different from thecounty.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Now the county has contracts with seven
municipalities To handle theirpermitting To handle building
and permitting.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I have found that the counties are pretty consistent
and a little more user-friendlyfor the public out there
Pinellas County anyway.
So that's been my experience.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Just to tie back into the FEMA letter or the whatever
word whatever you're going tocall it later at some point in
time, the new name.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So if somebody has to hire an appraisal, provided
they're able to get theappraisal done within.
I don't know, let's just saythey order it, they get the
appraisal back and then theypresent able to get the
appraisal done within.
I don't know, let's just saythey order it, they get the
appraisal back and then theypresent it to do.
They present it to you, theypresent it to the floodplain
manager.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, so basically they'll end up submitting it to
their respective buildingdepartment and it'll get.
It'll get.
It'll either end up getting areview by the building or the
floodplain manager or some ofthe subcontractor team that
they've brought in.
So because of the shortage ofman, people power to support all
(20:26):
this, they've used somegovernment contract third-party
vendors to come in and helpsupport that substantial damage
process.
So they have inspectors in thefield, both within
anincorporated County and withit working directly for engaged
with some of the cities.
Then they're putting that datain what they call it a
(20:46):
substantial damage estimatortool, which is actually a FEMA
software package.
They're plugging data base,cost data in that they actually
get from our office to runthrough so that it's apples to
apples on on when they do therepair costs compared to our
values on our FEMA letters.
It allows those things to matchup better so that they don't
(21:09):
use overblown repair numbers.
And but that's still so.
So they go through that process.
That's that initial brush todetermine all right, you know
they're they don't meet, thatthey're under the threshold,
they can get a permit, orthey're over the threshold and
we're going to have to send thema substantial damage letter.
(21:29):
So that's what they're goingthrough right now.
Those SD letters have beencoming out of the county I think
they've probably sent out,probably in the neighborhood of
about 800 that I'm aware of.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
So substantial damage letters.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Well, so that's total letters, but the last number I
heard was that only about 15%were actually getting a true SD
letter.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Okay, that's better news than we initially might
have heard.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Now I can't, I can't, I don't know exactly where
those properties were located.
So you know, and what fashionthey're navigating through their
grids to send those out.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
So if you get and I know you're not in the building
department, but you're a veryknowledgeable guy and you
certainly have some insight Ifyou get the substantial damage
letter, what are your remediesfor that?
You either have to raise it theexisting structure which I'm
not so sure that's always thebest way to go or you've got to
demo it and build up correct.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Right, so you can relocate it.
If you can put it on a truckand take it somewhere, you can
elevate it.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
That doesn't work real good on a slab, does it no?
Speaker 3 (22:38):
And elevating even on a slab is tricky.
It can be done but it's tricky.
And then people have to weighthat out whether it makes sense
to do it.
But some of the grants that areavailable out there, that's
really their elevation grants.
So they really want you toretain that old home to be able
to qualify.
So those get tricky.
(22:59):
That is tricky.
Plus, you're going to have towait many years before you ever
get those funds.
So I don't think that's reallya practical solution.
In most cases you can alsoabandon your first floor and
build on top Right.
That's an option.
You know you turn the lowerlevel into uninhabitable space.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
A big garage, man cave, yeah no no, don't close it
in no living space.
That's right You've got to havethose breakaway walls.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Right, right, or obviously the rebuild is the
cleanest and probably you'regoing to get the best
improvement there and you'regoing to be more resilient to
storms in the future.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
So my simple mind goes to here I got the SD letter
and I've got to rebuild and Idon't like the first two options
and I just knock the place downand build, which is I would do.
Now my simple mind says didn'tI just flood my neighbors?
Because I'm up to you know myelevation today and what is the
infrastructure in place tohandle these?
(24:00):
You know, let's say we've got acommunity with 500 homes and 25
of them now are significantlyhigher than the other.
Isn't that causing damage stillto the community, to my
neighbors, possibly on aflooding?
Speaker 3 (24:13):
event.
Well, it depends if you'refilling the site at all, I mean,
if you're leaving the site atyou know, leaving the natural
grade, the impervious soil Right, and there are some
jurisdictions where they'retrying to do some floodplain
compensation.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Have you heard any issues with this?
What I'm talking about?
Yet?
Speaker 3 (24:29):
I've heard more about that before the storm.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Just with some people that were wrestling with things
, where they tried to put somestructural fill on their site
and actually raise it up alittle and then it sheds water
under their neighbors.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Yeah, so there are issues there.
Water under their neighbors,yeah, yeah, so there there are
issues there.
Um, but generally, if you, ifyou build it on on piers or
piles and get it up in the airand the water comes through, in
an event and it just shedsacross the island and goes away.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Yeah, you know it was this.
Uh, we were talking earlier.
With these storms we had, wereally had the trifecta.
You know, with these storms youget surge, you get freshwater
flooding and you get wind.
Well, between all of them, wehad all the events.
It was an interesting time tobe here, all right.
So listen, we have a lot goingon with Mike.
(25:17):
We've got a lot more to cover.
We are going to bring him backto hit you guys with another
podcast.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
One thing I wanted to throw in.
So they do have thatopportunity to to come back for
a reconsideration under whatthey call it a reassessment.
So if you get that SD letter, Iwant to let people know that
that's not the death sentence.
No, no, it's not.
It's not the end, right, thatjust means that the inspectors
(25:46):
were out.
They may.
No, it's not.
It's not the end that, right.
That just means that theinspectors were out.
They may not have even seen theinside of your home.
They, um, they had to gauge offwatermarks.
They're using damagepercentages based on water lines
for the different structuralcomponents within the FEMA
software, and so that was theinitial determination.
You can request a reassessmentprocess, which means then that's
(26:10):
when you either get that BVR,that building value
reconsideration from us, or youget an outside ACV appraisal,
you bring that in along withyour permit package and all your
repair costs from yourcontractor and basically say,
hey, my numbers work.
You know I'm not substantiallydamaged.
They'll review that.
(26:31):
There'll be another team thatlooks at that with building and
floodplain, and then they'llissue a reassessment
determination.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
So then, so you may pass there.
If you still don't pass there,the county I know is going to
actually put a true appealprocess in which will go before
a special magistrate.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Okay, kind of like when we appeal our taxes that
you assess us for.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
That's kind of how they came to me to talk to about
that and I said, yeah, I can.
I think the way to do that isyou leverage the special
magistrate process that theclerk of the court already
manages.
So they took that and ran withit and that's what they're
setting.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
So, basically, you've got some recourse, you get the
letter, you've got the BVRthrough you and then there's one
more formal appeals processthat they're going to be able to
employ before they just goahead and start looking at other
options.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
The one thing I can't guarantee right now.
I don't know how the cities aregoing to do, if the cities are
going to offer a true appeal, soI don't know if they're going
to offer that last step.
That's something they have towork out with the county.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
So it's more for unincorporated Pinellas and the
cities that contract withPinellas, but everybody has that
opportunity for thatreassessment.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Guys, I hope you're all listening.
By the way, on his site, whathe just talked to you about is
this independent appraiser.
He's got two sources listedright here under question four.
I would jump all over that if Iwere you.
We're going to come back onanother podcast with Mike and
I'm going to ask hey, do I get abreak in my taxes?
Should I get some kind ofdiscount or something?
So, guys, tune back in.
(28:07):
We appreciate you all.
Thanks, mike for coming andwe'll catch you all next time.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Thanks, for having me .
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Take care guys.
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