June 29, 2024 • 30 mins
Ever wondered how to make your home safer while potentially lowering your insurance costs? Join us on Real Life with Lee as we sit down with Debbie Iten from the Iten Agency in Davie, Florida. Discover Debbie’s deep-rooted connections to South Florida, her journey from Miami to Broward County, and how her family's insurance agency transformed from a Nationwide captive agency to an independent one in 2007. Debbie also opens up about her family’s passion for horses and shares some delightful anecdotes about her mischievous miniature donkey, Gypsy.
In this episode, we delve into the My Safe Florida Home program and its benefits for homeowners looking to enhance the safety and efficiency of their properties. Learn about the crucial role of wind mitigation inspections and how simple upgrades can earn you significant insurance credits. We further explore the historical challenges faced by South Florida, from the catastrophic 1928 hurricane to a recent warehouse fire, emphasizing the need for proper emergency response training. Finally, Debbie sheds light on the Invest program, which educates high school students about the insurance industry and its career opportunities. This episode is packed with valuable insights into South Florida's real estate, insurance, and educational initiatives.
For more information visit https://leealoni.com/ or give me a call (754) 244-3352.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
welcome to real life with lee.
Powered by leolone southflorida real estate at g and e
realty group, the show where leeand her guests talk about
everything south florida 24 7365, and why you should make it
your home, sweet home.
Lee is a realtor, a SouthFlorida resident since the age
of five, devoted wife and momand a dedicated community
(00:27):
volunteer.
Now, without further ado,here's your host, leigh Ohlone.
Lee Aloni (00:41):
Hello everyone, Hello , hello, hello.
I am Lea Loney, your hostessfor Real Life with Lea in South
Florida, 24-7, 365.
And this is the show you cometo when you want to learn all
about the real stuff, the realjuicy stuff, the real fun stuff
and the real real stuff in SouthFlorida.
(01:03):
And the real real stuff inSouth Florida.
I'm a realtor and our familyowned a real estate company by
the name of G&E Realty Group inthe heart of Davie, and I also
talk about not just real estate.
I talk about and discuss andlearn and share about the people
that live in our wonderfulSouth Florida, all the cities
and towns.
(01:24):
And today, today, I aminterviewing my friend and my
peer and colleague, Debbie Iten,from the Iten Agency in Davie,
Florida.
I'd like to give you a bigwelcome, Hi Debbie.
How are you?
Hi Leigh, thank you for havingme so happy you're here.
(01:44):
Thank you for joining me.
It's been a struggle.
We're trying to put togetherour two schedules here.
It's not so easy in theinsurance and real estate world,
so I'm really happy that wefinally made it work today.
Absolutely yes, Debbie.
Why don't you go ahead and tellus a little bit about Debbie
Eiten first, before we talkabout your company.
I always like to learn aboutthe people.
(02:06):
The people are most important.
Debbie Iten (02:10):
Well, I'm born and raised in South Florida.
Third generation.
I was born and raised in Miami,the Norland area.
My family all grew up in thatarea.
My mom was born and raised downin the Grove area and my
grandfather was chief of policeof Dade County when it was
actually Dade County Sheriff'sOffice years ago and we
relocated to Broward County andI've been up in Broward since,
(02:34):
probably since I was about in11th grade.
I won't count how many yearsago that was, but been in
Broward County since then and welive in Southwest ranches and I
have three kids and have beenburied to my husband now for 35
years and we have an ITINinsurance agency that we
established back in 1992.
Lee Aloni (02:54):
Wonderful.
So did you establish ITINagency in 1992, or was it your
parents, or what is the what'sthe whole story there?
Debbie Iten (03:04):
So back back in the day, my father-in-law worked
for nationwide insurance.
He was a captive agent fornationwide and my husband was
working for him, and in 1992 hestepped out on his own and
opened our own agency um, it'sactually randall itin insurance
agency and it's a dba of AitonAgency and we've been doing it.
(03:26):
We were with Nationwide until2007 when Nationwide decided
that they would move all oftheir captive agents to
independent agent status, sothat meant that we no longer
just represented Nationwide, werepresented every company that
was out there, and so it's beena big change, but it's been
(03:47):
really good.
It gives us a lot moreopportunity to help our clients
and have more options for them.
Lee Aloni (03:54):
Yeah, I was going to say it really, you know, opened
up the umbrella there, you havemore things underneath your
umbrella, more things to offerto your clients.
That's great.
And your grown, grown kids.
They work at your agency now.
Debbie Iten (04:07):
Yes, two of my three, two of our three kids
work in here my son, joe, who is31 and he does the commercial
insurance side of the businessand he does some of the
management and our IT.
And then my daughter, lauren,who is going to be 28.
She works on the personal lineside of the agency and also does
some management stuff.
And I think if they had theirdruthers we would be out the
(04:30):
front door and they would bejust kind of running things on
their own at this point in time.
And our youngest daughter isnot in the agency.
She's just graduated fromcollege and is deciding if she's
going to go on for her master'sor go into a veterinary
medicine program right now.
Lee Aloni (04:48):
Wow, I do need to.
I want to talk to you aboutthat, not specifically about
your daughter, but one of yourpassions, debbie, is horses and
things of that nature.
Can you expand upon that?
Let us know, you know.
Debbie Iten (05:03):
Yeah, I grew up, when we grew up down in North
Miami, my grandmother took mewhen I was a really little kid.
There used to be a farm near usand I used to go on Saturdays.
I can remember being verylittle and she would take us
over there and I just got bit bythe horse bug and my whole life
had been around horses.
I got my very first two horseswhen I turned 16.
(05:24):
A family was getting a divorceand, um, we got a mom and a baby
and that started my my pathdown it and my kids have always,
uh, had horses and ridden andout in the ranches.
We have a barn on the propertyso we have them out there and I
have a one of my littlefavorites with my miniature
donkey.
Lee Aloni (05:42):
So yeah, she's always telling me I gotta go take care
of my, my ass.
She has some kind of funnystory about yes, she's the butt
of all the jokes.
Debbie Iten (05:56):
Everybody wants to ask me how she is all the time.
Lee Aloni (05:59):
Yes, yes yes, yes, oh my gosh, what's, what's your,
what's your ass's name?
Debbie Iten (06:04):
her name is.
Her name is Gypsy and she'salways getting into trouble.
She gets into stuff.
If if she finds a door that'scracked open on the house, she
will actually let herself in thehouse.
And yes, she knows where thefruit bowl is in the kitchen and
she'll go try to find the fruitit's.
Lee Aloni (06:25):
Oh, you need to put her on social media.
I see animals like that all thetime.
That would be so much fun.
Debbie Iten (06:28):
Oh my gosh it would , except for that there's.
You know, my husband does notlike the fact that she goes in
the house like that.
He has a heart attack everytime she goes in.
But he, he does leave the doorsopen too sometimes and and she
gets in and he's like how didshe get in?
And I'm like, well, you leftthe door open this time who
knows right?
Lee Aloni (06:46):
it's a mystery exactly, exactly so all right.
So let's get back to insurance.
Um, because this is really,really important in the state of
Florida especially.
We are in what I call hurricaneseason.
You know June 1st to November30th now, and floods.
We had some rain here, we had arain event a couple of weeks
(07:09):
ago and can you just tell us?
You know there are so manyletters and on the map, you know
what, what makes it.
You know an area, whatdesignates it as a flood area, a
flood zone?
Debbie Iten (07:25):
So the ground level is zero.
Every place in the state ofFlorida has a flood zone
assigned to it.
So every place in Florida,pretty much every place anywhere
, is susceptible to flood.
Florida is, you know, low landspretty much all over the state
and the flood zones vary.
They're usually letters A, a, h, v, c, x, b depends.
(07:49):
It could be A1 through A30.
It could be A1 through A30.
It just has those translate tohow far above or below sea level
that you are.
It's above sea level, farenough.
X flood zone means that you canget a preferred flood rate.
(08:09):
When you're in an X zone, mostof the banks don't require you
to have flood insurance.
They figure that you're farenough above sea level that
you're not really going to getflooded, which is normally true.
But there is always the rainevent.
There is always the time thewater management district might
not get the canals down fastenough.
We could have tidal surge afterhurricane andrew down in dade
(08:33):
county.
We had huge tidal surge alldown in Palmetto Bay, saga Bay,
all that area down there hadflooding come way, way in and
it's pretty much at that point.
It's all bets off.
You know you're you're in anarea that could flood it.
It just could happen.
You know, depends on which waya hurricane comes in, as to what
(08:54):
, what tidal surge that we'regoing to get and where it's
going to go.
But a lot of people do notcarry flood insurance if the
quote unquote bank does notrequire it in an X flood zone.
Lee Aloni (09:05):
Yeah, but I think you were the one that told me if
you're a letter X, you stillhave a letter in the game and it
is unpredictable.
How much does it cost?
Just a ballpark figure.
What does it cost per year tohave flood insurance?
Is it really breaking the bankhere?
Debbie Iten (09:22):
Well flood insurance used to be if you got
a preferred flood insurancepolicy in an X zone, meaning you
didn't have to have it, but youchose to carry it anyway.
We used to run maybe two to$300 a year.
But because of all of thefloods that have been happening
and it's impacted all around thecountry as to who you know
(09:43):
where the flood rates are set,so you, they've all increased
and now there are surcharges onit if it's not your primary home
, but average homes in like anAah flood zone are running
anywhere between, say, 12 1500 ayear.
There's homes that were builtover, like, say, east near
(10:06):
hollywood.
We'll use hollywood as anexample because everybody knows
it floods over in that area,they're what's called negatively
rated, which means that thehouses were built and they're
considered below flood zone.
So when you're, when you have anegative elevation, meaning
that they've checked the lowestfloor in your house, that makes
(10:28):
the insurance even moreexpensive.
I mean we have, we have clientsin the Keys where their flood
insurance is 17, 18, $20,000 ayear for their flood insurance.
Lee Aloni (10:38):
Wow, okay, so 1500 or less sounds like a bargain
compared to that.
And your average house.
It might be 500 or somethingyou know, just off the top of my
head, but I think it's betterto be safe than sorry, and 500
or up to a thousand, whatever ayear, is way better than all the
damage that could potentiallyhappen in a rain event, in a
(10:58):
flood event.
So, ok, that's all I'm going tosay about that.
You hear that, I think letter X, it's still in the game.
Be smart and just get it.
You know what you spend moneyworse ways.
Spend the money the right wayto be safe, ok.
And as a realtor, I advise myclients to do that too.
You know I can't make you do it, but you know I think it's wise
(11:23):
.
I do.
All right.
So there's another thing,speaking about real estate four
points and wind mitigationinspections.
These are the bane of theexistence.
Yes, make or break a deal here,and you know everyone wants to
be safe.
We do so.
What are the four points in thefour points inspection?
(11:45):
What are those four?
The acronym.
Debbie Iten (11:48):
So the four points on the four point inspection
that they look at is your roofyour plumbing, your electrical
and your AC.
Basically, what they're lookingfor on your roof.
Is the aging condition of theroof right?
Is there?
Is there cupping on theshingles, meaning that the
shingles have, like, rolled upbecause they're old and they're,
they've lost the granules offof them and they're curling up?
(12:11):
Is there missing shingles?
Are there cracked tiles?
Is there any leaks that areshowing?
That's what they're looking foron the roof.
They also want to see, at leastper citizens, at least five
years, most of the useful lifeleft.
Most of the homeownersinsurance carriers are looking
at you know, a lot longer thanthat.
(12:32):
If you've got a roof that's,you know, pushing 14 to 15 years
old, you're, you're probablygoing to have some problems with
it.
The electrical they're lookingfor.
There's some electrical boxesthat they used to put in that
are fire hazards.
They're looking at those to seewhich box you actually happen
to have.
If you have to change anelectrical box on a house, it
(12:55):
could cost you $1,500 to $2,000.
I know that you've dealt withsome of those recently.
They're also looking.
They're looking for double tapsand that you have the correct
amperage for the house.
Double taps means that you havetwo wires going into one
breaker and that's another issuethat could be a fire hazard.
Right, right, um, your plumbing.
(13:15):
They're looking to make surethat all of your lines supply
lines are good.
Um, your supply line comingfrom your washing machine is
good that you don't have theaccordion looking piping under
the sinks, that your valves arenot corroded.
Lee Aloni (13:30):
Um they're probably looking for pipes and poly pipes
.
Yes, poly pipe poly pipes yeah,bad experience with that.
Yeah, some of my clients.
Debbie Iten (13:42):
So, yeah, it's really important to uh find out
before you know exactly, exactlyand those are the things you
know.
Those are the main things.
The air conditioner they'relooking for the life of that.
They're also looking at the ageof the water heater, because
these are things that you know.
If there's a problem with itand you know you're gonna have a
(14:02):
fire, you're gonna have a floodin the house, and those are the
things that the insurancecompany looks at.
And you know, we educateRealtors.
We do, you know, talks withRealtors, we do meetings for
Realtors so that you, as as arealtor, if you're going in with
a buyer and or a seller, youkind of know some of the things
to look for.
That can you know you can getit fixed ahead of time.
(14:23):
You know, if you're selling ahouse down here in south florida
spending two thousand dollarsto fix a um electrical box, get
it done and over with becauseit's going to be a problem for
the buyer.
Um, it's, it's going to be aproblem for the buyer, it's
going to be a point ofcontention.
So if you get some of thisstuff taken care of ahead of
time, it's always helpful.
Lee Aloni (14:42):
Yeah, it truly is.
When you go to sell your house,take care of the roof if you
have to, if you're going to livethere another five years and
the roof, you know.
If you can do it, and there areso many programs out there now
that you can, you know, financeit, or you get a grant or what
have you, and when you go tosell the house, you can just pay
it off.
So it's not something thatyou're, you know, you're tied to
.
Debbie Iten (15:02):
So, um, Governor DeSantis signed back into.
They put legislation throughand he signed back into this
year for the my Safe FloridaHome program to be funded
additionally, which is reallygreat.
And the first the priority isgoing with our older residents,
which is really good because youknow you can upgrade a lot of
(15:23):
homes.
You know, when we talk aboutthe wind mitigation in a minute,
a lot of homes will have, forinstance, glass block in a
bathroom.
That was like a popular thingback in the late 80s and 90s
where you put glass block in abathroom or in a wall.
Well, a lot of times peopledon't put a shutter over that
and glass block is not impactresistant.
(15:43):
So it's always like one ofthose things that everything
else qualifies on the house forthe wind mitigation, except for
the glass block.
This program.
You could go and get shuttersput over it or replace it and
the program will offer fundstowards you doing that.
It helps with the roof as well.
It's a really good program andI'm really glad they brought it
back and funded it, because alot of people have said it yeah,
(16:08):
Okay, so the wind mit?
Lee Aloni (16:09):
what's?
What's the story with the windmitigation inspections?
Debbie Iten (16:13):
So the wind mitigation inspection is to give
you credits.
It's checking to see how theroof is strapped down to the
house.
It could be toenails, it couldbe clips, it could be single
wraps, it could be double wraps,depending on which one it is
depends on how many credits youget and how much off of your
insurance.
There's a secondary waterresistance credit, that's if you
(16:33):
have a secondary water barrierthat's underneath your shingles
or your metal or your tile roofnot everybody does it.
It's a little bit more money tohave it done.
It's not a big deal if youdon't have it.
It's not a huge credit.
But the thing that they'relooking at is um, they're
looking at the nail patterns tomake sure that you have the
(16:53):
upgraded nails when you have aroof redone and see that every
window and door opening so anyentry and exit doors of any kind
to the house, including thegarage door, and any window
opening, whether it be glassblock or a window, is covered or
has a to code door or window,meaning it's to current impact
(17:15):
and wind resistant codes andthose all give you credits off
of your insurance and you knowthere's times when we see huge
credits coming back on thosebecause you've got everything
done.
Lee Aloni (17:26):
Yeah, and you know it doesn't necessarily have to
break your your deal.
You know a real estatetransaction, the person can buy
the house because you know itdoesn't necessarily have to
break your your deal.
You know a real estatetransaction, the person can buy
the house because you knowthey're as is contracts in the
state of Florida, most of them,if not all and you can go ahead
and buy it and then, a couple ofmonths down the road, after
you've replaced the garage dooror what have you, you can get
(17:48):
the credit.
You know they'll, they'll,they'll change, yeah, you'll
adjust the insurance cost.
So it's, it's not necessarily acomplete deal breaker, so that
that is the light at the end ofthe tunnel.
There, you know, you can get inthe house that you want to get
into.
Just, you know, have tomaneuver a little bit but it is
doable, yeah some of some of thecompanies will allow.
Debbie Iten (18:07):
It's neither kind of an.
It's called an a1 discount,meaning that every opening to
the house is correctly coveredwith current to code right doors
and windows, or you canpossibly get an a2 or an a3,
meaning that maybe the garagedoor isn't done, or a side entry
door to the garage isn't donebut everything else is done and
there are a few companies thatwill give you partial credit for
(18:29):
that.
And, like you said, ifeverything's done but the garage
door which is like a verycommon occurrence now, you know
two to four thousand dollarsafter you get in the house to
replace the garage door.
You just get your windmitigation updated and you are
good to go.
We can apply the credit midtermand then they'll print the
credit out for you and you keepgetting it and the credits are
(18:51):
usually enough to pay to coverthat cost in a year or two.
Lee Aloni (18:55):
Yeah, it's well worth doing.
Definitely, definitely, okay.
So we've covered all of theseinsurance-y things.
Now we're going to get intosome fun stuff.
Any fun insurance stories youwant to share with us?
Deb?
Debbie Iten (19:12):
So I have two stories for you.
Um years ago my grandparentslived up in more haven, which is
up off of us 27, up near lakeokachobee, and we would go up
there and visit them on theweekends and we actually lived
up there for a couple of yearsand one of my friends that I
made when I was up there I mether grandparents at a parade
(19:32):
that they had and I noticed thatboth of her grandparents, on
the inside of their arms, had alot of scarring on their arms
and her grandmother had said theparade had to do with something
up there.
And the grandmother had said youknow how long have you been in
Florida?
And started talking to me andshe showed me her arms and she
(19:54):
said back in the 1920s there wasa hurricane that came through
and around Lake Ochoaubi.
Now there's a huge dike aroundthe lake and they've actually
recently the Corps of Engineershas reinforced it, made it
thicker and made it a littletaller.
But the reason that that dikeis there is back in 1928, there
(20:17):
was a hurricane that camethrough and it created almost
like a tidal wave on LakeOkeechobee, came across Lake
Okeechobee and flooded theentire area, all the little
towns around it and hergrandparents were newly engaged.
Their house got flooded and theyclung on to two palm trees, the
say I think they're on to twopalm trees, the say I think
they're the sable palm trees andit cut up their arms because
(20:38):
they were on them for hours andhours Holding on to them at two
trees right next to each other,and when they were, like I said,
they had just gotten engagedand they were very young when it
happened, and so, after thatstorm that created them, the
Corps of Engineers came in andstarted building that wall
around the lake.
Because of what happenedbecause it's so shallow that you
(20:59):
know the way that it cameacross it was really rough, it
was, it was.
It was a bad situation thatthat happened.
Back then a lot of people losteverything and um, yeah so, but
we we have a client that we'vehad from insured for many, many
years and they are in the foodspace and they have a gigantic
frozen warehouse and there was asmall fire over one of the
(21:23):
freezers it actually one of theunits was overheating and it
melted a light and the lightdripped down onto the insulation
and the paper on the insulationstarted smoldering.
I'm not going to say what firedepartment, but the fire
department came in to put thefire out because they thought it
was a big fire and they openeddoors to the where, to the cold
storage warehouse, and all ofthe products started defrosting
(21:47):
and they had to fight with thefire department to shut the
doors because basically, thefire was out, it was just
smoldering a little bit, itwasn't a big area and all the
product in the warehouse wasdefrosting and it ended up
costing the client millions andmillions dollars in lost product
.
They ended up having to loseall the product and, um, it was
(22:11):
not having proper training atthe fire department and actually
the fire departments went backthere and actually trained on
how to handle a situation in thecold storage facility like that
.
Because of what happened, Ithink it was.
I think they lost eight milliondollars in product over the
fact that the doors were wereleft open, and it was.
It was like I said, it was atraining situation and the fire
(22:33):
department has since, um, youknow, had two or three different
groups come out to train thereto understand how that, if this
ever happens again in a coldstorage facility, which we have
a lot of them yeah, you know howto handle it in a fire, we run
across some very crazy things,but the client actually was
telling the fire department thisis how you need to handle this
(22:53):
situation and close the doorsand stop trying to run it that
way.
Yeah, it was really something.
It was.
I believe it was Father's Dayweekend and my husband and my
son were on site for the wholetime that they were there and
back the next day, and it wascrazy.
It was a crazy time, well thatwill never happen again.
(23:15):
No, no, they've been trained now, thankfully, and so the fire
department, you know I mean.
Everything's a learningopportunity.
Every situation you come across, for anybody, there's always a
learning opportunity.
Every situation you come acrossfor anybody is always, there's
always a learning opportunity.
Lee Aloni (23:27):
so For sure for sure, yeah.
So I wanted to ask you oneother thing.
I know that you you're involvedwith a lot of boards and things
for insurance and you also areactive in the community and you
help out in schools, not justeducating realtors.
Can you expand upon that alittle bit, where you've taught
(23:47):
in the past and you know, or areyou going to continue doing
that in the coming year or so?
Debbie Iten (23:52):
So yeah, there is a program there's.
It's on a local level, a statelevel and a national level and
it's called Invest and it'steaches the kids.
It's actually geared towardsseniors, but juniors and seniors
take the class.
They usually take it throughthe Academy of Finance in the
school or through DECA or DCT.
They have part of their programthat they teach in.
(24:15):
School touches upon insurance,but it's a.
It's an eight, eight classesthat we go into the schools and
we teach it.
And it talks about how insurancestarted over in London with
Lloyd's of London.
Yeah, we show them the kids atthe building and talk about how
it used to be this little tinycafe and how when the ships were
(24:37):
coming across years and yearsago and they had a load of goods
that they were sending across,how everybody would give a
little bit and insure that's howit started is they would insure
these loads and if it made itover, they kept the money and if
the ship sank along the way,the money that those guys
invested went to the person whoowned the ship and that's how
(25:00):
insurance started.
And then we talked to themabout all the different kinds of
insurance, because there's somany different kinds of
insurance, and the opportunitiesfor them to get into the
insurance field and we've taughtour program is in Broward
county.
It's through independentinsurance agents of Broward
county and we've taught it,archbishop McCarthy.
(25:22):
We have a really big program upat Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
They are a big program.
They've been statewide, locallyand nationally.
They always win a lot of moneyat that school and scholarships.
We've done Cooper City HighSchool.
We've done oh my goodnessPompano Beach, deerfield Beach,
(25:43):
flanagan High School, wowaganhigh school, wow.
So yeah, a lot of schools, alot of schools in broward county
and we're open if there's anyum teachers that are involved in
that program.
We give two 500 scholarships ayear to each school that we're
involved with and it's a great.
It's a great time.
Everybody always learnssomething and a lot of times the
(26:05):
the kids there in the class.
One of the first classes thatwe teach is auto insurance and
most of the kids we tell themokay, when you, when you come
into the class for thisparticular class, we want you to
bring your your insuranceinformation with you from your
parents and we show them.
A lot of those kids are notgetting a good student discount,
so so we show them where it ison the information they have,
(26:29):
tell them to get a copy of thereport card if they have a 3.0
or better and take it home.
And we've gotten such feedbackfrom the parents like they save
a lot of money because theirkids have a 3.0 GPA and it gives
them about a 20 to 25% discounton their car insurance.
For the kids, that's a greatFlorida grades up.
Lee Aloni (26:48):
That's right, I had to.
As you know, I used to be ateacher and I'm all about
education, and so you know it'sthe more you know, right, yeah,
so I'm going to bring it back toSouth Florida.
Can you tell me what is one ofyour favorite places to visit or
things to do in South Florida?
I always ask my guests that.
Debbie Iten (27:11):
So I love the Everglades.
We don't get out as much inthat area as we used to, but I
love the Everglades.
We used to go out into Flamingoa lot and go fishing back there
.
It's very kind of old Floridaand peaceful, and spend a lot of
time in the keys, on the waterin the keys and I love it.
It's you know part of beingpart of being in South Florida
(27:32):
is being able to be out on thewater wherever you're at and be
enjoying the sunshine.
Lee Aloni (27:37):
Yeah, the sunshine, I really love that.
Oh, that's great, I'm going to,I'm going to use that sunshine,
nice.
So, yeah, so this podcast, itgoes all over the country.
So I really, I really do liketo share the fun shine with
everyone across the state andbeyond, because we have some so
many wonderful places to visitin South Florida.
(27:57):
The people are great, the foodis great Seafood, you know, you
can't go wrong down here, fresh,my family's in the Midwest and
like we don't get the fish likeyou do.
You know you're so lucky.
So I appreciate a lot of thingsI know you do and um, I, I have
to tell you I appreciate yourfriendship, your expertise so
much.
You know.
You and I met at the davycooper city chamber of commerce
(28:19):
and I'm ever so grateful forthat.
Uh, and you know it's all about, um, learning from each other,
helping each other with ourbusinesses, uh, forming great
relationships and, um, just allabout real life.
Real life with lee in south.
I love it, I love it.
Debbie Iten (28:38):
It's a great, a great thing that you do, and I
always appreciate being able toget information from you,
because the real estate side wedon't always know as much about,
and it's it's great to have apartnership that you can and
somebody that you can bouncethings off of when you run into
problems, and so we reallyappreciate you.
Lee Aloni (28:54):
Thank you, yes, and I you.
So I think that's all the timewe have for today.
Debbie Iton, the Iton Agency.
Thank you so much for joiningme today here.
I hope that our audiencelearned a lot today about
insurance and if you haven't,please feel free to reach out to
Debbie at Aiden Agency.
What is your contactinformation?
Debbie Iten (29:14):
So our phone number at the office is 954-680-0360.
Our agency is the agency, emailis info at itenagencycom and
our website is itenagencycom, soyou can pick up the email from
there or the phone numbers aswell.
Lee Aloni (29:32):
Short and sweet, there you go, and I'm Leah Loney
, south Florida Real Estate atour family owned G&E Realty
Group in the heart of Davie,florida, and thank you so much
for being with us here today.
Have a great time in thesunshine state in South Florida.
See you soon.
Thank you, bye, bye.
Thank you, deb.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Thanks for joining us on Real Life with Leigh.
If you love the show and it'shelped you in any way, please
subscribe and leave us yourcomments.
We're all about helping eachother in the community and we're
so appreciative of you.
You're invited to share thisepisode on social media and with
someone you know.
Tune in next time to learn moreabout life in South Florida and
(30:21):
Real Life with Leigh.
welcome to real life with lee.
Powered by leolone southflorida real estate at g and e
realty group, the show where leeand her guests talk about
everything south florida 24 7365, and why you should make it
your home, sweet home.
Lee is a realtor, a SouthFlorida resident since the age
of five, devoted wife and momand a dedicated community
(00:27):
volunteer.
Now, without further ado,here's your host, leigh Ohlone.
Lee Aloni (00:41):
Hello everyone, Hello , hello, hello.
I am Lea Loney, your hostessfor Real Life with Lea in South
Florida, 24-7, 365.
And this is the show you cometo when you want to learn all
about the real stuff, the realjuicy stuff, the real fun stuff
and the real real stuff in SouthFlorida.
(01:03):
And the real real stuff inSouth Florida.
I'm a realtor and our familyowned a real estate company by
the name of G&E Realty Group inthe heart of Davie, and I also
talk about not just real estate.
I talk about and discuss andlearn and share about the people
that live in our wonderfulSouth Florida, all the cities
and towns.
(01:24):
And today, today, I aminterviewing my friend and my
peer and colleague, Debbie Iten,from the Iten Agency in Davie,
Florida.
I'd like to give you a bigwelcome, Hi Debbie.
How are you?
Hi Leigh, thank you for havingme so happy you're here.
(01:44):
Thank you for joining me.
It's been a struggle.
We're trying to put togetherour two schedules here.
It's not so easy in theinsurance and real estate world,
so I'm really happy that wefinally made it work today.
Absolutely yes, Debbie.
Why don't you go ahead and tellus a little bit about Debbie
Eiten first, before we talkabout your company.
I always like to learn aboutthe people.
(02:06):
The people are most important.
Debbie Iten (02:10):
Well, I'm born and raised in South Florida.
Third generation.
I was born and raised in Miami,the Norland area.
My family all grew up in thatarea.
My mom was born and raised downin the Grove area and my
grandfather was chief of policeof Dade County when it was
actually Dade County Sheriff'sOffice years ago and we
relocated to Broward County andI've been up in Broward since,
(02:34):
probably since I was about in11th grade.
I won't count how many yearsago that was, but been in
Broward County since then and welive in Southwest ranches and I
have three kids and have beenburied to my husband now for 35
years and we have an ITINinsurance agency that we
established back in 1992.
Lee Aloni (02:54):
Wonderful.
So did you establish ITINagency in 1992, or was it your
parents, or what is the what'sthe whole story there?
Debbie Iten (03:04):
So back back in the day, my father-in-law worked
for nationwide insurance.
He was a captive agent fornationwide and my husband was
working for him, and in 1992 hestepped out on his own and
opened our own agency um, it'sactually randall itin insurance
agency and it's a dba of AitonAgency and we've been doing it.
(03:26):
We were with Nationwide until2007 when Nationwide decided
that they would move all oftheir captive agents to
independent agent status, sothat meant that we no longer
just represented Nationwide, werepresented every company that
was out there, and so it's beena big change, but it's been
(03:47):
really good.
It gives us a lot moreopportunity to help our clients
and have more options for them.
Lee Aloni (03:54):
Yeah, I was going to say it really, you know, opened
up the umbrella there, you havemore things underneath your
umbrella, more things to offerto your clients.
That's great.
And your grown, grown kids.
They work at your agency now.
Debbie Iten (04:07):
Yes, two of my three, two of our three kids
work in here my son, joe, who is31 and he does the commercial
insurance side of the businessand he does some of the
management and our IT.
And then my daughter, lauren,who is going to be 28.
She works on the personal lineside of the agency and also does
some management stuff.
And I think if they had theirdruthers we would be out the
(04:30):
front door and they would bejust kind of running things on
their own at this point in time.
And our youngest daughter isnot in the agency.
She's just graduated fromcollege and is deciding if she's
going to go on for her master'sor go into a veterinary
medicine program right now.
Lee Aloni (04:48):
Wow, I do need to.
I want to talk to you aboutthat, not specifically about
your daughter, but one of yourpassions, debbie, is horses and
things of that nature.
Can you expand upon that?
Let us know, you know.
Debbie Iten (05:03):
Yeah, I grew up, when we grew up down in North
Miami, my grandmother took mewhen I was a really little kid.
There used to be a farm near usand I used to go on Saturdays.
I can remember being verylittle and she would take us
over there and I just got bit bythe horse bug and my whole life
had been around horses.
I got my very first two horseswhen I turned 16.
(05:24):
A family was getting a divorceand, um, we got a mom and a baby
and that started my my pathdown it and my kids have always,
uh, had horses and ridden andout in the ranches.
We have a barn on the propertyso we have them out there and I
have a one of my littlefavorites with my miniature
donkey.
Lee Aloni (05:42):
So yeah, she's always telling me I gotta go take care
of my, my ass.
She has some kind of funnystory about yes, she's the butt
of all the jokes.
Debbie Iten (05:56):
Everybody wants to ask me how she is all the time.
Lee Aloni (05:59):
Yes, yes yes, yes, oh my gosh, what's, what's your,
what's your ass's name?
Debbie Iten (06:04):
her name is.
Her name is Gypsy and she'salways getting into trouble.
She gets into stuff.
If if she finds a door that'scracked open on the house, she
will actually let herself in thehouse.
And yes, she knows where thefruit bowl is in the kitchen and
she'll go try to find the fruitit's.
Lee Aloni (06:25):
Oh, you need to put her on social media.
I see animals like that all thetime.
That would be so much fun.
Debbie Iten (06:28):
Oh my gosh it would , except for that there's.
You know, my husband does notlike the fact that she goes in
the house like that.
He has a heart attack everytime she goes in.
But he, he does leave the doorsopen too sometimes and and she
gets in and he's like how didshe get in?
And I'm like, well, you leftthe door open this time who
knows right?
Lee Aloni (06:46):
it's a mystery exactly, exactly so all right.
So let's get back to insurance.
Um, because this is really,really important in the state of
Florida especially.
We are in what I call hurricaneseason.
You know June 1st to November30th now, and floods.
We had some rain here, we had arain event a couple of weeks
(07:09):
ago and can you just tell us?
You know there are so manyletters and on the map, you know
what, what makes it.
You know an area, whatdesignates it as a flood area, a
flood zone?
Debbie Iten (07:25):
So the ground level is zero.
Every place in the state ofFlorida has a flood zone
assigned to it.
So every place in Florida,pretty much every place anywhere
, is susceptible to flood.
Florida is, you know, low landspretty much all over the state
and the flood zones vary.
They're usually letters A, a, h, v, c, x, b depends.
(07:49):
It could be A1 through A30.
It could be A1 through A30.
It just has those translate tohow far above or below sea level
that you are.
It's above sea level, farenough.
X flood zone means that you canget a preferred flood rate.
(08:09):
When you're in an X zone, mostof the banks don't require you
to have flood insurance.
They figure that you're farenough above sea level that
you're not really going to getflooded, which is normally true.
But there is always the rainevent.
There is always the time thewater management district might
not get the canals down fastenough.
We could have tidal surge afterhurricane andrew down in dade
(08:33):
county.
We had huge tidal surge alldown in Palmetto Bay, saga Bay,
all that area down there hadflooding come way, way in and
it's pretty much at that point.
It's all bets off.
You know you're you're in anarea that could flood it.
It just could happen.
You know, depends on which waya hurricane comes in, as to what
(08:54):
, what tidal surge that we'regoing to get and where it's
going to go.
But a lot of people do notcarry flood insurance if the
quote unquote bank does notrequire it in an X flood zone.
Lee Aloni (09:05):
Yeah, but I think you were the one that told me if
you're a letter X, you stillhave a letter in the game and it
is unpredictable.
How much does it cost?
Just a ballpark figure.
What does it cost per year tohave flood insurance?
Is it really breaking the bankhere?
Debbie Iten (09:22):
Well flood insurance used to be if you got
a preferred flood insurancepolicy in an X zone, meaning you
didn't have to have it, but youchose to carry it anyway.
We used to run maybe two to$300 a year.
But because of all of thefloods that have been happening
and it's impacted all around thecountry as to who you know
(09:43):
where the flood rates are set,so you, they've all increased
and now there are surcharges onit if it's not your primary home
, but average homes in like anAah flood zone are running
anywhere between, say, 12 1500 ayear.
There's homes that were builtover, like, say, east near
(10:06):
hollywood.
We'll use hollywood as anexample because everybody knows
it floods over in that area,they're what's called negatively
rated, which means that thehouses were built and they're
considered below flood zone.
So when you're, when you have anegative elevation, meaning
that they've checked the lowestfloor in your house, that makes
(10:28):
the insurance even moreexpensive.
I mean we have, we have clientsin the Keys where their flood
insurance is 17, 18, $20,000 ayear for their flood insurance.
Lee Aloni (10:38):
Wow, okay, so 1500 or less sounds like a bargain
compared to that.
And your average house.
It might be 500 or somethingyou know, just off the top of my
head, but I think it's betterto be safe than sorry, and 500
or up to a thousand, whatever ayear, is way better than all the
damage that could potentiallyhappen in a rain event, in a
(10:58):
flood event.
So, ok, that's all I'm going tosay about that.
You hear that, I think letter X, it's still in the game.
Be smart and just get it.
You know what you spend moneyworse ways.
Spend the money the right wayto be safe, ok.
And as a realtor, I advise myclients to do that too.
You know I can't make you do it, but you know I think it's wise
(11:23):
.
I do.
All right.
So there's another thing,speaking about real estate four
points and wind mitigationinspections.
These are the bane of theexistence.
Yes, make or break a deal here,and you know everyone wants to
be safe.
We do so.
What are the four points in thefour points inspection?
(11:45):
What are those four?
The acronym.
Debbie Iten (11:48):
So the four points on the four point inspection
that they look at is your roofyour plumbing, your electrical
and your AC.
Basically, what they're lookingfor on your roof.
Is the aging condition of theroof right?
Is there?
Is there cupping on theshingles, meaning that the
shingles have, like, rolled upbecause they're old and they're,
they've lost the granules offof them and they're curling up?
(12:11):
Is there missing shingles?
Are there cracked tiles?
Is there any leaks that areshowing?
That's what they're looking foron the roof.
They also want to see, at leastper citizens, at least five
years, most of the useful lifeleft.
Most of the homeownersinsurance carriers are looking
at you know, a lot longer thanthat.
(12:32):
If you've got a roof that's,you know, pushing 14 to 15 years
old, you're, you're probablygoing to have some problems with
it.
The electrical they're lookingfor.
There's some electrical boxesthat they used to put in that
are fire hazards.
They're looking at those to seewhich box you actually happen
to have.
If you have to change anelectrical box on a house, it
(12:55):
could cost you $1,500 to $2,000.
I know that you've dealt withsome of those recently.
They're also looking.
They're looking for double tapsand that you have the correct
amperage for the house.
Double taps means that you havetwo wires going into one
breaker and that's another issuethat could be a fire hazard.
Right, right, um, your plumbing.
(13:15):
They're looking to make surethat all of your lines supply
lines are good.
Um, your supply line comingfrom your washing machine is
good that you don't have theaccordion looking piping under
the sinks, that your valves arenot corroded.
Lee Aloni (13:30):
Um they're probably looking for pipes and poly pipes
.
Yes, poly pipe poly pipes yeah,bad experience with that.
Yeah, some of my clients.
Debbie Iten (13:42):
So, yeah, it's really important to uh find out
before you know exactly, exactlyand those are the things you
know.
Those are the main things.
The air conditioner they'relooking for the life of that.
They're also looking at the ageof the water heater, because
these are things that you know.
If there's a problem with itand you know you're gonna have a
(14:02):
fire, you're gonna have a floodin the house, and those are the
things that the insurancecompany looks at.
And you know, we educateRealtors.
We do, you know, talks withRealtors, we do meetings for
Realtors so that you, as as arealtor, if you're going in with
a buyer and or a seller, youkind of know some of the things
to look for.
That can you know you can getit fixed ahead of time.
(14:23):
You know, if you're selling ahouse down here in south florida
spending two thousand dollarsto fix a um electrical box, get
it done and over with becauseit's going to be a problem for
the buyer.
Um, it's, it's going to be aproblem for the buyer, it's
going to be a point ofcontention.
So if you get some of thisstuff taken care of ahead of
time, it's always helpful.
Lee Aloni (14:42):
Yeah, it truly is.
When you go to sell your house,take care of the roof if you
have to, if you're going to livethere another five years and
the roof, you know.
If you can do it, and there areso many programs out there now
that you can, you know, financeit, or you get a grant or what
have you, and when you go tosell the house, you can just pay
it off.
So it's not something thatyou're, you know, you're tied to
.
Debbie Iten (15:02):
So, um, Governor DeSantis signed back into.
They put legislation throughand he signed back into this
year for the my Safe FloridaHome program to be funded
additionally, which is reallygreat.
And the first the priority isgoing with our older residents,
which is really good because youknow you can upgrade a lot of
(15:23):
homes.
You know, when we talk aboutthe wind mitigation in a minute,
a lot of homes will have, forinstance, glass block in a
bathroom.
That was like a popular thingback in the late 80s and 90s
where you put glass block in abathroom or in a wall.
Well, a lot of times peopledon't put a shutter over that
and glass block is not impactresistant.
(15:43):
So it's always like one ofthose things that everything
else qualifies on the house forthe wind mitigation, except for
the glass block.
This program.
You could go and get shuttersput over it or replace it and
the program will offer fundstowards you doing that.
It helps with the roof as well.
It's a really good program andI'm really glad they brought it
back and funded it, because alot of people have said it yeah,
(16:08):
Okay, so the wind mit?
Lee Aloni (16:09):
what's?
What's the story with the windmitigation inspections?
Debbie Iten (16:13):
So the wind mitigation inspection is to give
you credits.
It's checking to see how theroof is strapped down to the
house.
It could be toenails, it couldbe clips, it could be single
wraps, it could be double wraps,depending on which one it is
depends on how many credits youget and how much off of your
insurance.
There's a secondary waterresistance credit, that's if you
(16:33):
have a secondary water barrierthat's underneath your shingles
or your metal or your tile roofnot everybody does it.
It's a little bit more money tohave it done.
It's not a big deal if youdon't have it.
It's not a huge credit.
But the thing that they'relooking at is um, they're
looking at the nail patterns tomake sure that you have the
(16:53):
upgraded nails when you have aroof redone and see that every
window and door opening so anyentry and exit doors of any kind
to the house, including thegarage door, and any window
opening, whether it be glassblock or a window, is covered or
has a to code door or window,meaning it's to current impact
(17:15):
and wind resistant codes andthose all give you credits off
of your insurance and you knowthere's times when we see huge
credits coming back on thosebecause you've got everything
done.
Lee Aloni (17:26):
Yeah, and you know it doesn't necessarily have to
break your your deal.
You know a real estatetransaction, the person can buy
the house because you know itdoesn't necessarily have to
break your your deal.
You know a real estatetransaction, the person can buy
the house because you knowthey're as is contracts in the
state of Florida, most of them,if not all and you can go ahead
and buy it and then, a couple ofmonths down the road, after
you've replaced the garage dooror what have you, you can get
(17:48):
the credit.
You know they'll, they'll,they'll change, yeah, you'll
adjust the insurance cost.
So it's, it's not necessarily acomplete deal breaker, so that
that is the light at the end ofthe tunnel.
There, you know, you can get inthe house that you want to get
into.
Just, you know, have tomaneuver a little bit but it is
doable, yeah some of some of thecompanies will allow.
Debbie Iten (18:07):
It's neither kind of an.
It's called an a1 discount,meaning that every opening to
the house is correctly coveredwith current to code right doors
and windows, or you canpossibly get an a2 or an a3,
meaning that maybe the garagedoor isn't done, or a side entry
door to the garage isn't donebut everything else is done and
there are a few companies thatwill give you partial credit for
(18:29):
that.
And, like you said, ifeverything's done but the garage
door which is like a verycommon occurrence now, you know
two to four thousand dollarsafter you get in the house to
replace the garage door.
You just get your windmitigation updated and you are
good to go.
We can apply the credit midtermand then they'll print the
credit out for you and you keepgetting it and the credits are
(18:51):
usually enough to pay to coverthat cost in a year or two.
Lee Aloni (18:55):
Yeah, it's well worth doing.
Definitely, definitely, okay.
So we've covered all of theseinsurance-y things.
Now we're going to get intosome fun stuff.
Any fun insurance stories youwant to share with us?
Deb?
Debbie Iten (19:12):
So I have two stories for you.
Um years ago my grandparentslived up in more haven, which is
up off of us 27, up near lakeokachobee, and we would go up
there and visit them on theweekends and we actually lived
up there for a couple of yearsand one of my friends that I
made when I was up there I mether grandparents at a parade
(19:32):
that they had and I noticed thatboth of her grandparents, on
the inside of their arms, had alot of scarring on their arms
and her grandmother had said theparade had to do with something
up there.
And the grandmother had said youknow how long have you been in
Florida?
And started talking to me andshe showed me her arms and she
(19:54):
said back in the 1920s there wasa hurricane that came through
and around Lake Ochoaubi.
Now there's a huge dike aroundthe lake and they've actually
recently the Corps of Engineershas reinforced it, made it
thicker and made it a littletaller.
But the reason that that dikeis there is back in 1928, there
(20:17):
was a hurricane that camethrough and it created almost
like a tidal wave on LakeOkeechobee, came across Lake
Okeechobee and flooded theentire area, all the little
towns around it and hergrandparents were newly engaged.
Their house got flooded and theyclung on to two palm trees, the
say I think they're on to twopalm trees, the say I think
they're the sable palm trees andit cut up their arms because
(20:38):
they were on them for hours andhours Holding on to them at two
trees right next to each other,and when they were, like I said,
they had just gotten engagedand they were very young when it
happened, and so, after thatstorm that created them, the
Corps of Engineers came in andstarted building that wall
around the lake.
Because of what happenedbecause it's so shallow that you
(20:59):
know the way that it cameacross it was really rough, it
was, it was.
It was a bad situation thatthat happened.
Back then a lot of people losteverything and um, yeah so, but
we we have a client that we'vehad from insured for many, many
years and they are in the foodspace and they have a gigantic
frozen warehouse and there was asmall fire over one of the
(21:23):
freezers it actually one of theunits was overheating and it
melted a light and the lightdripped down onto the insulation
and the paper on the insulationstarted smoldering.
I'm not going to say what firedepartment, but the fire
department came in to put thefire out because they thought it
was a big fire and they openeddoors to the where, to the cold
storage warehouse, and all ofthe products started defrosting
(21:47):
and they had to fight with thefire department to shut the
doors because basically, thefire was out, it was just
smoldering a little bit, itwasn't a big area and all the
product in the warehouse wasdefrosting and it ended up
costing the client millions andmillions dollars in lost product
.
They ended up having to loseall the product and, um, it was
(22:11):
not having proper training atthe fire department and actually
the fire departments went backthere and actually trained on
how to handle a situation in thecold storage facility like that
.
Because of what happened, Ithink it was.
I think they lost eight milliondollars in product over the
fact that the doors were wereleft open, and it was.
It was like I said, it was atraining situation and the fire
(22:33):
department has since, um, youknow, had two or three different
groups come out to train thereto understand how that, if this
ever happens again in a coldstorage facility, which we have
a lot of them yeah, you know howto handle it in a fire, we run
across some very crazy things,but the client actually was
telling the fire department thisis how you need to handle this
(22:53):
situation and close the doorsand stop trying to run it that
way.
Yeah, it was really something.
It was.
I believe it was Father's Dayweekend and my husband and my
son were on site for the wholetime that they were there and
back the next day, and it wascrazy.
It was a crazy time, well thatwill never happen again.
(23:15):
No, no, they've been trained now, thankfully, and so the fire
department, you know I mean.
Everything's a learningopportunity.
Every situation you come across, for anybody, there's always a
learning opportunity.
Every situation you come acrossfor anybody is always, there's
always a learning opportunity.
Lee Aloni (23:27):
so For sure for sure, yeah.
So I wanted to ask you oneother thing.
I know that you you're involvedwith a lot of boards and things
for insurance and you also areactive in the community and you
help out in schools, not justeducating realtors.
Can you expand upon that alittle bit, where you've taught
(23:47):
in the past and you know, or areyou going to continue doing
that in the coming year or so?
Debbie Iten (23:52):
So yeah, there is a program there's.
It's on a local level, a statelevel and a national level and
it's called Invest and it'steaches the kids.
It's actually geared towardsseniors, but juniors and seniors
take the class.
They usually take it throughthe Academy of Finance in the
school or through DECA or DCT.
They have part of their programthat they teach in.
(24:15):
School touches upon insurance,but it's a.
It's an eight, eight classesthat we go into the schools and
we teach it.
And it talks about how insurancestarted over in London with
Lloyd's of London.
Yeah, we show them the kids atthe building and talk about how
it used to be this little tinycafe and how when the ships were
(24:37):
coming across years and yearsago and they had a load of goods
that they were sending across,how everybody would give a
little bit and insure that's howit started is they would insure
these loads and if it made itover, they kept the money and if
the ship sank along the way,the money that those guys
invested went to the person whoowned the ship and that's how
(25:00):
insurance started.
And then we talked to themabout all the different kinds of
insurance, because there's somany different kinds of
insurance, and the opportunitiesfor them to get into the
insurance field and we've taughtour program is in Broward
county.
It's through independentinsurance agents of Broward
county and we've taught it,archbishop McCarthy.
(25:22):
We have a really big program upat Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
They are a big program.
They've been statewide, locallyand nationally.
They always win a lot of moneyat that school and scholarships.
We've done Cooper City HighSchool.
We've done oh my goodnessPompano Beach, deerfield Beach,
(25:43):
flanagan High School, wowaganhigh school, wow.
So yeah, a lot of schools, alot of schools in broward county
and we're open if there's anyum teachers that are involved in
that program.
We give two 500 scholarships ayear to each school that we're
involved with and it's a great.
It's a great time.
Everybody always learnssomething and a lot of times the
(26:05):
the kids there in the class.
One of the first classes thatwe teach is auto insurance and
most of the kids we tell themokay, when you, when you come
into the class for thisparticular class, we want you to
bring your your insuranceinformation with you from your
parents and we show them.
A lot of those kids are notgetting a good student discount,
so so we show them where it ison the information they have,
(26:29):
tell them to get a copy of thereport card if they have a 3.0
or better and take it home.
And we've gotten such feedbackfrom the parents like they save
a lot of money because theirkids have a 3.0 GPA and it gives
them about a 20 to 25% discounton their car insurance.
For the kids, that's a greatFlorida grades up.
Lee Aloni (26:48):
That's right, I had to.
As you know, I used to be ateacher and I'm all about
education, and so you know it'sthe more you know, right, yeah,
so I'm going to bring it back toSouth Florida.
Can you tell me what is one ofyour favorite places to visit or
things to do in South Florida?
I always ask my guests that.
Debbie Iten (27:11):
So I love the Everglades.
We don't get out as much inthat area as we used to, but I
love the Everglades.
We used to go out into Flamingoa lot and go fishing back there
.
It's very kind of old Floridaand peaceful, and spend a lot of
time in the keys, on the waterin the keys and I love it.
It's you know part of beingpart of being in South Florida
(27:32):
is being able to be out on thewater wherever you're at and be
enjoying the sunshine.
Lee Aloni (27:37):
Yeah, the sunshine, I really love that.
Oh, that's great, I'm going to,I'm going to use that sunshine,
nice.
So, yeah, so this podcast, itgoes all over the country.
So I really, I really do liketo share the fun shine with
everyone across the state andbeyond, because we have some so
many wonderful places to visitin South Florida.
(27:57):
The people are great, the foodis great Seafood, you know, you
can't go wrong down here, fresh,my family's in the Midwest and
like we don't get the fish likeyou do.
You know you're so lucky.
So I appreciate a lot of thingsI know you do and um, I, I have
to tell you I appreciate yourfriendship, your expertise so
much.
You know.
You and I met at the davycooper city chamber of commerce
(28:19):
and I'm ever so grateful forthat.
Uh, and you know it's all about, um, learning from each other,
helping each other with ourbusinesses, uh, forming great
relationships and, um, just allabout real life.
Real life with lee in south.
I love it, I love it.
Debbie Iten (28:38):
It's a great, a great thing that you do, and I
always appreciate being able toget information from you,
because the real estate side wedon't always know as much about,
and it's it's great to have apartnership that you can and
somebody that you can bouncethings off of when you run into
problems, and so we reallyappreciate you.
Lee Aloni (28:54):
Thank you, yes, and I you.
So I think that's all the timewe have for today.
Debbie Iton, the Iton Agency.
Thank you so much for joiningme today here.
I hope that our audiencelearned a lot today about
insurance and if you haven't,please feel free to reach out to
Debbie at Aiden Agency.
What is your contactinformation?
Debbie Iten (29:14):
So our phone number at the office is 954-680-0360.
Our agency is the agency, emailis info at itenagencycom and
our website is itenagencycom, soyou can pick up the email from
there or the phone numbers aswell.
Lee Aloni (29:32):
Short and sweet, there you go, and I'm Leah Loney
, south Florida Real Estate atour family owned G&E Realty
Group in the heart of Davie,florida, and thank you so much
for being with us here today.
Have a great time in thesunshine state in South Florida.
See you soon.
Thank you, bye, bye.
Thank you, deb.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Thanks for joining us on Real Life with Leigh.
If you love the show and it'shelped you in any way, please
subscribe and leave us yourcomments.
We're all about helping eachother in the community and we're
so appreciative of you.
You're invited to share thisepisode on social media and with
someone you know.
Tune in next time to learn moreabout life in South Florida and
(30:21):
Real Life with Leigh.
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