The Importance Of Flood Insurance

The Importance Of Flood Insurance

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Michael Blaze. Welcome to Your Home three sixty, the
show where we talk about everything that has to do
with your home. On today's show, we'll get to the
real estate news. We'll also talk about flood insurance in
light of what happened in western North Carolina, Tennessee, even
parts of South Carolina, of course Virginia, Georgia, Florida in

(00:22):
the path of Hurricane Helene. Nobody expected the devastating damage
that happened up in the mountains, especially around Ashville, Chimney Rock,
that area of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. I've
driven through that area probably six times, maybe even more
in the last year or so. And you know, I

(00:44):
lived in Knoxville for several years. I have a son
who lives in Knoxville. I have another son who lives
in Greenville, and so I'm very familiar with the area.
It was not that long ago that we took a
family trip up to the French Broad River and stayed
right there, right on the French bron River, right in
between Chimney Rock and Lake Lore. And it's just heartbreaking

(01:07):
to see the devastation that happened there. You know, the
little town of Chimney Rock no longer exists. The place
that we stayed in no longer exists.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
We spent time hanging out on the rocks and playing
in the water and the French broad you know, with
a view up to Chimney Rock, did canoeing around Lake Lore.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
It's just a beautiful area.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
And to see such devastation and it's heartbreaking, and you know,
in the loss of human life and how everybody in
the areas affected, our prayers certainly go out to them,
and it's something that they never expected. You know, you
live up in the mountains, you think that you don't
even worry about a hurricane. I would imagine that it

(01:51):
never crosses your mind. And that storm took a path
where it took the hurricane right through there, and the
flooding is just, you know, well, as the North Carolina
governor put it, you know, biblical, and to see the
destruction in the path of that storm, and so many
people we hear stories about how they didn't have flood insurance.

(02:14):
And I understand, you know a lot of people think, well,
it's never flooded around here. I really don't need to
spend the extra money to carry the flood insurance. But
it can flood virtually anywhere, anytime on this planet, and
relatively to your home hazard insurance or even your car insurance,

(02:35):
flood insurance is relatively cheap and it's something that everybody
should have, no matter where you live or if you
live in a flood zone or not. So we'll talk
a little bit about flood insurance coming up.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Well.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Also have today's special guest, JD Cooper. He's the founder
of Low Country Hurricane Protection and Shutters. I thought it
would be a good time to pull out an older
interview that I did with him talking about how you
can protect your home. You know, it made people keenly
aware of just how susceptible, especially here in the Low
Country we are to the weather. So we're going to

(03:09):
be talking to JD coming up a little bit later
on in the show, But first your real estate news.
EXP realt has announced a thirty four million dollars settlement
in the Hooper versus the National Association of Realtors case.
The settlements the latest among major brokerages who were sued
over their business practices related to commissions. EXP was not

(03:32):
among the brokerages involved in the NARS settlement of the
Sitzer Burnett case that's the one that disrupted the traditional
way in which brokerages offered cooperating brokers a share of commissions.
Under that settlement, brokerages are no longer allowed to list
offers of compensation in their local multiple listing services. The

(03:52):
National Association of Realtors has announced the departure of Catherine
Katie Johnson as chief legal officer of NAR. Many people
are speculating that the negative reaction of realtors to that
settlement is what fomented Johnson's exit. In the wake of
Hurricane Helene's devastation, a new survey from Redfinn found that

(04:13):
thirty two percent of Americans aged thirteen or rather eighteen
to thirty four are reconsidering where they want to move
to after seeing or hearing about the damage that Helene
has caused. Only fifteen percent of respondents aged thirty five
and older had the same reaction. Right Finn noted that
the majority of survey participants, forty five percent of them overall,

(04:37):
said the news of Hurricane Helene's destruction has not impacted
how they think about their housing situation. Thirty two percent
of respondents in the South they expected their insurance premiums
to increase after Hurricane Helene. Twenty percent of sellingers I
think it will be harder to get insurance for homes
in their area after that storm. A new law went

(04:59):
into a in fact in Florida that requires home sellers
to disclose when their properties have been flooded. The new
law mandates that sellers informed buyers if insurance claims for
flood damage have been filed on their property. The new
law also requires sellers to acknowledge if they have received
federal assistance due to flooding. However, the law does not

(05:21):
make a specific provision requiring a seller to disclose the
property's history of past flooding damage. The new law includes
language that defines what could be considered as a flood.
Prior to the new law, sellers in their real estate
agents were not required to inform buyers about a property's
risk for flooding. Dayton, Ohio, of all places, was named

(05:45):
the top market for residential real estate investment. That's according
to a new report published by realtor dot Com. Dayton
was cited for what realtor dot Com dubbed below average
home prices and robust to man investor activity in the
market increased over the past five years, with thirteen point

(06:05):
seven percent of buyers in the first quarter of this
year identified as investors, rounding out the top five markets
for investors according to realtor dot com. Anyway We're Rochester,
New York, Cleveland, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Knoxville, Tennessee. Reelt
dot com determined that these markets recorded nearly double the
average page views per property compared to the national trends,

(06:30):
with home prices an average of twenty one point seven
percent lower than the national average. Where are people moving
to and from? According to redfin between July and September,
twenty six percent of home buyers searched for homes outside
of their current location with the intention of relocating to
a new area. The top five states at home buyers

(06:53):
research to move to were Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina,
and Maine, California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Washington, where
the top five states home buyers searched to move from.
Of all the major US metro areas, Sacramento, California, was
the most search for destination among home buyers looking to

(07:15):
relocate next came Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Salisbury, North Carolina, Sarasota, Florida,
and Portland, Oregon. Los Angeles was the number one area
home buyers were seeking to leave, according to historian in
the Charleston Business News, a Charleston based custom home builder

(07:35):
is transforming a historic structure on Sullivan's Island into a residence.
According to the story, Novella Holmes is looking to breathe
a new life in the long vacant Fort Moulti Post
Theater on Middle Street. Novella plans to convert the theater,
originally built for the entertainment of soldiers back in the
nineteen thirties, into a six thousand square foot single family residence.

(08:00):
Project is set to be completed in twenty twenty six
and will preserve the key architectural elements of the former
theater while transforming the interior into a luxury home. The
design is being described as industrial meats coastal. The theater
was converted into a warehouse back in the nineteen seventies,
and it stood empty for nearly forty years. According to

(08:22):
the article, it's just awful what's happened in the path
of Hurricane Helene to people all the way from Florida
up to Virginia, and especially people in western North Carolina
in eastern Tennessee. A lot of them didn't have flood insurance.
A lot of people think that flood insurance is too expensive.
So this subject came up this week on Charleston's Morning

(08:44):
News with Kelly and Blaze, the subject of flood insurance.
You know, we sell the devastation from Helene, from Milton,
people being displaced out of their homes, their homes being
washed away in floods, knocked right off of their foundations
and carried away in floodwaters. And a lot of them
did not have flood insurance. And some people took issue

(09:07):
when I said that it's, you know, relatively affordable flood insurance.
And I had a bunch of people call and argue, you, no,
it's not, it's too expensive, you know. And I still
maintain as far as costs these days go, flood insurance
is still relatively affordable, especially compared to the hazard insurance

(09:29):
on your house or you know, the insurance on your car.
I'm not going to quote you prices. You'll have to
talk to your inst insurance agent to get a price.
But you know, if you're talking, especially if you're not
in a flood zone, four or five hundred bucks a
year for flood insurance, that gets you two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars worth of courage, and your flood insurance

(09:50):
is capped at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. You
buy flood insurance through your private insurance. It's subsidized by
the federal government, so you know, most of it is
underwritten by FEMA, but it's sold through private insurance companies.
There's a few. See when they started subsidizing the insurance,
the private insurers completely dropped out of the flood insurance market.

(10:16):
Now you have a few that have entered back into it,
but for the most part, most of the policies are
underwritten by FEMA, but they're sold through your private insurance company.
As I said, you're limited to two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars worth of coverage. You'll have to call and
get a quote from your insurance company. But it's smart

(10:38):
to carry flood insurance because you see what happens. I mean,
you know you're going to think that four or five
hundred bucks a month was not bad at all if
you're standing there and you're not insured and your house
gets washed away in a flood. And as we just saw,
it can flood anywhere, virtually anywhere, and I don't care

(10:59):
if it hasn't flood in the last one hundred years.
I don't care if it hasn't flooded in the last
five hundred years. Wherever your house is, any place on
this earth is subject to flooding, and you should protect
yourself with the flood insurance that's being offered through your
private insurer but underwritten by FEMA. Now let's make the

(11:22):
distinction here of what flood insurance covers. Your home hazard
policy does not cover floods. So a lot of people
make that mistake. They think, well, I have good insurance
on my house and I'm protected. If you don't have
a specific flood insurance policy, you are not insured against flooding.
And what's defined as a flood, Well, the simple rule

(11:46):
is does it come from below or does it come
from above? So if the water came from below, so
whether it was from rain or the overflowing of creeks
or rivers or whatever it might be, if the water
came from below, that's considered a flood if the water

(12:07):
came from above. So say your roof gets blown off
and then it rains in your house, that's not a
claim under your flood insurance. So that distinction's important because
if you know, as I said, if a creek or
a river or there's a flash flood, you know, if
a creek or a river overflows or there's flash flooding

(12:30):
and the waters rise and under your home, that's where
you need your flood insurance. And then you need your
wind and hail coverage, your hurricane coverage to cover wind
driven rain, which will cover you if your roof gets
ripped off and it rains in the house, or if
your windows get busted out and the rain gets blown
in your house. Those things are covered under your wind

(12:52):
and hail damage. Your hurricane damage not covered under your
flood insurance. So you need both types of insurance. And
you know, normally, I'm a pretty conservative guy, and I'm like, Okay,
a lot of these things are unnecessary to be paying for,
you know, I talk about this with my wife all
the time. I'm like, we really don't need that. We're

(13:14):
better off just investing that money somewhere else. And then
self insuring, say like warranties and things like that. But
I will maintain that it's important to have good insurance
on your home, especially where we live here in a
subtropical climate where we see these hurricanes nor Easterners come

(13:37):
through here tropical storms and causes damage. And you see
where you know, this western North Carolina disaster occurred. None
of those people expected that to ever happen to them,
and I'm sure a lot of them were like, we
don't need flood insurance. It doesn't flood around here. We're
in the mountains, and look what happened to them. So

(14:01):
learn a lesson from that and make sure that you
have a flood insurance policy. And that would be a
good time also to sit down or at least get
on the phone and discuss with your insurance agent your
level of coverage on your hazard insurance. Do you have
enough coverage to replace your home if it's destroyed in
a natural disaster. What's covered, what isn't covered, What are

(14:25):
the deductibles and all of those things, and just make
sure that you and your home and your family are protected.
So I just wanted to mention that because it came
up several times this week where people were lamenting about
not having flood insurance, and several of them were complaining
that the cost was too high, and I maintain that

(14:48):
in the scope of things, no, actually it's pretty affordable.
Of course, flood insurance is just one way that you
can protect your home, but that doesn't come into effect
until after the damage. What can you do to prevent damage?
Here on your home three p. Sixty We talk a
lot about how you can improve your home, how you
can improve the value of your home and just make

(15:10):
your home a nicer place to be, and not only that,
but also protect your home and protect your investment.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
In the studio with me is J D. Cooper.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
He's founder of Low Country Hurricane Protection and Shutters. How
are you doing today?

Speaker 2 (15:23):
JD?

Speaker 3 (15:24):
Doing good?

Speaker 2 (15:24):
How you doing good? Man?

Speaker 1 (15:25):
I appreciate you coming in. So we were talking off air.
You used to be a commercial fisherman.

Speaker 4 (15:31):
Yeah, I grew up in the Mount Pleasant, Charleston area,
grabbing fishing work with the magwoods over in him Creek.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
Did that's about my early twenties.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah, we talked about that.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
We even have a common friend of I'll give him
a shout out, Steve Waters.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
Are we doing.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Steve, I've known him forever and you said that he
was good friends with your dad.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
Yeah, good family friend. Him and dad grew up riding
our bikes and all that good stuff.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, that's really cool. So why don't you tell us
about why you founded low Country Hurricane Protection Shutters.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
Got off the water and started getting into the construction field,
and started out as an installer for for another company,
and two thousand and five decided to branch out and
open up a low Country Hurricane Protection and Shutters.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
Well, and what kind of products do you offer?

Speaker 1 (16:17):
Now? You let's start with let's start with the product itself.
So you offer offer both decorative and protective shutters.

Speaker 4 (16:25):
Correct, Yeah, we uh, we offer everything from just decorative,
cosmetic aesthetic shutters to you know, fully operatable hurricane impact
rated hurricane protection. We offer you know, from the basic
storm panels that replace plywood all the way up to
the know the decorative Bahama Colonial more aesthetic shutters, and

(16:47):
then we do the more extensive electric rolldowns and accordions
as well.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
Oh wow, okay, So and you manufacture they're manufactured right
here right yep.

Speaker 4 (16:55):
We have a manufacturing shop over in North ch Austen
and then we uh we take them to our sister
powder coating shop over at North Charleston, Low Country powder Coating.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
So if somebody wanted to to either decorative or for
hurricane protection, utilize your shutters, what's the process.

Speaker 4 (17:13):
Yeah, they reach out low Country Hurricane Protection in Shutters
Lowcountry Shutters dot com or eight four three eight two
two five five one nine. They reach out, set up
a console with our sales team. They'll come out, measure
up the house and put a put together presentation, give
them a quote on all different products. And once they

(17:35):
they pull the trigger and we come out. I do
all the final measuring and then goes into production. We
manufacture everything, get it over to the powder coated, and
then our install team comes out and installs them.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
And I'm sure it matters you know, which which kind
of which type of shutter you're dealing with. But about
how long does that take from beginning to end the process?

Speaker 4 (17:56):
Right now, it's you know, probably four to six weeks
on the majority of our products. As we get into
hurricane season, it will extend out eight to ten. But
right now, this time of year, we're that pretty quick
turn around, about four to six weeks.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah, better do it early and be prepared for hurricane season.
So what kind of protection do your hurricane shutters offer?

Speaker 4 (18:16):
All of the impact rated hurricane shutters, I was stand
one hundred and fifty mile an hour the Miami Dade
Large Missile Impact tests. Everything has to be a Miami
Day rated, which is one hundred and fifty mile an hour.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
That's some pretty serious protection there to be able to
withstand one hundred and fifty miles per hour winds. You
think about what force those winds carry. I have some
vacant land that's you know, out by a marsh, and
we have a camper out there, and so of course
we have, you know, all the stuff that comes with
going there on the weekends, all the patio furniture, and

(18:50):
we decorate it and treat it like our second home. Right,
There's a big metal gazebo that we have. Just last weekend.
We had there in a few weeks and we showed
up and there was stuff scattered all over the property.
I mean, the wind must have come through there at
some point, and obviously not hurricane force winds. There were
chairs knocked over and strewn all over the property, and

(19:13):
tables and down to branches. I mean just not knocked over,
like blown all over the property planters, knocked over. The
metal frame gazebo I was talking about, was laying literally
out in the marsh all twisted up. So you just
think of the force of the wind and how much
damage that can cause, and especially hurricane strength winds. This

(19:35):
wasn't anywhere near hurricane strength, and it did a bunch
of damage. And you think about all that debris flying around,
and that has to be a pretty robust product to
be able to withstand that.

Speaker 4 (19:47):
Yeah, it simulates a storm with one hundred and fifty
million hour sustained winds, not necessarily an object traveling at
one hundred and fifty milli an hour. Sure, Miami Dad
is a Category five winds on. All Hurricane rated products
have to meet the Miami Dade, even the Charleston, South Carolina.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
We're only in a Cat three zone.

Speaker 4 (20:08):
So everything that we sell Impact rated is far more
resistant than what we're our nature requires.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
And I would imagine that that people can utilize get
an insurance break by using that product.

Speaker 4 (20:22):
Yeah, the majority of insurance companies offer up to ten
percent discount on your insurance premiums if you cover every
window and door.

Speaker 3 (20:29):
The entire house is covered.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Now if anybody has a business, do you do commercial
applications also.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yeah, we do.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
We do a lot of commercial properties. Again, we do
Bahama shutters for the aesthetics, and we do a lot
of storefronts, storm panels, roll down shutters, et cetera.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah, And you know, and we've been seeing lately an uptick.
We've been lucky actually lately and skirted quite a few
of these storms. And I mean, I don't want to
will I'm gonna knock on wood here. I gotta find
I gotta find some wood to knock on here. You know,
we've skirted major impacts here lately. But I can't help

(21:10):
but think. You know, our number is going to be
up sooner or later. I mean, it's been a long
time since we had a major hurricane like Hugo strike.
Certainly there's been some storms that have caused some damage
between then and now, but people need to be prepared.
And I think a lot of people have moved to
this area since Hugo and they don't realize just the

(21:33):
destructive nature of hurricanes in that we're right in that zone.
Like you said, we're not the same as you know
Miami Dade with a category five zone. We're in a
category three zone. But still these storms can be very,
very destructive. And Hugo, I think was a category four
if I remember correctly.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
It was a category five, but it was actually down
to a category three when it made landfall.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Is that what it was.

Speaker 3 (21:58):
A category three can still do significant damage.

Speaker 4 (22:01):
And the great thing about all of our hurricane products
are the homeowner can actually deploy them themselves. They don't
have to outsource and find somebody to come board up
the house. And all of our products, you can simply
open the window, deploy the product, shut it, close the window,
and it all can be done, you know, without having
to look for outsource help.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Well as I show houses all the time, and it's
important you know, a feature, and that's a good selling
point is to have that protection. But I can't tell
you how many houses I go into where there's just
a stack of plywood in the garage. And even at
that point, they're lucky if the builder or whoever came
up with that system numbered them, you know, according to

(22:45):
where they should go on the house. And then you
need several people and it takes several days to go,
you know, carry these huge pieces of plywood, out line
them up to where they're supposed to go, possibly even
go up on the ladder and do all of that hard,
dangerous work when you can simply have some hurricane shutters
that look good when they're not being used for hurricane protection.

(23:08):
In other words, you know, they still play a decorative
role on the exterior of your home. How convenient to
be able to, like you said, open the window and
deploy the shutters.

Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
Also, you know when they take this plywood down, your
left with holes and a lot of trim repair and
ceiling and painting, and it has to be done every
year and put it up, take it down. All of
our product is permanently mounted. You don't have to worry
about patching any holes or doing anything poststorm.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
You can just worry about debris clean up.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Now, what about you know, warranty guarantee? Do you have
any of that?

Speaker 4 (23:41):
Absolutely, we give a lifetime warranty on any all of
our installations. All of the products have various warranties on
the products themselves, the components of the shutter itself. We
give a lifetime warranty on on the Bahamas, the Colonials
paint warranty rangingwhere five to ten years on the paint finish,
but on the on the construction of the shutter itself,

(24:04):
and on all of our installation.

Speaker 3 (24:06):
We offer a lifetime warranty.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
So people can go to low Country shutters dot com
and what if they're kind of on the fence on
what kind of style they're looking for or even colors,
where can they get a sampling of the of the
different products that are available.

Speaker 4 (24:20):
We do have a full showroom uh in Mound Pleasant
off a Long Point Road. It's a four eight eight
dash ce lat Mesa Road, Mount Pleasant two nine four
six four. And then we also if if customer doesn't
want to come to the showroom and they kind of
have an idea of what they want, when we come
out to do our sales sales call, we bring sample
shutters for them to see in person as well.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
Okay, great and again, low Country shutters dot Com is
the website. If they want to give you a call,
what numbers should they call?

Speaker 4 (24:49):
It's eight four three eight two two five five one nine.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
Repeat that one more time, please.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
Again, It's eight four three eight two two five five
one nine.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
And the address of the showroom.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
It's four eight.

Speaker 4 (25:02):
Eight dash see La Mesa Road, Mount Pleasant two nine
four six four.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
You have some beautiful shutters. Whether somebody's looking to protect
their homes with hurricane shutters, protect their homes or businesses,
or if you're just looking to improve the esthetic of
the exterior of your building or your home. As JD said,
they come with a great warranty. They're manufactured right here
in the low Country, right here in the Charleston area.

(25:29):
You know that it's locally made. You know that it's
being made and sold to you by people that believe
in honesty and friendly service and doing the job right.
And as a matter of fact, you just came in
off a job site, didn't you.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
I did.

Speaker 4 (25:43):
I was on all the palms taking a look at
a future potential client was interested in Bahamas and rolldouns
and just had to go out to confirm that there
was no limitations and they're ready to move forward.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
All right.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
So if you're looking for that protection or just beautification
for your home or your business, get a hold of
JD Cooper at low Country Hurricane Protection and Shutters. I
appreciate you coming in today, JD. Thanks for having me
that's it for this edition of Your Home three sixty.
If you did not catch the whole show, or you
want to hear it again, or you want to hear
past shows, you can look for the podcast online on

(26:18):
ninety four to three WSC dot com, look under podcasts
and then your Home three sixty. You can also search
for your Home three sixty on the iHeartRadio app, which
you can download for free, or you can check it
out on my website. You can go to Michael Blaze
real Estate dot com and there's a link to all
past episodes of the show and you can catch the

(26:38):
podcast that way. If you have any questions or subject
matter that you'd like to hear covered on the show,
reach out to me if you can send me an
email at Michael Blaze at iHeartMedia dot com. That's Michael
Blaze at iHeartMedia dot com, and I'll be happy to
answer your questions for you again. Deep for the victims

(27:01):
of these two hurricanes, first to Helene and then Milton.
So you know Florida has been devastated twice now in
the last couple of weeks by hurricanes first Helene and
then Milton. And then Helene made its way all the
way up to Virginia and left.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Massive destruction in its path.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
Our hearts and prayers go out to all of the
families that were affected and continue to be affected by
that storm. It's going to be quite a while before
things get rebuilt, and of course, you know, things will
never be the same again for those areas and for
those people involved. Stay safe, enjoy the rest of your

(27:44):
weekend and I'll fat you again on Monday Morning and
Charleston's Morning Mears with Kelliam Blaze.