JPEROG

I have 4 houses in FL. and look at the cost of wind/flood and pass. I am carrying liability only and taking the risk. I look around at the old shacks still standing after a hundred years and the odds are on my side for sure. I had a friend get flooded out in Jax two years ago "self insured" and FEMA gave him a 1% fixed term loan to rebuild with-not sure if he would have been eligible if he had traditional coverage. Note-all of the properties are high including the water front property and all of them have steel roofs with hurricane straps which also helps mitigate my odds.

Joe

Jupiter Sunsation

You certainly have that option when you own the properties outright. Mortgage companies don't want to "self insure!" In a perfect world I'd love to have an older waterfront home and self insure, the value is in the lot anyway. I paid off my current house in 2018 but I can't see the risk vs reward on self insuring when full coverage is only a few thousand a year. I'd only save a couple thousand getting rid of windstorm/flood. Flood I think is $400 a year currently.

There are plenty of beachfront homes with zero windstorm/flood coverage. The other big "glitch" in the system is the deductibles. If you have a 5mm oceanfront home with a 2% deductible, you are on the hook for the first 100K in damage before they will even send out a claims adjuster. So if the insurance is 40K a year on the house, no hurricanes for 5 years you just blew 200K for nothing, now in year 6 a storm hits you spend another 40K in coverage and 100K deductible you are 340K deep in "Insurance" before they even write a $1 check. 340K in premiums/deductibles would cover a substantial amount of damage. Of course it won't cover total devastation or a roof that blew off and suddenly you have an open sky floorplan.

1MOSES1

I think you are the first and only person I know defending insurance companies!!! lol

insurance companies blow!!! No offense.

Nate5.0

No offense taken at all.

Over all I get the frustration with insurance companies but people don't see our side and reason why their rates and coverages suck. They yell only at the insurance company without knowing what is driving the changes and issues.

As I said in FL the lawsuits and public adjusters have made what FL insurance is. They are not fighting for their client, they are fighting to get them self paid and paid well.

When you need a roof the average price in FL should be about $450 -$500 a square for a shingle roof. Yet your public adjuster and lawyers will inflate that cost to around $1100 a square and sue for it. This now adds court cost and fees too. Florida regulation is broken. There needs to be a complete reform but it can't happen over night. If we keep the current conditions no one will be able to have insurance in Florida as no company will be able to stay afloat and pay claims. Why do you think we already have little to no insurance openings here?


I am.not telling you insurance companies are good, I am pointing out there is a lot more to it that people fail to realize.

Jupiter Sunsation

This is almost word for word what my agent says, he is actually a friend of mine. He said 3 more companies he used to quote have pulled out of Florida completely. No renewals/no new policies. His comment on going without coverage: It's a great idea until it's not! He said when the panic sets in you will see a bunch of uninsured (windstorm) homes suddenly having huge fires (fire would be covered).

Like personal injury lawyers, they are getting their clients money but at the same time collecting 1/3 of the settlement for themselves. Nate's example doubled the cost of the actual roof, plus fees. PI cases are adding 33% to the settlement, plus Dr's fees/medical bills etc.

Also remember Florida is surrounded by 3 sides by warm water and is in the hurricane alley........

Jupiter Sunsation

https://www.boston.com/news/real-est...p_featurestack
Article highlighting major changes in Flood insurance rates

One of his clients is Marti Beller Lazear, who is buying a house on Treasure Island, a slender strip of land off the coast of St. Petersburg. Her annual cost for flood insurance will eventually jump from $3,903 to $10,655 under the new rates. For example, Jennifer Zales, a real estate agent who lives in Tampa, pays $480 a year for flood insurance. Under the new system, her rates will eventually reach $7,147, according to Jake Holehouse, her insurance agent.

This is just FLOOD insurance which was ridiculously cheap. Windstorm is usually the biggest insurance expense.

snapmorgan

iTrader: (2)

I just got my renewal form in the mail. Price more than doubled for a house in Cape Coral on a freshwater canal. I have had no claims in the 2 years that I have owned the home. I will start calling around today and report what i find.

Keith Atlanta

In Florida, a lot of it is your wind mitigation report. Do you have impact windows? Do you have roof straps? Good roof? You can get windows and there are also guys that come in after the fact and do roof strapping as well. Roof strapping (About $2000-3000) alone is a 1-1.5 year ROI.

Another thing is to ditch the interior/valuables policy, of course, if you own a bunch of expensive stuff okay, but you can re-do a whole house (furnishings) on Wayfair and get 70 inch flat screen tv's these days for next to nothing so why bother if it saves you $1500-3500 a year. Last, increase the deductible, it wont matter anyway if the "big one" hits.

At the end of the day about 85% of policies in Florida are Citizens anyway. So realistically, you can shop all you want, unless they are gouging you, you will see all the honest guys are within $150 of each other with similar assigned values and deductibles. FWIW, Citizens hiked their rates about 10% in July too.

Jupiter Sunsation

^^^^ all good info. The link I posted yesterday was about the overhaul in the Flood insurance pricing, only one place to buy that.

The windstorm info is 100% correct but they are even getting weird about old roofs. If the roof is too old they won't insure it (knowing a tropical storm will likely cause it to leak).

The interior valuables is way way way overlooked by most people. My former agent had my interior contents insured for 200K! Now when you actually read your policy, start with what is NOT covered (tools, guns, electronics past $2000 total, art, jewelry, oriental rugs etc). So now what do you have left: couches/tables/bedroom sets? That junk isn't worth 200K. My current insurance guy says most homes you could refurnish for less than 50K (chain furniture stores like Rooms to Go type stuff).

Wildman_grafix

Somewhat of a funny story, we used to buy expensive well build furniture. I stopped that years ago because my wife gets bored with the look and we end up selling the stuff for pennies on the dollar.

Its rooms to go type of stuff now.