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Flood Insurance For Your House Money Saving Tips - YouTube
Channel: Mark Schreier Long Island Realtor
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hello everybody this is mark Schreier from
Century 21 American Homes Real Estate
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and today's video topic is flood
insurance it's ironic that seven years
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ago Hurricane sandy actually hit Long
Island I get one of those reminder text
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messages actually from my facebook page
if something I posted so seven years ago
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we got hit with the so called hundred
year storm so I thought it'd be good to
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bring on an expert who is an expert in
selling flood insurance to give us some
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insight about the process and his name
is Robert Zabbia Robert can you explain
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a little about your background and then
we'll get into our questions okay my
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Rob Zabbia I own the Zabbia insurance
Agency we I'm the second generation with
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with my dad with Allstate and we my dad
was actually took over from his uncle so
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we have four generations in the
insurance business so we've been doing
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this quite a while we had a lot of cut
we had over 800 customers affected by
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Sandy with flood claims and you know so
we learned a lot then do they see you
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until you use it you don't really know
exactly what's in there because there's
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a lot of things that you know it's in
the policy it's on paper but when you
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see it in action it's a little bit
different than than what you learn so it
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was a big learning curve that was thrown
at us because it was so many different
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scenarios that never happened before so
until you actually see it it's a little
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bit difficult
all right thanks Rob I know this is
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definitely a significant topic for a lot
of homeowners on Long Island or anybody
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that lives on an island because water
surrounded by water on all sides on Long
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Island we have the North Shore of the
South Shore I live in the middle of the
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island so I'm not affected that much but
I want the first question I have and I
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have five questions and the last
question is going to be a question on
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how to save money on flood insurance
tips that you can give homeowners that
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are buying in in a flood zone what they
can do to possibly save some money maybe
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while they're there they've already
bought the flood insurance or even
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before they go through the process
things that they can look for so stay
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tuned for that at the latter part of
this video question number one does
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basically does my community participate
- in the National Flood Insurance
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Program the acronym NFIP can you explain
a little about what that means I have no
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clue what does NFIB I know I just gave
the acronym but for those people don't
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know what that means
what's it all about all right so the
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National Flood Insurance Program is run
by FEMA so it's a part of FEMA program
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and it was put in place because all the
private companies pulled out of flood
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insurance so people couldn't sell homes
that were near the water unless they had
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the flood insurance so the government
stepped in and created the NFIP from
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FEMA and most communities I think I
don't know of any communities on Long
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Island that don't participate they're
having a couple of them that the
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government has told them they had to
make changes otherwise they we're gonna
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fold their participation but they you
know a lot of them have brought up you
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know their sewer systems or drainage
things like that in order to participate
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in the Flood Insurance Program and the
way you find out is that you know
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basically if you call an insurance agent
they can tell you whether you know you
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qualify or not and get it both and if
you're buying a home you know you can
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ask the current homeowners if they have
flood insurance because it's a good idea
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to take over whatever they have right
actually one of my recent deals the
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homeowners saved a significant amount of
money by being able to take over the
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flood insurance that was existing on the
house already they were getting quotes
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that were crazy very expensive and when
they found out that they were able to
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they were able to buy for the current
policy keep it transfer it we're very
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happy to find out the amount of money
they can save since that's there a very
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good tip before we go any further I just
wanna do some basic housekeeping YouTube
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101 I guess you would say if you're
new to the channel definitely thank you
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to stop and by please remember to
subscribe definitely like it and share
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it with somebody that you think might
have a need for this type of information
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the name of the channel is Real Estate
101 everything you need to know about
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buying selling residential or real estate
and with that being said let's go on to
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question number two how long what is a
flood zone you how do you know if you're
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in a flood zone in general like where
can I find out that information? Well you
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can go on to the the FEMA website
National Flood Insurance website and
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plug in the address if you want to do it
on your own or you can call an insurance
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agent or broker and they'll be able to
do a search for you a lot of times the
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banks will do it and because they the
banks will require the add flood
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insurance if you're at a higher risk
zone but it's a good idea before you
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sign a contract to check on it yourself
get a quote for the home insurance and
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flood insurance because feeling
especially the house close to the water
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it might just because the car like you
you had a great example your client was
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able to save with the flood insurance
they can't necessarily do that with the
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home insurance so it might make them
house out of reach so it's a good idea
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to just look before they sign the
contract if they're buying and if you're
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selling you should also don't don't
cancel the flood insurance because your
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mortgage is paid off because of that
fact that makes your house way more
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marketable if you can get skip somebody
the existing flood policy and then that
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grandfathered in and they could take
over that much lower rate and somebody
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who would be starting scratch that's
actually a great point and when you're
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shopping for a home make sure you find
out what their current flood insurance
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premiums are because it can save you a
lot of money in the long run great tip
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question number three how long does it
take for my insurance to go into effect
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I'm buying a house I put the money down
you know pay the premium sign the papers
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with the flood insurance broker in this
case how long would it take for that
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policy to be in effect so I know I'm
protected well a home purchase and a
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refinance is the only time a flood
insurance policy can be made effective
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immediately although wise there's a
30-day waiting period because they just
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think about it when everybody knew sandy
was coming up everybody wanted to buy a
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policy that you know that weekend but
it's a 30-day waiting period for that
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reason there's a lot of people weighed
by the policy right before the storm and
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then they'll you know file a claim and
there's no money coming in in order to
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pay for the claim so yeah if you're
buying a house it'll go into effect
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right away but like I said it's a good
idea to get the quotes and get it all
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set up way ahead of time because we have
seen deals fall apart before something
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changed right before the closing so
don't put it off till you know it the
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day before to get the flood insurance
great great point now everybody who is
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definitely using it utilizing a mortgage
to buy a house is required to have home
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insurance the banks will give them a
mortgage without but a lot of people or
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some people pay cash and what is covered
and what is not covered with flood
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insurance because homeowners insurance
covers a whole array of things some
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people some things not covered and I
know like if you have water backup and
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how do I know this because I own a house
and that this issue and they say unless
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you have a certain writer you're not
getting covered for water backing up if
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it comes through whatever magical way it
came through and the average person is
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not an insurance guy does not understand
this so what is not covered let's start
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with that from a flood insurance policy
all right so what's not covered from
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flood insurance is any content in your
basement
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so they'll cover in the basement they'll
cover the the walls they'll cover the
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structure they'll cover the heating
system the air conditioning if you have
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a freezer refrigerator washer/dryer
those things will be covered but if you
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have a finished basement the furniture
and all of that wouldn't be covered by
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the flood insurance the and they'll only
cover up to the flood damage on the
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walls so just imagine you have six
inches of water in your in your basement
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they're gonna cut the sheetrock at 10
inches and then you just can't have to
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fix it they're not gonna replace the
whole walls Wow so that's a great point
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so as high as that water goes is as high
as they're replacing and what about we
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know when you get water in a home the
electrical system is going to be
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affected if it went up to the outlets
yes possibility of mold and all that
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stuff is that mold wouldn't be covered
the the remediation to dry everything
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out would be covered and if there was
like some mold there because it you know
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that the damage happened yesterday and
there's mold today that would be covered
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but if you had a flood and now we're you
know so many years after sandy if
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there's mold now from Sandy that's not
come if you can't go back to the flood
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insurance company because that happens
over a long period of time so it's it's
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done in an accidental the other thing is
contents they don't replace the contents
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they depreciate so if that washer and
dryer you had gets destroyed you paid
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five hundred dollars for them they might
only be worth two hundred dollars now
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you're only getting the two dollars
okay this is I guess I'll call a
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question for a because as you're
speaking I another question came up how
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is there any overlap between your
homeowners insurance and your flood
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insurance and the point you just made a
lot of people purchase homeowners
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insurance where they have replacement
costs where it's not depreciated so if
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my flood insurance is depreciating man
I'm only getting two hundred bucks for
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my thousands all the washing machine
will my homeowners insurance
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pick up the difference well okay but it
depends on this is this is where people
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just like they get a quote and they just
go with the lowest quote and the reason
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that it's the lowest quote is because of
the exclusions and until you have a
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claim you don't really know where your
exclusions are and one of the biggest
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ones is the water backup coverage that
you talked about right that could act as
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an overlap unless your company doesn't
cover and if it's due to flood waters so
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during sandy you know we deal with
several different carriers and during
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sandy most of the carriers would not
cover the water backup because it was
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caused by the tidal surge brain and we
had one carrier that covered it so that
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acted as your overlap so they had $5,000
worth of water backup coverage to cover
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whatever the flood insurance wouldn't
cover in the basement okay if it sounds
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confusing ladies and gentlemen it is
that's why you need people like Rob
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Zabbia to explain all the details for you
and the last question the one I said
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that people should wait for. Is
there any way that a homeowner can save
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money either
you know let's say they have an active
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policy now and they're in a flood zone
it's a required insurance or they're
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thinking about purchasing a house that
happens to be in a flood zone and by the
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way I'm going to put a link up on the
top to other videos that I've made one
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is should I buy a house in a flood zone
and the other one is have a check and
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see if your property is in fact in a
flood zone so I'm gonna put links to
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those in this video as well but back to
the question is there any way that
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anything a homeowner can do to save
money and reduce the cost of flood
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insurance moving forward yeah there's a
couple different things there are some
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private companies that are coming into
the market they're very very limited on
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their appetite though because obviously
they're going to pick and choose because
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the National Flood Insurance Program
assets
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everybody as long as it meets you know
all the criteria whereas the private
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companies can pick and choose that they
want but again you need to look at who
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the private company is I only deal with
one company that's a private carrier
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because they're the only one that I'm
confident enough after sandy would would
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be able to withstand this for a lot of
these other companies I'm not sure about
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and they all have ratings so thank you
buy an A rated bond well listen you only
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want to buy an A rated insurance policy
and it's a lot of BCD rated insurance
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companies out there so stay away from
those but so look you shop and see if
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there's a private carrier that's good
and reputable that will be able to do it
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for a better price and better coverage
the other thing is is an elevation
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certificate you can hire an engineer and
they can look because let's say if
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you're looking to buying a house and the
people is sweared in the fifty years
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they never had any water or sandy they
didn't have any water but they're in the
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high-risk column it could be because
that house is a little bit higher and it
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could qualify for a lower rate so for
you know a couple hundred dollars the
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engineer can come out and they can check
it to see if we would qualify for the
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lower and how do you find those
engineers that do this type of thing
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because that's a great point you can go
yeah I'm sure you can search them on the
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web I work with a couple that I know
that are really really good at it and
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they'll also do different things because
like crawlspaces could disqualify them
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because they look at the lowest ground
floor level so if you have a crawlspace
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that's below ground that's now the
lowest level so you can put flood vents
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in you can fill in part of the
crawlspace to bring it up high enough
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there's a bunch of things that you can
do that could cut the premium from seven
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eight thousand dollars a year to two or
three thousand dollars a year which
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makes you a huge difference definitely
particularly you want to work with
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somebody who is really good at knowing
the ins and outs for the program the
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biggest problem that we have is you know
there there's companies that do write
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your own so like all state travelers
they'll write it but it's all still a
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FEMA policy right the problem is is it
still goes through FEMA and the people
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at FEMA half the time don't know
these rules you know they're government
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employees are not necessarily trained
very well so you need to have a good
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engineer that knows the ins and outs and
then that way we can have the discussion
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with the underwriters and find the
underwriter that knows what they're
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talking about so we can make sure that
we're getting the right rate great Thank
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You Rob Zabbia from Zabbia Insurance I'm
going to be
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putting a link to the websites that he
mentioned where you can check on your
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own and also to Rob's company website as
well thanks again Rob and we are good to
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go
great thank you hello yes I'm talking to
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you the person that watched my video to
the very end thanks a lot for watching
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if you enjoyed it please give me a big
thumbs up subscribe to my YouTube
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channel like me on Facebook I am a
Licensed Real Estate Agent in New York
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State but I also have a referral service
that deals nationwide so if you're
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looking for to buy or sell a house
anywhere in the United States please
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send me a text contact me via phone and
I'll set you up with a local
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professional in your area if you're in
my vicinity I'd be more than happy to
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help you out in any of your real estate
transactions that you'd like this is
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Mark Schreier from Century 21 American
Homes and I'll talk to you soon
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