Episode 5 | PropertyLens Investigates an Aging Texas Home
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In This Episode
Hosts: Bob Frady & John Siegman
Guest: Tim Christ
Property: 20410 Jarratt Sq Humble, TX 77338
Topics: flood hurricane mold insurance termites roofing inspecetions plumbing electrical texas
Episode Summary
This episode takes you deep into the heart of Humble, Texas, where a seemingly charming property on Jarrett Square hides a troubling past. Join Bob and John, co-founders of PropertyLens, and their special guest, insurance claims expert Tim Christ, as they dissect the property's history and uncover potential risks that could cost you dearly.
Discover the devastating impact of Hurricane Harvey, which caused significant flood damage in 2017, a fact conveniently omitted from the real estate listing. Learn about the hidden dangers of termites and mold, especially in Houston's warm, moist climate. The team also delves into the challenges of aging infrastructure, including the property's 51-year-old plumbing and electrical systems.
Gain valuable insights from Tim Christ on insurance-related concerns, such as the importance of flood insurance, the rising cost of replacement costs, and the impact of recent law changes in Texas regarding roof insurance claims. Bob and John also discuss the importance of thorough home inspections, emphasizing key areas to address with your inspector, including flood damage, roof condition, and potential structural issues.
This episode arms you with the knowledge and tools to make informed real estate decisions and avoid costly surprises. Don't let hidden problems derail your homeownership dreams - tune in and learn how to protect your investment.
Key Takeaways
✅ Always check for flood risk, even if a property isn't in a designated flood zone.
✅ Don't rely solely on real estate listings; conduct thorough due diligence.
✅ Consider the age of the property and potential issues with plumbing, electrical, and roofing.
✅ Ask the right questions about termite and mold inspections.
✅ Ensure adequate insurance coverage, especially for flood and replacement costs.
✅ Utilize Property Lens to uncover hidden property risks and make informed decisions.
Resources
🔹 Try it: Propertylens.com
🔹 Questions? Contact us: support@propertylens.com
Transcript
[00:00:00] Bob Frady: Hey everybody, here we are with another episode of PropertyLens presents Property of the Week. For those of you who don't know me, I am Bob Frady, co-founder of PropertyLens. With me is
[00:00:22] John Siegman: John Siegman, co-founder of PropertyLens.
[00:00:24] Bob Frady: That's two of the three co- founders of PropertyLens. As for those of you who don't know, what we do at PropertyLens is we take a property and we get as much information about it as we can. We run it through a whole bunch of AI and a whole bunch of data rules to say, here's the things that you should be looking out for in the property that you're thinking about buying.
[00:00:45] Guess what we have, John Siegman! What do we have, Bob? We have a guest! Holy cow! We're growing up. We're getting guests now. This is crazy. It's crazy talking to guests. With us is the warm and wonderful Tim Christ. Tim, why don't you give us a little intro on yourself?
[00:01:04] Tim Christ: Thanks, Bob. Tim Christ, been in the insurance claims business now for 25 years. Investigated thousands of properties all over the globe. Working with CCC, a, you know, large technology company that's serving the insurance industry here in the country.
[00:01:18] And happy to be on the program today.
[00:01:20] Bob Frady: And thank you for joining us. We always like to get a slightly different opinion, because John and I do love the sound of our own voices. I primarily love the sound of my own voice, as John would happily tell you. But it's nice to get a different opinion.
[00:01:32] So here's what we're going to do. We're going to the great state of Texas. Yee haw! Going to Texas! And normally what we do is we just pick some place at random and then we run it through the property list report. But we're not going to do that this time. We're going to focus on Houston, Texas. More specifically, we're going to focus on Humble, Texas. We picked this property on Jarrett Square in Humble, Texas, 77338.
[00:02:00] This property is for sale currently, or it's listed for sale. So this is the real live listing in terms of what you would see from a PropertyLens report. So normally what you would do, go to propertylens.com, enter the address, and then buy a report. We're going to skip that part because it's not that exciting. I mean, it's really exciting for us, but not that exciting, you know, to walk through.
[00:02:20] But what we want to do here is go through the data that we see for this property. So, for those of you who are not familiar with Humble, Texas, there was quite a big event there back in 2017. And it was called, anyone?
[00:02:34] John Siegman: Harvey.
[00:02:36] Bob Frady: Harvey. Not just the wallbanger, it was quite the wallbanger of a storm, that's for sure. Caused a lot of damage. $153,000 properties in the greater Houston area had some level of flood damage from Hurricane Harvey. And we happen to have them in our catastrophe database at PropertyLens.
[00:02:58] So what's the very first thing we see for this property?
[00:03:02] There was a potential hurricane event for this property in 2017, the damage severely affected the property and you can see that later in the damaging events timeline. So the first question you want to ask is what happened to this property and really what was the impact of the hurricane? Now we know from further research that most of the homes on the street flooded.
[00:03:31] Doesn't say that here. We're working on fixing that a bit, but this is the first question you should ask because if you look In the real estate description, John, where does it tell you that this property flooded before?
[00:03:42] John Siegman: Oddly, it doesn't tell you anywhere in the property description.
[00:03:44] Bob Frady: It doesn't tell you.
[00:03:45] It doesn't. This property flooded and it doesn't tell you in the real estate listing. So, listen, when you look at a house, sometimes you go, wow, this place looks great. And then you walk up to it, and then you discover after the fact, maybe, maybe, in the inspection, that something had happened. Now you know before you walk in the front door.
[00:04:03] The second is that there's wind events. It's also quite windy. Three events in a very short period of time. In that area, we want to check and see if there has been any roof damage.
[00:04:15] John Siegman: Next on the list, termites. You know, it's nice, it's warm, it's moist. You'll find some types of swarms, but also a lot of tunneling termites down in Houston. Lovely thing to find out, so you definitely want to have that inspected. On the plus side though, the roof looks like it's in
[00:04:34] Bob Frady: good shape. So it looks like this roof was replaced. So, what you want to ask, two things in this situation. The first is regarding termites. Ask if, of course, if the property has had a termite inspection.
[00:04:47] But the second is, have any of the neighbors had their houses tented recently? Because termites tend, they move. You know, they don't like getting gassed. So they moved down the street to the next available house. And the second is to confirm that this roof was replaced because of the hurricane, in which case you want to go check. To look for signs of mold, to look for signs of installation, make sure it's properly installed at the house.
[00:05:15] We also see this properly as a high risk of experience of lightning strength. That, is there a whole house surge protector on the electrical panel? You know, when, when lightning hits. It doesn't just, and Tim, you can, you can, Tim, why don't you tell me what happens when lightning hits a house?
[00:05:31] Tim Christ: Well, I mean, the question really becomes, is it a direct hit from the lightning strike, or does it hit nearby and does the radiant energy, penetrate through the ground and then come up through the, you know, electrical, wiring in the house and then cause damage to the, you know, different appliances or whatever else.
[00:05:45] And so, obviously if it directly hits a house, typically there's a fairly sizable hole in the roof or wherever, where it comes in, scorching patterns, etc. If it's an indirect hit, then like I said, it'll create that surge and it'll come in through the electrical system. A lot of your low voltage appliances like TVs will sometimes be damaged, things of that nature.
[00:06:05] some, you know, some different appliances won't turn on, if that happens. And then people, a lot of people will make claims that, Hey. Now my HVAC system doesn't work, or my water heater doesn't work, or all these other ancillary appliances around my house don't work anymore because of the lightning surge, and then you've got to have some evaluation to see if that's actually what, what caused the damage or not.
[00:06:23] What can homeowners do to protect themselves from that sort of a surge? I mean, you could obviously have lightning rods installed in the house, you can have surge protectors, like you mentioned, installed in the electrical panel, and so, you can, and obviously you can have surge protectors on your individual appliances as well.
[00:06:39] You can have GFCIs obviously in your kitchen, those kind of things help to combat that.
[00:06:45] Bob Frady: Cause you know what they say about Houston? It's electric. Okay, maybe they don't. Maybe that's just me.
[00:06:52] Okay. so we have some mold issues going on in, in this house, potentially. We're not saying this house had mold. We're saying that mold likes to live in this type of a house. It's warm and it's moist. So hey, when you're, when you're running a claim, how is a mold check a standard part if there's water damage on the house? Or is that something that you just sort of discover by accident?
[00:07:17] Tim Christ: I mean, obviously the insurance policies have now specifically excluded mold for the last several years, right?
[00:07:23] In Texas specifically, we used to have an all risk policy. Now we have a named peril policy as of 2003, because of all the mold claims we had down in South Texas back, you know, 20 now plus 20 plus years ago. you will see, I mean, if you're walking around the house and you see water staining, sometimes you'll see water staining by itself.
[00:07:40] Sometimes you'll see water staining and actual mold growth right there together. Sometimes you'll open up like an HVAC closet and because it's, you know, nice and humid, there's nice cool air in there. you'll see mold growth along the walls or inside the, inside the ductwork of the, of the HVAC unit itself.
[00:07:57] So you can see, like I said, you can see water staining. You can see mold growth together. You can see them by themselves. You can also see mold growth independently if, like, you know, to your point, Bob, if it's really, really humid in the house, if the, you know, relative humidity in the house is not kept at about 65 percent or so, then you can have mold just simply growing on the drywall and the walls, and see that, you know, as you kind of walk across. So there's a lot of different places mold will show up.
[00:08:20] Bob Frady: Look for mold, especially since you know that this place has been flooded before or been damaged in a storm, chances are water has leaked in there one way or another, and you want to ask the owner, has this place been checked for mold? Has there been any mold remediation done on the property?
[00:08:36] John Siegman: Theoretically, you have a 0.2% chance in any given year of flooding. Notice that's all theory. Lots of times, it happens over and over again, same place. Could be behind a levee. Could be just, you know, slightly risen or slightly higher than, you know, the regular flood zone. But FEMA does a good job.
[00:08:59] They can't keep water from happening and the water doesn't know where the lines are drawn.
[00:09:04] Bob Frady: Yeah, water has no respect for FEMA's boundaries. It's boundaryless. Water needs better boundaries, but they're not, they're never going to get there.
[00:09:12] So, do you have to have flood insurance for a place like this?
[00:09:17] John Siegman: No, unfortunately you don't, but you definitely should.
[00:09:22] Bob Frady: And chances are, it's a little bit expensive than if you are inside the 100 year flood zone. It's not required for your mortgage if you have a mortgage on the property, but it is advisable, especially since an event has happened here before.
[00:09:36] and also you're next to the airport. So one of the things that you want to be cognizant of, and George W. Bush airport is just to the west of this property is how loud is it? Do you have reinforced windows to keep the sound down?
[00:09:52] so try to get there when they're like, a lot of times they'll have open houses around 11 or one o'clock in the afternoon when the flight times aren't so busy. But, you know, come first thing in the morning, do you want to be woken up by jets flying around, at, you know, 5. 30 in the morning? Always a good question to ask.
[00:10:10] Okay, so now we see that this property is 51 years old. Here's some things you should ask. You know, the condition of the sewer line is unreported. And it's just about the average life of a sewer line is 40 to 60, between 40 and 60 years. This is right in the middle at 51 years old.
[00:10:28] So you gotta ask. You know, when's the last time the pipes were inspected? Was there any root intrusion? Has the sewer line been replaced or lined? I will tell you a personal story, this single, I sold a house one time and somebody asked this question, nobody asked, nobody else asked the question.
[00:10:46] This one guy asked the question. I'm like, fine, we'll take a picture of it. And it's a terracotta pipe. And of course, the terracotta pipe with lots of pine trees around is going to break at some point. And so we go and it was a long driveway and the sewer line right down the driveway, halfway down the driveway, sewer line was cracked, roots sticking right through, he wanted the credit. Or he wanted to repair it, but I gave him a credit.
[00:11:10] It's like, these are the kinds of things you got to ask for before you fall in love with the house.
[00:11:14] Tim Christ: You know, one of the things I would do, I mean, personally, if I'm the homeowner, you know, the guy maybe looking to buy this house is I would actually run a plumbing test.
[00:11:21] So there's three different types of tests you can run on at home. One's called a static line test where they basically pull a toilet off the floor. They fill up the entire below grade system with water and they sit there and wait and see if it drops. So that tells you if any of these sewer systems have a crack anywhere in it. And so that's a, that's a great first test to tell you, you know, to exactly your point, Bob, are there roots growing in somewhere? So that's a static line test.
[00:11:44] Then, if there is a static line test, drop, you know, if you see that water drop, that means there's a crack somewhere. Then they run what they call an operation test, where to say, if you're flushing a toilet, does that, does some of that water leak? So you take a cup full of water, you go through the toilet, you catch it downstream, and you see if it's still a full cup or if it's partial. Because that tells you then where the crack is located, whether it's on top of the pipe or below the pipe.
[00:12:05] And that'll tell you, you know, because what happens is if you have water that gets outside of your sewer system in expansive clay soils, it will expand the clay soil, it'll further damage the pipe, and then can cause, you know, additional problems to driveways or whatever other, you know, concrete structures or anything that's above the grade of the, of the, of the ground.
[00:12:21] And then the other test you want to ask them to run is a hydrostatic test, which is basically, that's a pressure test of everything from the slab all the way to the attic, which is all of the supply lines. So you want to make sure you don't have any leaks in any of those supply lines. So every single house I've ever bought, before I've bought it, I've always gotten written authorization from the current homeowner to come in and run a few tests on the home just to see if I'm walking into something, and exactly to your point, Bob, to see if I need to ask for a credit.
[00:12:46] Bob Frady: So is that a stat? That doesn't sound like a standard report from an inspector. That sounds like something the inspector kind of needs to be reminded of what to do is, or do you have to hire a specialist to do that?
[00:12:59] Tim Christ: I mean, you have to hire a plumber to come out and do it.
[00:13:01] Bob Frady: Okay. So call the plumber. Hydrostatic test. Sounds like the most comprehensive. Okay.
[00:13:09] Furnace is, conditions unreported. So ask about the furnace foam. Does it last for place? The property was built before 1978 and may have constructed with some outdated building materials like lead paint and asbestos or Knob-and-tube wiring and insulation.
[00:13:25] We've covered this before and of the three pre 1970 houses that I've renovated. All three had at least one of these problems, including the latest one, which had all of them. but it's like, this is, and listen, you still might buy the house, you still might love it. You might be a screamin' deal, you might love it.
[00:13:46] But at least you know going in, you're gonna have to handle these things, you're gonna have to look for these things. And then finally, John?
[00:13:54] John Siegman: You got a fireplace, given a home this age, it's probably just a wood burning fireplace. And so you're gonna need to, you know, make sure the chimney works. See how, what the usage was, see if the chimney needs to be cleaned, all of the associated events around a fireplace.
[00:14:12] Bob Frady: Hey, Tim, how often do fireplace claims come up in your, in your world?
[00:14:17] Tim Christ: They're not terribly common, but I mean, it is a major factor for insurance underwriting. And I mean, most folks will tell you, I mean, depending on obviously if you use it or not. but I mean, assuming that you actually use your fireplace. You should clean it once a year.
[00:14:31] I mean, the creosote will build up and that will by itself, you know, be flammable and then, you know, God forbid something happens and it can spread to, you know, if there's cracks in the, in the mortars, it's going up. It can spread to, you know, other, you know, wood studs or things of that nature that will also burn. And then all of a sudden you've got a house fire, right?
[00:14:47] So, I know there's some other technologies out there that specifically identify houses that do or do not have fireplaces and insurers do specifically underwrite, you know, or add additional premium to those policies because of that specific risk.
[00:15:03] Bob Frady: Now, if you replace that with a gas burning fireplace, does that lower that, that tax from the insurance company, since you're not burning wood in it?
[00:15:13] Tim Christ: That's a great question. I'm not aware of there being a premium difference for that. I don't know if they've gotten to that level of granularity yet or not in as far as from an underwriting perspective.
[00:15:25] Bob Frady: Did we just run ahead of the insurance industry one more time to say it isn't so. I've never done that before. So, all right. And then finally, we did not detect solar panels on the roof of this property. If you were going to put solar panels on here, it would probably cost you about $22,000 after. local incentives, the price of the house is $260,000.
[00:15:47] So you may not want to spend that kind of money. and the payback period is about eight years. So there is some opportunity for solar at this property. Then we get to our next section, which is the inspector lens. Now we don't have any bones to pick with inspectors and we think that inspectors are great.
[00:16:07] But sometimes inspectors, you know, you want to make sure that they're getting everything that you see as a problem. They're there, they're paid for by the seller, but they're there for you. So here's some questions that you should ask the inspector. You know, of course there was a hurricane event here, so really you got to check for flood damage.
[00:16:25] You got to look, if there's a basement or a crawl space, you got to look in there. Had there been any damage to the electrical systems, check the roof, check everything that you would. In a water intrusion type of system, same thing for wind, you missing any shingles off the roof? Has the property head, do you see any signs of termite infestation?
[00:16:47] Do you need a specific termite inspection? And it may be, you know, you, you hire an inspector and they go, yeah, you should probably have this tested, which means you get a second test.
[00:16:57] John Siegman: The property itself, you want your inspector to take a look in places that you don't want to go. So, you know, things you don't want to go up on the rope, but somebody needs to make sure that the rope is in good shape.
[00:17:09] You don't want to go. Into the crawl space, but somebody needs to make sure. So you want that inspector to go all the places and ask all the questions from an inspection standpoint that you need to know the information about, but don't necessarily want to go into,
[00:17:26] Bob Frady: you want to check for. Damage, lightning damage, are there any burn marks in the attic from maybe a previous fire that might have been caused by a direct hit?
[00:17:34] Is there any look, does it look like there's any mold issues? You know, an experienced inspector will be able to spot those things quickly, as opposed to someone who maybe doesn't know what to look for. It's near an airport, it's in a flood zone, and it's an older property. So check, here's all the things that the inspector should make sure that they double check to give you some peace of mind before you buy the house.
[00:17:55] And then finally the insurance lens. You know, some of the factors that may affect their rate core insurance on this property.
[00:18:02] John Siegman: Well, when you look at it, it's an unknown hurricane. It is in a 500 year flood zone. It's an older property. All of those things, as Tim pointed out, the fireplace is definitely going to, you know, cost you a little bit more.
[00:18:16] But what's most interesting about this property is the replacement cost is almost double the list price. If you say, hey, I want to insure it for what you're paying for it. You're going to be on the short end should something bad happen to it again.
[00:18:30] Tim Christ: They would say that that's the difference between actual cash value and replacement cost value.
[00:18:36] Bob Frady: Yeah, it's, you know, replacement costs have gone through the roof in the last couple of years. And, you know, with so many people putting money into their houses, it takes up labor. And so the cost of replacement costs have gone up, up, up. And it catches people by surprise when they have to rebuild a place and suddenly don't have the money to rebuild it to the way that they want it to.
[00:19:00] Now, it doesn't mean you can't rebuild it. It just means you won't have as much money to rebuild it that you did before.
[00:19:05] Tim Christ: You know, the one other thing that I typically look at, I mean, you know, I'd want to crawl around in the attic. You know, I've, I've found houses before that did not have correct structural bracing.
[00:19:14] so there were some structural deficiencies that existed, especially if they've done a re roofing job. You know, again, you know, we talked about a little bit earlier, if the, if it was not installed very, very well, then there might be some concerns or issues there. You can walk around the entire house.
[00:19:27] You want to see if any doors stick or when, you know, I always open up and close all the windows. If any doors stick or windows stick, that would indicate that there's possibly an elevation alignment issue. And so, you know, I mean, obviously from a forensic engineering perspective, we go in and shoot floor elevations.
[00:19:41] Not everybody has one of those bubble level meters. but we want to see if there are any, any differences. And so that can also indicate whether there was a previous below slab leak, if there's soil expansion or contraction. again, with the, with the soils that we talked about a little before. And if there's any issues related to the foundation of the house, it could obviously, you know, creep up in the term of, you know, costly foundation repairs.
[00:20:01] So if you see any cracks in the tile in the floor or the wood floors or anything like that, obviously those are areas to dive into, you know, initially as well.
[00:20:08] Bob Frady: So you, you mentioned something interesting about the quality of the construction after a hurricane is quite possibly the worst time to get a roof installed because A, you're in a panic because your roof is off and B, people are knocking door to door. Hey, we're going to replace all these roofs. Your insurance company will pay and they run through the area and replace those roofs as quickly as possible.
[00:20:34] They don't necessarily look for quality as much as they look for quantity. And this is no disrespect to any of the roofers. So in that case, you should ask whether the roof has a warranty, and if the roof does have a warranty, ask if that warranty is transferable.
[00:20:50] Usually within the first 10 years, you could transfer it once from the original owner. So see if there's a warranty and see if it's transferable. Here's the property. It's 51 years old, 1900 square feet. Two tenths of an acre, it's one story, there is a detached garage, and then one structure on the property, it is 19 miles from the coast.
[00:21:12] You know, it's really interesting when you think about that. It's 19 miles from the coast, yet the property flooded because of a hurricane. Because there is a lot of water in the area and just because you're far from the coast doesn't mean you're free from hurricane driven flood risk as this neighborhood is seen
[00:21:28] Tim Christ: probably received, you know, 30 to 50 inches of rain over the course of that period of time.
[00:21:32] And when you look at the map of this particular property, there's a drainage canal between, this between the house and the elementary school, which is just across away from it. And so yeah, You know, the entire water level of everything in that area, you know, just that much rain saturated, there was nowhere for it to run.
[00:21:47] The Brazos River runs kind of further to the west there, but the Brazos River was already at its banks, and so what used to flow downhill to the different rivers, the rivers are now elevated with water. There's nowhere for the water to go, so that's why even that drainage canal that you see in the back of their property came up, overfilled its banks, and flooded, you know, part of that subdivision.
[00:22:04] Bob Frady: We've been doing flood stuff for a while, John and I have, and the argument we get all the time from people is, You don't know anything about my property. The water never goes there. And they say it in that tone of voice as well, which is really the most annoying part. And you're right. Hurricanes, especially hurricanes, there's two factors.
[00:22:23] The first is that water that would normally flow into the ocean now has nowhere to go. And then you take in a lot of precipitation and just dumping it on the ground. Harvey just stood there and spun for days. Just filling, filling, filling, filling, filling up the land. And this all used to be swamp land that was backfilled into, into housing.
[00:22:46] And so guess what? Swamps want to be swamps. They're swamps for a reason. And just because you build up six feet rather than four feet doesn't mean you're gonna be free from the risk. So hurricanes plus tremendous downpours of rain, can be very problematic for a property. And those little drainage canals that you see that you never think of, 99 percent of the time all of a sudden become your enemy rather than your friend.
[00:23:12] according to real estate data, there is no basement on this property. Masonry and Brick, let's see, most recently listed in September of 2023. Here's the description. Gorgeous and spacious, one story, brand new kitchen counter, brand new kitchen sink. I don't see any mention of a flood in there, John, do you?
[00:23:35] John Siegman: No, but interesting the mention of one story because in our own surveys, 70 percent of people prefer a one story house.
[00:23:42] Bob Frady: Yeah, you know why? Because 70% of people are old and climbing the stairs is taxing. Okay, so here's the deed history. Looks like it hasn't changed hands very much. It was sold in 18, listed in 23, and then listed again on September of 23. Property taxes have been fairly steady for this area the last couple of years. And then here's the pictures of the property.
[00:24:13] Roof condition. So here's what we do. Like, how old is the roof is a question that a lot of people want the answer to, but not many people can generate the answer to. Because the answer's hidden.
[00:24:27] Sometimes it's in permit data, sometimes it's in real estate data, sometimes it's in satellite data. Sometimes it's not there at all. So you gotta use a lot of technology to figure out exactly, how old is this roof? So that's what we tell you. We tell you, in this case, the probable roof age is seven years.
[00:24:45] and it's got 11 years left on its estimated roof life because it is a lot of weather in Houston and that roof takes a beating. So what would normally be a 25 year roof in say, oh, I don't know, Ohio, is really an 18 year roof in that part of Texas because of so much weather. It's a shingle roof. And the roof cost estimate, we give you the high side, we give you the high price, which is $16,000 to replace that roof.
[00:25:12] So again, you're buying a house, it's $260,000, you're looking at potentially $16,000 to replace the roof, if you had to. In this case, it's probably fine, but that's what it would cost.
[00:25:25] Tim Christ: So Bob, you want to tell the listeners what the Christmas present they get for this particular house is, given that that roof is now 7 years old?
[00:25:32] Bob Frady: What's that? You tell me.
[00:25:34] Tim Christ: So in Texas, we just had some law changes, so what happens at seven years old is now that roof goes from a replacement cost value to an actual cash value depreciation schedule.
[00:25:43] Bob Frady: Oh, so you can't, so you can't just automatically say, give me the more expensive policy and buy into replacement costs?
[00:25:50] Tim Christ: You can, but it automatically shifts for that, shifts to that ACV depreciated, coverage.
[00:25:56] Bob Frady: That has to be quite a surprise to a lot of people who get their roofs repaired.
[00:26:00] Tim Christ: There, there's that surprise, and then also what just happened this year is, 2% deductibles now on roofs. Yeah. Our pretty standard 2% on property value, of the property value here.
[00:26:12] This house is $260,000. So basically, yeah, we're, you know, you're going to say that, the first, you know, $5,200 are on the, on the homeowner before insurance kicks in to, to repair that roof.
[00:26:25] And I think the other, you know, when, when you mentioned the detached garage a bit earlier, it just, it sparked my brain. So typically under coverage B, they also cover detached structures, but a lot of times there's a sublimit in place for that. Maybe like $20,000 on a particular policy, obviously that's probably at least, I'm assuming it's a fully finished garage to replace that thing.
[00:26:45] That's probably in today's market. That's probably $60,000, $80,000 just in and of itself. So you need to make sure to, to make sure to have your agent bump up the limits for that specific coverage line item for that detached structure. Otherwise, if for some reason that garage goes up in flames, you know, you're, you're, you know, they're going to write you a check for $15,000 or $20,000 and you're going to have to pay $60,000 to replace it.
[00:27:05] Bob Frady: You know, what's kind of funny is, A, that's a good point. That's not funny. But what's kind of funny is I, at my house in Minnesota, the garage was actually built into the house, but I still have coverage B. Even though I have no external structures. So can you go to your insurance agency and say, get rid of that coverage for me because I don't have any external structures or is it a good idea to keep it?
[00:27:26] Tim Christ: I mean, I don't think it's going to factor into the cost of your premium at all because you never see that as a line item option. it's just like I said, it's kind of like the typical contents coverage, there's already a calculation for assuming we have any, you know, outside structures, whether it's little sheds we've built or bought or whatever else, they just Sort of put that under this umbrella of we'll just cover other detached structures and it'll be subject to a maximum coverage value of say $20,000.
[00:27:50] Okay,
[00:27:51] Bob Frady: We got the roof condition. So the condition's okay on this roof. You know, it's a minimal sign of defects. There's a little bit of staining, a little algae staining on the roof. Is that indicative of anything? Algae staining on a roof?
[00:28:04] Tim Christ: No, just cleaning.
[00:28:06] Bob Frady: Yeah, just clean it. It looks prettier from the sky. Get a better score.
[00:28:10] Damaging events. So here's where we show Hurricane Harvey. If it's in red, it means it wasn't very good. This property was severely affected by a hurricane in 2017. It's had some hail since then, but 2017 was, and some wind since then, was the big event for this location. You could actually go in and look at different times of life on this roof. So September of 2017, what did it look like? versus how does it look today? And it looks fairly similar.
[00:28:49] there are permits. We do have permits for Humble, Texas. This property does not show any permits. Now, it doesn't mean they didn't have the work permitted. It just means that we don't have it. We look at a couple of different sources for permits.
[00:29:03] We have them for Humble, but not for this location. So, any modifications, you gotta ask. Is this permitted? Did it need to be permitted, you know, and, and was it done properly? And when you get the inspection, you want to make sure that everything that has been changed is brought up to code.
[00:29:22] And let's see, the estimated electricity cost is about $150 a month. you could cover that with solar if you wanted to. eight, eight and a half kilowatt system up front's 22, but with incentives, it probably knocks the payback period down to about eight and a half years. This is the carbon footprint of a utility for those of you who are interested in that sort of thing.
[00:29:44] And then here's the risk assessment. It says, high risk of floods, high risk of hurricanes, lightning, and pollution. Low risk of winter risk, except when the grid disconnects, but that's a whole other story. And low risk of wildfire and earthquake. Here's what flood looks like. You can see this is in a 500 year flood zone.
[00:30:06] And we actually color code the map for you that this house is in that zone. You are approximately 395 feet away. One football field, plus a couple of end zones for you, Texas folks. And, close to the hundred year flood zone and your elevation difference is only three feet. So when you wonder, how does this get flooded?
[00:30:26] It's not that far away and it's not that far above. a flood zone,
[00:30:34] and then the weather that you're looking at is hurricane damage, so make sure that your roof is strapped down, because you don't need that thing get hurt, and then now we look at the traditional CAT hurricanes in this area, you know, mostly CAT1, 2 and 3. Since 1980, but a Cat3 hurricane, that's no joke.
[00:30:55] You don't want to mess around with that. It's not in a drought. And then finally, we get through all the weather data. Got some risk of mold, risk of termites, which are both environmental pollutants. And then some airport noise around here as well. There's a power plant that's 90 miles away. That's pretty far.
[00:31:17] storage tanks are pretty far away as well. We don't have any insurance claims for this location. Doesn't mean they don't have any, it just means that we don't have them. That's sort of the last thing that will flow into the report. Estimated insurance amount based upon filing is between $2,700 and $11,000.
[00:31:35] So you really want to make sure that you get an insurance quote on this property before you decide to make an offer on it. Because you just never know how much that number is going to come up to. You don't want to get surprised at the closing by now knowing you have to pay an extra $1,000 a month for insurance.
[00:31:54] let's see, crime's pretty good in this area, relatively low crime, low risk of sinkholes. And then finally, if you want to get an insurance quote, you can click here. Our friends from Progressive will give you a quote. We don't show claims. Here, this crime's pretty good in this area. And then finally, as we get through this, we get to the property timeline.
[00:32:16] So you can see the last roof image that we have was, two months ago. So, urban areas get more frequent flyovers than rural areas. It's part of the way it is. But now you can see it, you can see the history of this property in a timeline format. And that, our friends, is a PropertyLens report. If you were looking at Jarrett Square, Humble, Texas What are the three things that you would look for in this property?
[00:32:48] Tim Christ: My top three for this property, number one is electrical. You know, like I said, you know, since it flooded and they didn't talk about it at all. And so, you know, what you see sometimes, and you didn't see it in this picture, is sometimes you'll see folks after they have a flooded house, they'll actually move all their electrical outlets.
[00:33:02] To say five feet above the level of the floor in this particular house All those pictures still show electrolyte. That's the typical 18 inches up So, I would be, you know, still worried that there was some electrical damage to some of that to see what what? What was actually repaired Number two would be the termite damage and termites that we talked about before and number three for me being it's 51 years old I want to know that the plumbing systems in good shape, you know, cuz the HVAC stuff obviously we can pay to replace and we're gonna pay over time to replace that that's all easily accessible plumbing though That's part of the bones of the house.
[00:33:34] And if we have a major plumbing event, that's gonna be a serious concern So those are my top three electrical termite and plumbing
[00:33:40] Bob Frady: John, if you were buying this house, are you thinking about buying this house? What would your top three concerns be based upon this PropertyLens report?
[00:33:48] John Siegman: My first concern would be flow. It's in a 500 year zone. How much is split insurance going to be? We don't know when it's going to happen, but we know it's going to happen. So we definitely want to take a look at that.
[00:34:01] My second concern would be the roof itself. It's, you know, it's, it's a B today. It's going to work its way to a C. We just found out from Tim that it's at its point where the costs are going to be much more on me than the insurance company to replace it. You know, did they put fortified shingles on? You know, give me a little bit more detail on that roof. Looks good today, could be terrible tomorrow.
[00:34:30] Then my third thing would be the sewer line. The house is 51 years old. Odds are it's probably never been replaced. I want to know about that because that could be. You know, a little bit of landscaping, when it comes to digging it up and replacing it.
[00:34:47] Bob Frady: If I were looking at this house. I, of course, the first thing I would think, is flood. Check for water intrusion, check for mold, check for things that flood tends to upset. You know, what was their repair work done?
[00:35:04] The second thing I look for is why are there no building permits? You know, we know this property was damaged. Why are there no building permits? Is it because they aren't required or because they just didn't pull them? Or maybe the town just didn't report them and they actually have them.
[00:35:18] And then the third, would be the roof, you know, how well constructed is that roof, especially since it was done right around the time of the hurricane, you know, is it still in good condition? So I'd want to get out there. In the, in the attic and, and, well, I'd want to pay someone to get up there at the attic because I'm not going up there. There's bathroom stuff up there. I'm not going up there.
[00:35:42] so yeah, I, I would say flood. Then I would look at why are no building permits. And then I would look at the roof.
[00:35:51] All right, gentlemen, that is our tour through Humble, Texas, and listen, we're not trying to pick on this property. You know, we're just trying to show you what's out there. As a buyer, you're the one who has to live with that property, and you're the one paying the mortgage on it. And all the sellers, all that good stuff, they want to, they want to turn that property.
[00:36:11] And there's nothing wrong with that. That's their job. Your job is to protect yourself. The best way to protect yourself before you plunk down your hard earned money, get a PropertyLens Report at PropertyLens. com. For this week's episode of Property of the Week, I'm Bob Frady.
[00:36:28] John Siegman: I'm John Siegman.
[00:36:30] Bob Frady: And our guest.
[00:36:32] Tim Christ: Tim Christ.
[00:36:34] Bob Frady: Thanks everybody. See you next week.
