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In This Episode

Hosts: Bob Frady & John Siegman

Property: 3332 Lance Lake Rd, Wolverine, MI 49799

Topics: propertylens realestate

Episode Summary

Ever wondered what an insurance inspector looks for when assessing a property? Join Bob and John as they chat with Curtis Goldsborough, President of National Insurance Inspection Services, to uncover the mysteries of underwriting inspections. They delve into the differences between these inspections and home inspections conducted during a purchase, discuss the impact of aging homes on insurance costs, and even analyze Curtis's own home in Wolverine, Michigan, using PropertyLens!

Key Takeaways

✅ Underwriting inspections focus on pre-existing damage and liability risks.

✅ Four-point inspections assess the roof, electrical, heating, and plumbing systems of a home.

✅ Aging housing stock and increased claims contribute to rising insurance costs.

✅ PropertyLens provides valuable insights into property risks, including those related to weather, age, and maintenance.

Resources

🔹 National Insurance Inspection Services

🔹 FEMA Flood Maps

🔹 Zillow

🔹 Try it: Propertylens.com

🔹 Questions? Contact us: support@propertylens.com

Transcript

[00:00:00] Bob Frady: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to yet another episode of Property of the Week from PropertyLens. I am Bob Frady, co-founder and CEO of PropertyLens. With me is,

[00:00:18] John Siegman: John Siegman, President of PropertyLens.

[00:00:20] Bob Frady: And this week we have a special guest, one of the greatest minds in Inspection history. We're so lucky to get this guy. It was like I had to throw elbows to get this guy miss

[00:00:36] You may know him but to know him is to love him. Mr. Curtis Goldsborough. Curtis, welcome to the show.

[00:00:44] Curtis Goldsborough: Wow. You nailed that perfectly, Bob, exactly as I scripted it for you. That's 20 coming to me. Yes, absolutely. No, thank you. I'm excited. Been looking forward to this for a while.

[00:00:57] Bob Frady: So why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, tell a little bit about your company and, before we get rolling here.

[00:01:04] Curtis Goldsborough: Yeah, absolutely. I'm Curtis Goldsborough. I'm the president of National Insurance Inspection Services, and we are a loss control and underwriting inspection firm based in Fresno, California.

[00:01:15] we've been in business for over two decades, and, you know, here in the last few years, we've been leaning really heavily into self inspection for underwriting. And, that's the way that the industry is shifting, very necessarily. And so, yeah, we conduct underwriting inspections. We don't do anything on the claim side.

[00:01:34] We're solely in underwriting and, you know, conducting underwriting inspections. on residential properties around the country, and we've done many millions of them and continue to do so. So, it's fun and exciting.

[00:01:47] Bob Frady: Can you explain to our fans at home what exactly an insurance or underwriting inspection is versus, say, an inspection that you do at the purchase of a home?

[00:01:57] Curtis Goldsborough: Yeah, absolutely. So insurance carriers contract with us to conduct an underwriting inspection for them, and there's a lot of variables in terms of what type of inspection they may request, but generally speaking, underwriting inspections conducted for insurance carriers are much less intensive and thorough than a full home inspection that would be conducted by a licensed home inspector.

[00:02:26] As a part of the home purchase process, so primarily what an underwriting inspection is looking for are very obvious deficiencies with a property, and when I say deficiencies, I'm talking about physical damage concerns, right? Pre-existing damage on a home, whether that's missing shingles on a roof or a broken window or damaged siding or those types of things.

[00:02:47] And then obviously, since insurance carriers are also offering liability coverage as a part of a homeowner's insurance policy, the underwriting inspection is looking for any Increased liability risks that may be on a property, things like, you know, missing handrails on porches and decks and those types of things, trip and fall hazards, you know, aggressive pets, those types of things that, ultimately could result in Trampolines!

[00:03:13] Bob Frady: Trampolines!

[00:03:13] Curtis Goldsborough: Trampolines, yes.

[00:03:18] Bob Frady: Every hospital's favorite implement at a house is a trampoline.

[00:03:21] Curtis Goldsborough: Yes, all of those very naughty things that could increase the likelihood of a liability claim. So those are really the two primary focuses of an underwriting inspection.

[00:03:30] Bob Frady: Now, does the inspector actually walk on the property or do they have to stay on the perimeter of the property?

[00:03:37] Curtis Goldsborough: Yeah, it depends. Generally speaking, they do walk on the property. and, you know, they'll knock on the door and introduce themselves to a policy holder if they happen to be home. But again, the vast majority of these are just an exterior only assessment. Once you start to get into some higher value homes, you know, some carriers are ordering interior inspections that would require an appointment, and those are a little bit, you know, more, more detailed.

[00:04:05] But generally speaking, you know, for the vast majority of just main street homes, just a pretty cursory exterior visual inspection.

[00:04:13] Bob Frady: Okay, so with that as the background, Curtis has challenged us.

[00:04:19] Curtis Goldsborough: Yes.

[00:04:19] Bob Frady: Because normally we review properties that are on the market. So it'll have updated MLS information, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:04:28] On top of that, Curtis has picked a property in Wolverine, Michigan. I mean, you have to root for the blue if you live in Wolverine, Michigan. Indeed. Because this is his house. And, turns out Wolverine, Michigan, I don't know whether they don't have them or that we can't get them, but building permits are not in this PropertyLens.

[00:04:49] So, it'll be interesting to see what we come up with and get Curtis' reaction to it, because we're not afraid. We'll play a little roulette here, you know. So, we'll, we'll, let's dive into Wolverine, Michigan.

[00:05:01] John, do you have any questions, anything you want to ask? You've been silent over there.

[00:05:05] John Siegman: Well, you know, Chris, before we jump into this, could you tell everybody what a four point inspection is? Because we got lots of insurance people wanting four point inspections.

[00:05:15] Curtis Goldsborough: Yeah, four point inspections, are interesting, you know, they're more popular in some states than others, but, we do a lot of four point inspections as a part of, you know, our underwriting inspections when carriers request them, but essentially a four point inspection is going to be looking at the mechanical systems in a home, right, so the electrical, the heating, and the plumbing, and then also looking at the roof, right, so those are kind of the The four points, the roof, the electrical, the heating, and the plumbing systems in a home.

[00:05:44] And so, again, you know, to your point, John, you're absolutely right. You know, carriers are rightfully so, starting to put more and more emphasis on that as properties age around the country. and those things are important to look at.

[00:06:01] Bob Frady: How much of the, as many of us have known, insurance prices aren't going down, they're going up.

[00:06:12] How much of that? Is it because of conditions in the house versus just pricing wrong because they're not pricing for hail or tornado appropriately, what do you, what's your opinion on that if you can give it?

[00:06:26] Curtis Goldsborough: Yeah, I can certainly give an opinion. I think it's undeniable that that's absolutely a factor in terms of the loss experience, quite frankly, the terrible loss experience and underwriting performance of carriers specifically in the homeowner's segment personal lines over the last few years. You know, and that has been proven out in the claims experience, you know, non weather water losses, have just exploded exponentially in the last 3 to 4 years.

[00:06:57] And when I say non weather water, right, I'm talking about water damage that's occurring inside the home. From water that's not coming from outside the home. We're not talking about rain, rainwater or flood or any, right. This is primarily plumbing issues inside the home cause, you know, can cause very significant water damage.

[00:07:16] So that's a, you know, a water heater failing, right. And flooding a finished basement or, you know, a water supply line to a sink or a toilet bursting, those types of things. So, yeah, those things absolutely have impacted. Carrier loss ratios over the last few years, which ultimately they have to account for that and in their pricing.

[00:07:35] So

[00:07:37] Bob Frady: Yeah, it's so non-leather water. Is it because the pipes are just getting old? Do the housing stocks get older or do new pipes last less long than old pipes or got any insight to that?

[00:07:49] Curtis Goldsborough: Yeah, I think it's, it's primarily the former, right? I mean, time passes, right? We sometimes laugh internally because, you know, it was easy to think, you know, 10 years ago, if there was a, you know, if we're inspecting a home that's built in, say, you know, 2000, right?

[00:08:07] And we would think, oh, that's, that's a new home, right? Well, like, a home built in 2000 is not really new anymore, right? That's a 25 year old house, you know, time just passes really quickly, and so if you've got a 25 year old house, you know, and the water heater hasn't been replaced, that is a ticking time bomb, right?

[00:08:28] And, but certainly, yes, I mean, the mechanical systems in, you know, these older homes and the housing market, as a whole, is certainly aging, right? And so, you know, when you have so many homes that were built in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, that just, you know, these mechanical systems, you know, plumbing, etc.

[00:08:49] has, has never been updated, right? Because people just don't think about it. It is that, those aging mechanical systems that absolutely, you know, cause major issues and are increasingly causing major issues as they continue to age and fail.

[00:09:03] Bob Frady: Just so you know, when you tell two great hair guys that time passes quickly, we may end the podcast earlier.

[00:09:11] Curtis Goldsborough: Fair enough, fair enough.

[00:09:13] Bob Frady: All right, let's get to the show, shall we? Let's do it. This is the PropertyLens Portal. Now, there's a lot in here because we look at a lot of properties, but we'll look specifically at Lance Lake Road, which ironically, It actually sits on, what is it, Wildwood Lake?

[00:09:32] Curtis Goldsborough: That is accurate.

[00:09:33] Yes.

[00:09:33] Bob Frady: Yes. It's, you look under Wildwood Lake, that other lake's down the road. Okay. So what we do at PropertyLens is we gather as much data as we can possibly find, and we pull it all together. We run it through a series of rules, a series of AI assists to help us understand what's going on at a property.

[00:09:53] The first thing that we create is the BuyerLens, which are questions you should ask if you are considering buying this house. So it looks like it's five bedrooms, two baths, built in 2001, 3,100 square feet, three tenths of an acre lot size. Is that correct? It is fairly correct, yes.

[00:10:11] Curtis Goldsborough: We have done recent updates, very recent updates, which, you know, probably have not, have not hit the places that they need to yet, so.

[00:10:20] Bob Frady: See, now this is the, this is the interesting thing. When people do improvements to their house, they don't tell the tax person all the time that they were done. But when the MLS comes up, they're like, Hey, we did a renovation two years ago. So that's why you'll see some differences sometimes between what we see and what you know is because you haven't put the property on the market.

[00:10:42] Curtis Goldsborough: Yep, for sure.

[00:10:44] Bob Frady: So first couple of things we see, two wind events over 65 miles an hour, between 2020 and 2021. So the questions we would ask are, was there any damage from the wind event? Has the damage been fully prepared? Are there any signs of cracked glass, damaged siding, missing roof shingles? So, it's been a little windy up there, not too bad.

[00:11:09] but have you had any wind damage at this property?

[00:11:12] Curtis Goldsborough: Yeah, we have not that I'm aware of. And I think it would be good to know, and you know, that we purchased this home just over three years ago. So, we've not been here for a super long time, right? and quite frankly, I would have loved to have this PropertyLens report before we purchase.

[00:11:28] So, this is really fun. Great to look at.

[00:11:31] Bob Frady: Well, John, why don't you handle the next one?

[00:11:33] John Siegman: Okay, so, you know, in looking at the roof, we're estimating it to be, 24 years old, but in great shape, or at least good shape, and, you know, but it's approaching the end of its standard life, which we're estimating at 25 years for Michigan for the type of roof that it is, being made out of shingles.

[00:11:53] estimating a cost, you know, it's basically gonna be, nobody's gonna do it on the low end, so, you know, budget $26,000 for when the time comes. But, you know, those are the things that we can tell now. And there have been permits associated with this property. Most places require a roofing permit, should you do it, which would dial in the age a little bit, but based upon the overall condition.

[00:12:20] And, when the house was built and things along those lines, we're estimating it to be, you know, pretty much 24 years old. Doesn't mean it needs to be replaced, but probably is something that You know, were you buying this house, today, you would want to be concerned about and possibly work into the deal.

[00:12:40] What's the roof like?

[00:12:41] Curtis Goldsborough: Yeah, the roof is in good shape and that was actually, You know, I think information like this is absolutely invaluable, right? You know, for me to look at this and think, holy cow, you know, within the next handful of years, right, I could be looking at a $20,000 roof replacement, right?

[00:12:59] Like, that's, that's a pretty big deal for most homebuyers, you know, to know that, Hey, I'm going to be needing to make some significant financial investments in this property, you know, in the not too distant future. So yeah, I think that information is absolutely invaluable.

[00:13:18] Bob Frady: So next we have the winter Trioka, which is that how you say it? Or is it Troika? I forget. Ice dams, frozen pipes, and issues from heavy snow loads. Have you had any wintertime risk issues with this property?

[00:13:35] Curtis Goldsborough: We actually have, Bob. Yeah, last year we had, we had some ice dam issues and fortunately,

[00:13:44] Bob Frady: Do you think we would just make this stuff up? You think we just, it's like, this is what the data tells us.

[00:13:50] Curtis Goldsborough: Yeah, we had some ice damming in the, kind of above the garage. Fortunately, the water intrusion was just in the unfinished garage wall, rather than the interior of the house. But, yeah, I mean, that's. Spot on. Do you have gutter guards? We do not have gutter guards. That makes me sad.

[00:14:10] Bob Frady: That makes me sad.

[00:14:12] It's like, you should, come on, you should know that. Get some gutter guards on there. Get that water away from the house. Okay. Then we get into the age of the property. A little bit, it's got a partially finished basement. Is that true?

[00:14:23] Curtis Goldsborough: Yeah. And that's one of the things that we just recently updated. So it's actually a fully finished basement now.

[00:14:28] Yep.

[00:14:29] Bob Frady: Okay. So you have, have you had any issues with water intrusion?

[00:14:33] Curtis Goldsborough: We have not as of yet.

[00:14:36] Bob Frady: And then now we get into the four point stuff. So the age of the property is 24 years old. When was the water heater last replaced? And, and we're not trying to say that you should or shouldn't buy a house, but these are questions that you should ask when buying the house.

[00:14:52] So I'm going to guess that with your recent renovation, you've updated the water heater. That is accurate. Yep. And then same thing with the furnace. Is that coming up on its lifespan?

[00:15:06] Curtis Goldsborough: Yeah, I mean it's, it's roughly 10 years old. Okay.

[00:15:09] Bob Frady: No solar panels on the property. Nope. If you were to get them, the payback period would be 9.

[00:15:16] 73 years. Give or take .38 like me. And we don't see any fire hydrants within a thousand feet of the property. But there's a big giant lake right behind you.

[00:15:27] Curtis Goldsborough: There is a large lake, yes.

[00:15:30] Bob Frady: Now, talking to the inspector guy. Now, if you have this information before you buy the house, then you look at the BuyerLens to say, hey, ask all these questions, you know, to go into the calculus of saying, I do or don't want to buy this place.

[00:15:43] But let's say you make the offer on the house, and you're getting it inspected. What we recommend is that you print this out, and hand it to the inspector, and say, Look for this stuff. That is not necessarily something that most people do. They tell the inspector, just say, well, I know what I'm doing. Hand them a list and say, but I need you to check these things as well, just to make me feel better.

[00:16:07] And a lot of it is the same risks that we saw before. Things like, check the downspouts on the roof for signs of damage. look for gutter damage. look for proper insulation in the attic. and since you have had an event, make sure that you're free of mold. in those walls. So this is the kind of stuff that we give to the inspector.

[00:16:31] Now, as an inspector, as a pro, how would you react to someone giving you a list like this?

[00:16:37] Curtis Goldsborough: Yeah, I mean, I, you know, I am not and have never been a licensed home inspector, but I have looked at tens of thousands of underrating inspections, and, and have done a lot of underwriting inspections myself.

[00:16:51] I mean, quite frankly, I think especially in today's market, you know, I think I would appreciate this. Honestly. I, I don't see, I don't see why anyone wouldn't. It's, and granted, hopefully, most inspectors would be checking the boxes on most of these things anyway, right? but I think the fact that they would have an indication that, Hey, this property, you know, might be more prone to these specific hazards.

[00:17:20] And so maybe I should spend a few extra minutes and do a little extra due diligence on, you know, on these specific items. I think inspectors would love it. I don't see why they wouldn't.

[00:17:29] Bob Frady: All right. Now it's insurance time. Ooh, I like this. These are the things that we think drive insurance costs. So, there's a couple of factors.

[00:17:40] Roof would be number one, you know, insurers don't like insuring old roofs. And if they do, they give you actual cash value rather than replacement costs, unless you pay extra for it, which a lot of people don't know. And so it can cost you more if you have an older roof to insure that property. Because the roof's the hat to the house.

[00:18:01] If the hat pops off, then it's the head of the house, not the whole. It's bad if you lose the roof. Properties 24 years old tend to be a little bit more expensive to rebuild. The newer ones, and the replacement cost on this is $399,000. I'm gonna guess your Schedule A is not for this amount.

[00:18:21] Curtis Goldsborough: It's really, really close.

[00:18:26] Bob Frady: And there's no hydrants within 1,000 feet of the property, all of which impacts insurance. Now, Michigan, luckily, doesn't seem to have quite the crisis that some other states do in terms of availability. But these are things that you want to talk to your insurance agent about, like how can I mitigate against these risks, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

[00:18:44] So how do we do the intro part of our show?

[00:18:48] Curtis Goldsborough: I mean, I think this is fantastic. All really, really, really good information. I think there's a ton of value there for sure.

[00:18:55] Bob Frady: So now we don't just give you a bunch of questions. We actually give the underlying data as well. So here's the data from, it's a combination of MLS and assessor data.

[00:19:07] So it's 24 years old. It's attached to the garage. There's a basement. It's the one structure on the property. Lots of information about the property that you can get from pretty much any Same thing that you would see on a real estate listing. well this is, sewer is a T. Do you have a, are you connected to the sewer system here?

[00:19:33] Curtis Goldsborough: No.

[00:19:35] Bob Frady: Okay, so you're on well water then?

[00:19:37] Curtis Goldsborough: Correct, yes.

[00:19:38] Bob Frady: That's a new lens that we're going to be adding. because what we've seen is that people on well water have a much higher incidence of bladder cancer than people who are not on a well water.

[00:19:51] John Siegman: So we're Exactly

[00:19:52] what you wanted to hear in this podcast, huh, Curtis?

[00:19:56] Curtis Goldsborough: What other good news can you share?

[00:20:00] Bob Frady: So you may want to consider a water filtration system for your property, if you get the chance. Now, some people are like, I love the well water. It's delicious. It's nothing like it. And that's okay. But just to understand that you do have a different level of risk than other folks do.

[00:20:16] Let's see. but the last property listing was in 21, which is probably when you bought this house. so it shows it was renovated. and all sorts of, there's a lot of good information in here that we use to help supplement some of the other things that we look for. Although it says this, what's funny is the days on the market are not $1,350.

[00:20:40] This was not on the market for three years. It's been three years since it was sold. So we have to, we should probably go in and fix that. Here's the ownership transactions. We don't display who owns the property. We're not into that. We're just trying to show you what sort of things have happened from an ownership standpoint at this property.

[00:20:59] So you can say, well, is it a flip or, you know, is it an estate sale kind of thing? Here's the taxation data. Over the last couple of years, taxes have gone up probably because they figured out that you did something to the house. And then here are the pictures, the lovely pictures of the house. Did you buy this house in the winter time?

[00:21:21] Curtis Goldsborough: We did. Yep.

[00:21:22] Bob Frady: Wow. That's, that's a, that's a good bold statement right there. So here's all the pictures. It looks lovely. It's love. This is the guest bedroom right here. So if you're ever staying at Curtis's house, that's the view that you'll have. Or maybe it's this one with the squiggles there. and of course, now here's the summertime pictures looking over the lake.

[00:21:44] Fantastic. So here's the roof condition. We don't have imagery for this area. It does, you know, we are somewhat constrained by our partners. but we show that the roof is about 24 years old. It's got a year left. It's made of shingles and it's got an approximate range of replacement costs between $12,000 and $26,000.

[00:22:09] You got to get local quotes for that. The condition looks pretty good. so we have the condition, we just don't have the imagery for it and you have relatively low roof risk exposure. You don't have a lot of death from the sky, as it were in that part of Michigan. No tree, no trees overhanging, very limited staining, etc.

[00:22:33] Here's damaging events, over 65 miles an hour is what we look for in terms of wind. We'll also look for hail, we'll look for lightning. And what we see is not much in the last few years. At your location. There may be some close by, but at your location, it's not much. Don't have permit data. We don't have the ability to show homeowner service yet.

[00:22:58] That's a coming feature. We don't have inspection data. Here's the estimated utility costs, which are roughly, $1,700 a year, $143 per month. and Presque Isle is your supplier. And here's if you wanted solar. Without incentives, it's 13.89 years payback with its 9.73. Here's what your utility does in terms of its carbon footprint.

[00:23:30] And then here's the risks. Wintertime risks, little bit of flooding risk. You know, lakes are really hard to flood. occasionally it can happen. and everything else is pretty average. This is pretty, You know, if you, if you, if you winterize your house properly or prepare for winterization, it's a pretty good property.

[00:23:53] Here's the flood zone. As you can see, here's the water. No flood, there's no flood zone in this area. FEMA may not digitize it because it is fairly rural. because we have all the digital zones, but there may be maps that we don't have because they're still paper. They haven't been digitized yet. But you're close to a lake, but not necessarily in a FEMA 100 year flood zone.

[00:24:15] Lots of winter weather risk. Everything else is

[00:24:22] pretty moderate. And let's see, we get to the environmental pollution, a little bit of mold risk. Have you had the garage checked for mold since you had the water intrusion?

[00:24:32] Curtis Goldsborough: We have. Yep. And all good? Yep. Everything was good.

[00:24:36] Bob Frady: All right. And otherwise, there's nothing, I mean, there's nothing out there except Dishon and Curtis.

[00:24:41] So no known contaminant sites, here's the replacement cost, estimated cost per square foot. and you can get a quote for insurance if you wanted to. We don't have claims here, mostly because we don't have claims right now. That's the future, that we're building. And then, a little bit of rurality to your location.

[00:25:12] a lot of, we've had a lot of conversations with folks. They get upset when we say that there's, elevated crime risk in their area. And John, how safe is the country?

[00:25:26] John Siegman: The U.S. is really a very safe country. Yeah, you see the news every night, but the reason it's news is because it's an aberration.

[00:25:36] It's not the norm. And so, what we're probably seeing here, for some of the elevated scores, is, you know, we're doing this at a census block group level, and where Curtis is, that block group is huge. So, from a geography standpoint, it's taking into account a very large area. And so you know, you can get some really weird swings when you start looking at a geography that large.

[00:26:11] It's not anything that I would be overly concerned with because the crime scores are updated on an annual basis. And you can have one event or two events. that is not heavily populated that skew the scores per year.

[00:26:31] Curtis Goldsborough: Interesting. Yeah, that makes sense.

[00:26:33] Bob Frady: Have you had any issues with petty theft in the area?

[00:26:39] Curtis Goldsborough: No, not, not that I'm aware of.

[00:26:43] Bob Frady: Just that you stole that big walleye from me, mister.

[00:26:46] Curtis Goldsborough: Besides that. Besides that, guilty as charged.

[00:26:53] Bob Frady: And fire protection, you don't have a lot of fire stations around. And you don't, and you don't have hydrants around. Now you have the lake, which is a mitigating factor, but from a risk standpoint, an insurance company would go, it's not necessarily the best covered place.

[00:27:09] And then finally we get into the timeline where we show you exactly what happened and when it happened, and if we have information we'll publish who made the information. So, that's it. That is the PropertyLens Overview for 3332 Lance Lake Road in Wolverine, Michigan. How did we do there, Curtis?

[00:27:38] Curtis Goldsborough: I mean, yeah, did, did very, very well.

[00:27:42] I, I'm definitely impressed and I certainly would have loved to have had this, you know, three and a half years ago when we, when we made the, made, made the home purchase. But yeah, that's really cool. Very, very cool.

[00:28:00] Bob Frady: Because you'll sit in that lake. See, here's the thing about inspections is they usually come after you've already made the offer. So you sat in that living room and you looked out over the lake and you're like, Oh my god, it's such a beautiful lake living.

[00:28:14] And then you get the inspection and you're like, shoot, you know, now you have to unmarry yourself for everything instead of understanding up front, all right, we're going to be a little bit more jaded about this process before we fully fall in love.

[00:28:30] That's the hardest part , explaining to people why you should do this before you get a house. And it's coming, it's an education process, we're getting there, we're getting there. So we like to conclude this to say, based upon the information that you've seen in this report, what are the top three things that you would look for at this location?

[00:28:54] John, why don't you start? Show them how it's done.

[00:28:57] John Siegman: Alright, well, the top three things, I don't know if anybody noticed it, but in the upper Right hand corner of the report. There is nothing that is like the world's greatest sign, because that's where we put it, if the property has been previously damaged or in an event.

[00:29:17] So the fact that this property doesn't have that mark, that's like super. Right. Okay. You've picked a pretty, pretty calm, safe place from a, you know, events standpoint to take a look at. So that would be the first thing.

[00:29:35] The second thing, the roof has come in due. so in, in your case, because the roof condition area event, very low, it's just going to age out. So you might get two more years, you might get five more years. But it's something that is coming and, you know, something to prepare for.

[00:30:02] And then the last thing is, as you have already experienced, it's Michigan. Yeah, you get snow, you get ice, you get all the things why I live where I live so I can avoid those things. And, you know, that being the case. You know, a little bit of preparation. Bob apparently has a side gig pushing gutter guards. me, I'm not, not overly over the top on gutter guards, but, especially cause you don't have a lot of trees hanging or close, but, you know, it is something that, you know, more insulation up in the attic, keep everything nice and cold on the outside, warm on the inside, probably would be not the world's worst.

[00:30:55] That's what I see. Bob?

[00:30:58] Bob Frady: Okay, if I were looking to buy 3332 Lance Lake Road in Wolverine, Michigan, here are the three things that I would be concerned with.

[00:31:10] Number one is the roof. It is aging out. So what has been done to protect that roof? Number two, Ice dams, and wintertime damage. Have there been any occurrences of ice dams and what has been done to help mitigate that risk of an ice dam? And you actually said earlier that you did have an ice dam there.

[00:31:32] And the third thing is the house is starting to get up there a little bit in terms of age. So you want to check all the mechanicals as to when. Pieces were replaced. So when was the last furnace? When was the last upgrade to the electrical? If there was any, well, 24 years with electrical, you generally okay, but you want to check the panel. You want to check everything to make sure it's in all good working order.

[00:31:53] So those are the three things that I would look for. Curtis, you own this house. What three things do you wish you knew that you didn't know then?

[00:32:04] Curtis Goldsborough: Yeah, I mean the, the ice dam, you know, I think is probably the biggest thing that, you know, that really jumped out at me and seeing that and then obviously with, you know, with our experience with that already. fortunately, you know, just the, where it happened and the way that it happened, it didn't turn up, you know, didn't end up being a big deal with that.

[00:32:23] I mean, that could have been a huge deal if that water had come in on an interior wall versus, you know, just an unfinished wall on the outside of the garage. you know, that could have been a major water loss, right? It very easily could have. So, yeah, I think that's, you know, to have that called out as loudly as it is here on the PropertyLens report, you know, I think is really cool.

[00:32:48] And then to John's point, you know, Getting a better understanding of what the insulation situation is in the attic and, you know, what mitigation measures could be done there to, you know, to help with that, I think would have been, would have been huge for us.

[00:33:06] Bob Frady: So, it sounds like, you know, for not having building permits and for not being for sale, I think we did okay. You know, we hit the hot buttons. And I do want to mention one thing that John mentioned that we didn't actually highlight in this report. We have a data set. Of roughly three and a half million properties that have had some sort of exposure or damage from catastrophic events, whether it's wildfires, wind, hail, tornado, flood, or fire, and you're, you hit none of them.

[00:33:41] So that's pretty good. So, you know, overall, yeah, you can, you can wish that you had more information about the place, but this is a good, it's a pretty good bill of health for, for a house or for a home. So, you know, good job. You picked, you chose well. Yeah. Yay, Michigan. Yay, Michigan. Yay, Michigan. Yeah. It's like, yeah, it doesn't get light until nine o'clock in the morning, but that's okay.

[00:34:12] Get low insurance rates. so, Thank you, Curtis. John, any parting questions?

[00:34:22] Curtis Goldsborough: No, no, I think we're good.

[00:34:24] Bob Frady: So, for Curtis, thank you very much for appearing on this week's episode of Property of the Week from PropertyLens. signing off, I'm Bob Frady.

[00:34:34] John Siegman: I'm John Siegman.

[00:34:35] Bob Frady: Until next time. Oh yeah, subscribe.

[00:34:38] Click that subscribe button down there. If you're, if that's your thing. Just click it. Thanks.

PropertyLens finds 3 Hidden DANGERS Lurking in a Michigan Home - featuring Curtis Goldsborough

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