Come To Find Out

Unlocking Affordable and Comprehensive Home Insurance in Florida: Expert Insights from Kevin at TopQuote

• Sarah Thress • Season 2 • Episode 33

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Unlock the secrets behind securing affordable and comprehensive home insurance in Florida as we welcome back Kevin from TopQuote Insurance. Discover how TopQuote sets itself apart by offering policies from a multitude of carriers, ensuring you find the best premiums and coverage options. Kevin sheds light on common misconceptions surrounding Florida's home insurance market, explains the significance of wind mitigation and four-point inspections in a hurricane-prone environment, and assures that despite certain restrictions, there are still plenty of viable options for homeowners.

Stay ahead of the curve with expert insights into insurance bundling and the evolving landscape of Florida's insurance market. Learn about the crucial role of building codes influenced by events like Hurricane Katrina, and how they impact insurance credits and quoting processes. Kevin also provides a forecast of the market’s future, addressing the departure and potential return of companies, the effects of reinsurance costs, and the importance of periodically re-shopping your insurance policies. Don't miss out on this treasure trove of information that could help you navigate the complexities of Florida home insurance and benefit from TopQuote Insurance's comprehensive services.

To contact Kevin Enderle:
Kevin@topquoteins.com
TOPQUOTEINS.COM

Sarah Thress
614-893-5885

First Time Home Buyer course: https://sarahthress.graphy.com/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sarah_thress_realtor/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SarahThressRealtor/
https://www.youtube.com/@LIFEINCOLUMBUS

Speaker 1:

Hi and welcome to this week's episode of Come to Find Out. This week we have Kevin with TopQuote Insurance. He is a senior agent with them and the last time we had him on the show, unfortunately we were having some technical difficulties and a lot of the very, very important information that he had to share with us did not come through clearly. So thank you so much for coming back on and taking the time out of your super busy schedule to talk to us about insurance. I know you had kind of thrown out some things like wind mitigation and all of that stuff, so I'd love for you to kind of break that down. But to start with, if you'd like to just tell us a little bit more about TopQuote kind of what you do, what your process is and we'll go from there.

Speaker 2:

Good, yes, thanks for having me back. Hopefully the connections are better this time, yeah. So yeah, just to kind of go over, you know about the company and what we do and how we kind of differentiate from other agencies and stuff. So we do have every carrier that's writing in Florida, we have an appointment with them. So that gives us a lot more options for all the, you know, for the customer, as far as, yes, we might not get 40 quotes back, you know, if you know, but it's going to narrow it down as far as some agencies only have you know, five carriers, well, that means they're going to go to citizens, you know, citizens, 100% probably. But it gives us more options for the customer, gives them a better product, hopefully, and, you know, add a better premium and stuff like that.

Speaker 2:

That's one thing that makes us different. Another thing I always tell people is kind of like, once you get in our agency, since we do offer everything, we have health, we have a health, we have life, we have auto, we have commercial. So I mean we can take the client. If he's got his own business, we can do everything for him home, personal, everything. So it's kind of one agency for all your insurance needs. Basically.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's amazing and it's nice to hear that you have that ability to talk to all the different companies, because you know what we're hearing and you know outside of the insurance world is oh my gosh. You know no one can get insured in Florida and there's no insurance available and you know it's all, it's all horrible. So I love hearing that from you, are you? Are you seeing that in the insurance world Like lots of people not writing anymore and people jumping in like hey, we'll write?

Speaker 2:

There's definitely new companies that are coming into the market. We have a company, a couple of companies, that kind of how they started when they come into the market is they basically do a depopulation from citizens. So they go in and take citizens policies to kind of alleviate you know, help them reduce their policy count and help the state basically, since it is the state run insured. And then after I would say about six months to a year, you see that that company, once they have their policies from citizens and have a firm foundation, they open up markets to start writing for everybody. So, yes, we do see a couple of brand new companies that are starting that. So that's a good sign. Yes, there are plenty of companies that once the roof gets over 15 years old, nope, we're not writing it. Once the water heater gets over 15 years old, we're not writing it. So, yes, there are a lot of restrictions, but is there insurance available? Yes, it's just with restrictions.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, I mean that's good to know, though I mean because, like I said, I mean people are hearing, like you know, with me being licensed in Ohio and in Florida. You know, if someone's talking to me about buying something in Florida, they're like but we can't get insurance, so we can't buy anything. And I'm like, no, no, calm down, there is insurance out there. I can't imagine that everyone in Florida is just living down there living their best life with no insurance. No, that's not happening. Yeah, I love it.

Speaker 1:

Well, and so, being here in Ohio, we clearly have plenty of things that we deal with. But when you throw out terms like wind mitigation and hurricane proof and all of that stuff, those are not terms that we hear in central Ohio. So I'd love for you to kind of explain what is that test? You know, what is it that you're looking for whenever you know? Is that an inspector that goes out? Is there a special wind mitigation person? You know, just kind of walk us through that, because I'd love for someone that's thinking about purchasing something in Florida or maybe they already live in Florida and they're thinking about purchasing, you know, their first home and they've never heard these terms. I'd love for you to just kind of break it down for us.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yeah, so, yeah. So basically there's two forms. Well, once the home gets over 20 years old, they would both are definitely required for pretty much, I would say, 75 percent of our carriers. So one of them is called a four point inspection and what that one does is it looks at your electrical, your plumbing, your AC and then the roof system, your AC and then the roof system, and it basically looks to see is there any issues with the electrical, is there any issues with the plumbing? Is it leaking? Is the roof in good shape? That's more what I call eligibility, because everybody's like hey, I got a new AC unit, is it going to save me money? No, that's going to help you with eligibility. So that's more an eligibility form with all the companies.

Speaker 2:

And then the second, like you mentioned, is the wind mitigation and what that looks at is how the roof deck for one is attached to the roof trusses and then it goes in to look like how the roof trusses are attached to the actual structure of the home. And then there's what's called a secondary water barrier, so it's an underlayment that's underneath the shingles. If that's installed, that's an extra credit that they get, because it provides another barrier for water for the customer. And then the third another discount that they can get is the opening protection. So that's for hurricane.

Speaker 2:

There's two different forms of that. There's a large missile they call it level a and level b, which is a medium, small missile. Um, don't know why they call them missiles, but that's what they call them. So that's what we go with. But yeah, so it's just like a different poundage of what the window and you know, if you have like hurricane shutters, what they can handle being hit without breaking. Basically. So, yeah, there's different, you know things for those. But yeah, those are the. Those are the main things that looks at, like I said, like how the roof's attached to the actual you know trusses from the like the plywood's attached to the trusses and then how the trusses are attached to the actual structure so if you said, like is there a special inspector that comes out and does those things?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So typically your normal home inspector in the state of Florida can go out and do all the four points and win-mits. So when you have your full home inspection that most I would say 95% of the clients do, they add those in there because they know they're an insurance requirement, basically to get insurance on the property.

Speaker 1:

So if they went through the four-point inspection or the you know wind mitigation process and they deemed it that was not proper, is that something that would have to be repaired before you could even close on it because you couldn't get insured it?

Speaker 2:

have to be repaired before you could even close on it because you couldn't get insured. There are a few things Electrical and plumbing will always have to be fixed for our standard market carriers. So the Florida Pens, the Citizens, all that. You know more of the standard market carriers. You go excess and surplus lines, lloyd's in London you can possibly get it, but they're going to exclude certain coverages and stuff like that. So your standard market carries yes, your plumbing and electrical all that will always have to be done. Citizens is one of the ones that will offer you if your roof's in bad shape, as long as you have a roof contract. You can basically have a roof contract signed saying that it's going to be completed within 60 days of closing and then they will, 99.9% of the time, approve the policy and you just have to have the roof done within the 60 days.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and do you see? You may not know this, but do you see, if that comes up, does the seller normally have to pay for that, or does the buyer normally pay for that, or is that part of negotiation?

Speaker 2:

I see that more of a negotiation. I've seen it split down the middle. I mean I've had I think in the last month I've actually had four of them. So two of them has been a buyer and then two of them have actually been the seller, you know, paying for it, just getting it done after closing.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, okay, well, that's good to know. And then I've heard that they, you know, sometimes, whenever they're doing that wind mitigation or that four-pointer or whatever you know, they'll mention something about tie downs. And in my head I'm always thinking like a, you know, like a tent, and you have the tie downs that are holding it down, and I'm like why would you have that on the roof? Like so what does that even mean?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so that's how the roof trusses are attached to the building. So there's five different versions. There's what's called a toenail, that's with a basically a metal strap that's got two nails on one side. Then there's a clip next level up. That's the same metal strap with three nails. So you know a little bit better than there's what's called a single wrap three nails. So you know a little bit better. Then there's what's called a single wrap. That's when the actual metal strap goes around the truss and is nailed on the other side, and then you have a double wrap too. So, yeah, it just kind of keeps on going up from there. I mean, the last is structural, where it's like it's metal. You know more like a I-beam type thing and you know more structural versus that. But yeah, there's different levels, but most of the time you would see either clips or single wrap is pretty much your standard. That you see, you really don't see too many double wraps. You see a lot of toenails because that's how the building code used to be.

Speaker 1:

Okay, interesting. Yeah, I just always wondered what that meant and I figured that it was the, uh, the tie downs, you know, from the the roof down, um, you know, I mean obviously, like going through this process with home buyers, like I had had learned it. But you know, I just thought it was really funny that when I first, you know, heard that, I was thinking like, oh, do you just have like lines that are holding your? That's really weird to me. Yeah, now, um, I know that, uh, you know, obviously, living in Florida, lots of people like to have um pools. I know here, um, it doesn't really help, it doesn't really give much value to the home, you know, to have a pool here, but it does affect your insurance. You know, your insurance goes higher. You have to have, um, you know, certain gates and things like that. Is that a requirement also in florida? I never knew if that was like an international, you know like a national rule, or if that was just state by state.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that is a I mean. So there is certain things that you know are required. So you know, I have a pool, is it screened and fenced? Or, you know, screened and fenced? If it's not, then they company just won't offer you like the liability part of it, um, for your personal liability, because now it's wide open and anybody can go in there and, you know, get hurt and drown possibly and stuff like that. So, yeah, so there's that, um, I would say it does increase your premium because, especially if it's like an attached pool, um, so if it's close to the structure and it's attached, well then that means it's added to your dwelling, so that increases your dwelling amount, which in turn increases your premium on your insurance.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay, I had a feeling that it would affect it. I couldn't imagine that. You know, it was just like an Ohio thing. That you know insurance, yeah, I love that. So walk me through. Like so, if someone reaches out to you and says, hey, like I'm, you know I'm looking at this property, you know, walk me through kind of the process. Like you know, obviously you're talking to them, talking about their needs, talking about you know, a property that maybe they're interested in or maybe they've put a contract on, or whatever, walk me through kind of your process. What do you do with people whenever they call?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so once you know, like, like you said, once they come to us, basically I you know, take their application, you know, take, take their information down, put it in our system, then I go in and update all the information as far as the house, how many square footage it is, levels, building type, is it masonry, is it? You know? If it's two stories, is it masonry and frame? You know, is it just all masonry Stuff like that? So I basically put in all the information. If they have a wind mitigation and a four point, add that in there.

Speaker 2:

If they don't, basically what we do is we look at the last time that, like the roof was replaced and know that at certain times, depending on the year it was replaced, they're going to get these wind credits. The roofer should have installed certain things, because that was the basically you know the building code at that time. So there's certain things like that that we can automatically add that we know. Yes, we do need the win mitigation and the four point to actually bind the policy, but at least we can give them a quote with that. So, yeah, then we put it on our quoting system and run a quote with all the different curves that we have. Once we get the quote back, we basically firm it up with our the different carriers that we have. Once we get the quote back, we basically firm it up with you know our couple best options that we have send that to the carrier, talk it over, or send that to the customer, talk it over with them and, you know, go from there. If they're ready to bind, then we bind and move forward.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's great and I love that you have all of that, and I can imagine that building codes especially because of, like the tropical storms and hurricanes and things that you get, your building codes probably get updated much more than maybe ours do here in Ohio, ohio. Um, is there like a rhyme or a reason or is it like, hey, after this big hurricane you know came through, now we need to update it. Um, you know it like, how did, how did they figure that out? Like what the building code should be?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean. So, like I know, you know, the biggest one was after Katrina, of course, um. That's when a lot of stuff came on Um, and there's been updates since then, but ones like that one that that was definitely the biggest um, just because all the damage that it did do back then um, so that was the biggest. Now you don't see the big changes as as much um as you did before um, but yeah, it's yeah, and I think you know building code, the jurisdictions kind of look at it as okay, this is an old one, we need to update it. You know?

Speaker 1:

yeah, I just wondered because I know, you know, there was that big hurricane, um, just gosh, I guess it's been three years now um, down in like the fort myers area. You know it was one of the the larger ones than you know they've seen in a long time, especially in that area. Um, and so I know everything down there. You know, as they've seen in a long time, especially in that area, and so I know everything down there. You know, as they're rebuilding, they're like, oh gosh, this isn't up to code, and you know, especially as you're closer to the water, and things like that. So I just wondered how you know, how you guys came up with that, or if it was kind of on a you know like, oh, a hurricane happened and now we need to update, or this much damage that we saw, like okay, now we need to up it to this, you know, because you know our hurricanes are getting stronger or whatever.

Speaker 2:

Right, yeah, I mean I definitely think the jurisdictions look at, you know, look at that information when they're, you know, once a storm comes through and sees, sees the damage and you know, probably investigates like what did this roof have versus the roof next door that didn't get as much damage, stuff like that. So they definitely probably look at that and update, like you said, update the code from there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that. So you mentioned that people can get like car and health and life insurance you know all the things, all the insurances from you guys you know, and there are several companies out there that offer, you know, like a bundle discount that we've all like heard about. Do you guys have that? You know, like with the different carriers that you work with, if everybody kind of bundles into like one thing, like if a household you know bundles like their car, their health, all that stuff, do they get some type of discount? Or is there a sliding scale or how does that work?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we don't have any like carriers themselves that you know one carrier that offers auto. Your most common are the auto and home, so we don't have a carrier that offers both. We do have a couple of homeowner carriers that it says like, as you're filling out the application, does the customer have auto insurance through your agency? So if you say yes, they do get a. It's not a huge discount but they do get a little bit of a discount since they are. I guess keeping it in the same agency is what the customer carrier looks at. So yeah, there's that, but for the most part, no, we don't offer anything that has a true bundle, as you could call it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, which totally makes sense. I just wondered because you hear all the commercials of all the bundling services and things. So I just wondered if that was something. So I always like to ask this and I always preface it with none of us have a crystal ball at all. So you know, no one can hold us to, we can't see the future. But I'd love your predictions on, you know kind of the the insurance world down there in Florida. You know cause of the the insurance world down there in Florida. You know cause we've heard all of these varying things. You've now assured us that there are actually in fact people writing policies so people can get insurance. Do you think that some of the companies that maybe left um Florida will end up coming back, uh, or do you think that it's just going to kind of be a whole new wave of new companies? And just any other predictions that you have for the market or the insurance world I'd love to hear.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so there's definitely some companies that haven't wrote a policy in probably two years Now they've kept some of their existing policies. We hear that starting into this year, possibly into beginning of next year, they're going to open back up and start writing brand new policies. So that's a promising sign that you know if they haven't wrote policies in two years and now they're looking at that they will, then that's good. As far as, like the companies that went out and that are, we don't see them coming back as the same name. Basically they're getting tied under somebody else and that person's basically taking over their whole book that they had and starting it that way. So yeah, that's where we see we don't see like an actual the same company coming back into the market that was, you know, went insolvent before. They're just coming in under somebody else.

Speaker 1:

Basically, yeah, well, that's good. I mean again, I just think that you know, anytime we can hear good news like that, it kind of counterbalances all the negative stuff we hear, you know in the media and all the chicken little sky is falling stuff, and all the chicken little sky is falling stuff, yeah, I love that, I love that. Well, thank you so much for taking time out to come back and explain that stuff. Is there anything else that you can think of that? Maybe we haven't covered that you think would be really good for a future client to know about working with you or about purchasing in Florida. You know just any last. You know words that you kind of have.

Speaker 2:

Not really. I mean, you know, we do see. You know, as far as, like, you know, if you've got your existing policy and you're not a not a new purchase, you know, we do see some companies that are basically asking for a dequeue from their office of insurance regulations. We see some companies that are basically asking for a decrease from their office of insurance regulations. We see some companies that are just asking for a zero increase. So we do see some, like I said, some signs of it's getting better, and one of the main things driving that is the reinsurance.

Speaker 2:

We see that helping and reducing the reinsurance costs for the carrier so they're able to not basically charge more for their policies. So that's really about it. I mean, yeah, we definitely, you know we'll reshop anybody's policy, even if they're not with us. That's, you know, why we're here is we got all the different carriers to kind of help you out and try to save you as much as we can, cause, like you said, insurance is crazy right now. So if we can save some money, hey, we'll save us some money.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I love that, I love it. Well, thank you so much for taking time out telling us all of this great information and helping us, to, you know, have a better understanding of insurance. So I'm definitely going to have all of your information in the show notes so anybody that is interested in reaching out to Top Quote Insurance and asking questions or finding out if that's the right place for you, they'll be able to get in contact with you. Sounds good.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, thank you so much for tuning in this week. Please make sure that you leave a review, because feedback is the greatest gift, and please make sure you're sharing this with anyone, because that is the greatest compliment that you can give Kevin and myself. And also make sure that you are subscribing so you never miss another episode. Thanks so much and we'll see you next time on Come to Find Out.