In this episode, we’re tackling the evolving landscape of roofing insurance with insights from industry expert Dave Hart. Whether you’re navigating the complexities of deductibles or understanding the fine print of your insurance policy, we’ve got you covered. Tune in as we discuss the implications of hail damage, the rising costs of policies, and how homeowners can take proactive steps to protect their investment. We also dive into the benefits of technology in roofing with a look at RoofMax, a revolutionary product designed to extend the life of your roof. Discover how you can save money and reduce risk
SPEAKER 09 :
in the floor behind the chair this is america does everybody know what time it
SPEAKER 05 :
It is Fix-It Radio. Cold, snowy morning here in Colorado. If you’re listening to Replay Show, you’ll know that today is January the 18th. And yes, we’ve had a nice big snowstorm. Lots going on, of course. Inauguration day coming up. Steve Horvath from Geno’s Auto Service with me today. So we had several things we wanted to cover today in light of the fires and different things that have been going on that way. But Steve, any issues getting down here today? No, no. Actually, it wasn’t that bad.
SPEAKER 09 :
It’s nice that traffic wasn’t so bad either.
SPEAKER 05 :
A lot of people staying home, I think. Good thing. Which is fine. Speaking of, I figured since a lot of people probably are at home, they might be more intent on listening to some things today. So Dave Hart joining us now from Roof Savers of Colorado. And Dave, you and I have been talking, you know, always. I mean, it’s a constant conversation with you when it comes to the insurance end of things. But with what’s happening in California, a lot of what you’ve been talking about when it comes to insurance, especially… roofs, but just the policy in general, there have been big changes, and I’m afraid that there’s bigger changes coming. Am I wrong in my thoughts?
SPEAKER 13 :
No. I think, good morning, first of all. I think you’re definitely right on the mark. Just even the last two years out here in Colorado alone, last year we didn’t have a ton of hail. The year before, we had a regular amount of hail storms. um that caused damage and i don’t remember the dollar amounts i have too much going on to keep track of that every day but uh but it was large numbers and due to that um some of the fires that we had you know even your place up in the mountains a few years earlier than that right the interest cup is like hey we can’t keep paying for this and unfortunately they’re they’re not a non-profit you know they’re out to make money they are money and as most businesses who are and so when they see that their expenses are going up, like any business owner, they would figure out how to cut those back.
SPEAKER 05 :
And so during that time and that process… Basically, minimize risk is what they’re looking at.
SPEAKER 13 :
Minimize risk, yes, better way to put it. Um, so what they started doing is raising first sort of raising everybody’s deductibles, you know, from an average of a thousand to 1500 up to between 2,500 and 5,000 as an average. Um, mine was no, no option. Otherwise it went to 10,000. So it’s like a, it’s like, it’s almost 10 grand. It’s like a 2% now. Um, and a lot of the insurance carriers started pulling out of the state. Um, so that was the first thing. And then they started pulling or implementing another policy where if your roof is 10 years old or older, If you have an event that requires replacing your roof and it’s 10 years old or older, some carriers are 15, but most of them are 10, they’re going to give you what’s called the ACV. So they’ll give you the money that the roof is technically worth. Actual cash value. Actual cash value minus your deductible. So in a lot of cases, we’re starting to see roofs that are costing $18,000, $20,000. And people are getting $6,000, $7,000, $8,000 to replace the $20,000 roof. By turning back out the deductible, they’re not getting the depreciation, the full amount, full replacement cost value. And so that’s what’s going on. And now we have, I forget the latest numbers, up to $30-something billion or $300 billion in California.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s going to be a huge amount of money. I’m not sure they’ve even got that one, Dave, total tally, because as you know, they haven’t even figured out what all infrastructure and everything else they’ve lost at this point. I would venture to guess that it’s going, the 30 is probably not going to be enough. It’s going to be much, much, your 300 probably isn’t too far off when it’s all said and done. Look at how much damage has been done out there.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, so I think with that, it’s just going to cause them to tighten their belts even more. And I’m predicting, I’m not saying it’s going to be tomorrow or in a year from now, but it won’t be long. We’re going to be kind of going to, I believe it is some New Jersey, somewhere over there where we basically don’t have any insurance for your roof. I may be misspeaking on that one. But I heard somebody talk about that the other day.
SPEAKER 05 :
I could see where insurance companies could do it a lot like they do windshields on a car, where in a lot of cases, Dave there and Steve knows this, there’s policies out there that you’re going to pay more premium and they may go ahead and cover that. said windshield or you may have a you know 500 deductible on said windshield or there’s no coverage at all i could see them getting to the point where on the roof itself it becomes almost a separate rider if you would to where okay if you want this kind of coverage this is what the addendum this is what the additional cost and the policy is going to be otherwise the standard policy is xyz i could see him going to that dave
SPEAKER 13 :
100%. And unfortunately, I saw this coming back in 2010 because we went through a period from 2011, 2008, those three years where we had a lot of hail, too, and I started seeing a lot of changes within the industry. And I predict a lot of this happening. I thought it was going to happen sooner, but here we are now. And so I think what it’s forcing us all to do is to take on, and I know you talk a lot about it, but having that first responsibility with our roofs and the exterior of the home in general. But the roof takes the brunt of the damage. And anything we can do to keep that roof alive, keep it going, keep it maintained, the less we have to deal with issues coming on that. And I think over time… Maybe the insurance costs will start to average out, but it’s going to be easier.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and here’s the thing, and I’m not trying to point fingers or throw stones or anything like that, but in a way, I think a lot of times the insurance policies on roofs are used a lot like it would be for a windshield, and I’ll explain that. um nobody wants to pay for anything if they don’t have to if they can get something that’s a pretty large ticket item covered by the insurance of course you know it’s their right to do so but i’m afraid what’s happened in the past dave and i think unfortunately unscrupulous roofers not you but but your industry is well known for this you know there’s there’s a hail storm that happens and you know maybe there’s a little bit of damage on that roof but let’s face it there’s probably also a lot of wear and tear and things that have been going on over the past, you know, probably five to seven to maybe even 10 years. And so, you know, this particular roofer gets up there and says, well, you know, yeah, you’ve got some hail damage. But, you know, I tell you what, I think we can, you know, we can highlight some of these areas where there’s definite hail damage. And by the way, Dave, maybe that’s one or two places on the roof where you can actually see that the rest of the roof doesn’t have a whole lot of damage. That’s what they used to go to the insurance company with. And depending upon who the adjuster is and what all’s happened in that particular area and how busy they are, A lot of people can get that thing slid through, get a new roof out of the deal when it’s all said and done. And I’m here to tell you, those days are ending. They’re coming in very quickly. And by the way, in what I just said a moment ago, am I wrong in any of that?
SPEAKER 13 :
100% no. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on a roof with an insurance adjuster. And I meet them in the street. I’m real friendly. I don’t argue. I’m there to help them out and help. I get up there, and a lot of times I’ll meet the adjuster on the street and say, Mr. and Mrs. Adjuster, I’m here to represent the homeowner. Just so you know, I did not see enough damage up on that roof to warrant making a claim. Customers still want me here to represent and represent them and be there on their behalf, and I stay out of the way. Eight out of ten times, not even nine out of ten times, they pay to replace that roof. And there’s a lot of reasons for that. A lot of them don’t want to deal with, and it wouldn’t be me, but it’s 9 out of 10 contractors will argue with them, and then they get the homeowner hyped up, and then they put a… The hassle factor they don’t want. Exactly. So they just end up paying for it. Well, here we are. And nobody likes the insurance companies as such. We don’t like paying them that premium every year. But it’s there for a reason. But when we’re abusing it, we’re paying for that abuse now.
SPEAKER 05 :
In a way, I’ve always looked at insurance. I talk about this a lot, mainly because of the personal responsibility end of things, Dave. I look at insurance as just that. I didn’t buy a maintenance policy. I bought a catastrophic insurance policy. So if something major happens, fire, something along those lines, I’m covered. But the regular day-to-day things… If I can save money on the policy by doing some things myself, then that’s what I’ve tried to do now for decades just because I’ve learned. I guess you could say you learn the hard way, and Steve understands this on the business side as well, but you learn on the hard side when you have too many claims or too many things that start to happen, one of two things happens. Either you don’t have insurance with that company any longer or the premium is such that you’re probably going to go someplace else anyways. But then people forget that there’s what they call loss runs where they can still go back and see exactly what you’ve done insurance-wise on that particular piece of property anyways. So the point with all of this is, number one, for everybody listening, I’m not – trying to exaggerate or scare anybody when it comes to these things. But I want people, Dave, to be fully aware of what’s coming. And, you know, you know me. I want people to be prepared and not be shocked when these things happen. And the other thing that I have a fear of, and it’s not probably the majority of my listeners, although I think there might be some out there listening right now who don’t even know what their policy actually says. And a lot of people don’t, Dave, until they actually have to turn something in on a claim.
SPEAKER 13 :
We run into that a lot. Like, oh, I didn’t know I had an $8,000 deductible. I thought it was $1,000. Well, you do. And I can’t do anything about it. I just have to do the best I can to work with them to make it work. Right. But we run into that a lot. And even on the claimant, I’ve had just two in the last 30 days, testers have made a claim, legitimate hail damage. They waited until now to have it looked at. And, I mean, legitimate damage, not even a question. And they’ve made the claim. They paid out of a claim. Not an issue. As soon as they made the claim, they canceled them. And they hadn’t had a claim in 20 years. And so we’re seeing that happen a lot as well. I don’t want to tell people to not make a claim on it. There’s a reason we have our insurance. If your roof is damaged, then… to the point where it makes sense to replace it, then we should replace it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Um, okay. I’ve got a question that came in before we continue on. Cause I want to talk about the maintenance side and what you can do to even help extend the life of the roof and so on. This is on a metal roof. Somebody says, what about a standing seam? Many metal roofs are hit with hail and then they’ll claim that it’s just damn or they’ll claim that that damage is just cosmetic. Walk us through that end of things as well.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah. So on, it used to be, um, If you had some dings on the metal roof, they’d pay to replace it. In the last five years, they’ve really tightened their belts on that, and now they are correct. They are considering that cosmetic. Now, if that metal is damaged to the point where it causes that baked-on coating to color, if it causes that paint to crack… then we can get it replaced. Because what happens is the paint cracks, now the metal, water’s going to get under that coating to color the paint and then start rusting. But if it just dings, yeah, they’re considering that just cosmetic.
SPEAKER 05 :
So in other words, that one is getting to be more… Well, they’re just… This whole conversation, they’re getting more careful in what they’re doing and what they’re paying out on. Right. Exactly. Yep. Okay. Minimizing the risk. So let’s talk about the RoofMax product. I’ve talked about that plenty in the past. It’s the main reason why really you started with us in the first place. I’ve had it done on my roof. I’ve had family members that have had it done. A lot of listeners listening have had it done. it is a great product and really dave what it does and not to take you know any of your thunder away but for those of you listening this particular product not only extends the life of your roof by by rejuvenating what’s already there but it literally dave in a lot of cases will make it even more you know quote unquote storm proof because in my case where i’m high wind area and every time the wind blows super high i have dave out to look just to make sure everything’s all dialed in because literally where i live it can be 100 mile an hour and i’m not exaggerating when i say that and dave with everything that you’ve done on my roof we literally go through those storms and you know knock on wood because you never know but so far we’ve been through several of those with no issues correct yeah um
SPEAKER 13 :
So, yeah, what the treatment does, let me back up real fast, too, on the re-roofing of things. We’re doing a lot more higher-end roofs that will withstand hail a lot better. They are more expensive. We do have financing programs to help out, stuff like that. So there are options to help with that in the future if that’s a way a client wants to go. If not, RoofMax comes in, and what it does is it puts the oils back into the shingle. So as the shingles age, they dry out. Much like the roads that we drive on, they start cracking, they lose the granules. And your granules, they have two functions. The first one being they give you the color of your roof. The second one being is they keep the UV rays off of the asphalt of the shingles as long as we can. So it’s really important to keep as many of those granules on for as long as we can, as we possibly can, because it keeps the UV rays off. So when we treat a roof with the treatment, It puts the oils back in. It puts the moisture back in the shingle so it can expand and contract. It helps hold the granules on longer. And to your point, once it soaks all the way through the shingle, which this time of year we can treat it, it takes about 45 minutes to soak in the shingle. And once it does, it can rain, it can snow, it can freeze, no issue. It’s in the shingle. But it takes about three days for it to fully saturate the shingle to hit the seal tabs and drastically help. allow those steel tabs to stick again. You know, we can’t promise to be every single one, but it helps tremendously. And so far, we haven’t had any… any wind calls this year of any shingles blowing off, especially on the roofs that we have treated. Okay. And there’s some roofs out there that are pretty old. So it really does help out. And even if it doesn’t seal down, it makes that tab, that shingle, more flexible. So it may flop up in the wind, but it shouldn’t break off because it’s pliable. The reason they break off is because they’re dry. Right. and then to fly off. So it basically does as much as we can to make that roof like new again and last as long as we possibly can. And we treat a lot of roofs that have hail damage for whatever reason. Just to make a claim, Many different reasons that rather treat the roof, and what it does is you’ve got that damage from the hail, but it prevents that damage from spreading like a cancer and making those hits even worse.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, so walk us through where, okay, somebody qualifies, which, by the way, everybody listening, Dave, you come out, you look at the roof, you make sure that this, in fact, is something that at the end of the day is going to be an aid. In other words, is the roof good enough to even damage? go through this process in the first place. You verify all of that before doing anything. But let’s say that somebody is a good candidate for this. They get all of this done. How does that then work for them on the insurance side moving forward? As far as the… Once it’s treated, now we know we’ve got a really good solid roof over our head and things are quote-unquote up to speed, protected, whatever you want to say. How or will that save anybody money insurance-wise?
SPEAKER 13 :
We’re getting close to that. It’s very much like when the impact-resistant shingles first came out a year ago. It took a long time for them to understand, hey, this actually works. This helps resist some hail damage. And they started off, interest carriers started offering a discount on a premium. We are getting really close on the corporate level. We actually have multiple lawyers working directly with the heads of these insurance carriers saying, hey, here’s what we have. Here’s what it can do for you. On top of that, we’re starting to get a lot of customers take, when we’re done with the treatment, we provide them with a certificate of completion and the warranty sheet. And we get a lot of customers that are sending that to their insurance agents. So it’s, they know we’re here. And I think it should be very, very soon. They’re going to offer discounts for having it done up. I do get asked a lot if an insurance company pays for this, and they do not. It’s a maintenance item.
SPEAKER 05 :
Now, this I do know because this is what I do. Even if they don’t offer you… you know big discounts because you’ve had this coating done given the fact that we’ve done it given the fact that we know we’ve got better protection than we once had dave my suggestion to save money for everybody listening would be go in there with your agent look at all of your deductibles and what could you change around in raising them knowing that your chances of having to have a full roof replacement are going to be pretty slim anyways at this point yes you’re going to do some self-insurance this way but i would suggest you go in and look at if i raise some of these things what kind of a premium savings does that give me and that in turn offsets the cost of doing the maintenance side of things that you’re talking about with the roof max product absolutely yeah absolutely and i think there’s a lot there’s a lot to self-assurance and things and i know i know it’s kind of scary because
SPEAKER 13 :
We tend to rely on insurance companies a lot.
SPEAKER 05 :
We do, but let me give an example of that. I had a question this last week from somebody, a drive radio listener, wanted to know they were running towards the end of the warranty on a particular new car they were driving. And the question came in to me, you know, should I buy the extended warranty now that I’m getting to the end of my current warranty? And my immediate answer back was, as long as you’re maintaining the vehicle moving forward… Take the money that you would have normally have been spending on said contract, because that’s what it is. It’s an insurance contract at that point. It’s not really an extended warranty because there’s no such thing in the aftermarket. You’re buying a contract. So take that monthly fee that you would have been paying. Go stick that in an account. Keep doing your maintenance like you should be. Chances are you’ll have all that money left over when it’s all said and done anyways. But if something does come up, you’ve got some money set aside. to go ahead and take care of that. Dave, this side of the aisle with the roof wouldn’t be any different.
SPEAKER 1 :
100%.
SPEAKER 13 :
You know, and just to that point, when I got my new truck a little over a year ago, they wanted to put an extended warranty year contract on it. And for that, it was going to be like $7,500. And I’m like, I can do a lot with $7,500. That’s a lot of money. Yeah, so I just maintained it. You know, I asked you a question yesterday about the best way to use the oil change. So it’s… Yes, it’s nice to have that peace of mind that’s behind you, but that $75 extra on top of the payment I already have on that truck is a lot of money.
SPEAKER 04 :
It is.
SPEAKER 13 :
Plus you’re paying interest on that.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 13 :
So it just doesn’t make sense. So you put that aside. Self-insure, you plan for it. Okay, I’ve probably got two or three years before some of these repairs are going to happen, but the money is sitting there for it.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 13 :
And I’m not paying interest on it. So there’s a lot to be in that personal responsibility and being able to set yourself up in that way to – Very much like health insurance. I don’t have a typical health insurance program because it’s so expensive. But what I do have is designed for major medical. Right. So my daughter breaks a pinky finger. It costs me $1,200 to get a splint on it, get it set, neck trays and all that. the money set aside for that because I’m not paying astronomical amounts for a standard policy.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and what we’re saying here, Dave, and you know this, and I talk about this during the week as well, but folks, believe me, this is coming. You might as well learn how to do some of these things. And where I’m going with this, Dave, is You’re going to have to do more, quote unquote, you know, management of some of these things where in the past, you know, your your premium was included with your your mortgage each month. You paid that sort of a set it, forget it sort of a thing. And off you go. Reality is those days are gone and you’re going to have to do some self-managing of these things to stay ahead of it. That’s my point.
SPEAKER 13 :
You just have to start budgeting for things. You know, each line item for a house is kind of setting so much aside a month for lift stuff, for exterior stuff, however you want to do it. But we’re not going to have the ability to lean on the insurance company every time it gets held like we’ve been used to the last 15 years. It’s just, that’s what’s happening.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I hate to say it, Dave. Those days are ending. In a lot of cases with certain insurance companies, they already have ended and once it starts as you know dave that’s just going to become the norm inside of the industry and it won’t take long for it to get to that point and we’re and believe me these fires to your point are going to accelerate that you know pardon for the pun there but it’s going to accelerate those things because it’s going to happen faster than probably we would have been seeing otherwise and by the way it’s not just what happened with the fires you know we had Some devastating things happened on the East Coast with hurricanes and so on. So, Dave, you take all of that combined, and to your point and what we opened up with, insurance companies are for profit. They’re here to give their shareholders a profit when it’s all said and done. And they are going to minimize risk any way they can. And if that means they have to adjust to what’s in the policy itself, that’s what they’re going to do.
SPEAKER 13 :
100%. And I can’t stress it enough. It is here. It’s not going to get better. And I’m really predicting that we’re going to, like you said, you’re going to have to have a different writer if you want that kind of coverage. But it’s going to cost you more money. That’s right. And it’s just a reality. So anything we can do now to, and again, we’re supposed to get replaced because there’s just, you know, there is an end to everything.
SPEAKER 05 :
Of course.
SPEAKER 13 :
We can’t extend things, you know, for eternity. Yeah.
SPEAKER 05 :
No, you can’t, although I will say just, again, personal experience. It’s like anything else, though, Dave. It’s like an old car. The longer you keep your maintenance up, and that includes even on an old car paint and things like that, Dave, there are still cars running around that have original paint on them that are 30, 40 years old, and depending upon who owned it and how well it was cared for, I’m not saying a roof is going to last that long, but I will tell you what. If you come out annually, do all of the inspections, keep up on the roof max treatments every four to five years, the reality is you could extend the life of that roof probably double of what it would have been otherwise.
SPEAKER 13 :
And real quick, just kind of to that point, let’s say we start seeing roofs lose granules, start getting some minor thermal cracking. There’s a lot of variables involved, but on average between a seven to eight, nine-year range of age. if we can get that roof treated in that time frame, most roofs in Colorado on average will last about 18 years. Good lifespan. After that, you’ve got a lot of bare spots, a lot of granular loss, cracking. But if we get in that 8- to 10-year range, even the 12-year range, we can do up to three treatments on that roof over the course of however long. If we can get it soon enough, we can get three in, we can extend that out. There’s no reason we can’t get you another 20, 25 years of life on that roof pretty stinking easily instead of 18 years. And if we did all three treatments at once, which obviously we cannot, so just a quick example, if we did all three today, that cost to do that is only half of what it costs to replace a roof at today’s prices. And you know that’s going up as time goes by. I just noticed today that because of the fires, our prices are prematurely jumping next month instead of in May. Yep, they’re already getting ahead of it. Yeah, absolutely huge. So I think it’s roof vacs. product, the treatment, it’s all real savers of Colorado. It’s going to be… Yeah, we tripled in size this year. You know that? You’ve helped me out with that. Because it’s very, very important. It’s going to be a household thing.
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely. So all of you listening, if you need some help on any of this, and don’t let the weather bother you as soon as things get a little bit warmed up and the snow starts to melt, Dave can come out and get you taken care of. His number, 303-710-6916. You can also go to our website, fixitradio.com. link there to dave’s website as well but dave you know hey i appreciate it i’ve learned so much from you on all of this stuff that frankly i didn’t know you know four or five years ago uh literally it’s like anything else education is key that’s what we’re doing this morning with all the folks that are listening and my whole point with this is is the industry is changing it’s not done changing and probably will continue to morph on down the road dave as they keep trying to figure out ways to make things work for for all you know the insurance company and the insured but the days of just having a you know you put a roof up and then give the insurance company 500 bucks or in the old days you didn’t give anybody anything because the roofer wasn’t honest and he factored all of that into the the cost of the the roof itself um at the end of the day those days are gone dave
SPEAKER 13 :
They are, fortunately or unfortunately, however you look at it, but the reality is here we are, and we have to learn to adapt to it and deal with it. Yep.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hey, really quick, before I let you go, Jeff in Montana’s got a question that might apply to you, so let me go ahead and bring Jeff up before I let you go. Jeff, go ahead.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, it was really two comments you guys were talking about insurance. I had two thoughts. First of all… It seems like the insurance companies have done a really, really lousy job of assessing risk. I mean, you know, they should have been seeing this. If you’re running a company and you can’t tell folks that, hey, you’re in a wildfire area, you’re really in risk. You know, all the factors have been there for years. That’s why State Farm pulled out about two months prior.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah. So, you know, what sort of culpability or, you know, how well are the insurance companies? And then second of all, this is going to give them a lot of clout, too, in terms of determining rates and, you know, telling states what they need to have in terms of risk reduction. So, you know, comments on both sides, how, you know, anything they might have botched and then the future power they have.
SPEAKER 05 :
yep no by the way jeff thank you great great comments and and really dave jeff’s just backing up some of what we’ve been talking about they’re going to trust me everybody listening if you think your insurance company because you’ve been with them for the last you know four decades isn’t going to change things because you’re some sort of a special customer think again you’re a number in an actuary that they look at on a routine basis to jeff’s point dave and i don’t care how long you’ve been with them they will still make changes
SPEAKER 13 :
They will. And to that point, what they are doing as well is they’re actually even, and they’ve been doing it more so lately, they’re driving through neighborhoods, sending somebody out to drive by an insured, you know, a house that they insure. They get out a pair of binoculars. They do a quick inspection. They don’t usually get out of the car. And then they say, okay, we’ve got a tree too close to the house. You have a tree hanging over your roof. Your roof looks old. And they send out the letters and say you need to take care of this in 30 days or we’re going to cancel you. We’re dealing with a lot of that, too, with older roofs. And then we’re going in. doing the treatment and saying, okay, here’s what we did. And we’re actually having success getting them to reverse that. But it’s a lot of work. And so they’re basically telling people you have to replace your roof. Well, who wants to spend $10,000, $12,000, $15,000, $18,000 to replace a roof unexpectedly? And so anything we can do to mitigate the insurance companies getting involved and we start taking care of stuff on our own, the better off we’re all going to be.
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely. Absolutely. Dave, I appreciate you, man, very much. Thank you. All right, man. Take care. Stay warm. We’ve got another guest joining us. Bert is going to join us from BP Appraisals. We’re going to talk a little bit further on some of this stuff, only getting into some more details of some of what we just covered with Dave. So, guys, hang tight. Fix It Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 06 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
All right, we are back. Fix-It Radio, KLZ 560. Myself, Steve Horvath, Geno’s Auto Service with us. He’ll be with me through Drive Radio as well. Burke Payne joining us now. Burke, good morning. How are you, sir?
SPEAKER 04 :
Doing good. Trying to stay warm.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I think a lot of folks are, which is fine. I wanted to have you on purposely because it’s a good day to talk about certain things, not only fire-related like I just did with Dave on the insurance side, but on the appraiser side as well. as well, Burke, because that’s what you do. You appraiser for cars and whether we have diminished value, which, by the way, I hate to say it this way because you don’t ever want to wish this on anybody, but when things get like they are, weather-wise, accidents, I hate to say this, are bound to happen. You can easily have some diminished value situations when it’s all said and done. And reality is that’s where you come into play. But what I wanted to start with, though, Burke, is give us some tips when it comes to what we’ve seen happen in California. I mean, a lot of those people now are kind of reeling back, trying to figure out exactly what’s going on. What do they do with the insurance side? Maybe they had things handled on the front side. Maybe they didn’t. I was telling people even this last couple of weeks that in regards to you, if you’ve got some old problems,
SPEAKER 04 :
you know older cars classic cars or even something that is out of the norm or a gun collection or what have you having those things appraised prior to an event like we saw in California to me is very important absolutely the way we look at an appraisal it is a snapshot in time of what that vehicle was at that day that that I or another appraiser went out there and inspected it and you know with you particularly with these fires you know if you had an appraisal done Three years ago, how many of us put parts on our cars between three years and now? You know, I mean, I know Speedway shows up at my door about every other day. But if they don’t show up, they call me and say, hey, Payne, you know, we’re worried about you. You have ordered this week.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. And I guess the question I have for you, Burke, when it comes to having classic cars or even out-of-the-norm cars or gun collections and so on, on the insurance side and getting things appraised in that manner, how often should those be updated?
SPEAKER 04 :
It really depends on the market and what you’ve done to your vehicle. You know, we saw, you know, when the pandemic hit, we saw just the prices went astronomical. They were crazy prices up there. And, you know, but also what have you done to your car? What have you done to your gun collection? You know, what have you added to your gun collection? You know, I think about the poor people in California, you know, and I watched, you know, and saw the garages burned to the ground and the remnants of cars. most likely very beautiful cars sitting there, thinking about, you know, when was the last time they had it appraised? When was the last time they updated their insurance? Us at BP Appraisals, when we come out and do an appraisal, we take that information, and it’s stored on a hard drive outside of our facility. So if, you know, God forbid something happens to our facility, we still have it. But then your house burns down, and I’ve been out there six months ago, You know, God forbid your house burns down. Out there six months ago, you call me up and say, hey, you know, the house burned down. My appraisal was in the safe. The safe burned up. What do I do? No problem. I got you. For five years, we keep that stuff secure and safe.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
And we can reprint it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Awesome. And by the way, I think, just personally speaking, I know it might be sooner than the five-year mark, but Burke, I think for most people, if they were to refresh things every, you know, three to five years, probably isn’t a, at least a phone call to you saying, hey, we did things, you know. two three years ago i know we got appraisals on everything but just curious you know where are we at now do you think we’ve had value changes enough that we ought to re-look at things and that’s where you would come into play and let them know what you know what you think on that end of things am i right absolutely and that’s and that’s one of our services you know we talked about last or last time we talked about the the kind of free look at things and that’s you call me up say hey you know what’s the market look like for my for my chevy 210.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, and I can say, hey, you know, the market’s kind of dropped a little bit lately. You know, what have you done to it? Well, I put a, you know, I put a supercharger motor in it. Okay, well, we might want to upgrade that from the V6 that was originally, you know, it came with. So…
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. And, you know, and again, in other changes, I mean, maybe you did some interior work. Maybe you did some paint work. Maybe you went from, you know, carburation to, I talked to a guy this last week that was going to put fuel injection on a car, taking the carburetor off. I mean, those are all sorts of things, Burke, that can change value at the end of the day. And then, of course, you know, to your point earlier, the market itself changes. just changes and depending upon the car that you have it could go up it could go down it could stay lateral but the reality is you need somebody that is and and by the way everybody you need somebody professional to look at that because what you see potentially happening at quote unquote you know said auction doesn’t necessarily mean that’s your car and your value am i right in that burke
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. I get calls all the time. People say, oh, my dad’s got a K5 Blazer, just like my dad’s go across Mecham for $250,000.
SPEAKER 05 :
No offense, that’s probably not like dad’s Blazer.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, it’s not dad’s Blazer. You’re talking apples and oranges, not oranges and oranges.
SPEAKER 05 :
Don’t get me wrong, Burke, still value there, but it’s not a quarter of a million dollar value.
SPEAKER 04 :
100% still value, but the ones going across Mecham are at such a high class. Same thing with Barrett-Jackson.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, they’ve been every nut and bolt.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, a lot of them are rotisserie done. They’ve got LS motors in them. You know, they’ve had all sorts of other things changed, and, you know, it may look, you know, let’s face it, Burke, it’s frame and shell. Sorry to say, but literally it’s frame and shell, and most everything else has been upgraded.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. Absolutely, 100%.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, not dad’s blazer. But again, on the same token, you may run into a situation where you inherit a vehicle like what we’re talking about, a dad’s blazer or even dad’s 1980 short bed Chevy where the average person might look at that and say, oh, there’s a $1,500 pickup. Let’s go get the neighbor to buy it and off we go. No hold tight. Probably should call Burke first.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. We have that all the time. We have people that call us for dad’s estate or grandpa’s estate, and they’re like, oh, you know, it’s just this car.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And then we go out and look at it, and it’s not just this car. It’s a complete numbers-matching car with, say, 4,000 miles on it. You know, big, huge difference.
SPEAKER 05 :
Huge difference. Absolutely, yeah. Everybody listening, I cannot stress enough. that for a lot of you listening, where maybe you’re a car person, maybe you’re not. Maybe you’re a gun person, maybe you’re not. And Burke, we live in a day and age where a lot of us are aging. The baby boomer generation is definitely aging. The estate end of things, as you know, continues to change. People end up with things that they probably never thought existed. They were going to end up with, in some cases, end up with things they probably didn’t know mom or dad even had, depending upon what that relationship is like. And because, you know, and even in my family, I mean, these are things that happened to me recently. I mean, you know, you keep tabs on mom and dad, and in our case, live close, and you still see them, and you talk and so on. But no offense, Burke, I’m not going through their personal items on a regular basis. I don’t know every little thing they have because, frankly, the way I look at it is it’s none of my business.
SPEAKER 04 :
100%. And how many people out there maybe aren’t into what dad or mom was into? Exactly. And so they don’t know, and they end up donating it to the thrift store. I mean, you think of grandma’s China. I mean, I don’t know anything about China myself, and that’s probably where that China would have went if I would have inherited grandma’s China. But Maybe it was worth something, you know, and that’s where reaching out to a professional appraiser is important.
SPEAKER 05 :
The other thing that I know you offer as well, for everybody listening, whereby, you know, you specialize in the car and the gun end of things, but to your point a moment ago, there may be an item somebody calls about or it’s in addition to the things that they do need done, cars, guns, but maybe there’s some other things they need. You may not be able to do it, but you can always refer them to somebody that can, right?
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. Part of the American Society of Appraisers, we have an actual part of our website is a find an appraiser, and I will send people there all the time. In fact, almost on a daily basis, I’ll get someone from Yelp or Google to say, hey, I’ve got a collection of records. Well, I don’t know records, so I send them off to the person I know that knows the records the best. Okay.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. Question on – let’s talk diminished value for a moment. Because, again, as I just said a few minutes ago, and I’m looking out here at, you know, Havana, and reality is, you know, today, Burke, you know, accidents are going to happen. Sorry to say I saw several on my way here even this morning at, you know, 730-ish when I came down. And, you know, you’re going to see more of those. And in a lot of cases, there is – there is diminished value in said vehicle. First of all, explain to everybody listening what that is and how you can help them with that.
SPEAKER 04 :
So the best way to think about diminished value is if you go to, you’re going to go buy a car and you have a choice between car A that has never been in an accident and car B that has had an accident. You’re going to say car B has less value, which it does because it’s been in an accident. So that’s what we call diminished value. It’s worth less than a car that has not been damaged.
SPEAKER 05 :
And really quick, for everybody listening, I want to make sure I explain this as well. Some of you are going to say, well, time out. I thought we lived in a private society where if I had something fixed on my car, that’s between me and the collision center. Well, Burke and Steve knows this. We have this little thing today known as Carfax. And the reality is, not only the insurance company, but a lot of the collision centers themselves, when they’re doing a significant repair especially, they are definitely going to report that back to Carfax. And it may not give all of the details in Carfax as to what happened, but it will show on that car that there was an accident.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. And in fact, even law enforcement is, Carfax partners with law enforcement on their traffic accidents, provides them a cheaper accident program to use when they do their accidents, which automatically reduces it.
SPEAKER 05 :
I did not know that. Learning something. Thank you for that. I did not know that. So for those of you that are listening where even sometimes you’re going to think, oh, I’ll just go run that through on my own. I’ll pay the bill. I won’t run it through insurance, and nobody will be the wiser. If the police showed up, I guess they are wiser.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, if the police do an accident report, then it’s going to get reported to the state, which then will report it to the insurance company. So, you know, I mean, is there still a chance that you can buy a car that’s been damaged that someone’s had repaired without it showing up on Carfax? Absolutely, it’s possible.
SPEAKER 05 :
But the chances anymore, Burke, it’s getting to be… To your point, yes, that’s possible. We can talk about that even on Drive Radio here in a little bit, everybody, but… Yes, that chance is there, but it’s becoming, to your point, Burke, and what you just said in regards to even the police report, it’s getting more and more harder to have that happen, and people really have to work at that. In general, you have an accident. You’ve run into somebody, or they’ve ran into you. Not only is there the police report, but typically there’s an insurance claim, there’s a payout, there’s a collision center involved, and so on. And to your point, Burke, that’s going to show up. And in that particular case, it’s now being reported. And yes, there’s diminished value on the car. So in your case, for everybody listening, how do you help them get that money back? Because the insurance company, you know, yours or the others owes you money for that diminished value. How does that work?
SPEAKER 04 :
So basically what happens is we do a pre-loss appraisal. So we look at what the vehicle looked like prior to the loss, meaning prior to the accident. And we determined that, okay, if car A was worth $5,000 before the accident, and the same car with an accident report sells for $3,000, that means there’s a $2,000 diminished value. And I’m just throwing numbers out there.
SPEAKER 05 :
Sure, sure, sure. Gotcha.
SPEAKER 04 :
So that’s where we come in, and then we write our appraisal saying that the diminished value of this vehicle, if this person were to sell this to a willing buyer and a willing seller, it’s going to sell for a diminished value, a lower value than what it would have if it had not been in an accident.
SPEAKER 05 :
Correct. Correct. And for everybody listening, it’s really important you do that because, Burke, as you know, unless you’re going to keep that car indefinitely, but if you plan on getting rid of that car in the next several years, it is going to come back and bite you because it is going to show up on a car fax. And by the way, Burke, depending upon the vehicle, and I mean this sincerely, it could be the difference in selling or not selling the vehicle. So there definitely is diminished value there.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. And it can also, you know, I mean, you think about, you know, we’re talking about values. If you think about your insurance company saying that your car is worth $4,000, they’re going to total it at about 70%. When in reality, is that car maybe $8,000 because of where it actually sits in the market compared to where they’re valuing it?
SPEAKER 05 :
Good point. Good point. Good point. Okay, so let everybody know how to get a hold of you if they need something done. Again, I’m not wishing anything on anybody. Hopefully nobody has any accidents or anything through this storm. Although, Burke, it’s natural. In the listening audience that we have, I hate to say this, it is going to happen. There’s going to be people out there that have some events happen during these next several days, and when that does, they need to get a hold of you. How do they do that?
SPEAKER 04 :
So the best way to get a hold of us is give us a phone call, 720-295-0108. You can also hit us up on our website at bpautoappraisals.com. Remember that you’re not obligated to work with me. You give me your vehicle and that, and I will tell you whether I think that the insurance company is undervaluing your car for free. I’m not going to charge you until we actually sit down. Because if I can’t…
SPEAKER 05 :
give you a good idea that yeah we’re going to get you more money i won’t take your job okay so point being and i can’t say this enough give him a call before you do anything and and and burke i want to make sure i’m clear on this as well don’t listen to the insurance company and the adjusters because what they’re going to do is try to get you to sign off on a complete claim and by the way before you take any kind of a final settlement check from the insurance company. And, Burke, this is really important. They need to call you first because once they’ve signed off and taken that last check, I don’t think there’s any going back.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, there sure isn’t. And, you know, I tell everybody, you know, tell them that you’re not accepting anything. Give me a call. If I can help you, I will tell you that and we’ll start the process. If I can’t, if the insurance company gives you a great offer, I’m going to tell you that. I’m going to say accept that offer right now. Call them up. Tell them you’ll take the money right now. But, you know, if it’s not, I’m going to tell you that, and we’ll start working together. And then you invoke your appraisal clause, and we go from there.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. So for all of you listening, please, and I can’t stress this enough, if you have any kind of an accident, especially some of these newer cars, because, Burke, you know that that diminished value amount, depending upon the car, the value of, and so on, can be significant. And it’s definitely worth a phone call. This is what I always tell people. You want to be made whole. by the insurance company, either yours or the other parties, and at the end of the day, we want to make sure that we’ve got everything taken care of, and again, that we’re made whole, and that’s where you come into play and where you can help.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely, you know, and especially with newer cars. I mean, you think about, you know, we just recently did a Jeep Renegade, a 2023 Jeep Renegade. The guy just basically pulled it off the lot, and he got T-boned, and the insurance company offered him an astronomically low-level
SPEAKER 05 :
alone out low value on his vehicle and we’re able to get a match for seven grand and he all you have to do with call me and i took care of everything from there we got it done there you go uh… i have one way of company vehicle that we’re going to be fighting this on so i will be calling you in the not too distant future as we get a little bit uh… further down the road burke because uh… it’s gonna apply same situation so uh… and been by the way for a bit listening you heard what i just said could I do this on my own? Maybe, but Burke, even me, I need something to back up what I think the diminished value is. So I can argue with them all day long, but it’s a whole lot easier to argue with them when I’ve got a nice piece of paper from you saying what that number actually is.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. That’s what we say about appraisals. Appraisals is an opinion of value based on facts. And that’s what I present to the insurance company. And I will tell you that Nine times out of ten, when the independent appraiser that the insurance company hires, they call me up and they say, you know what, Burke, your number’s good. Let’s go with it. Or, you know, hey, $500 less than you. Can we split it in the middle? You know, something like that. And we get these things done, and, you know, by the time – once we get the – The independent appraiser’s report, we’re done within 72 hours, and our clients are getting a check.
SPEAKER 05 :
Awesome. Burke, I appreciate it very much. Stay warm and safe. We’ll have you back, again, to follow up on some of this because this won’t be the last snowstorm we have either. For those of you listening, 720-295-0108. You can always go to fixitradio.com and find Burke there as well. But, Burke, thanks for your time, man. I appreciate it very much. Always informative, sir.
SPEAKER 04 :
No, thank you. I appreciate it. You betcha, man.
SPEAKER 05 :
You bet. Have a good one. We’re going to take a quick break. Myself and Steve will be right back. Fix It Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 11 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
All right, we are back. Visit Radio KLZ 560. Don’t forget, Drive Radio follows us up on Saturday. On Tuesday, of course, it’s Rush to Reason. But a few cold weather tips for a lot of you that are listening. Now, you’ve seen these. They’re publicized all over. And most of this is common sense. But given where we’re at with temperatures and, of course, snow and so on. If you have any type of plumbing fixtures, especially sinks and things like that, that are on outside walls of your home. So maybe it’s a bathroom, maybe it’s a kitchen sink, whatever. It’s best when it gets as cold as it is. Especially at night, just open up your cabinet doors. Your temperature is going to come down at night anyways, but open up the cabinet doors. Let some of that air flow into those areas because not that it won’t with them shut, but go open your cabinet doors and see how cold it is on an outside wall. And you tell me whether or not it’s going to be warmer with them open or closed, and you’ll find that it’s going to be warmer with them open. just just a little you know tidbit of advice of course by now everybody should have unhooked all of their garden hoses and so on and if you didn’t you’re probably too late on that but you could still unhook them you’ll need a pair of pliers probably to channel locks to probably actually get the hose off now because everything’s going to be you know frozen up but you know be careful and most of all just be careful out and about on your house because you know it’s going to be slippery, it’s going to be so cold here over the next few days that whatever you shovel off, you’re not going to get everything off. You’re not going to have dry pavement unless you use some sort of a ice melting product, which on homeowners, I’m not a big fan of. I mean, if you’re somebody that really is prone for slipping and so on, and you have to use that, then that’s a different scenario. But typically those things, because I do this for a living, it’s hard on the concrete and it in vegetation and other things along those lines and so you’re better off not using that if you can i understand that there are such you know situations and scenarios where you don’t have any choice but to use it but if you can avoid using any kind of an ice melt product right now around the house i would do so now something else too that you’ll see that gets touted and people spend a lot of money on is pet safe you know ice melt and i will just tell you that in my opinion that’s a gimmick because pets are pretty smart unless you got a dumb pet most of them aren’t going to eat regular ice melt and things like that anyways and if it’s just plain salt well that’s not going to hurt them anyway so it’s not a big issue so You’ll see, you know, pet-safe ice melt products advertised. I would tell you that that’s more of a marketing gimmick, and I wouldn’t spend any money on any of those things whatsoever. Again, I do some of this for a living outside of what we do regularly here on air, and that’s just not a huge factor when it comes to pets, despite what some might want you to believe.
SPEAKER 09 :
What is it that the concrete gets pitted pretty bad, but it doesn’t cause as much to asphalt, so it’s a different kind of formula?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, yeah, because the concrete and what it is versus the asphalt being more of an oil product, you are correct. The asphalt is a lot more susceptible. It’s a harder product than what the asphalt is. But, yeah, I’m just one where, you know, and this is another one, once things are nice and sunny again and things get cleaned up, well, then get your car cleaned off because that stuff will still drip and the salt that’s on the roads will still end up on asphalt. your garage floor or your pavement outside. And the garage mats, I know I talk about those a ton. If you’ve got those, you’re going to be loving them right now because it’s going to catch all the stuff coming off the car out in the garage. Any questions, by the way, you can always email us directly. Just go to fixitradio.com. Another hour coming your way, though, folks. Don’t go anywhere. Myself, Steve Horvath. This has been Fix It Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 08 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
