Value And Opportunities Of Properties Positioned In A Flood Zone

On This Episode of Peak Market Watch...

Value And Opportunities Of Properties Positioned In A Flood Zone

DJ McClure, Director of Account Management of National Flood Experts, and Anton Mattli, together with this week’s co-host, Abel Pacheco dive into DJ’s expertise in client consultation in commercial real estate to be able to find creative cost-saving solutions for their flood zone properties as part of their overall value-add strategy.

Episode Highlights:

  • The basics of flood zones, why they exist, and how they affect multifamily owners and investors
  • Factors, coverage, and costs of multifamily real estate flood insurance and ways to save on added costs as a multifamily owner!

You can also find our episodes here:

Connect with Peak Financing:

Need Multifamily or Commercial Real Estate Funding?

Get in touch with our multifamily financing experts now and get a free loan quote!

Get a Free Loan Quote

Show Host

Guest Speaker

Co-host

Connect with Anton Mattli

Connect with DJ McClure

  • https://nationalfloodexperts.com/team/dj-mcclure/

Connect with Abel Pacheco

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION

everyone thank you very much we are
00:02
honored to welcome dj mcclure with the
00:05
director of sales and business
00:06
development
00:07
with national flood experts a flood
00:09
insurance advisory firm with a
00:11
specialized team of engineers and flood
00:13
insurance experts welcome dj
00:17
it’s a pleasure to have you with us
00:19
today uh
00:20
why don’t you give us a brief background
00:22
about you as well as
00:24
national flood experts yeah thanks guys
00:26
for having me on the show today
00:28
um i’m originally from kentucky which
00:31
i’m glad this time of year i’m not up
00:33
there because it’s quite cold
00:35
um but i have a background the
00:37
collegiate athlete and tennis
00:39
uh coaching professional and so i took a
00:42
lot of those
00:43
years of working with people and then
00:45
transitioned that into the business
00:46
world
00:47
and i’ve been with national flood
00:48
experts now for for several years
00:51
and i’ve just helped our firm grow and
00:54
you know so we’re an engineering company
00:56
based in tampa with a particular
00:58
expertise
00:59
in the flood zones and with an extensive
01:02
you know knowledge and understanding of
01:04
flood insurance itself and so we blended
01:07
the two worlds together
01:09
to be able to work with you know
01:10
commercial real estate professionals
01:12
around the country to you know find cost
01:16
savings and increase the value of their
01:17
properties
01:19
yeah great uh thanks again for being
01:22
with us today
01:23
uh dj uh via peak financing we’ve
01:28
uh we help our borrowers uh with
01:31
financing all across the country
01:34
uh now we are based here in texas uh i’m
01:37
up in
01:38
in in dallas able is in san antonio and
01:40
we also have an office in houston
01:42
and naturally particularly in houston
01:45
and the surrounding areas flood
01:47
insurance is a
01:48
is a big issue and there are some other
01:52
markets
01:52
around the camp where our clients
01:55
regularly
01:56
are faced with flood insurance
02:00
elements and obviously it’s not just
02:02
even in markets that
02:04
are very well known for flood insurance
02:06
it’s even in
02:07
markets you would never think of that
02:09
you may
02:10
require flood insurance right so it’s
02:13
always
02:13
important early on that you at least
02:16
look at the fema map
02:18
right before you starting to
02:21
further discussions when you negotiate
02:24
or submit an loi so i think that’s too
02:28
important from the get-go but once you
02:31
have a deal and you know that there is a
02:33
flood insurance
02:34
issue or potentially a flood or
02:37
insurance issue
02:38
it’s obviously important that you talk
02:40
to your insurance
02:42
company and insurance broker who then
02:45
hopefully also talk to a flood insurance
02:48
expert
02:49
like yourself so
02:52
what where would you help borrowers to
02:56
when it comes to flood insurance issues
03:00
yeah so when you’re going through the
03:01
acquisition process you know in many
03:03
cases
03:05
this is brought up early and so then
03:07
you’re understanding that there is going
03:09
to be a requirement for flood insurance
03:11
so one of the first things that we do
03:13
when we look at a property when we go
03:15
through our review process
03:16
is our engineers do an analysis to see
03:19
you know can the
03:20
the property can the buildings actually
03:23
have the flood zone changed
03:25
if we can get them removed from the high
03:27
hazard flood zone
03:29
then the lender requirements for the
03:30
flood insurance are then actually
03:32
removed
03:33
and in situations where you’re working
03:35
with maybe fannie mae
03:36
or freddie mac where the flood insurance
03:38
requirements can be quite extensive
03:41
you know this can be quite dramatic as
03:43
they’re going through the final stages
03:45
of
03:45
due diligence or maybe even before that
03:48
when they’re negotiating their buying
03:49
price
03:50
and so the earlier we can look at it uh
03:52
the better
03:53
but we’re in a position to where we work
03:56
directly with fema
03:58
and in many cases we’re able to get
04:00
these projects approved
04:01
uh in a matter of a few weeks and you
04:04
know that can be sometimes very crucial
04:06
in getting this
04:07
corrected before the closing date
04:11
very good point i think that once again
04:14
and
04:15
why dabel we we always uh tell our
04:19
our borrowers doing an acquisition make
04:21
sure that you talk to
04:23
to your insurance experts early on
04:26
insurance very often is forgotten
04:28
obviously everyone
04:29
thinks about uh due diligence in general
04:32
everyone thinks about
04:33
financing but somehow very often
04:36
insurance is uh
04:38
is a lower under to on the item to to-do
04:42
list
04:43
until they realize that they’re running
04:44
out of time right and that’s
04:46
particularly
04:47
important when you also have potentially
04:49
a flood insurance issue
04:51
that you that you start looking at that
04:55
early on yeah yeah i i agree 100
04:58
it’s uh as much as you can do in advance
05:02
up front before you’re under the the
05:05
heat of a negotiation
05:07
on closing you know or trying to if we
05:10
deal with a lot of syndicators and
05:11
syndication they’re trying to raise
05:12
capital they’re trying to
05:14
do the physical due diligence and we
05:16
kind of
05:17
say oh the insurance we almost forgot
05:19
about that and and there was a rise 450
05:21
to 500 to 600 a door
05:23
you know even recently and it just kind
05:25
of continues seeing that
05:26
and when you said um working with like
05:30
fema or even
05:31
just trying to change the uh the
05:33
position of it being in a flood zone i
05:35
just always figured
05:37
it’s in the flood zone it’s in the flood
05:38
zone i didn’t even know there was an
05:40
opportunity to change that is that where
05:41
the engineering part comes in
05:43
of your firm absolutely so it’s
05:47
it’s important to understand when the
05:48
flood zones are created they’re done at
05:50
a more
05:50
macro level you know across large areas
05:53
and so you know depending on the area of
05:55
the country it may
05:57
determine the level of detail that they
05:59
go to based on the funding that they
06:01
have available
06:02
and so we go at a much much more you
06:05
know
06:06
micro level down to a building by
06:08
building level of detail
06:10
and so you may have an apartment complex
06:12
with 20 buildings
06:13
we go in and do an analysis and maybe
06:15
we’re able to determine that
06:17
seven of the 20 can have the flood zone
06:20
designation
06:20
changed and you know that in itself will
06:23
create a cost savings
06:24
but they have a program in place
06:28
that is essentially depending on groups
06:31
like us to provide additional detail to
06:34
then go in and
06:35
say okay these particular buildings
06:36
would qualify for a letter of map
06:38
amendment
06:40
and that letter then officially changes
06:42
those buildings to
06:43
an x zone and then all the federal
06:46
lenders
06:46
follow the same process in terms of
06:48
compliance
06:50
they will then remove the requirements
06:51
for the flood insurance for those
06:52
buildings
06:53
yeah that that makes perfect sense like
06:55
i’m from corpus christi texas as
06:57
i think maybe antoine mentioned so
06:59
anytime i’m thinking about corpus
07:00
christi
07:01
it’s like uh we should probably have
07:02
some flood insurance and houston as
07:05
anton mentioned but in san antonio
07:08
uh for example there was a property and
07:10
it’s a split it was split between
07:12
kind of where it seemed like a like a
07:15
you know low uh i don’t know if it was a
07:16
river crossing or just you know one of
07:18
the sewage areas
07:19
i don’t even know sorry the water going
07:21
through the split of properties two
07:23
plats on either side
07:24
and it looked like that water would go
07:26
through it and you’re like
07:28
okay there’s some buildings that are on
07:30
the low end and some that could be on
07:32
the high end
07:32
that potentially could reduce the flood
07:34
zone yeah it happens all the time where
07:37
a flood zone will go right through the
07:38
middle of a property and you’re thinking
07:40
how does that how does that happen
07:42
and those are a lot of the scenarios
07:43
that we see and are able to to correct
07:46
um but the thing about this too is that
07:49
once you get the flood insurance
07:50
requirement removed
07:52
that’s not to say that you shouldn’t
07:53
have flood insurance but you know why
07:55
not get it at the best price possible
07:57
so there will be scenarios where we’ll
07:59
have clients paying
08:01
you know sometimes five ten thousand or
08:04
more
08:04
per building annually and then we’re
08:07
able to go in
08:08
and they keep the exact same policy but
08:12
pay less than a thousand per building
08:15
you know so i want to make sure that
08:17
everyone understands it we’re not saying
08:18
that
08:19
we can get you out of the flood zone
08:20
that that frees you up of of any type of
08:22
risk it’s just saying that
08:24
if we can get you in the best pricing
08:26
position possible
08:28
and then get the lender requirements
08:29
removed that obviously gives the
08:31
the owner and their their insurance
08:35
broker
08:36
you know that opportunity to really do
08:37
what’s best for their strategy yeah
08:40
that’s an excellent point right
08:42
what you just highlighted here
08:46
obviously flood insurance if if it’s in
08:49
the flood zone it’s mandatory
08:52
but you you have the ability to take out
08:54
flood insurance even if the lender is
08:56
not requiring
08:57
right and as you mentioned the cost
09:00
associated with that is a is a fraction
09:02
of
09:03
uh of if the property were in in the
09:06
flood zone so
09:07
your services obviously are very
09:10
very important there what we have also
09:13
seen
09:14
with some lenders particularly with with
09:16
some banks and private lenders that
09:18
are not following all the same rules is
09:21
that
09:22
to what uh also abel mentioned you may
09:25
have and you mentioned too you may have
09:27
one or two or three buildings that
09:29
are in the flood zone and we have had
09:31
one situation
09:33
one building out of 20 was in the flood
09:36
zone and the lander said well we won’t
09:38
we need
09:38
flood insurance for the whole property
09:40
right so
09:42
sometimes just a tiny sliver that it may
09:46
not have to be in the song can have a
09:48
big impact on
09:49
on someone’s flood insurance cost
09:52
right yeah absolutely and it’s not
09:55
uncommon that
09:56
you’ll see where only a few buildings
09:58
are marginally getting flagged
10:00
and as the lenders are going through
10:02
this process they’re having a third
10:03
party
10:04
you know do a flood zone determination
10:06
and if it even touches one percent of
10:08
the building
10:09
they’re gonna flag that building for
10:11
flood insurance and so
10:12
again most people because the buying
10:15
process is
10:16
there’s so many moving parts you’re just
10:18
assuming
10:19
i this is just one thing i have to check
10:21
off so i can get to the closing finish
10:23
line
10:24
and so you know we want to be involved
10:26
obviously and hope to find
10:28
some things that we can correct because
10:30
you know we’re dealing with situations
10:31
where people are trying to maximize
10:33
their loan
10:34
proceeds you know whether it’s an
10:35
acquisition or a refinance
10:37
and you know something like this on even
10:40
a couple buildings that can obviously
10:42
um you know cut into some of those
10:45
proceeds
10:48
and before we move on to the next kind
10:50
of topic on the same
10:51
uh reverse question is uh is there any
10:54
ways to get more coverage
10:56
at a at a lower price with the same kind
10:59
of factors
11:00
some of the buildings in and and some of
11:02
them out can i
11:03
get more coverage for basically a lower
11:05
price using some of the techniques and
11:07
strategies
11:08
depending on the market obviously sure i
11:10
mean
11:11
when you’re looking at when someone’s
11:12
underwriting a deal if they’ve only got
11:14
a certain budget allocated for the
11:16
insurance if we’re able to go in
11:18
um and create a way for them to recycle
11:20
those funds
11:22
you know maybe they’re only able to
11:23
afford that minimum
11:25
amount of flood insurance where they’d
11:26
actually like to have more perhaps we’re
11:28
able to get
11:29
that cost reduced and then they can go
11:31
out and increase their limits with their
11:33
broker or find a better
11:34
program that would fit the risk strategy
11:37
that they have in place
11:39
um all right yeah that’s good it’s great
11:41
yeah
11:42
that’s that’s a great advice right uh
11:46
now obviously we have talked about so
11:48
far about acquisitions
11:51
right and uh in an acquisition someone
11:54
is
11:54
is new to the property right uh
11:58
and is faced with that question right
12:00
out of the gate
12:02
without having any history with the
12:04
property now
12:06
if you’re a property owner and that
12:08
property is already and
12:09
currently in the flood zone and you need
12:11
to do a refinancing
12:14
you also can help those customers right
12:17
there they have been paying flood
12:21
insurance for
12:22
for years and obviously it
12:26
it has been adding up quite quite a bit
12:28
not only has flood insurance gone up
12:31
uh all the other uh inch property
12:34
insurance
12:35
premiums have have mushroomed uh
12:38
along with them right and it’s it seems
12:40
to be
12:41
particularly markets where that are
12:43
flood-prone also the the regular
12:46
insurance cost has has moved up
12:49
significantly
12:50
so any any savings there are or
12:53
definitely important and i think it’s
12:56
it’s uh for for someone who already owns
12:59
a property and wants to refinance
13:01
it tell us what how you can help them
13:06
yeah probably the largest majority of
13:07
projects that we look at
13:09
are with existing portfolios
13:12
and so you know part of the review
13:15
process that we do is first
13:17
can we change the flood zone we’re
13:20
seeing about a 60
13:21
success rate across the country of
13:23
properties that we look at
13:25
um but then there’s obviously buildings
13:27
and properties where that’s not possible
13:28
and so then the second half of our
13:30
review process
13:31
is where since we understand so deeply
13:34
the cause and effect between
13:36
the engineering data and how the flood
13:38
insurance policies are
13:39
are impacted and how they’re priced you
13:42
know there’s a lot of scenarios we’re
13:43
able to identify
13:44
that create cost savings you know maybe
13:47
they’re paying twenty thousand a year
13:49
we identify a scenario that gets them
13:51
down to eight thousand
13:53
so they then in turn get a twelve
13:55
thousand dollar refund back from the
13:56
insurance carrier
13:58
and then they’re able to then carry on
14:00
those savings going forward so what
14:02
we’re seeing with
14:02
existing real estate with the state of
14:05
the
14:06
lending market right now there’s so many
14:08
people going into the refinance process
14:11
they had one set of flood insurance
14:13
requirements initially
14:15
and then the new lender may have
14:16
something different and so
14:19
kind of in a two-fold benefit
14:22
if we can reduce that expense ahead of
14:24
time
14:25
or get the flood zone changed then
14:27
obviously that can maximize
14:29
their if they’re doing some type of cash
14:31
out refinance for example
14:33
could maximize their cash value or if
14:36
we’re able to get the flood insurance
14:38
requirement removed
14:39
they can comfortably go through the refi
14:42
process
14:42
without worrying that excess flood
14:45
limits
14:46
which are very common these days may
14:49
come into the equation
14:52
yeah great point right and to our
14:54
listeners
14:56
it’s not just that you actually save on
15:00
on your insurance premium which
15:02
obviously is on top of your mind
15:04
but what you just mentioned dj is a is
15:07
equally important
15:09
uh when it comes to to the insurance it
15:12
flows into your noi
15:13
right and the higher your insurance
15:16
costs has all the other expenses
15:18
your noi goes down which means when you
15:21
want to do a cash out refi
15:24
your valuation may improve uh to a level
15:28
where it supports a higher cash out
15:30
amount
15:30
right so it’s not just that you have uh
15:33
lower ongoing operating costs but you
15:36
may also be able to get
15:38
better long terms and higher loan
15:41
proceeds as a result of it
15:43
i can give you a great case study we
15:46
worked with a client last year
15:48
who had a pretty large multi-family
15:52
property in new orleans
15:53
which is an area you’re probably all
15:55
thinking there’s no way you could change
15:57
the flood zone in new orleans
15:58
but as a matter of fact they’ve improved
16:00
a lot of the flood zones through
16:02
mitigation
16:02
so in doing so we’ve been able to get
16:05
several properties out of the flood zone
16:07
uh in new orleans and so this particular
16:09
client
16:10
was um required to pay about 150 000 a
16:14
year
16:16
in flood insurance that’s the primary
16:19
and then he had
16:19
excess flood requirements on top so its
16:22
primary was about
16:23
90 something thousand and then had
16:25
another 50 something on top
16:27
so we were able to get the entire
16:28
property into an exodon
16:30
and get the lender requirements removed
16:33
naturally in new orleans he kept
16:35
flood insurance but his price went from
16:38
150 down to
16:40
36. he was able to reduce this going
16:44
into the refinance
16:45
and then he called me after and said he
16:48
was able to get an extra 1.5 million
16:51
in his cash out refi as just a result of
16:54
the flood zone project by itself
16:56
yes that’s uh that’s great right so so
16:59
uh
17:01
115 000 in in additional noi that has a
17:04
massive impact on your loan proceeds
17:07
right very happy clients yeah
17:10
not just valuation but also long
17:12
proceeds right so it’s that’s your cash
17:15
out right now
17:16
but even if you look forward and you may
17:18
want to sell that property
17:20
you already have tied it up in a perfect
17:23
fashion
17:24
uh for for a new buyer because now
17:26
they’ll look at it
17:27
and that flood insurance is no law
17:30
requirement is no longer there
17:32
right so so they’re right for a new
17:34
buyer they see this
17:36
and they’re willing to pay you more
17:37
because they don’t have that hundred and
17:39
fifteen thousand
17:40
additional insurance premium that that
17:43
they possibly would have had to pay
17:45
before
17:47
the next buyer automatically yep and
17:50
and for uh for maybe somebody watching
17:52
that’s like well i heard the word noi
17:55
and i heard 115 how does that equal to
17:58
1.5 million dollars and loan proceeds
18:01
what are loan proceeds for the for those
18:03
that are watching too so
18:04
a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars
18:06
of noi net operating income
18:09
for example i don’t know what the cap
18:10
rate is but i’m looking at doing rough
18:12
math on my calculator it was 115
18:15
k divided by .07
18:18
and and change of cap rate is like 1.6
18:20
million dollars
18:22
so that’s where that noi comes from and
18:24
that’s why
18:26
from the loan proceeds the bank will say
18:28
oh yeah you’re still at
18:29
you know 75 ltv or whatever so you need
18:32
here’s more cash out for for the
18:35
investor
18:36
which is just an amazing opportunity for
18:38
somebody
18:39
so just wanted to break that down real
18:40
quick
18:44
yeah i mean working with professional
18:45
real estate um you know companies this
18:48
is
18:48
very much a relevant conversation and
18:50
that’s the way we approach this that’s
18:51
the way our group works is
18:53
you know we understand how the three
18:56
different worlds kind of work together
18:57
you know
18:58
the commercial real estate the insurance
19:00
and then the engineering
19:02
and so we’re looking for any angle that
19:04
we can do to save a cost
19:06
and sometimes it’s changing the flood
19:08
zone sometimes it’s
19:09
other scenarios that you know we qualify
19:12
something on the policy to just
19:14
improve the rating that they’re using
19:16
there’s even some cases where they may
19:18
even give the client a multiple year
19:20
refund
19:22
one of the biggest projects we had last
19:24
year a client in houston
19:26
they’d had flooding in the past you know
19:28
so you would think
19:29
there’s probably nothing we can do for
19:31
them uh there is a particular insurance
19:33
scenario that we qualified with the
19:35
carrier
19:36
they reduced their expense quite
19:38
dramatically and then they gave them
19:40
that same correction back for a couple
19:42
years
19:42
you know so it was in a tough 2020 you
19:46
know they were able to put some good
19:47
money back in their budget
19:48
um and and then move forward
19:51
yeah that’s uh absolutely great right so
19:55
just to kind of uh follow up to to what
19:58
abel mentioned right he mentioned cap
20:00
rate uh
20:02
based on that cap rate again the
20:03
valuation goes up by whatever cap rate
20:06
you apply
20:07
maybe by 2 million whatever it is
20:10
because that noi
20:11
has improved now by 115 000
20:14
at the same time obviously the valuation
20:16
goes up but your
20:18
that service coverage is equally
20:20
important right so
20:21
assuming that the debt service coverage
20:23
ratio needs to be 1.25
20:26
so with that 115 000 in in savings in
20:29
noi
20:31
that translates to roughly 90 000 let’s
20:34
say in
20:35
in in additional funds for debt service
20:38
coverage
20:40
which would translate that let’s say
20:42
three and a half percent
20:43
interest rate just to to use a rough
20:46
number
20:47
that’s roughly 1.7 1.8 million
20:50
additional loan proceeds
20:52
right so we do not talk here about just
20:55
pocket change that is is a can
20:59
can be a massive improvement of your
21:03
of your ongoing cash flow but also in
21:06
in the cash out as you have mentioned
21:08
each day for
21:09
for your particular client who obviously
21:12
was was very happy with these additional
21:14
loan proceeds
21:16
yeah and those are some of the great you
21:17
know the bigger projects of course i
21:18
mean for us
21:19
an average project size is maybe we find
21:22
you know
21:22
10 to 15 000 on a multi-family property
21:26
um you know so that that’s obviously
21:28
still dollars that get figured in
21:30
and so we just look to be something in
21:32
addition to whatever
21:34
other value-add strategy they may have
21:36
in place sure
21:37
right so in 15 000 that still gets you
21:40
more than a hundred thousand
21:41
additional loan proceeds right so yes
21:44
it’s not that it may not appear to be
21:46
that much
21:47
but it’s still uh
21:50
money in the bank right and again
21:54
looking forward in selling that’s an
21:56
additional
21:59
whatever value increase there might be
22:01
so it’s it’s definitely
22:04
very important to look at that
22:07
now obviously everyone is wondering oh
22:10
that’s
22:10
that sounds great a great service that
22:13
uh
22:14
dj and this firm uh is providing
22:17
to to property owners but there must be
22:20
a catch
22:20
right so how much does that all cost me
22:23
uh so can you tell me uh uh can you tell
22:27
us a little bit how you
22:28
how you get compensated absolutely we’re
22:31
very transparent
22:32
um you know agency we’re a very
22:35
transparent company
22:36
um and so when we do the initial review
22:38
process there’s no
22:40
cost and there’s no obligation we don’t
22:42
know if we’re going to find a solution
22:43
when we go into that initial review
22:45
and so if we go in and we qualify
22:48
something
22:49
say we can change the flood zone the the
22:51
cost of the consulting is just going to
22:54
be
22:54
equal to one year’s flood insurance for
22:57
each building that we can get approved
22:59
by fema
23:00
and we guarantee all of our projects to
23:02
be a hundred percent successful
23:04
or else we don’t invoice decline
23:06
anything at the end of the day
23:09
that’s great right so
23:12
so you you lower that that insurance
23:15
cost obviously you
23:17
you have to get the compensation so you
23:19
could argue that the first year
23:21
is essentially a zero-sum
23:25
game right but obviously as soon as you
23:28
you own a property for more than a year
23:31
you you have your savings that you
23:33
that you are that goes straight in your
23:37
pockets
23:38
uh but i think also particularly for
23:40
refinancings
23:42
if there are if there is a potential to
23:45
get multiple years of
23:46
of retroactively premiums back
23:50
then it seemed even better for for a
23:53
borrower to
23:55
to to use your services right yeah in
23:58
almost every solution that we provide
24:00
the client is getting some form of a
24:01
refund back
24:03
on the policies that they have you know
24:05
if they choose to cancel the policies
24:07
because that’s
24:08
you know what their strategy would uh
24:10
would request
24:11
then in many cases they can get refunded
24:13
back for the entire year’s
24:15
policy you know so then working with us
24:17
then the return on investment’s
24:19
essentially immediate um and then with
24:22
other projects that we do
24:24
uh it’s a similar fashion you know so
24:25
they’re seeing some form of a refund
24:27
whether they
24:28
continue to carry insurance or not uh
24:31
that offsets the cost
24:32
so that’s um
24:35
generally well received with with our
24:37
audience
24:38
yeah that’s that’s great uh so i think
24:42
uh
24:42
uh you you provided us with with a lot
24:45
of valuable information that a lot of
24:48
our listeners are not aware of
24:50
right and i think it’s it’s important
24:54
when you are
24:55
an existing property owner and or
24:58
buying a property that you talk to the
25:01
to the right
25:03
insurance broker that really understands
25:05
what
25:06
what is available in terms of services
25:09
and if if your insurance broker is not
25:12
aware of a firm like yours
25:15
then i think it’s it might be worthwhile
25:17
to talk to another insurance broker
25:19
while one of our uh closely associated
25:23
firms strategic insurance
25:25
with dan kudurka he is working very
25:28
closely with
25:29
with you guys uh that’s
25:32
uh he obviously is is using your
25:35
services because it it adds value to
25:37
to for him and his his clients
25:41
so i think it’s important when when you
25:43
as a as a
25:44
prospective borrower seek out an
25:48
insurance
25:49
quote that you make sure that your
25:51
insurance broker really understands
25:54
whom they have to go to and uh
25:57
so that’s it’s very important right and
26:00
it’s
26:00
it’s not just pocket change as i said
26:02
earlier it can be
26:04
very significant sums that can be saved
26:06
here
26:07
yeah we work with insurance brokers
26:09
around the country um you know like dan
26:11
is just an extension of his team you
26:13
know because our engineers
26:15
they’re able to go in and uncover and
26:16
find things at a very fine level of
26:18
detail you know really getting to the
26:20
granular
26:21
you know tenth of a foot type details
26:24
for some of these buildings and
26:25
sometimes
26:26
a tenth of a foot can equal thousands of
26:29
dollars in savings so
26:31
um you know we’re definitely not
26:33
competing with anyone you know we’re
26:35
working as an extension of the team
26:37
and that’s how we look at ourselves and
26:38
so we’re looking to supplement
26:40
anything that your broker may already be
26:42
doing we’d love to work with them
26:45
and then just see if we can find
26:46
something extra to add to the value that
26:49
they’re already bringing to the table
26:52
right on that’s awesome and if i could
26:54
ask a question to
26:56
dj everything we said uh or we’ve talked
26:59
about so far has been awesome
27:00
and now really from uh you know maybe a
27:03
south texas is maybe a little
27:05
self-serving to be
27:06
to me and maybe a lot of our our
27:08
borrowers but texas
27:10
like houston uh corpus christi
27:13
uh our southern coast maybe in even in
27:16
the
27:17
the southwest part of the us anywhere
27:18
there’s a coastline i guess on this side
27:20
what what would you say from a market
27:22
standpoint since we’re marketwatch
27:24
any insights you can give us about some
27:26
of these markets either that
27:28
people overlook or you know something
27:30
that may help us
27:31
as we’re looking at the different
27:32
markets here that could be affected by
27:35
flood flood that’s a really good
27:37
question
27:38
and i would say to investors like
27:41
don’t shy away from a flood zone do your
27:44
research because there’s a lot of hidden
27:46
value to be found in flood zones
27:48
and we work with acquisition teams
27:49
around the country as they’re
27:50
prospecting
27:51
um you know and we’ll review the
27:53
property from a thirty thousand foot
27:55
level to say all right here’s what we
27:56
know about the area
27:57
because there are some some large
27:59
profits to be made
28:02
you know and depending if someone’s
28:03
completely risk-averse if they avoid
28:05
flood zones entirely
28:07
you know we’ve helped in some of the
28:09
areas you would least expect the houston
28:11
the new orleans
28:12
you know south austin the virginia
28:16
northeast area flood zones are
28:18
everywhere and
28:19
there’s a lot of opportunity that can be
28:21
found by just giving it a little bit
28:23
more
28:23
a little bit more research and due
28:25
diligence and then
28:27
potentially adding some hidden noi
28:30
into your underwriting from day one
28:35
yeah that’s fair enough don’t shy away
28:37
from it just
28:38
talk to an expert in a pro that’s right
28:41
right so you may think
28:43
the this is this is too tough of a of a
28:45
property to deal with
28:47
and after talking to you dj they may say
28:50
well
28:51
i think we just found a diamond in the
28:53
rough because a lot of other prospective
28:55
buyers never looked at it
28:56
right absolutely yeah
29:00
very good uh so uh dj
29:03
thanks again for coming on you uh you
29:05
gave us a lot of great nuggets here
29:08
uh how how can you be reached yeah
29:12
you’re free to email me dj at
29:16
nationalfloodexperts.com
29:17
uh you’re also able to send just a
29:19
general email into the team at
29:20
info at national national flood experts
29:23
dot com
29:24
and we’ll be happy to take care of you
29:25
and look at the property and see what
29:27
solutions may be possible
29:30
great so please reach out to dj early on
29:33
when you do an acquisition not too late
29:35
right so not that you get into a time
29:37
squeeze there as always
29:40
uh thanks again dj for for coming on
29:42
with us
29:43
uh today and uh who wish you
29:46
a lot of business in 2021
29:49
likewise guys thank you very much i
29:51
appreciate it yeah thanks thank you