More Talking, More Action, Florida Realtors Need To Be In The Know About Flood Insurance Changes and ACT Now
What to tell buyers and sellers about the proposed changes in the National Flood Insurance Program
The National Flood insurance Program, (NFIP), legislation is the most devastating and biggest threat ever to Florida Real Estate. Should this pass, we could be looking at a significant economic impact and devastation of Florida real estate in many Coastal communities, it’s just that serious. If you are a Florida Realtor, you’d better be paying attention for more than one reason. 1. You must be able to speak to your customers intelligently about this issue and the effect it could have on current and future home owners in the State of Florida. 2. Second, if you like your job, you better get on board and show your support for Florida Realtors and let them be your collective voice to keep you working. 3. If you like living in Florida, you have no choice but to fight this legislation. If this passes, every coastal city in Florida may be the next ghost town.. ad Florida may be the next ghost state. This is not just about Pinellas County. There are many other coastal properties, NOT OWNED BY MILLIONAIRES, than there are owned by the rich. How will they pay for these premium increases? These are people’s homes for years, their retirement homes, their investment properties, and they are all at risk.
Governor Rick Scott is not fully on board with the significance of this issue yet. Florida Realtors has been busy providing statistics regarding home ownership predictions, but the economic impact for the State of Florida would be more catastrophic than any hurricanes have ever been. I hope Governor Scott is listening, I hope he is lying awake at night as are those of us who realize what this will mean for Florida. We need his support and we need every elected official in this State to be in unison to say that Florida property owners must not carry the weight of the rest of the Nation. Insurance policies jumping from $12,000 to $93,000 per year would cause people to pack their bags and leave. Leave properties to the banks, to the State, to vagrants and squatters, to whoever will take them over when they leave.
It’s all about risk
In the history of the flood program, Florida property owners have paid $16.1 billion in premiums while collecting just $3.7 billion in claims, according to a 2011 analysis by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Center for Risk Management and Decision Processes.
Contrast that with Louisiana, which paid $4.4 billion in premiums but collected almost four times that in claims, the vast majority tied to Hurricane Katrina.
Since 1978, Texas ($5.5 billion), New Jersey ($4.8 billion) and New York ($4.4 billion) have also received more payouts than Florida, while paying far less in premiums. And those numbers predate last year’s Superstorm Sandy, which caused billions more in flood damage in the Northeast.
And year after year, Florida ponies up a third of all premiums into the program.
“Flood in Florida is a moneymaker” for the government, said Thompson of the Florida Association of Insurance Agents.
Florida Realtors is trying to prepare its members. They have “released the new Flood Insurance Notice (FIN-1) form to assist Realtors who market and sell property for which flood insurance may be required or prudent. The form is available free to Florida Realtors® members at Form Simplicity, as well as through vendors that are licensed to use Florida Realtors forms.”
NAR Legal Guidance on Disclosures (PDF)
FEMA: Flood Insurance Policy and Claim Statistics
Interactive Map for NFIP Subsidized Policies by State and County
Determine Your Flood Zone: “V” (high risk coastal), “A” (high risk river), “X” (low risk) or “D” (unmapped)
FEMA: Homeowner’s Guide to Elevation Certificates
FEMA: Flood Insurance Rate Maps
NAR/FEMA Brochure: What To Ask Your Insurance Agent (PDF)
NAR/FEMA Brochure: What to Know and Say About Flood Risk and Flood Insurance (PDF)
HouseLogic: Disaster & Flood Insurance Information
Realtors – Stay Informed! Subscribe to The Realtor Action Center – Get Alerts Immediately and Act Quickly when the call comes. With more than 118,000 members, the collective voice of Florida Realtors® is heard loud and clear in Tallahassee. At appropriate and necessary times, the state association sends out a Call to Action, a legislative “Red Alert” to communicate the Realtor position to your legislators. Ask your broker to join the Broker Involvement Program – to deliver critical information to his Realtors and staff.
By registering with the legislative Realtor Action Center, you’re guaranteed of receiving these urgent messages immediately. You may also receive Calls to Actions via Florida Realtors® electronic publications.
To assist the National Association of Realtors® in identifying the source of rate insurance concerns, and to help craft the most effective response, we encourage you to complete the following questionnaire specific to a lost transaction or a recent flood insurance quote on a property. The more specific and well documented the response, the more effectively we can make our case with Congress and FEMA for relief.
Complete the Flood Rate Questionnaire (PDF)
Again… if you are concerned about the future of Florida, about YOUR future, now is a good time to VOICE your concerns. INVEST in RPAC to help fight this for Florida Homeowners and Florida Realtors.
If you are a coastal homeowner and need help, please call and we will find a Realtor to help you get more information on the changes in your Flood Insurance as a result of Obama’s NFIP changes.