Steve, could you join me in PM?

Sure.

Thank you!

Not sure if this was addressed upthread, but a 22 year old roof is likely going to be a problem from a homeowners insurance standpoint. Our roof is 18 years old right now (and we used top of the line "lifetime guarantee" very expensive shingles, but the insurance doesn't care) and we recently tried to shop our policy. Several companies would not even consider us because of the age of our roof. The agents we talked to said most insurers won't take a roof >20 years old and several have recently dropped it to 15 years....which is crazy because who gets a new roof every 15 years?!?!

At any rate, you can ask for the sellers to replace the roof or ask for a credit off the selling price so you can choose your own contractor/shingles (which is what I would recommend because otherwise the seller will likely go with the cheapest bid) -- I would definitely look into the insurance situation either before you offer or at least during your inspection/back-out period. If you have issues getting insurance, it's likely that other buyers will too so it's something the sellers will eventually have to address either for you or someone else.....

Well, as it happens, the seller came to an agreement with the person who made the original offer, so we're out again. -_-

Well, at least we don't have to try to get our heads around this structural problem. Dangit, we really liked this house. And now it feels like we lost it twice!

Let's think of it as a blessing in disguise...

quote:

a homeowners insurance standpoint

Lisa, yes, my agent did tell us about that. A house we looked at a few weeks ago had an older roof, so we checked with our renter's insurance agent, who said that what they're doing here right now is the insurance company asks for the inspection report and then depending on the report, they would say "we won't insure you without a new roof" or you might have a clause where they give you the policy and insure you, but you have to re-do the roof within a certain amount of time, which is set based on the inspection report.

I suspect many houses we find will have these issues, so we'll need to be prepared.

Doing a new roof is much less daunting than some other tasks (like, replacing all the windows!)

quote:

Originally posted by Lisa:
Not sure if this was addressed upthread, but a 22 year old roof is likely going to be a problem from a homeowners insurance standpoint. Our roof is 18 years old right now (and we used top of the line "lifetime guarantee" very expensive shingles, but the insurance doesn't care) and we recently tried to shop our policy. Several companies would not even consider us because of the age of our roof. The agents we talked to said most insurers won't take a roof >20 years old and several have recently dropped it to 15 years....which is crazy because who gets a new roof every 15 years?!?!

We just insured a 140 year-old roof.

Of course, it’s slate.

I may have told this story before and I’m not sure it’s relevant but I’ll tell it anyway.

We secured insurance on the Huron house while it was in escrow as the lender required it. I don’t know if the insurer inspected it or not - I didn’t think it looked very good but whatever. I used the same independent agent I’ve used for years, he got me a policy, and I thought no more of it.

A couple of weeks before closing I got a call asking what color shingle we wanted on our new roof - there had been a freak windstorm that blew off half of the shingles and the seller’s insurance was paying for a new roof! Wow!

I met with the roofer - the seller’s son as it turned out - and went over how he intended to do the job. I thought I might want to kick in a few $hundy to get a better job. I didn’t need to - the guy was a real pro and used all quality stuff.

Sweet!

Wow, that was a series of lucky occurances, timing, the quality of the work etc.

My agent said that when a bunch of storms blew through last year (IIRC, just before we moved here) a lot of houses that had damage had old roofs and the argument was that with newer roofs, the damage wouldn’t have been as extensive, or as expensive. So she said that’s part of the motivation at a local level.

quote:

Originally posted by QuirtEvans:

quote:

Originally posted by Lisa:
Not sure if this was addressed upthread, but a 22 year old roof is likely going to be a problem from a homeowners insurance standpoint. Our roof is 18 years old right now (and we used top of the line "lifetime guarantee" very expensive shingles, but the insurance doesn't care) and we recently tried to shop our policy. Several companies would not even consider us because of the age of our roof. The agents we talked to said most insurers won't take a roof >20 years old and several have recently dropped it to 15 years....which is crazy because who gets a new roof every 15 years?!?!

We just insured a 140 year-old roof.

Of course, it’s slate.

Did you find someone to replace the cracked slate? It’s a dying art and needs to be done before the last of the slaters retire.

As for all this angst about insurance, I’m a bit perplexed. I have never allowed an insurance company to treat me the way ya’ll are being treated. It may be regional - maybe insurance is different in CA, but any time an insurance company started going sideways on me I’d call my guy and he’d fix it. Maybe conditions are different, but as of now I wouldn’t tolerate it.

My prop and health insurance is all still with my CA guy but I got talked in to switching my car insurance to an Ohio guy. He called me the other day telling me my premiums were going up 20% and I was going to have to suck it up. When I asked him what he was doing to get me a better deal…

Crickets.

Auto insurance is back with the CA guy, at less than I’m paying now.

My CA guy may or may not be able to get you a reasonable deal but he’s worth a shot. He’s licensed in a lot of states - maybe yours. PM me for contact info.

quote:

Well, as it happens, the seller came to an agreement with the person who made the original offer, so we're out again. -_-

Maybe for the best.

Foundation issues make me nervous.

Same with lenders, BTW. Six loans in a row without a hitch.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:

quote:

Well, as it happens, the seller came to an agreement with the person who made the original offer, so we're out again. -_-

Maybe for the best.

Foundation issues make me nervous.

You’re probably right, I’m sure it’s for the best.

Getting a new roof, changing carpeting to flooring... those are things I’ve had done and so they don’t feel so daunting. Also, you sort of feel like the outcome is pretty assured (which might be overly optimistic, I don’t know).

But with a foundation issue, I have no experience for one thing, and for another, if the outcome is not good, then it’s a huge problem.

So I’m not disappointed that we don’t have to deal with that. I’m more disappointed that this feels like another sign that we’re going to have a hard time finding a house that we like, in a location we want, at a price we can afford.

Today we’re going to see a house that I’m pretty sure is a major fixer upper. I doubt we’ll want to take on a project house, but it seems like we kind of need to keep checking out all the options as they pop up, just in case.

quote:

Originally posted by QuirtEvans:

quote:

Originally posted by Lisa:
Not sure if this was addressed upthread, but a 22 year old roof is likely going to be a problem from a homeowners insurance standpoint. Our roof is 18 years old right now (and we used top of the line "lifetime guarantee" very expensive shingles, but the insurance doesn't care) and we recently tried to shop our policy. Several companies would not even consider us because of the age of our roof. The agents we talked to said most insurers won't take a roof >20 years old and several have recently dropped it to 15 years....which is crazy because who gets a new roof every 15 years?!?!

We just insured a 140 year-old roof.

Of course, it’s slate.

I'm wondering if you can't get a steel replacement for the slate these days. Guys who could do slate were hard to find 40 years ago.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:

As for all this angst about insurance, I’m a bit perplexed. I have never allowed an insurance company to treat me the way ya’ll are being treated. It may be regional - maybe insurance is different in CA, but any time an insurance company started going sideways on me I’d call my guy and he’d fix it. Maybe conditions are different, but as of now I wouldn’t tolerate it.

My prop and health insurance is all still with my CA guy but I got talked in to switching my car insurance to an Ohio guy. He called me the other day telling me my premiums were going up 20% and I was going to have to suck it up. When I asked him what he was doing to get me a better deal…

Crickets.

Auto insurance is back with the CA guy, at less than I’m paying now.

My CA guy may or may not be able to get you a reasonable deal but he’s worth a shot. He’s licensed in a lot of states - maybe yours. PM me for contact info.

I have several different agents who I have been shopping my policy with for years. They are trying their hardest but can't find anything better than what I'm currently paying. Part of the problem (at least for auto) was two young drivers on the policy, two hail claims (same storm, 2 cars), and the "at fault" accident involving the fuel tank that fell off the tractor trailer on the interstate that I hit. No auto insurer wanted to touch me with a record like that and honestly I couldn't really blame them. It's been almost 4 years since the fuel tank and the hail claims come off totally this May at the 5 year point so I am finally able to shop....and I did find some rates that beat (ever so slightly) the auto rate I'm paying. But I am also close to earning accident forgiveness with my current insurer and if I leave then decide I want to come back, the time counter for that starts all over again. And since there are so many moving pieces right now (we are currently shopping to replace two of our cars, LL#2 may or may not need a car at school - currently he is getting the "distant student" discount for not having a car but if that changes, our current insurer may end up being better because they seem to have the best rates for young drivers.) So we are staying with our current auto for at least one more 6 month period til we see how the car shopping and LL#2's co-op situation shakes out.

For homeowners, all the agents I spoke to said that due to the many many disasters nationwide over the past few years, rates are just skyrocketing across the board and insurers are becoming more picky about what they will and won't insure. So even though we've never filed a claim, no agent could find me a policy that beat my current one (which went up an astonishing 60% this year....and that's in Pennsylvania....not some high risk hurricane state.) Several of these agents are independent and shop multiple companies so I don't doubt them. On my own, I called Costco, AAA and a few other places that don't really use agents and they couldn't beat the rate either. For years I did what you do - called agents and switched as soon as my rate started to jump. But I have a feeling the insurance world has changed and that strategy is no longer going to be possible the way it used to be.

That said, I'm happy to see what your guy can do! I'll pm you.

My neighbors just got their homeowners insurance bill and it went from $1600 to $2300 a year. They were shocked, to say the least. Flooding in some areas is a problem, as are occasional tornadoes and high winds, but like Lisa, we aren't in an area with hurricanes or fires.

It's everywhere.

Hope this doesn't affect Mr SK...

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If you install a pool or add a new four-legged friend to your family, your insurance company may increase your rates to offset the higher probability of expensive liability claims.

States most affected:

https://www.cnbc.com/select/ho...ow-to-lower-premium/