The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Jeremy Rowe Joined Keith Smith & Jerry Miller On "Real Talk With Keith Smith!"

Episode Date: February 21, 2025

Jeremy Rowe, Agency Owner at Goosehead Insurance, joined Keith Smith & Jerry Miller on “Real Talk With Keith Smith” powered by YES Realty Partners and Yonna Smith! “Real Talk” airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Real Talk With Keith Smith” is presented by Charlottesville Settlement Company, LLC, El Mariachi Mexican Bar & Grill, Fincham & Associates, Inc., Free Enterprise Forum, Intrastate Service Co and YES Realty Partners.

Good Friday morning, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on Real Talk with Keith Smith. It's an absolute pleasure to connect with you guys on the I Love Seville Network, a show that airs wherever you get your social media or podcasting content. This network, guys, is booming with growth, and it booms with growth because of content that's local to Charlottesville, Albemarle, and Central Virginia at a time where legacy media, TV, radio, and print struggles to find its future. We understand the future is long-form content where nothing can be taken out of context. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera, the director and producer of the show. Keith Smith, the star of the program. Yes, Reality Partners, the presenting partner, Yes Realty Partners, a firm you can trust, the founders in this game since 1987. We call that experience.

Some folks may call that age. Old would be a better choice of words. It's perception, guys. I've got both our youngest grandchildren spending a week with us. I can define that as old officially at this moment. I know what it's like to have kids in the house, two of my own, and our guest today, Jeremy Rose, certainly does as well. Judah Wittkower, if we

can go to the studio camera, then a three-shot, and we'll welcome our star, Keith Smith, and our guest, Jeremy Rose. Thank you. God, I love him to death, but man, my hat's off to you. I've forgotten how hectic that can be and moving things around. But look, I just want to take a quick second. Jeremy, introduce yourself to the folks watching, who you are, what you do, and I want to take a dive into this important topic, just as Jerry said in his lead-in. You know, everybody's talking about tax assessments, but this seems

to be flying underneath the radar and potentially has the risk of impacting on monthly payments more. But do an intro and then we'll kick off from there. Absolutely. And you were talking about having the grandkids and how difficult it is. Imagine having the entire 2025 each week interrupted with school because of snow and everything. It's been, uh, it's tough for parents out there right now, especially the kids gone to school at all since Christmas. Uh, it is, uh,

like two and a half days a week. It feels like it's been, it's been a little tough, but, um, yes, Jeremy Rowe, I have the goose head insurance agency,

um, the Jeremy Rowe agency with goose head insurance. And we work in and around, uh, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, most of Central Virginia. We are also licensed in other states too, West Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and DC. So we are a brokerage platform. I work with about 70 different carriers in personal lines. So I do life insurance, I do homeowner's insurance, auto, RVs, motorcycle.

I don't deal with health insurance. That's a whole different ballgame altogether. And most of the business that I see or people that I work with are people that are buying homes. So people that are getting ready to close. I partner closely with mortgage lenders in the area, as well as a lot of the realtor partners that we have here in Charlottesville. And our whole goal is to make the process of buying a home a smooth and easy one. And anyone that's getting a mortgage on a home has to have homeowners insurance. And as you mentioned earlier, there's a lot of elements that are in play. You know, tax assessments have gone up. It's been

increasing. The interest rates are not at 3% any longer. And what we've seen is not really a steady but a pretty stark increase in insurance rates, both on the home side and then also on the auto insurance side across the United States over the last several years. So that's really what I want to peel back and get into today. So I do need to ask a personal favor. Sure. If Yona calls you and starts increasing my life insurance policy, let me know. When that's established, hopefully it's a fixed rate premium on your life insurance it was a poor joke i tried to make a poor joke it didn't work out so good so let's go over this piti right

we got principal interest taxes and insurance that is your monthly monthly payment right so if you have a current mortgage right now the first two are kind of fixed right whenever you got your mortgage it was fixed that your principal and your interest, your monthly payment, but the two things that are flexible can vary. Well, that's what I was about ready to get into. So the two that vary is your taxes and your insurance, which is your escrow, right? So we've been talking about taxes for a while, right? And you want to keep a close eye on that. So talk to, talk to us a little bit how the insurance portion of that can change pretty rapidly. It can. So as far as homeowners insurance, it's the one that's the most variable. Tax assessments have been going one direction, which is actually not a bad thing.

You know, if the tax assessments were going down, we'd be in a different conversation altogether. Okay. But the taxes are going in one direction. The mortgage rates, you know, if you have a variable rate mortgage, that can fluctuate. But if you've got a conventional, if it's locked in, you know, that's going to be pretty steady. As far as homeowners insurance goes, it's going to depend. Insurance is a reactionary industry. So depending on what's going on in the world

or what's going on with the various companies, the insurance industry reacts to those factors and it can change premiums as a result. And what we've really seen over the last five years is a lot of factors, economic factors, that have played into the changing premiums for homeowners insurance and for auto insurance. So on the way in, I told you this story on the way in, I got a phone call from a next-door neighbor, and their insurance company, which will leave nameless,

flew a drone over their home and said, your roof is too old, and increased their monthly, the total bill by about 50%, right? Which translated for them close to 100, well, roughly $100 a month is what the conversation I had. So are you starting to see that? And if you're seeing that, you know, let's talk to folks about how we can temper that down a little bit and help them move forward. So if it's all right, I want to give a little bit of a brief history of what's

gone on in the world with homeowners insurance, because it's been, it's been, we've been disasters in Florida and California. It does. So, and I believe I may have touched on this a time or two in the past when I've been on the show. I certainly, I've done a number of presentations for different realty groups, different home builders in the area. I work with the, or I've spoken to the Women's Council of Realtors here in Charlottesville. And a lot of this goes back to 2020. So 2020, COVID hit. And when COVID hit, we were all at home. And with everyone under lockdown, it was actually a really, really good time for the insurance industry, because people weren't driving. So they weren't getting in car accidents. And people when they were at their home, a lot of times they took the opportunities to do some home projects, to do some fix-up things.

And since they were present, they caught a lot of the issues that might have gone missing if they hadn't been at home that could have caused a homeowner's claim. So the insurance industry in 2020 actually did extremely well. It was very profitable, premiums coming in, fewer claims that were being paid out. And as a result, especially on the auto insurance side, a lot of companies ended up giving rebates or in order to capture more market share, they actually lowered their rates because they're like, this is a great time for us. There was discounts. So I think Geico was actually the very first one that started it. But as soon as they did, everyone else followed suit. I remember my insurance policy actually went down during COVID. And so everyone was trying to gain the market share because they were profitable. They were doing extremely well.

In 2021, what ended up happening is all of us wanted to get back to living our normal lives, but institutions, government and otherwise, were a little bit slower. I remember we went to the eastern shore, and looking out as we were driving over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, there was cargo ships just sitting out there that were waiting to dock. We couldn't get ships in from China for vehicles. We couldn't get new vehicles in. Parts and materials, labor, everything else was kind of slowed up in 2021. But we started going back to living our normal lives.

And the world kept turning. So there were still hurricanes. There were still wildfires in California. There was hailstorms and, you know, tornadoes going across the Midwest. And that really started having an impact on what was going on. Remember, I said insurance is a reactionary industry. So when everyone was at home, they reacted and they said, let's lower premiums. In 2021, they started getting hit a lot harder. And that carried over into 2022. Again,

we still had some of these things. We hadn't quite caught up in 2022. The world kept turning. And a lot of times, especially with claims activity, it's not always reported immediately when it happens. They run quarterly numbers, and it may be, you know, in some instances you have up to two years to file a claim based on an incident in order to get it to pay out. And what ended up happening, by the end of 2021, the insurance industry as a whole lost a net $3.8 billion, meaning after all the revenue they brought in from premiums and all the claims they paid out, insurance in the United States as a whole lost $3.9 billion. As that trend continued in 2022, that number went from $3.8 to $26.9 billion that the insurance industry lost. Now, I don't know about you guys, but if you're running a business, you can't be operating in the negative like that. You've got to do something to change it. So by the end of 2022,

insurance companies said, hold on, we need to take a really strong look at what's going on. We weren't seeing a lot of the progress coming out of COVID. Used cars were increasing in value, which was amazing. You never saw that before. And it was still a you know, used cars were, you know, increasing in value, which was amazing. You never saw that before. And it was still a lot of the challenges that they were going through. So they put a hard stop in the fourth quarter of 2022. And not only did they get hit with losses, but there's, and many people may not know this, but there's reinsurance companies, which are companies that insure insurance companies. And they normally react a little bit quicker because they can see the writing on the wall. Reinsurance companies in 2022 increased their

premiums on insurance companies by 60%. Okay. So now they have to pass that on to the consumer. They've got to pass it on to consumer. Okay. So after losing all this money, insurance companies reevaluated and some insurance companies re-evaluated, and some insurance companies got out of the game altogether. Kemper Insurance is one of them that they ended up saying, you know what? We're just not going to do home and auto anymore. Some companies chose to cherry pick certain states where they would not offer coverage based on headwinds historical that consumers faced in those states, Florida and California are specific ones. Yeah, there was a lot of legal battles around that too, but yeah.

Still are. Yes. Carriers were looking to, they re-evaluated their risk profile. They said, we're losing a lot. Where are we losing it? Why are we losing it? They looked at coastal regions. They looked at places like California, Florida, Texas, big city centers. New York City has some of the highest claims. And so they re-evaluated that. They re-evaluated their risk profile. So you were mentioning the roof. So roof claims over the last five to ten years make up roughly 40 to to 45% of all homeowners claims in the United States.

So that is the number one claim that people end up filing for their home. So let's stay on that for a minute. So we've been talking about how for folks to keep an eye on the tax side on the budget and the rate, because that's going to ultimately impact the total dollar amount that they're paying, which impacts their monthly payment, right? But if I have, because we've got transactions that are going on, that if the roofs are 15 years or under, it's becoming a problem at the closing table. It is. If the roofs are 15 years or older. Thank you very much. Thank you. Becoming an issue at the closing table. So prior to listing, what recommendations could you give to folks who are going to list? Get somebody in to certify the roof? What recommendations?

So the roof is one of the more interesting ones. And there's a lot of conversations in the real estate world right now. A home inspection versus, my presentation for 2025 is actually a home inspection versus an insurance inspection, because insurance companies come out and inspect properties too when you go to buy one. When it comes to the roof, a home inspector will come out and say, give an estimate on the age of the roof. They'll look for any issues with it. The insurance company draws a lot harder lines. So they'll look at a roof and if it is a asphalt shingle roof, it doesn't matter if it's a 40-year architectural shingle, a 30-year architectural shingle, or a three-tap composite shingle, an insurance company can say, if it is a asphalt shingle of any type, if it's older than 15 years,

we're not going to insure it. So I want to make sure the word not was used. Yes, we are not going to insure that. And we also need to highlight asphalt shingled roofs are what percentage of roofs in this market? 99.999999. That's why I asked that question. It's a little bit different if it is metal. And we do have a number of metal roofs that are around here, as long as they're well maintained.

Well maintained means keeping the code on it? Is that what that means? It is. Yeah, painted and kept up. Slate roofs, there's still some homes with slate roofs, very few around here. We don't have a lot of flat roofs. The homes that are insured in Pennsylvania, that's a bigger question. There's a lot of flat roofs up there, especially in the Philadelphia area.

One of the challenges we had with insuring our building here, the Macklin building, a flat roof. All about the flat roof challenge. You are dropping dimes right here. A lot of people have questions for you already. Keep going. So, yeah, they'll say, you know, if it's older than 15 years, we're not going to insure it. The challenge, one of the biggest challenges with this,

is that in the state of Virginia, we don't pull permits for roofs. It could take too long to get the roof replaced if you had to go through that process. So then the burden of proof comes on whoever's selling the home. Do they have receipts? Do you know who the person was that did the work on the roof? So that is super important. That's one of the first things when we sit down to do a listing. You had a new roof.

Great in 2023. I need to see a copy of the receipt. So we can have it in our files when the buyer's agents ask. Yes, sir. And it could be a challenge too, because a lot of times people will invest in properties to flip as well. And when they normally do that, they'll put in LVP flooring throughout the house, they'll put in a new kitchen, they put in granite countertops. My favorite people that flip homes are the ones that don't necessarily touch all that, but they replace the roof. They go through and they check all the plumbing. They update the electrical panel. They do the core guts of it because that's the long-term value that you're putting into a home. And those are the things that when the insurance folks come through that they're looking at. Do I have Quest and so forth and so on.

Exactly. So the roof is a very big one right now. For listing agents out there, as much documentation as you can on that is an important thing if you're a buyer's agent asking for that information. Now, the insurance companies will still come out and they still do an inspection on the property to make sure it's in good condition.

You were mentioning the drone flyover photos, and this is a lot of insurance companies are doing this now. Well, they will go over and do a visual of the roof. I think there's some legal battles that are going on out there right now as far as is this fair. In places like South Carolina, they did that, and they sent non-renewals and saying, nope, we're not going to insure that roof. Why would that not be fair? I don't know. I'm not a lawyer. That strikes me as due diligence.

I see it from the insurance standpoint. Of why you would do drone footage on the item of the house that is most susceptible to pay out from the insurance provider. So let me try asking the question a different way. In my insurance policy, which nobody reads, does the insurance company have the right to do that? They have the right to come out and do periodic inspections of the home to make sure it's okay. And a home has to be well-maintained. But how they do that inspection is not defined, right? It's not. Which is intentional. And that's why a lot of the insurance companies are doing that. I think when it came to the legal battle, I think people felt intrusion of privacy. It was used more as a, we want to get out of this market.

And it wasn't, it's a subjective. So that's the other thing, is a lot of these underwriters are presenting a subjective opinion because it's very difficult, especially with roofs, to objectively define what is good and what is bad. Now, if half the shingles are missing, that's a pretty good case. And he's pretty much saying that because there's some roofs that if you have a 30-year warranty, legitimately could go 35 years. And there's other roofs, if they were installed poorly, that are on a 30-year warranty, may go 20, may go less if they're installed poorly.

That's what he's saying. And can I jump in and do a builder geek on it? Please. It depends on the pitch of the roof. 100%. Yes. Right? And the trees, the foliage, the precipitation catch.

The lower the pitch, the shorter the life, the higher the pitch, the longer, which is what the drones are looking at. You're saying trees, like, you know, if a roof is on a shaded north side of a house, it is going to show mildew and mold and everything else, moss. Which eats it up. And an insurance company could come out and say there's moss on that roof. It either needs to get cleaned or you need a new roof. And that can happen a lot faster than what you anticipate. So I'm about ready to list my house, right? I know my roof isn't new.

Who are you using to list it? And you know the reality is he's not going. His wife won't let him sell that house. Or actually, you don't want to sell the house. Yeah. Thank you, Jeremy. Yeah, you're welcome. I'm now in trouble again.

So what do I do, right? So I'm about ready to list a house. I've got a good agent on the other side that says, look, how old is your roof? My roof is 25 years old. It's a 30-year roof. I don't have the 15-year window that I need to have. Do I bring you out to look at this? Do I go ahead and get the roof certified,

or I just bite the bullet and put a new roof on it so this doesn't show up at the back end? So, I mean, there's several different ways to approach it. Now, probably 60% of the carriers out there right now say 15 years are cut off. There's several carriers that will go up to 20, and then there's some carriers that will go 25 or more. The greater the risk the insurance company is taking on for something like that, the higher your premium is going to be. So the carriers that are going to say, we don't care how old the roof is, you're going to pay for it in your insurance. So a lot of times, it's a little bit up to you. But as far as what realtors do on the buyer's or the seller's side, as long as it's kind of known, it becomes a negotiation within the contract. Sometimes people will give credits or they'll

be negotiated in the sales price of the home. There are some listings that I've seen where the listing agent has said, we actually already have a contract to replace this roof. Or a quote. Yeah. Well, I've actually seen where someone says, we already have a contract to get this roof replaced. And in some ways that kind of sweetens it up for that list. Well, it's projected into the price.

It doesn't change the fact that it's negotiating. But when you're listing your features, you're saying you're going to have a brand new roof. The concern with doing that is not every roof installer is A and not every roof installer is

B. And if I was buying a house, especially being in this community 25 years, I would want to use the roof installers that I know well. And that makes a lot of sense, but thinking about the average first-time home buyer or something along those lines, a new roof, and I don't care if it's a three-tab composite, new is new. So it's going to-tab composite. New is new.

So it's going to be a good thing. So that adds value. Yes. Right. And we've got a couple other things to talk about. If you update your electrical panels, you update your dropout to Quest. And he's got a boatload of questions on the feed. And increases things.

But we can get to the questions. I do want to get to at some point what past insurance claims impact. But we'll talk about that a little bit later. So viewers and listeners, put your questions in the questions. I do want to get to at some point what a past insurance claims impact, but we'll talk about that a little bit later. So viewers and listeners, put your questions in the feed. I'll relay them live on air. Some of the questions that are coming in so far, and you've got agents that are giving you props right now. For instance, Sarah Hill Buchenski is saying you and is it Isaiah? Isaiah. Yep. Are fantastic. Thank you. To work with. So she's highlighting that. Robert Sulesky, watching the program right now, giving you some props.

So a lot of questions that are coming in. This question right now from the mayor of McIntyre, we've dubbed him Bill McChesney, says, can he speak to the effect of solar panels on the roof? What effects do solar panels on the roof cause with insurance coverage? And then more questions continue to come in for Jeremy Rowe. That's a good question. So the biggest thing that solar panels currently affect is the estimated replacement cost of the home. So the insurance companies that ask the questions about it, because not every

insurance company asks about solar panels, but the ones that do, it's more if there's a claim on this house, we've got to factor in because we got to replace these things if something does happen. Solar panels are actually a pretty good protector of a roof. I'm going to push back on that. So as far as an asphalt shingle versus one of a solar panel, if you throw the same objects at it, a solar panel is going to take a beating in a good way. However, you do have to install it. He's going to talk about the installation. Yes. The installation is the other thing.

You're drilling into your roof. You're setting it up that way. And any time you're doing that and compromising it, it opens up an opportunity for something to happen. Now, as far as claims activity I see, it's going to be on the smaller side. I have not had a lot of issues with people saying, leaking and things along those lines. So that's... Well, that's back to Jerry's comment about to who installs it, right, matters and who you hire. And, you know, I'll give a shout out to Tiger Solar. They're

working on a quote for my home. But, you know, what I did was put a brand new roof on it last year, waiting to save enough capital to put the solar on the back of the home. So my solar life and my roof life are now matched. Our family shortlist of contractors that do work on our rental properties and our personal residence is 18 years of trial and error 18 years of trial and error so anybody that's doing any work for us is going to be handpicked by my wife and i um joanne mackie tree fell on my roof luckily i was in the market used litched here in charlottesville and was very pleased in my opinion to have established roofer for follow-up um like if it begins to streak, they know how to maintain it,

know my roof, really important for curb appeal. This from Jason Howard on Rio Road for Jeremy specifically, and then we'll go to the Shenandoah Valley's finest backstop, Mike Plecker, who played baseball for the New York Mets in their minor league system. Jason Howard says, what is the group's opinion, specifically Jeremy, on getting a metal roof in this region versus replacing with shingles when building or replacing? I'm a big fan of a metal roof. A well-maintained metal roof in this market is a great thing. It's just going to cost you $90,000.

No, it's going to cost you multiple times over. It is. Five X, probably a traditional roof. Easy. $20,000. No, it's going to cost you multiple times over. It is... Five acts, probably a traditional roof. Easy. It is the more expensive option for it, but every situation is a little bit different. There's a reason why most roofs are asphalt shingle. It's cost-effective.

Exactly. But the longevity of it, so is... Well, and then if you want to put solar on it, you sure as hell don't want to be drilling through a metal roof. And you can do the math, too. Anyway, that's my builder hat. If you're 30 years old and you're buying your forever home, which may or may not be, you're going to probably have to replace your roof two times in, two times, you know, in your lifetime, if you were going to stay there. So you might run the math and say, if I have to do it twice, why not go ahead and do it once? Or it's like a family property that you're going to hand down

to your children. Exactly. In that case, the metal roof can be a very good investment. So, but I, I always love seeing a good, well-maintained metal roof. The metal, the metal roof is absolutely gorgeous. And there's few things more enjoyable than hearing the rain hit a metal roof while you're sleeping inside. I mean, it just will lull anyone to sleep. And, of course, I'm biased because whenever I'm doing the insurance policy, I want to see a metal roof. It makes my job a lot easier. Of course.

Questions continue to come in. I promised Michael Plecker we would get to him. I have maybe half a dozen questions already here for Jeremy Rowe, which is absolutely fantastic. This is a partner at YRP. Last year, there was a roofing company that was knocking on doors in my neighborhood offering free assessments. They would climb onto people's roofs and take a few picks if you had so much as a little spot. They would whip our picks from a hailstorm from two years prior, pushing people to make a roof claim. They said all the right things, had some stats, and promised to get the adjuster to

back the claim. In my opinion, it was questionable operation. Many neighbors took advantage of it. I did not. Can you guys speak to this? Michael Plecker. Absolutely. So right there is probably one of the reasons why all of us collectively are seeing our premiums go up. There's a number of, there's great roofing companies out there. There's great roofers out there. And I don't want kind of my next statement here to detract from that aspect of it. But there's certainly a number of organizations that... Fly by night. If a hailstorm comes through an area, that they are out going door to door doing this and saying, oh, you can just submit it with your insurance company. And you had mentioned

earlier what's the effect of filing a claim on your homeowner's premium, and we can get to that here in a second. But in many ways, it is... It's not insurance fraud because something did happen to the roof. But at the same time, it's not... Man, choosing his words carefully here. What they are doing is collectively hurting the roofing industry, the insurance industry, and by proxy, everyone else as a result. So we've, for nearly seven years, been using this term trusted advisor, right? Hire your trusted advisor.

ISC is an example. Have somebody come in that you trust to go ahead and look at it. Don't put anybody on your roof that you don't know, you don't trust. And oh, by the way, if they fall off the roof, what happens to my insurance? And just as a good rule of thumb, if someone is a door-to-door salesman or knocking on your door, be very susceptible of trusting these people. You see this in the tree business as well. Or driveway. The asphalt driveway fixtures. I mean, it's just, it's sketchy. Trusted advisor. Call your trust fire. Let

me follow up with a question like that. So you're my agent. I said, you know, I'm really concerned about my roof. Would you mind coming out and look at it? A, is that a service you provide? Two, if you do and you find a problem, what position does that put me in? Does that make sense? Yeah, it's not something I really do. And again, the age of the roof, me personally, I'm not a whole lot, you know, if I came and looked at your roof, I'm going to be giving a subjective opinion. Well, let me put it this way. You would be able to guide me in the right direction, right? I can, but a lot of the things, you know, if you say

come out and take a look at my roof, I'm a little concerned, and there's like, you know, a hole and some shingles missing, then that's pretty clear and obvious, but really, a lot of the stuff, you know, water always finds a way, and a lot of times it's unseen. So there's not a whole lot that I can do. Now, I can

take a look at it and say, it's looking pretty old, but at the same time, there's not a whole lot that I can do. Now I can take a look at it and say, it's looking pretty old. But at the same time, there's insurance companies, as far as what they're doing, are looking at empirical proof. So my first question would be like, when did you last replace your roof? What's the age of it? Taking a look and seeing what kind of materials on the roof. Have you had any issues? Have you noticed anything? Have you been up in your attic or the attic crawl or anything and taking a look at it. But, but it's really, um, there's really, uh, just as an agent, because again, I don't work for any of the insurance companies. I've got 70 different ones that I partner with, but I love being independent because you know, when I'm working with someone, I'm working with you. You used the word bias

before, huh? I think you used the word bias before. I don't have any bias. Yeah. So I'm working with someone, I'm working with you. I think you used the word bias before. Huh? I think you used the word bias before. Yeah, I don't have any bias in it. Yeah, so I'm working for you as far as that goes. But there's not a whole lot I can say specifically as an agent. That's more of an underwriter's game. I can testify to the water problem. It's in the basement. I'm building an apartment in the basement for my parent, my 85-year-old parents.

Some knucklehead built a house. And I've got water intrusion, which I can't figure out how it's getting in. I've dug up. I mean, I've been working on it for a couple of months. So water will find its way. Water always finds a way. Monica Gibson watching the program. A lot of comments coming in the program.

Keith, before we get off this topic, you have something on your mind. And then I'll get to easily eight or nine questions for Jeremy Rowe here. Yeah, I just wanted to focus on this trustor advisor comment about coming in there. And then I don't know if this is a good time to get into past insurance claims, right, and how that impacts it. And as a buyer, I'm representing a buyer, right? Is it a good thing to pick up a phone and find out if I can get a report? And is there a process to go through on that? Sure. Does that make sense? Yes. So what was the first, that was a lot of stuff you just did. What was the question?

What is the question? Got it. Got it. So past insurance claims, right? I'm a buyer. Sure. I'm buying a house. How do I get a report on passing insurance claims? Sure. Does that make sense? Is that better? To touch into that, I want to go back just a little bit to where I was at the end of 2022. Got it. So the evaluations that insurance companies made, one of the first things that they did is they started looking at the price, and they started increasing premiums. If you're losing money, one of the first things you can do is start scheduling increases in premiums. That means charge customers more money, viewers and listeners. Exactly, yes. And the second thing they did was they looked at their underwriting guidelines for things like the roofs, and they might have insured a roof at 25 years previously that went to 20,

then to 15 for a lot of carriers. Some carriers out there, big carriers, are down to 10, 10 years. Who are some of those? Right now, depending on the location, progressive insurance is one of the ones that if a roof's older than 10 years, they might not take it. Some insurance companies, actually, if you're in the Tidewater area, it can be as little as four years that they're going to have. Every carrier has different rules, and it's not the same rules for every location in some instances. Now, the bigger the insurance company, the broader the brush they have to paint with. So a lot of your national carriers that run a lot of national ad campaigns,

they may have more standardized rules and regulations as a result and a little bit less flexibility. But they had changes to their underwriting guidelines. And then a lot of the carriers also took a look at, as I said, where they were taking the biggest losses. We were actually really lucky that we got price increases here. A lot of locations got non-renewals. The insurance company said, we're actually no longer gonna write your zip

code any longer at your renewal you need to find new insurance and then the last aspect was looking at claims history and they look at it in two parts a lot of insurance companies will look at it for the home and the homes claims history and then also the individual people and the insured and their claims history. Looking at the insured's past history, even though it would be a different property if someone's buying a home, shows their propensity to file another claim in the future. This is basically like an insurance credit score. It is.

And credit score is actually a big factor in terms of your price and premium. I was just about to... Literally just wrote credit score down. So it used to be... That's a big thing. It used to be depending on the nature of the claim. You could have two claims, and then maybe the third strike,

you were out, or depending on the type of claim, if you had three claims, they might still be okay with it. A lot of insurance companies now have moved to a stance that if you've had a claim or the home has had a claim

within a certain period of time, for some insurance companies, it's three years. For some, it's five years. Some instances, it's seven. But if you've had a claim in that period of time, they say, you know what? We're okay. We're just not going to insure you. You need to find another company. And that's if you've had a claim or the home's had a claim. Some insurance companies will just look at the house because that's the risk location and see if there's been any claims history there. And then not all claims are treated equally. So we were discussing the roof earlier. If you have a roof claim, the end result of that is they replace your

roof. So there may be an effect on your premium because you filed a claim for it, but there's also going to be the benefit of having a brand new roof that's on the home, which minimizes it. Something like a water claim that takes place on a property, a leaking pipe or a sun in an accidental claim. That's way worse. Those can be costly. Water is the number two claim after roofs, and those make up roughly 25% of claims. And when an insurance company comes out, they'll fix the damage as a result of the water claim, but they're not going to go through and replace all your plumbing. So the issue can still be present. If it was a home that had Quest or polybutylene piping, which was a type of plumbing that was very common throughout most of the 80s and 90s, they were known for getting

kind of pinhole leaks or sometimes at the joints. So I'll jump in real in real quick on this sure so if you want to know if you have it if it's gray plastic pipe you've got it gray plastic plumbing you can look at elbow joints where the plumbing is connected that's where the leak is going to spring that you could yeah that's most most often the case 90 of the time that's exactly when i look at them for homes because I used to own a plumbing company, when I look at homes, if it's a copper fitting. Copper elbow. Copper elbow fitting, then usually you're okay. It's the plastic ones that are dog do. It's the plastic ones that are dog do would be kind.

Yeah. And a lot of insurance companies, they don't like galvanized plumbing in homes, and they don't like the Questor polybutylene. And what I see frequently is older homes homes built in like the 40s there's like four types of plumbing that's in the house it's been renovated a few different times you know one bathroom's got this the kitchen's got that i'm dealing with one in nelson county right now that literally goes from coppa the galvanized the quest um uh to pecs or pb. And with the insurance company, if there's any of one type of plumbing that they like that's in the home,

it's a no-go. So it's called a CLU, right? A Comprehensive Lost Underwriting Exchange. Exactly. So a CLU report is run with insurance companies for any property. And for actually your auto insurance as well, there's a CLU report on any claims history.

And generally for a property, it'll go back seven years. And it'll show any claims activity that's happened with the home. Now, that's like a car fax for a house. Right. Why can the consumer not have access to that information prior to purchasing a home. That information should be readily available for the average Joe and average Sally before buying a house, just like a car fax is available for a house, for a car. That's a great question. We'll need to ask the insurance industry as a whole or some power bigger than myself. But I normally look at it and that's something that... So you're able

to look at that? I see it. Let me add some context to that real quick. Very interesting. Because this is actually happening, right? Because in what I refer to the unicorn years, people were buying homes, not having home inspections, just closing on them. That's within that seven-year window.

They're now some of reselling them, right? And all of a sudden, buyers are showing up with a clue report. So folks were not necessarily doing their due diligence as they once should have, I think, in my opinion, back in those days, but it was the market and that's where it was at the time. So I own my home. I'm about ready to put it on. You're my agent. Can you give me a clue report for my house? Because it may have happened before I called. I'll take it a step further. I'll take it a step further. Does that make sense?

Can average Joe and average Sally hire Jeremy Rowe and pay Jeremy Rowe some kind of fee for a comprehensive loss underwriting, is it exchange? No, I can't do that. We can't pay you to get a report on some house we're looking at buying. I wouldn't take payment for that. If I'm writing a quote for a property, that doesn't cost anything for me to do that.

So should people do that before buying a house? Here's the thing. The answer to that is yes. Well, you have to. It will not let me move forward with a homeowner's insurance. No, no, what Jeffrey's talking about is before I make an offer on it. Yes, that's what. It will not let me move forward with a homeowner's insurance. No, no. What Jeffrey's talking about before I make an offer. Yes. That's what I'm saying.

Thank you. That's what I'm saying. Caffeine's kicking in. That's the point I'm trying to get to. So I would say not necessarily. And Keith, you know this. So if you walk into a home, if you're a buyer's agent and you walk into a home and say you see some water spots on the ceiling, unless it's been disclosed that there is an active issue in the home, it is assumed that the issue has been resolved because it had to have been disclosed by the seller or the seller's agent in order for that to happen, correct? The same thing is with insurance claims.

So if there was an insurance claim on the home, it is illegal to profit from an insurance claim. I get that, Jeremy, but a lot of times with these sales that have just happened during the unicorn years, they just bought it and never realized or went back and found out if there was actual insurance.

Or let's cut to the chase. Sellers just painting over the water spots right before they list the home and not telling anybody about it. Well, again, it is the assumption that the issue was resolved. So there's nothing wrong with painting over that because if there was like a small drip or something like that, you know, and you fixed it, then, you know, it's considered resolved. And I'm a unique animal because I can walk to a house and pick it apart, right, because of my building and your building background

and tell within minutes how old the roof is and so forth and so on. Having the building background is extremely helpful in what I do. But so to Jerry's question, if I'm representing you to buy and we're looking to buy Jerry'serry's jerry's home you're my current agent right and i want to buy jerry's home before i put a contract can i ask you to run a clue on that house before you finalize anything with a a if i if i'm doing a quote the clue report is already already going to come through so it's going to say if there's by the time i get to the point of getting a quote,

I'm already under contract. That's my point. So my recommendation. And there's no provision. Let me get this thought out if you don't mind. Unless I write a provision in the contract, which is very possible. Some kind of out.

That there's an amendment to the contract that is just depending on my insurance costs. And the reason I wanted to talk about this, because this stuff is coming up at the closing table. Sure. And all of a sudden, they think they're spending X dollars a month. And now all of a sudden, they're spending wide. I hedge risk in everything I do. Can I get the clue report before an offer is made? Sure. So I can look at the insurance for a home before an offer is made, yes. So if someone, you're like, I'm looking at this property,

I'm curious what the homeowner's insurance is going to be, I can run through that and it does pull the clue report for that. My general recommendation for the agents that I work with or the mortgage lenders that are out there is as soon as a home is under contract, one of the first things you need to do is get in contact with the insurance agent. I don't care who the insurance agent is. I don't care if it's me or anyone else, but have an insurance company look at the home, someone that you trust, a trusted advisor, to look over the property. There's kind of two different ways, and this is also part of one of my presentations, the chicken and the egg of the home inspection or the insurance inspection.

One of the things that I generally do is when I'm looking at a home prior to a home inspection, I'll have questions that can be asked of the home inspector. There may be things that are found during the home inspection process that can come up, and it's also a period of negotiation. In contract flow, that's actually a smart place to put it because the home inspection is a contingency in the contract. Yours is not. So if I'm doing that prior to that, then we can potentially address that during home inspection. I think that's a fair way of doing that. Because the reality of it is inventory is slow.

Deals are flipping and turning on a fast pace. You don't want to hold up a negotiation or a contract waiting for you to take a look at it, get it on the contract, ask you to come in to go ahead and do it prior to the home inspection. Now keep in mind, these home inspections are getting tighter and tighter and tighter. Right.

And some of them before like informational purposes only, you know, you know what we were trying to contract. Don't let me go down that road. And not inspectors are equal. Don't let me go down that road. The other thing, Jerry, and I think this is probably a different way of answering your question is because you were concerned about pre-contract looking at these things and making sure that this is going to be something that's going to fly. There is an addendum to the home purchase contract that is an insurance addendum. I don't think it's used enough. I don't think it's used at all.

I don't know about it. That's a better way of phrasing it. But I'm going to look it up while you're talking. But basically what you're able to do with that is saying this home is contingent on us finding home insurance at X amount of dollars per year with this deductible. It's basically an attached – it's a type of financing contingency that you can add to the contract. My buddy Jerry will jump in on this one. Read my mind. What am I thinking right now? What you're thinking is that impacts

your negotiating position. I would say no seller in their right mind would accept a contract with that insurance addendum unless their home is extremely long in the tooth. Well, one of the things you can do is look at your current homeowner's insurance and see if you think it's reasonable. Now, that's not always the best indicator of it. Because it's based on the individual's people's insurance history. It's based on their credit score. It's based on so many things. I just read this. They use terms like at your sole discretion.

From a listing agent's perspective, and I'm multiple bids, and let's face it, that's kind of back to that norm. At the right location, right price, right features, right condition, right dose is what's going on. But your approach is a better approach. We're having two different conversations now. You're talking about the competitiveness of an offer, and you're talking about I need an out. Yeah. So they're two different things.

Now, I'm saying if you – well, you're doing a great job here, by the way. This is going back and forth. I know. I know. Back and forth. I know. You're stuck in the middle of Batman and Robin. Not an out, but not getting yourself in a position where you're going to be

stuck with something because of a higher insurance premium or claims history or something along those lines. I would just rather the clue report before I make an offer.

Yeah, I mean, you can certainly get a quote. Now, if you're looking at 30 different homes, they're probably going to get a little frustrated with you. You should charge for that. Why can't you make that

as a profit center? No, it's just not how I'm set up. But that's part of the thing that I do is I will call and gladly give a quote for property or put eyes on it or run through everything. But no, it does

show that. In real world, the current tempo is one in most cases, unless it's extremely long in the tooth and the seller is extremely desperate, language that's buried in. I've never actually read this, so thank you for doing that. Would never be agreed upon by the seller.

Yeah, and that's probably why it's not used. I mean, it has. It has been agreed upon. But it's still, and a lot of times, too, that that part of the contract can be satisfied fairly quickly. 85 transactions I had my eyes on last year, I did not see a single one of these. Yeah. But it is one. But your approach is right, though. Get it on the contract. Negotiate it.

Get it on the contract. And that's what I'm saying. It's a very different conversation on getting a competitive market versus. It is and it isn't. Yeah. Because the way the home inspection addendum is written, you can bring in professionals, right? You're just another professional to come in and go ahead. The insurance addendum, I can guarantee you there's a boatload of agents that are watching this program.

And I guarantee you that those agents had no idea about the insurance addendum. Or they did very rarely ever used it. Right, right. Which is the value of Real Talk with Keith Smith because we're covering content that should be in your toolbox. And Jeremy Rowe is providing tremendous value here for the viewers and listeners. And he's playing tennis really well. I think you actually enjoyed this, don't you? Oh, yeah.

This is great. I love it. There's a boatload of comments that are coming in here. So this one right here is from eric thompson and eric thompson i appreciate him because he is uh always the the cynic and i i appreciate someone who's always a cynic um so this is the timeline of events that you gave in the beginning of the show, and I'm going to put it in very succinct terms. Sure. Government tells America during pandemic and COVID to quarantine and stay at home. We stay at home more.

We find problems with our house. We fix problems with our house. We don't leave our house, get in our cars and drive as much. And government gives us extra money to spend so we can use some of that extra money to fix house. In that situation, insurance providers start offering discounts to the public because they are in a more competitive scenario. There's less claims coming in. They have more cash on hand. Then what happens? We come out of quarantine. The world goes crazy because of low mortgage rates homes that were not inspected or not set up the right way. Insurance claims start coming in. And as insurance claims start coming in, natural disasters strike

Florida, natural disasters strike California, natural disasters strike the Southeast and the Mid-Atlantic. Insurance companies start losing in a two-year period of time $30 billion plus. Now, insurance providers are desperate, and they're trying to recoup $30 billion plus losses. They're saying no to coverage in certain states like California and Florida specifically. They're starting to narrow down the coverage that they'll offer. For instance, a roof that may have a 30-year shelf life may only be covered under 15 years of shelf life. And now folks are like, what the hell is going on here? Homes are expensive. Interest rates are expensive. Taxes are expensive. Insurance is going up. Everything's going up. So that's where we're at right now. So Eric Thompson says, when can we

expect insurance companies to recoup their costs and reduce their prices? Or is this higher pricing the new standard forever? Awesome. That's the very next part of the story. So excellent question. So by the end of 2023, in the fourth quarter of 2023, there was really only four companies that were, you know, profitable, like across like their home and their auto lines in the United States. And there's, I think there's like 470 different insurance companies in the United States for personal lines products everywhere.

We don't have them all here in Virginia, but what were those four out of curiosity? I will have to go back and pull them. Um, progressive progressive was one of them. Progressive was one of them. Progressive is kind of the, they do a lot of leading within the industry in terms of making the changes. They're some of the first ones that made changes and they're some of the first ones that came out of it. So what we saw over 2023 and end of 2022, all through 2023 and the majority of 2024

was different price increases and premiums to kind of find that level that insurance companies needed to be where they got their loss ratios down and that they were starting to look more profitable. As they started to do that, as they found their kind of happy medium, which was in the second half, really, of 2024, we saw fewer scheduled price increases. They boiled the water slowly so the frog didn't jump out. However, that's when they're writing new business. What we saw is that there might have been 10 scheduled small price increases over the course of a year, but we only get our renewal once a year. And you look down in your home that was insured for $900 is now $1,400. And you're like, why did it just go up 50%? And that's because there was a lot of smaller increases over time. Also with that comes

an increase in coverage generally. But to stay on kind of what's happening now, 2024, we hit kind of a stabilization period. We've made a lot of changes. Let's sit with it and see how it's feeling. So the second half of 2024 and into 2025, that's really what we've seen is we've made a lot of changes. We're going to see how it feels. And then what's happened is some carriers by the end of 2024 said, okay, our profits are looking better. These underwriting changes that we've made are working for us. We're minimizing our risk a little bit more. Now we need to get back into growth mode. And in the society that we live in, when you have multiple companies and

whatnot vying for business, you start saying, okay, these are areas that we want to grow. What is our opportunity for premium here? How can we grow in these areas? We're very fortunate where we live. The Shenandoah Valley, Central Virginia is an area that carriers want to come to. I've added three new carriers so far just in 2025. And I've got more that are scheduled to come in. So companies, some of the smartest and nimblest companies out there, the large national companies are very good insurance companies. They're better marketing companies,

but they're very good insurance companies. But there's a lot of A-rated, and A is the financial rating of the companies, A-rated carriers that are regional or local that are still very good. And sometimes they offer even better levels of detailed coverage on a policy. But they can be more strategic.

There's some insurance companies that they won't appoint agents. They'll go to Richmond, and then they'll appoint them west, but they won't appoint agents in the Tidewater area because they want to grow in this area because it's a lower risk. So what we're going to see throughout 2025 and in 2026, barring some major catastrophes or everything, I think we'll sit with what we have. And then you'll start to see companies say, all right, we want to get more competitive.

This is where we want to grow our business. I talk with a lot of builders in the area. Buying new construction is the least expensive insurance that you're going to get. Does that make sense? Some companies are very smart and their premiums are going to be even better than what most of them are

because they're like, we want to capture new home construction. We want to be the best premium in the market when it comes to new home construction. Because the likelihood of the best premium in the market when it comes to new homes. Because the likelihood of claims being filed is much less on new construction because it's brand new property. Plus it has warranties that come baked in. Age-related

claims on homes start happening around the 20-year mark for homes. When a home hits about 20 years, that's when age-related claims start hitting. And what you'll see is a premium difference between a home built today and a home 10 years ago is going to be about a 50%. It's going to be 50% higher, a 10-year-old home versus a brand new construction home. And that goes up to 75% when you hit 30 years.

So while you guys were talking, I was crunching some numbers. So in Paragon, you can put in there roof type and segregate out the sales on roof type. Now, before I give this number, this is assuming the listing agent put in the listing. The correct way. Or actually even added the fact that it has a metal roof. So there in the left. If there's a listing agent that does not quantify the value of a metal roof in their listing or on the back end with Paragon, then they should not be the listing agent on your house. Well, I'm just saying this is, you know, I'm just saying that if they don't put a metal roof in the

listing, what I'm a number I'm about ready to give you wouldn't catch, right? It could have one wouldn't catch it. There was a little over 3000 transactions, closed transactions going from today, 12 12 months back, 30 of them said they had a metal roof on it. We're talking 1%. Think about that. 1%. I mean, that just speaks to the cost of the metal roof. I would imagine if you go into each

individual 3,000 transactions, you'll probably find some of them might have it, so it might be a half a percent or a percent different, but it's not a huge percentage of the total transaction. Go ahead. Go ahead. I was going to say, just to kind of tie up the last question. So I think what we're going to see in 2025 is a stabilization. I don't think you'll see on renewals, after your renewal this

year, I don't think you'll see the same kind of stark jump in premium rates at renewals after your renewal this year i don't think you'll see the same kind of stark jump in in premium rates uh at renewals going forward there might still be some variance so when you say this year you'd mean 2025 so anyone that's getting their renewals right now for their homeowner's insurance is probably going to see an increase compared to what it was in 2024 we were still through the evaluation of the premium period right now if your renewal is going to be coming up in the latter half of 2024, it might not be as stark a difference. So this sounds like it's going to play out almost like gas and groceries, where prices may stabilize, but they're not going to go down to what they were pre-COVID. Well, that's the other thing. So, you know, I don't see big milk, like trying to get buy and compete for market share, trying to get the milk prices to come down, but insurance companies are a little bit different.

I certainly see gas in that, in that field. Sure. So, so I think there is, I think there is an opportunity, um, depending on how things go for again, insurance companies to be strategic and where they want their growth areas to be and what they want their criteria to be. And being in an area of the United States that has more favorable conditions than other places, adding competition to our market can be something that can help bring prices down. The other thing that you can do is with a lot of insurance, for many people, it's set it and forget it. My personal opinion is that every three years is about the right length of time to reevaluate your insurance. I wouldn't do it every year. I wouldn't do it every six months.

But three years is generally the best. The reason why I say that is, especially with auto insurance, a lot of times when people are getting quotes for auto insurance, the carriers that I'm brokering for are going to look at how long they've been insured and how long they've been insured with one carrier. If you've been with them for three years or more, the new insurance companies are going to say, that's a very loyal customer. We want them to be with us for three years or more. So they'll offer more favorable rates. So we're getting close to wrap up. We're at wrap. Over an hour. Thank you everyone. Yeah, he's killing it. But the premise of what I wanted to do for the show today is the taxes and insurance portion of their monthly payment,

there's a very good chance your taxes are going to go up. The amount of cash you're going to pay is going to go up. And if you have not renewed yet, there's a strong possibility that should go up. So what folks should be doing is reach out to you or reach out to their current agent and get an assessment on the roof or assessment on their property. Well, very directly, Jeremy, should homeowners, through their online mortgage payment platform, be allocating additional funds to escrow? Not until the mortgage company asks you for it.

They'll let you know if there's a shortage in the escrow. Because you can't do that. You can't. You can't put more into the escrow if they want. But the mortgage company will let you know if you've got a shortage in there. Yeah, they'll let you know. You'll get a notice. And some of them will adjust exactly what they're taking.

Because I have a feeling all the viewers and listeners that are watching this program are going to be in a position where they're going to have to put more money into escrow. With tax assessments going up and with insurance about to hit? Well, they'll either need to put more in or depending on when it hits two, what they'll do is they'll just adjust what your mortgage payment is and then they'll refill the escrow account that way. So they don't necessarily have to put the funds in, but you're going to see the adjustment in your mortgage. That's what's going to happen, right? All of a sudden you're going to be paying a dollar and now because of taxes and insurance, potentially you can be paying a dollar plus and just keep an eye on your mortgage payments.

So, Jeremy, thank you for coming in. Anything you want to wrap up before we... Yeah, I just... You did a great job. Thank you. I appreciate that. So, I'm with the Jeremy Rowe Agency with Goosehead Insurance. You can email roe, R-O-W-E, agency at goosehead.com. Our phone number, 434-266-9900 is our main office. I have a team of five now, including myself.

Monica Gibson and Mike Pearl are both here in the Charlottesville area. And then also Isaiah Bradshaw and Harrison Berg. All three absolutely wonderful people to work with. I really love the team that we've built out. And then I also have my office administrator, Sharon. And it's been fun. I've really enjoyed growing the business. You're welcome back anytime, buddy.

And thank you all for having me on. Tom Woodworth, Jeremy Rowe is an absolute legend inside of insurance and out he's giving you some props right now viewers and listeners jeremy rowe crushed this interview with at one time the ping pong nature of batman and robin literally funneling questions to him left and right and the dude did not sweat or flinch in any regard just handled it with grace and insight. Seriously, dude. You legitimately just effing crushed this dude. Keith Smith, Real Talk with Keith Smith, online at realtalkwithkeithsmith.com. Click the partners tab and you will see the trusted advisors that Keith has personally vetted to help you get to the closing table and beyond. Realtalkwithkeithsmith.com. Click the partners tab.

The I Love Seville show is up, wow, in a short time here on a Friday with a hell of a lot to cover. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera. Thank you kindly, everyone, for joining us on the show today. So long. Thank you. Thanks. Absolutely awesome, Jeremy. Thank you.

It was great. Thank you.