All Forum Posts by: Matthew Olszak

Herbert Whalen finally got sentenced...41 months incarceration, $5k fine, and restitution still to be determined.

The script will depend on the kind of calls are you going to make? Calling expireds, fsbos, circle dialing neighborhoods or your own listings?

Once you get a solid list together, I suggest paying for a dialer like MojoSells, or if you're doing expireds, Vulcan7, so you can burn through the numbers fast. Manually dialing you'll never be able to ramp up your production enough to be meaningful.

The siding almost certainly will be approved. All it takes is 1 hail hit on aluminum which for sure your house has, unless its the flat 8" white aluminum, which might not pay out the same. Make sure the contractor puts on 0.048" thickness vinyl siding and not the typical Menards thin stuff to replace it, because that's what your insurer should be paying for at minimum to replace instead of the aluminum.

The roof is iffy - it depends on your shingle type and carrier. For instance, if you have State Farm, even if the roof is absolutely battered and the shingle discontinued, they know you have no recourse in the courts in Illinois so they'll deny the claim and then drop you at renewal. Similarly with Allstate. Connect with a public adjuster who can represent your interests in your claim, get you a check, and then you can find a contractor to do the work. Absolutely don't do any work until approved by your insurer unless its mitigation (ie tarping a hole on the roof to prevent further damage).

Where is this located? The property might be grandfathered in (best case).

I don't see being able to "unwind" anything. Almost any contract for purchase will have a clause stating something along the lines of no guarantees, buyer to perform their own due diligence, which you didn't do. The seller will claim they had no idea the building needed demolished and you'll waste more $$ on attorney fees. Depending on how the seller presented everything to you and what you can prove they knew before the sale, maybe you'll have a claim, but again, its going to take big $$ to recover your investment.

Respectfully, the part about old damage is wrong. That line is frequently touted by carrier adjusters. It depends heavily on location, time of year, and shingle age - even the sworn-upon and carrier-owned HAAG Engineering training [farce] states that. Simply slightly moistening the bruise can make it look new, while a 3 month old bruise can look old if it sits in hot direct sun for a couple months. Its all about the weather data and impact size. But overall that's irrelevant unless underwriting excluded the roof, because they agreed to insure the roof and had ample opportunity to inspect it at yearly renewal for existing damage and age (which rarely happens), and adjust coverage and premium accordingly. They accepted a full premium so they owe for full coverage - otherwise, one would expect a discount or declination if the property had existing damage that wasn't covered. But frankly, in Midwestern states there is almost ALWAYS at least one hail storm per year, so the point becomes moot unless we're talking about a brand new roof.

I definitely agree about the roofer tips, and ensuring they are licensed and insured. Also check if your roofer pays their crews on W2 or 1099 - the 1099 is likely just paying local scab crews to do work and isn't local nor do they care about reputation and warranty. 

In Illinois, SF used to be great, they'd pay out anything. Since 2020 though, they are downright dreadful. I have their adjusters as well as Allstate's on body-cam straight up admitting a roof is damaged, but "they don't know why". Calling hail hits blemishes. That doesn't matter under a DO3 policy - its their responsibility to find an exclusion, not your's to find its an included loss as any loss not excluded is covered. Its gross, but we don't have strong laws here to hold their feet to the fire like they somewhat do in CO. And 9 times out of 10 their "old damage" argument is completely wrong.

So in MOST insurance policies and states, as long as coverage is "opened", IE they say some part of the roof system is damaged, you can invoke appraisal. What that means is you demand appraisal, you name an appraiser (who is basically a non-interested 3rd party adjuster), SF does the same, and the appraisers determine the amount of the loss and either agree upon an umpire who will settle their differences or you'd have to petition the court to do so if they cannot (not that common). They as disinterested parties then determine the amount of the loss. And by disinterested, that happens by you hiring the appraiser for a flat fee vs. a percentage which a PA would receive. HOWEVER, SF usually around here with either ignore the appraisal award and force you to file suit to enforce it at a heavy legal cost, OR they'll gut it and say certain items aren't covered which is garbage.

If the insurer is refusing to properly inspect a loss or adjust it, I usually go the DOI route first. You file a complaint for adjusting in bad-faith, which helps set you up for a lawsuit later when you may be able to recover your legal costs. Noting missed statutory timelines is key. However under your policy you likely have responsibilities as well, such as providing a specific Proof of Loss with certain information, which any PA worth their weight would know to do within the policy timelines.

@Chris Milosevich What insurance company do you have? There are some of the big carriers that frankly just won't pay out any damage unless you go the appraisal/legal route - the adjuster simply knows they won't have a job anymore if they approve the damages. So that might be a cheaper route, invoke appraisal and name and name your appraiser if the insurance company has opened coverage on ANY part of the roof, even if its just a single turtle vent. Or you can try a complaint to the DOI - that'll usually push your file into a supervisor's inbox.

I always recommend hiring your own adjuster (ie a public adjuster). But this $225/hr is crap - they should be charging a percentage of the funds obtained over what the carrier has already approved, most commonly 15%. And Javier is right, those are your funds, so don't go just agreeing to pay out the whole amount to the roofer.

I'm licensed as a public adjuster in Colorado, but I only take on larger losses and "desk adjuster" type jobs which it doesn't sound like this would fall in to. However if you'd like, feel free to reach out and we can discuss further and I can hopefully give you some better direction on how to approach this.

@Joe A. That's the world of foreclosure auctions (true ones like your's, not the silly websites). Here in friendly Illinois, we have to wait at least 30 days for the judge to confirm the foreclosure sale, but we have to pay the full amount of our bids within 24 hrs of the auction. So our money can be tied up until that hearing just to find out the owner filed a bogus bankruptcy 1 hr before the sale which invalidates it, or they file a motion to fight the validity of the judgement and then we wait another 3 months for the bank to fight that. But with that negative aspect comes the positive - it dissuades a lot of your competition from becoming involved so easier pickings of the good crop.

Yuuuup. I've seen it frequently. A mason knows damn well that a wood header needs replaced (and now with a steel i-beam) and waits until all the bricks are torn off. A roofer sees step-decking and waits until all shingles are off the roof to tell the the owner that they need another $5k to replace the decking with plywood. I'm sure its the same with full builders/GCs. And if its not a huge company who wouldn't be playing these games to begin with, you can't simply force them to do the job for what they originally agreed to because they'll either disappear or file bankruptcy.

@Jeyo Punnakottil Are you really getting a lot of showing requests? I get a TON of emails from Zillow when I list a property, with the standard "I'd like to setup a showing" wording. A lot of people just hit the button that sends that email on any rental that is in their budget. Of those, only a small percentage actually follow up to schedule a showing, a smaller percentage actually show up, and an even smaller percentage actually read the listing which tells them that I don't answer those emails and they need to text me to setup a showing, and an even smaller percentage than that read the requirements in my listings.

For those reasons, I now usually do showings open-house style, where everyone is given a 30min-1hr window when I'll be at the property. Those who show up can apply, those who don't, well I'm not wasting my time.