What Should a Buyer Know about Flood Insurance?
Posted by Anthony Licciardello on
When buying a home, flood insurance is a tricky subject.
According to Realtor, it is not the real estate agent’s responsibility to know if a certain home needs flood insurance, but it is their job to disclose all adverse material features, conditions, and aspects of the property. If an agent does know that it needs flood insurance, has had it in the past, or that the area has recently flooded or is subject to flooding, they must disclose this information.
If the agent knows about these terms, they also should let the buyer know about the new Reform Act for flood insurance and the fact that the rates for the insurance policies will be higher than what the other homeowner paid. They may not need to know in exact detail about it, but they should be…
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First off, did you know that flood insurance not only protects your home or business’ structure, but also some of the contents, or personal property, inside of the home? When purchasing flood insurance for a home or business, you can choose the amount you want covered, just like car insurance. For the structures, flood insurance covers up to $250,000 for residences, and up to $500,000 for businesses. If you want extra coverage for your home, business, or its contents, you can purchase an additional insurance policy through another company.
The National Flood Insurance Program has been around for quite some time. Recently, however, with storms coming in stronger each year, there have been an increasing number of homeowners putting in claims from these disasters. Since not all of the homeowners that put in claims had flood insurance, this put a burden on taxpayers’ money to create federal assistance programs to help fix the damaged homes.
This past Thursday, on November 7th, Governor Cuomo announced that letters are being sent to homeowners asking them to pay a fee to apply for the School Tax Relief property tax exemption, also known as STAR. If this has happened to you, do not be fooled! There is no fee to apply for this program.
A common complaint of home buyers in the Greater New York area is that the consumer is allowed little input on the new home construction process. The needs of the buyer are often not understood by developers when their projects are conceived. A home style that has been in demand lately, according to RealEstateSINY.com agent Maria Giakas, is the two-family, six-bedroom and six-bathroom layout. This type of home contains two three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartments. Giakas has reported that several of her clients have recently expressed interest in two-family 6/6 homes. Two three-bedroom apartments allow for two medium-sized families to comfortably share the amenities of a private home, often at a reasonable price. As of right now, she says, only about ten…