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Home Flood Zone - are You in one or Not?

Flood Zone - are You in one or Not?

After my excursion this past weekend visiting a potential clients' 'rocking home', I decided to do a few blogs on flood zone information - are you in one or not?  Just because you can't see the water doesn't mean you are not in a flood zone.

 You can find out through the Planning department in your Town Hall or go online and locate your Flood map at fema.gov (it's easy to do once you get the hang of it & just have a little patience with the mapping sequence).  After you find it take a print of that page and keep it with your home property/insurance information.

 Most of the coastal towns in RI in the southern part of the state are in a flood zone.  Once you get out of the Flood zone 'C' which does not require flood insurance (that's my home zone) you will need to pay, on top of your homeowners insurance, for flood insurance.  Price is dependent upon your mortgage amount and flood zone.  This is a very important 'need to know' information point that a listing agent should have done research on prior to listing a home.  It just is not happening here I'm finding as I take buyers out to preview homes and I'm wondering why?  Is it due to ignorance, lack of forethought, laziness or knowing but not revealing...it's a materially required piece of listing information.

A homeowner, when you list a home within a flood zone, may tell you they don't need flood insurance.  That is not what a listing agent takes for gospel.  Additional checking with flood maps is required.  If the homeowner doesn't have a mortgage, they won't be required to have flood insurance because no lender is involved.  Remember it's up to the buyer's agent to do the due diligence here too.  Hurricane Katrina changed requirements with insurers and lenders to require flood insurance for homeowners where it was not necessary before.

I've listed houses that sell for $260,000 that require a mandatory $5000 a year flood insurance cost.  Adding this $420 a month cost onto the mortgage payment & escrowed insurance and real estate taxes makes this type of house not in the buying realm of a new homeowner.  Remember coastal buying even if you can't see the water requires further scrutiny to what added costs you may incur upon purchase.  Always consult an expert insurance agent for the finer details on flood insurance prior to purchase.

I'll look at how changes in your construction or renovating of a home within a flood zone can change your insurance cost significantly in another blog.  So take the time to do your due diligence and know if you are in a flood zone or not - as the homeowner or listing agent.

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RI Coastal and waterfront properties are my specialty, if you don't want to swim with the fishes please give me, your RI Realtor with the sparkly red shoes, a call.

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Posted Tuesday Aug 31