What to Expect When Your Insurance Company Orders an Inspection
Whether you’ve put in an offer/ just purchased a home, renewed a policy for a home you’ve had for 10 years, or switched insurance carriers, chances are that you’ll be required to obtain an insurance underwriting inspection. But, what’s an insurance underwriting inspection, you ask? Well, it differs from a property inspection, which you […]
Impact Glass: What it is, How to Identify It, & How It Can Help You
Living on the coast has many advantages, spectacular views, a variety of outdoor activities, and high-value properties just to name a few, but every coin has 2-sides, and one of the major disadvantages is the frequency and sometimes unpredictability of tropical storms and hurricanes. With the ever-present threat of severe weather, the question of “how […]
Answers to the Question of: What’s a Four-Point Inspection?
Why it Came to Be In the early morning hours of August 24th, 1992, Hurricane Andrew, a devastating Category 5 storm, struck land off the eastern coast of Florida’s Peninsula, destroying more than 125,000 homes, and causing the death of more than 60 people. Insurance companies knew that the high-wind storm would result in […]
Wind Mitigation Inspections: What are they & the Importance of Receiving One
Home ownership comes with its own set of highs and lows, especially when it comes to the upkeep and protection of your property. One of the most important considerations for coastal properties, is to determine if your home is protected from wind; as hurricanes, tornadoes and severe storms are an often-unpredictable regional norm. When […]
What is This …and Other Questions About the FORTIFIED™ Program?
We get a lot of questions from new and existing homeowners concerning the FORTIFIED™ program, so we’d like to take a moment and answer the most common ones: What is a Fortified™ home? A FORTIFIED™ home is one that utilizes uniform building methods designed to improve & strengthen new and existing homes […]
Regular Maintenance Means Less Damage & More Value
Household chores, no one wants to get up early on a weekend and clean gutters or do yard work, but in doing so, you can, not only retain your home’s value but also lessen the likelihood of damage in the event of inclement weather or natural disaster that could lead to expensive repairs. […]
Is it Time to Reroof? 12 Signs That a Replacement May be in Your Future
If you’ve ever had a child throw a ball on your house, or grabbed the ladder to clean your gutters, then chances are, you’ve taken a glance at an often forgotten but critically essential part of your home—the roof. While you were up there, did you think about the shingles that might be […]
Are Your State’s Building Codes Up to Par? Probably Not!
Building codes establish the minimum construction standards necessary to ensure the safety of those who live, work, and exist inside of a property. In a recent Scientific American article titled “Most States Are Failing on Building Codes, FEMA Says.” Author Thomas Frank stated that 39 states received the lowest score that the agency could give […]
Alabama Condos Recognized with Highest Resiliency Certification by IBHS
“With over 7,000 FORTIFIED homes in Alabama and now the first-ever FORTIFIED Commercial-Hurricane Gold designation is also earned in Alabama.” The Colonial Inn Condominiums have earned the first-ever FORTIFIED Commercial–Hurricane Gold designation in the U.S. By Symone Garvett In order to improve resiliency for a new coastal Alabama complex, developers of the Colonial Inn Condominiums […]
Travelers Fortifies Communities
“Travelers Insurance joined forces with Habitat for Humanity and Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) to build affordable, wind-resistant, FORTIFIED homes in coastal regions of the country. Read this article to better understand the few important changes they made while only adding four to five percent, on average, to the total construction coast.” […]
Renovations for a more hurricane-resistant home
“Here is another news story by our local station, NBC 15, on how to strengthen existing homes to FORTIFIED standard. This is something every homeowner should look into as it also saves money on your homeowners insurance policy.” For more details ….
Building to survive the big one: Affordable hurricane-resistant homes
“Our local news station NBC 15 did a story on building to the Fortified standard and how this could of help saved some of the homes in Mexico Beach. I think you will find this news story very interesting.” NBC 15 News Story