Are you the kind of person who enjoys throwing away your money?
Do you toss hundred dollar bills into the air just for fun? No? Well, I can show you how, if you own a home, that could be what you are doing.
If you learned you could save thousands of dollars every year and increase the value of your home, wouldn’t you agree that it would be worth a simple phone call? In fact, wouldn’t it be crazy to continue to pay that money needlessly year after year?
Well, it’s true. If you own a home, we can often save you money every year and increase the value of your property with very little effort on your part. We do this by getting your home removed from the flood zone by FEMA.
Ten years ago Marisa and John, a couple from Texas, purchased their first home. They faithfully paid the mortgage on time every month. In fact, the couple was quite proud of having been able to keep their home through the hard times of the Great Recession. Like virtually everyone else, each year they wrote a check for their flood insurance because they were told it was required.
After accidentally stumbling across the National Flood Experts web site, Marisa and John realized they might be able to save some money. They were a little skeptical as the offer seemed too good to be true.
“I mean you’ve gotta be careful,” John explained. “Lots of people promise the moon and the stars without delivering. So I was cautious. But after talking with you folks I realized I could save some money. Imagine how happy we were when we received your call just a few days later. Not only would we save $1,250 a year on flood insurance, but we would receive a refund for the amount we’d already paid this year! And the value of our property would go up by $20,000. Wow! We were amazed.”
Just like Marisa and John, homeowners all over the country often needlessly pay thousands of dollars of their hard earned money every year just because their property is listed on a flood zone report. In other words, they have trusted the government to have accurately characterized their property as being vulnerable to flooding. Yet in many instances there is little to no likelihood of a flood occurring.
How FEMA determines the flood zone
According to the U.S. Geological service, the term 100 year storm is the worst storm that happens in an area every one hundred years. This is simply a statistical term used to simplify defining the probability of a significant flood or rainfall event.
FEMA looks at the historical rainfall data for an area and, based upon the predictions from a 100 hundred year storm, creates a computer model to determine geographic areas that could be flooded. From this, FEMA creates what is called a FIRM map which graphically shows the prediction of flooding in a location.
The problem is these models are very general, predicting floods zip code by zip code. These models and predictions do not look at individual properties. Because of the massive amount of data, it would be impossible for them to make predictions at that level of detail. Thus FEMA groups properties together and assigns them the same flood risk.
Our precise analysis
If you have a property located inside of an area that FEMA has marked as the Special Flood Hazard Area (aka flood zone),we review the property itself rather than the larger area used for the prediction.
We look at a property and based upon where it is located, its elevation, and how it’s constructed, determine the actual risk of a flood for that home. Once we have that information we petition FEMA and show them that based upon the information we gathered this structure has a very low risk of ever flooding. Once we make our determination that your structure is incorrectly rated, we have over a 99% success rate in getting FEMA to remove the structure.
That’s what our job is; to prove to FEMA that your home is at low risk from a flood. And if your property is at low risk you don’t need to purchase flood insurance year after year. In other words, you may be spending money on insurance to cover a disaster that, based upon where you live, is highly unlikely to happen.
Who qualifies
You may be thinking that this all sounds great, but it probably doesn’t include me. I’m sure you can only help 1 out of 10 people. But consider that nearly 60% of the properties that we have reviewed qualify to be removed from the special flood hazard area. That means around 60% of homeowners are paying for insurance they do not need and will probably never use!
Once your property is removed from the special flood hazard area it remains off the list forever. This means you stop paying for insurance you don’t need this year and every year after that for as long as you own your home.
That translates to thousands of dollars that remain in your pockets to spend or save as you see fit. Surely you can find a better use for your money than paying for insurance you may not need?
Of course there are some exceptions, some homes that cannot be removed from the FEMA special flood hazard area list. These include:
- If you own a mobile home and it’s in a flood zone, the flood insurance may not be taken away. That is because the home can be moved. If FEMA removed the structure and you moved it, even slightly, you could be back in the flood zone.
- Homes on stilts may not be removed because the whole reason why the home is on stilts is to make it safe from the waters of a flood.
- If your home has ever had a previous flood insurance claim it may not be removed. This is because it was affected by a flood in the past and thus requires insurance against that danger.
Benefits of the National Flood Experts service
Once we have successfully removed your home from the requirement to carry flood insurance, you save money every single year on your insurance premiums. Over the life of your mortgage that amounts to tens of thousands of dollars or more! On a typical 30 year mortgage, that comes to between $20,000 to $50,000 total saved!
There are some people who don’t want to worry about this and feel they should continue to pay for flood insurance. Perhaps it seems like too much of a hassle or they may feel there is a possibility their property might be the victim of a flood.
One significant advantage to removing your home from the flood zone is you still have the option to purchase flood insurance. However, because FEMA has agreed your home is not likely to be flooded you can purchase that exact same flood insurance policy at preferred rates. These rates are frequently less than half the price of the exact same home and coverage in the flood zone.
The costs for flood insurance are increasing. The National Flood Insurance Program has added additional surcharges and rate increases in recent years. In fact, the last increase was a $25 surcharge for the primary home and a $250 charge for each secondary home in a flood zone. That is in addition to an up to 18% across the board price increase.
When they opened their insurance bill, Chris and Gina almost fell on the floor in shock. Their rates had gone up dramatically. Last year their bill was $975, which was bad enough already. The new invoice added almost 40% to that amount, totaling $1,340. Since they were putting one of their children through college, they barely had enough money to make ends meet. How were they going to pay this unexpectedly larger bill? And even if they could, what about next year and the year after?
They were sure they needed flood insurance. Of course they believed FEMA when they were told they would have to purchase it. But now out of desperation they gave National Flood Experts a call.
Imagine their surprise when, a short time later, they received the call informing them their property had been removed from the flood zone. They were thrilled, since they had much better uses for that money.
Increase your property value
Another reason to remove the requirement for flood insurance from your property is doing so increases the value of your home. Think about how much easier it will be to sell if the buyer does not need to worry about flood insurance and has confidence the home is not in the flood zone.
Jessica had been trying to sell a home for two months. A dozen buyers signaled they were interested, but as soon as they found out it was in a flood zone they quickly looked elsewhere. In frustration, she turned to National Flood Experts who examined the property, submitted a petition to FEMA, and within days had the home removed from the flood zone. Jessica sold the property shortly afterwards.
According to realtor.org, for every $500 of flood insurance premium the value of a home decreases by $10,000. What this means is when you go to sell your home, you can literally cut $20,000 off the value just because you are paying $1,000 in flood insurance! That would be $20,000 less in your pocket after the home sold.
To put all of this in perspective, consider a $200,000 home. The flood insurance on this home would be $1,200 a year (assuming the rates do not increase.) Over the course of 13 years, which is the average time a homeowner owns a home, they will have paid $15,600 in flood insurance. Finally, let’s assume they are able to sell the home for $200,000 at the end of that 13 years.
After a call to National Flood Experts, it is likely the owners of that same home will not have to pay for flood insurance, saving them direct costs of $1,200 a year, or $15,600 over the 13 years (assuming the rates for insurance do not increase.) They will have paid $500 for our services to remove their home from the requirement to purchase flood insurance. Their home will be worth $224,000 when it comes time to sell it.
As you can see, a $500 one-time investment with National Flood Experts will return $39,600 in this example. That’s a 7920% return on investment!
Your next step
All you need to do is pick up the phone and give us a call at 1 800-561-0396 to see if you qualify and send us some information on your property. We will review the information and get back to you with the results within 24 hours. This review is completely free. You only pay our flat fee once we conclude that your home can be removed from the flood zone and we proceed filing with FEMA.
Our service is backed by a 100% performance guarantee or your money back!
- Do you want to stop paying for flood insurance?
- Do you want to get the previous year’s flood insurance premium refunded to you?
- Do you want to add tens of thousands of dollars to the market value of your home?
- Do you want to stop worrying about flood insurance rate increases and new flood regulations?
If you are ready to put additional money into your pocket please visit our website or give us a call 1 800-561-0396.