A Homeowner's Guide to Avoiding Pitfalls and Finding Trustworthy Contractors
An insurance adjuster who is associated with the company to which you pay your insurance premiums, has come to assess the damage to your home and belongings. Hopefully, he or she is an independent adjuster who works for your carrier via a third party who has a barn full of adjusters. These are the most honest adjusters who will photograph, assess, and recommend payment for all items seen as damaged from the catastrophe. They are paid on a percentage basis and their scope will be the most honest adjustment of your damages you will receive (for a later blog) from your carrier. Pray for this person to arrive as opposed to:
On the other side of the coin,
The company adjuster who drives up in the company car and wants to chat is like being pulled over by the police, and for your sake, the less you say to this person, the better. Show them where the problems are and then keep an eye on what he does while he is there. This adjuster and his bosses do not work for you. Yes, they are paid every week by your carrier who receives your premiums, but in NO WAY WHATSOEVER, do they care about you. Their whole goal is to pay you nothing. They are dishonest and they are rewarded for it. It is especially important to understand this because, just like the police, anything you say can and will be used against you to lessen their liability.
Some things that company adjusters offer and suggest to their customers that is only spoken to pay you – “their customer” as little as possible.
1. Get three bids for the work we have approved on our scope, or your carrier will send over and approved contractor to give you a bid. Why is this unnecessary and why you don’twant an “approved” contractor?
2. An approved contractor is a contractor who will do all the work on the insurance scope but nothing more. If some items are missed, the contractor cannot and will not go back to the insurance company for that item and will just leave the old items. (vents, pipe jacks, drip edge, gutters,and anything else they can save money by not replacing).
A. The cost of material and labor is equal amongst the roofing community. Some larger companies may get a sweetheart deal on material, but I guarantee that you will not see one dime of that savings, in fact, the larger the company, the higher the overhead, the more you pay.
B. Most roofing companies have someone who knows and has the exact program that the insurance carriers use and can give you a scope of the damage that they see. There is only one problem with this, and I was guilty as charged when I was a lad, most of the roofers do not know how to properly supplement for missing items and end up getting you a few bucks more and giving up as they do not fully understand how to achieve results. The how on this one varies, is proprietary, and only available on PPV. (This is a reason to hire an expert)
C. Getting the cheapest roofer is also a problem as they must make a profit as well, so who suffers? Certainly not the roofers. Once you find an HONEST salesman or owner who does a great job for you, DO NOT SHOP THE BID. It doesn’t matter if you get the work done for less, the payment invoice is sent to the carrier and if it is less than the carrier was going to pay, that money will not be given to you, it will just lower the depreciation check you receive.
D. once all work is complete. If I were to assist you, I would offer to teach you how to do my job so you will never need another roofer/contractor as you can do everything that we do, there is just a learning curve that requires experience.
E. Understand what you have and what you need to make yourself whole. If you have a smaller house with no valleys, a couple of vents, and two pipe jacks, you are not going to escape from any catastrophic event, with more money that you started with. Insurance companies will not let this happen. The best thing that you or anyone with asphalt shingles on their roof, to do is to pay a little extra and put the best class 4 – Impact resistant shingles on your house. If you choose the right ones, unless you are hit with hail that is large enough to go through the decking and into your house, the shingles will withstand and show no damage.
F. Insurance companies have always been in bed with our nations policy makers, and now, after getting crushed (this does not mean a loss for the year) by hurricanes for the recent past, are writing law for our House and Senate, that will not allow policy holders to sue carriers for anything including bad faithnegotiation. This is a reason to protect your home with the best materials and then try forming private insurance groups where you need nothing for roofing or siding (except for fires), because why pay premiums to someone who for one, couldn’t care less about you and now when they snub you on legitimate repairs, you will have no recourse. In other words, don’t buy oats that have already been processed through the horse. If they have a slogan or commercials, you remember do not hire them.
3. WHY THE LARGER COMPANIES SHOULD BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS
A. Starting with a smaller company and continuing with another for more than a decade, was a decision that I made and sometimes kicked myself for my reasoning. Don’t get me wrong, second guessing is always going to happen until you cross over and bet your soul against a fiddle of gold and give the big boys a go.
B. I went to work for one of the largest residential roofers in Colorado Springs and lasted almost a year, maybe a couple months shy. Here is the difference between these prima donna company owners and roofing companies that the owner is a roofer and cares.
1. There are always leads because people watch TV ads and listen to radio ads.
2. Most of the customers, probably because the storm was in the wealthy part of town, had no problem saying yes to margins that I was forced to charge. Can I say astronomical? It is nice knowing that prices were on the rise, and I could always come up with a reason for the price hikes, because if I didn’t, I would have made zero.
3. For a business to operate profitably, especially in a trade where insurance is very high, margins need to be between 30-35% minimum. This company said as much but when I looked back into the computer for charges against my jobs, there were culverts under driveways, and many other shady purchases that lowered my commission because the owner had to take my money instead of using his own.
4. Let’s get down to brass tacks here, I sold 1.2 millionin roofing, siding, etc. and most of my margins were not only over the 35% but the majority were above 50% some reaching 70%. Was I proud of this? Not for a minute, and I truly felt for the people hiring what essentially is a scam company. These were the ones getting shingles for 20% less than any other company at the time.
5. Here’s the rub, normally 1.2 million in sales where all margins were way above required 35%, the minimum I would receive as commission should have been $120,000, which is a good amount of money but in those 10 months, I did not take one day off. Also, it is too bad that this company couldn’t or wouldn’t pay me the proper amount because his structure was 10-50-50. I got right around 80K which was approximately 50-60 thousand short of what was right. The funny thing is I was a 1099 and he fired me. When you are a 1099 emp, you cannot be fired as there is a work agreement and it seems that their proprietary system along with giving a couple former customers, real assessments of the processed oats they had from this big-time company, I had to go.
6. Funny thing is, there are no salespeople that have been there longer than a few years. I wondered why when I first got there, but I knew. When the head cheese tells you of his past addictions and problems daily and not only do you not care but it’s boring, he’d better pay you what is right. In this case he did not and after talking with Kyle, a friend whose brother also worked there, we laughed, and he only gave me six months. I showed him. Not really.
7. At the smaller companies, the owner is going to be at your house to ensure work is to his satisfaction. He is always going to chase down material as opposed to leaving the work undelivered or overlooked. He is going to be available for questions from you that your salesman couldn’t answer. If anything needed to be changed, it will always benefit you and he will explain the what’s and why’s even if it sounds foreign, a head nod like you understand, is always a plus. As salesperson you get paid what is right and agreed upon. Once the owner is nothing but a statue at the office, it’s time to go.
A final thought.
1. Roofing companies can only roof correctly a finite number of roofs per day. In one big storm, the two biggest companies were roofing 30-40 roofs a day. How many roofs needed to be fixed after the first rain/snow? So many that some homeowners hired their own repair crews. Smart, as most of those crews were gone when the problems began.
2. Roofing crews are the same in the big picture, they started small, and the foreman was on the job, but now has 4 crews and 4 trailers and the once great work is not your 3rd or 4th crew because it’s about doing the job right with no problems for homeowners in the future. All crews are 1099 so no loyalty exists for most. We understand this. Our roofers have been with us since the border opened back up. Haha.
3. Our roofers have been with us for a long time and the head of the crew has everyone cross trained. It is a pleasure that our company pays the money to keep our best assets happy. Have not had a red tag from the Building Dept in years. This includes the Den Metro.
The moral of this portion of the story is this. Once you can find a trustworthy contractor, stay with him because finding greener grass might take some time and greener grass may never be found unless you were roofing or repairing a blow off at Maggie’s Farm. Just trust that, with us and a couple others, you are going to be taken care of, with us you have a chance to get your roof paid for by the benefactor.
Juevones Ranchero y su famili,a Mama y los juevitos
