Roofs and Home Sales

Hey everyone! If you live in the Midwest, you’re probably familiar with roof replacements. Every year, there are thousands of hail events throughout the US, resulting in billions worth of damages. Even though residential roofs are designed to last 25+ years, hail events often cut their lifespans short. The good news is homeowner’s insurance usually covers a large portion of the replacement. If you are thinking about selling your home, it’s a great time to get your roof inspected. If you are considering purchasing a home, its vital you have the roof inspected prior to closing. Let me tell you about my buyer clients that received a check for nearly $15,000 ($14,751.50 to be exact) when they closed on their home.

Howard and Mary

Howard and Mary are in the process of moving to the Kansas City area to be closer to their daughter and son-in-law. During the home search, we find the perfect ranch home that is close to their daughter, within their budget, and in a nice neighborhood. We submit an offer, the offer is accepted, then we go to work performing due diligence on the home. When assisting my clients, I always recommend performing a general home inspection, radon test, and termite inspection, at a minimum. In addition, the home was old enough to justify a sewer scope and we noticed a few cracks in the basement walls so I also recommended having that work done. They booked all of the inspections I recommended with my friend and preferred inspector, Ryan, as well as a foundation repair company. Ryan looks at the roof, notes quite a bit of aging but can’t really say for sure if there’s hail damage.

The Roofer

Even though I’m not sure we have a case to file a claim for roof replacement, with my client’s permission, I call my friend, past client, and preferred roofer, William. Now, he’s busy responding to calls and dealing with damages caused by a hail storm that just occurred in the area. However, William agrees to stop out and perform a more complete roof inspection prior to our time running out on the due diligence period. William does this free of charge. Even though he’s a great guy, he doesn’t do this just because he’s a great guy. He does this because its an opportunity for him to earn business. See, William’s job doesn’t just entail replacing roofs. He knows how to find storm damages and he knows how to convince insurance adjusters to cover claims. In exchange for all of this upfront work, William asks the homeowner, or in this case the buyer, to hire him as their roofer if insurance agrees to cover.

How It All Played Out

So, William comes out, performs his inspection, and identifies at least a dozen locations that clearly show where hail has damaged the home. He takes pictures showing the damage. The buyers and I discuss all of the inspection findings and agree that we want the seller to file an insurance claim as part of our resolution request. The sellers agree and file a claim. Less than two weeks later, William meets with the insurance adjuster and the insurance adjuster immediately agrees that a roof replacement is warranted. William provides them an estimate of what it would cost to repair the home for storm damages and the adjuster issues a check (technically, two checks) to the current homeowner equal to the estimated amount to repair, minus the homeowner’s deductible. Fortunately, the deductible in this case was only about $1,500.

Now, at this point, we are less than two weeks away from our closing date and William’s current backlog means that it will be at least several more weeks before he can arrange for repairs. Instead of trying to delay closing, we decide that the best approach is to go ahead and close on the purchase provided that the seller agrees to two conditions: they sign the insurance checks over to my clients and they allow William to continue working with their insurance adjuster on an as-needed basis until all the work is complete. After all, its fairly common during a roof replacement to discover additional damages once the layers are removed. The sellers agree to our terms. Fast-forward to closing day. Howard and Mary get a check from the sellers in the amount of $14,751.50. Now, that’s what I call a happy day!

Moral of the Story

In hindsight, Howard and Mary received a pretty sweet deal. They knew when they made the offer to purchase that the roof was older. It didn’t look that great even when looking at it from the front yard. However, that didn’t deter Howard and Mary from making the offer. And thank goodness they did. Despite the home being at a lower price point in a good location, there was very little competition. Now, if the sellers had the roof inspected prior to listing the home for sale, they might have been able to get the roof replaced PRIOR to listing the home for sale. Having a brand-new roof or telling prospective buyers that the home will have a new roof prior to closing would be a HUGE selling feature. The moral of the story is to inspect your roof by a qualified roofing contractor either prior to listing the home if you are selling, OR during the purchase process if you are buying.

I hope you found this article useful. If you know someone in the market to buy or sell, please give them my contact information. I would love to offer my services and help them with the next big move in their life. Thanks! – Brian

FACTS: In 2023 alone, there were nearly 7,000 hail events throughout the US, with Texas, Nebraska and Kansas having the highest number of events last year. (Source: Insurance Information Institute)

Brian Reinhart, The Reinhart Solution KC Area Agent with Keller Williams Diamond Partners Cell: (913) 475-8331 Office: (913) 322-8376 [email protected] Check out my blog site: thereinhartsolution.com Check out my KW website: thereinhartsolution.kw.com