September 2016 | Brokers Corner with Tanya Chappell

Hi,

I am writing this month’s Broker’s Corner on Labor Day just a few days after the first hurricane of this season hit Florida.

Hurricane Hermine rolled in on Thursday and the whole town was a buzz of excitement with people preparing for the storm. Some prepped by getting water and supplies while others prepared to face it with a traditional hurricane party. I’ve always loved a good Hurricane party. Being we were actually already preparing for a big Family Labor Day party and sort of house warming party we were already set up for both!

We were curious to see how the new River home would fair especially because our little town was in the direct path. It turned out to be just a big storm for most of us with a lot of rain, wind, and thunder but little major damage. None of our rental properties suffered anything major just a few screens blown out and a couple of big branches down. We took a ride on the motorcycle to Lake City the next morning and saw a few trees down on power lines but for the most part the category 1 hurricane left our area peacefully. The river has risen several feet on the Suwannee. My floating island did get away and was blown a few hundred yards upstream so we got to go rescue it.  The rest of the weekend had “popcorn” showers as usual with some beautiful fast moving clouds. The storm also brought that first real feel of fall all day Monday.

The Labor Day party on Saturday was a huge amount of fun on the river with 25 close family members (half of them being kids) all fully enjoying the river. The rope swing over to the floating island was a big hit. Our vision for our new river home was fulfilled when we woke the next morning and made breakfast for the 17 peeps that were sleeping all over the place.  After a yummy banana pancake breakfast, we were off for a quick boat ride to Bob’s River place for a little river water park action. Kids and adults were exhausted by sunset Sunday. We’re so fortunate to be close to our family and able to make such fun memories with them all. I shared some video of the weekend below.

This week should bring us to finally close on the River property (thank you pre-occupancy agreement). In getting ready for closing I received an interesting education on homeowners insurance and flood insurance so I thought I’d share a few things. In the past when hunting for homeowners insurance (or any insurance) it was relatively inexpensive and competitors closely priced so I didn’t bother really shopping and comparing for it like I did this time. I’ve include my spread sheet and some notes in the link below that helped me identify the policy I felt was best and see how certain aspects of coverage can change the price. Dramatically in some cases. We did end up saving about $1400 per year on flood and $400 on Home Owners policy as compared to the first quote received.

Homeowners Insurance Policy Comparisons

I hope you all enjoyed your Labor Day weekend and take advantage of the beautiful fall weather ahead of us 😊