Episode 34: Understanding Home Insurance with Blayke Breeding of Goosehead Insurance

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:29:00
Nate Carver
Hey, it's Nate Carver, your favorite mortgage guy on between two doors. And today we're talking to Blake Breeding with Goose Head Insurance Company. And I'm going to give you a quick bio on her. And then we're going to jump into some conversations on real insurance for first time homebuyers and insurance people looking to buy a home. If you've ever had any questions, I think you're going to enjoy this podcast.

00:00:29:00 - 00:00:51:08
Nate Carver
Hey, I'm Nate Carver and welcome to Between Two Doors.

00:00:51:08 - 00:00:54:03
Nate Carver
Blake, welcome to the podcast. How are you?

00:00:54:08 - 00:00:58:06
Blayke Breeding
I'm doing great. How are you doing today? Thanks for asking.

00:00:58:08 - 00:01:10:08
Nate Carver
Yeah, I'm doing good. For the recording. It's Friday, so a long workweek. Good work week. We're going to celebrate. And, maybe clock out soon. So,

00:01:10:08 - 00:01:26:09
Nate Carver
You're currently you're with GZ and you're enjoying that experience. And, being an agent there. Tell me, from your perspective, what you all your 30,000 view of the insurance industry for housing?

00:01:26:11 - 00:01:46:19
Blayke Breeding
Yeah, absolutely. So I've been with Greece head for about a year now. And from the point that I started to the point that where I'm at now, all I can say is, it is like the stock market and the way that it fluctuates so much, you see it go up one month and then it's down the next, and it's very, very unpredictable.

00:01:46:21 - 00:02:10:06
Blayke Breeding
I think that's why it's important to have people that you can ask questions and trust because it really does change, like week to week. As far as being able to get the best prices and coverage and things like that. So, I'm really enjoying it. I love being able to provide coverage to people's livelihoods. I love being able to help people out, but it definitely is.

00:02:10:08 - 00:02:13:19
Blayke Breeding
It's kind of a hard market right now, for sure.

00:02:13:21 - 00:02:24:18
Nate Carver
What, what what drove you to the insurance world? Is there something that. This is why I want to do this coming from a ranch. I'm curious to know what you made that leap to. Yeah.

00:02:24:18 - 00:02:45:00
Blayke Breeding
So, I'm going to be honest, it came to whenever I was graduating from college. I thought that I wanted to work in politics. And then quickly after an internship that I had, I figured out maybe not right after college. That's what I want to do. I just kind of wanted to find a job. And I came across in Goose Head.

00:02:45:00 - 00:03:06:19
Blayke Breeding
I really enjoyed everybody that I met and the conversations that I had. And then after talking to my family about it for some time, it's one of those jobs where no matter what happens, as far as the political side, you know, sickness, disease, anything that's uncertain no matter what, at the end of the day, people have to have home insurance.

00:03:06:19 - 00:03:11:21
Blayke Breeding
And so it was a steady job to go into, and I really enjoy it. Now.

00:03:11:23 - 00:03:33:03
Nate Carver
Nice. All right. So let's dive into homeowner's insurance 101. For someone buying their first home, are you seeing trends and questions that they're asking you that they may not understand or, you know, that homeowner's insurance. What it's actually covering for them?

00:03:33:05 - 00:03:55:11
Blayke Breeding
Yeah, absolutely. So, I honestly work mostly with first time homebuyers. And the way that I've kind of set my process up is to walk through everything as much as possible. And sometimes I feel like I can be a little exhaustive and, I'm sure that they want me to stop talking and just get off the phone and just move on.

00:03:55:11 - 00:04:21:20
Blayke Breeding
But at the end of the day, I want to make sure that they know what kind of coverage they have. If I wasn't in the insurance world, I wouldn't know what any of the terminology means. I wouldn't know what the coverage is doing. I would feel like I'm just paying for something that's kind of useless. And so I feel like just being able to understand what you're getting and, how the price correlates with that coverage.

00:04:21:22 - 00:04:29:07
Nate Carver
Like the difference between the actual cash value and, and then, the cost to, to replace.

00:04:29:09 - 00:05:03:03
Blayke Breeding
Yes. Replacement cost, an actual cash value, deductible amounts. So how much? Of course, the clients are going to be paying out of pocket in the event that something does happen and they have to file a claim. Of course, market value here and the taxes versus how much the, you know, the policies actually cover covering for what I see a lot, especially here in Dallas, is, we'll have an insurance quote that covers their home for $420,000, and they bought their home for 660.

00:05:03:05 - 00:05:24:04
Blayke Breeding
And I have to explain to them that, you know, it's covering it based on the square footage of the home, the building materials of the home, just kind of the basics. It has nothing to do with the land that they're buying. It has nothing to do with the location. It is. If you were to have a total loss on that home, what it would cost to completely replace it.

00:05:24:06 - 00:05:38:03
Nate Carver
Understand? Cool. How about the cost of a policy. The are you, do you get questions on the policy cost and, and any kind of factors that might play into the premium.

00:05:38:05 - 00:06:02:05
Blayke Breeding
Yeah, absolutely. I feel like usually once I go over the coverage amounts with my clients, they understand. And plus I do have the benefit because I'm an independent broker to shop the entire market. And so usually whatever price I come up with them, it's the best one that I was able to find. But of course, you know, hiring your deductibles will lower your premium.

00:06:02:07 - 00:06:22:02
Blayke Breeding
Making sure that, you know, if you did anything to your home, you're telling your agent that and they're able to apply those discounts if you've got your roof replaced. Tell your agent that that makes insurance a lot cheaper. If you got an alarm installed through Vivint or something, and it's alerting the police, that gives you discounts.

00:06:22:04 - 00:06:38:20
Blayke Breeding
Of course, like bundling your autos, that can give you discounts as well. I would just ask as many questions as you can about discounts because there's a plethora of them. And, of course you want to apply it if you're already paying for something.

00:06:38:22 - 00:07:00:09
Nate Carver
I see the roof, roof age. Can you talk a little bit on the age of a home? I see that a lot on loans. When we get the appraisals or the inspections back. And, you know, that's a big ticket item. One, you know, it can be costly depending on what they have to do. But the value there, to their insurance policy.

00:07:00:09 - 00:07:01:13
Nate Carver
Can you talk a little bit about that?

00:07:01:19 - 00:07:22:06
Blayke Breeding
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. So, what we're saying, especially here in Texas, especially North Texas, we get a lot of hail storms, we get a lot of tornadoes and windstorms. So you might go out and purchase this roof from a roofer. And he said that it's a 30 year old roof or a 30 year long roof. It's going to last for 30 years.

00:07:22:08 - 00:07:42:06
Blayke Breeding
The reality of that is it's probably going to last for ten under the conditions that we have here. It might last 30 years in Arizona, but it's not going to last 30 years in Dallas-Fort worth. And so I will say that a lot of insurance companies in Texas, especially in this area, and, I mean, I do a lot of work in Oklahoma, too.

00:07:42:06 - 00:08:07:22
Blayke Breeding
It's very it's very similar up there. They base it off of the claims that they see in the zip code. And I will say that a lot of insurance companies will switch over to actual cash value. Coverage on roofs after 10 or 15 years. Of course, it depends on the carrier, but they are getting a little bit stricter on that just because, the age of the roof has a huge factor.

00:08:07:22 - 00:08:12:01
Blayke Breeding
That's a big payout for an insurance company. Whenever it comes down to it.

00:08:12:03 - 00:08:34:23
Nate Carver
Right? I've seen it even where, you know, core city ordinances, ordinances play into this city, and county ordinances play in just a little bit. But you have you will have a roof that's been replaced and they didn't pull permits. That could be a big problem. So if you're a homeowner, you're going to sell your home, pull permits.

00:08:34:23 - 00:08:39:22
Nate Carver
If you got a place of a roof, pull permits. Yeah.

00:08:39:24 - 00:08:40:21
Blayke Breeding
I mean.

00:08:40:23 - 00:08:41:19
Nate Carver
Yeah.

00:08:41:21 - 00:08:59:07
Blayke Breeding
Yeah, for sure. I mean, we have carriers too. I mean, you could verbally tell me, oh, I replaced my roof last year, 2024. And I'm like, that's great. Like, your insurance premiums going to go down a ton or even new home owners. I'm like, that's the best news I could hear. I'm going to put that in there. It's going to make insurance a lot cheaper for us.

00:08:59:09 - 00:09:22:20
Blayke Breeding
Well, say if something happened and, you know, next year and you had to file a claim and you didn't, you know either keep those documents of the roof replacement or get those from the seller. You could run into an issue. Of course, it's not me out there doing the inspection or, you know, handling the claim, but you could run into an issue with the claims of the insurance company.

00:09:22:22 - 00:09:44:20
Blayke Breeding
And they're just like, well, there's no proof. Yeah, your roof looks new, but you don't have any proof that it was replaced in 2024. How do we know it was? So just make sure that it is new. Or you just paid to replace it. Keep those documents. Because they'll want to see that. And you want to be able to get as much money out of them as possible whenever it comes to filing a claim.

00:09:44:22 - 00:10:08:17
Nate Carver
All right. So we've talked about the Ruth letter, a couple of other items. If, you're looking out at homes to buy, what could that potential buyer be aware of? When they're looking at homes, if they're thinking about insurance and keeping their premium costs down, other key things in the home that they might be keen to look into?

00:10:08:19 - 00:10:35:15
Blayke Breeding
Yes, of course. So I would say again, biggest thing is going to be updates. If you're looking into if you're kind of shopping the market and you're in between a newer build home or an older build home, I always say opt in for the I mean, insurance likes. And they were built homes. Everything's new. We don't have to worry about things being faulty because they're older and things not working, and you eventually having to file a claim on them.

00:10:35:17 - 00:11:05:07
Blayke Breeding
Newer is better in the eyes of insurance, but if you are shopping for an older home, I would make sure that, like, you know, your plumbing has been updated and is up to code, your electrical has been updated and as up to code as well as Hvac, and then roof as well. And just being able to have those documentations of that, even if it is older, if it has all of those updates, it usually ends up being cheaper because you're able to to provide that information.

00:11:05:09 - 00:11:17:02
Nate Carver
Simple replacement of a hot water heater. I've seen that. Just bring up bring that insurance down and that, you know, hot water heaters not not very much compared.

00:11:17:02 - 00:11:40:04
Blayke Breeding
Yeah. I mean, it's crazy, I because I mean, what could happen is, all homeowners policies have, for the most part, all of them have sudden accidental water damage, which were in Texas. We know that whenever it freezes, pipes can freeze and burst. So that is covered in most homeowner's policies up to the entire limit of the policy.

00:11:40:06 - 00:11:52:18
Blayke Breeding
That also covers hot water heater exploding, which they can do once they start getting a little bit older. So it does. Replacing your water heater does lower the cost of insurance quite a bit.

00:11:52:20 - 00:12:15:18
Nate Carver
Right. All right. So let's say a family of four, let's say kids are about to go off to college. So they've got let's we'll say they're twins. So they so you get four individuals, you probably you might add as many as four cars. They're looking to buy their first home. Maybe they got a sailboat, or an RV too.

00:12:15:18 - 00:12:37:00
Nate Carver
And so they've got, they might have a RV policy. They might have a boat policy insurance. They might have car insurance. Who knows? One of the kids might be on their own insurance policy. And now they're about to buy a house. One of the significant areas to save money on the income is.

00:12:37:02 - 00:13:02:08
Blayke Breeding
It's going to be a bundle. And there you go. It's going to be a bundle every time. Yeah. So I mean, I, I run into this a lot where everybody's familiar with car insurance. You've had to have it. If you've started driving since you were 16. I mean that's what you're most familiar with. But whenever it comes to home shopping and shopping for insurance, it makes sense to at least look at bundling.

00:13:02:10 - 00:13:22:07
Blayke Breeding
I always tell my clients, at least let me look and compare prices, because at the end of the day, it could save us so much money on the home and you could be paying the exact same on the autos. But it makes sense. And honestly, being loyal to a company or a carrier, they're not giving you any discount for being a ten, being with them for ten years.

00:13:22:07 - 00:13:43:04
Blayke Breeding
They give new, they give new clients discounts. And so I always think you you cannot be married to your insurance carrier. It pays off so much to go shop around, and it pays off to bundle all of those things because you get a discount every single time. And it is the biggest discount that you could get on a home.

00:13:43:06 - 00:14:05:18
Nate Carver
There you go. Yeah. Insurance. And as a lender, most and I would expect them to know that. But insurance is the thing that they, they is that they can shop for when they're buying a home. So in that bundle pieces, I just love that. I just see how it.

00:14:05:18 - 00:14:26:17
Blayke Breeding
Has it has. And honestly, like if you had the opportunity to have all of your things insured under the same company, where you just have to go to one website and you can check on everything, doesn't that make it a lot easier than having them all with five different carriers? It just makes it so much easier having it in one place.

00:14:26:19 - 00:14:31:12
Blayke Breeding
And I just lost a headache for sure.

00:14:31:14 - 00:14:54:02
Nate Carver
Let's talk about, established homes versus new construction here in the North Texas area. There is a lot of new construction. There's a lot of established homes. So there's, there's a lot of growth. So, what what how does age or condition of a home factor into the cost of insurance?

00:14:54:04 - 00:15:17:05
Blayke Breeding
Yeah, absolutely. Age. It really does depend on the age, but you have to think about it as far as what would it cost to replace a home? These new builds are very straightforward. Okay. It costs this much to replace a home okay. The policy is going to cost this much because they just built it. So getting those building materials are they're easy to find.

00:15:17:07 - 00:15:44:19
Blayke Breeding
It'll be easy to rebuild it exactly as is where these older homes, these insurance companies look at them and they're like, okay, well they stopped manufacturing this, this and this. That's in the home. And whenever a client loses their home, we want to be able to rebuild it. So exactly what it is now. And so they'll usually it'll usually be a more expensive replacement cost because some of those building materials are just either more expensive now or they don't manufacture them.

00:15:44:19 - 00:15:51:23
Blayke Breeding
And they have to, you know, go out further to try to find them right.

00:15:52:00 - 00:16:09:15
Nate Carver
Are you seeing in like, discounts with energy appliances or energy efficient ease? Oh, that I got one other thought on that. How about, solar panels? Let's come back. Let's answer that first one. Then we'll talk about solar panels.

00:16:09:15 - 00:16:37:07
Blayke Breeding
Okay? Okay. So yes and no. It depends on the carrier, some of these carriers that have been around forever, like farmers or Allstate, you know, you'll see them give out discounts here and there. But it's you don't see them give out huge discounts for those energy savers. Whereas we have some newer carriers who want those homes and, are willing to give out bigger discounts for those types of things that you have in the home.

00:16:37:09 - 00:16:44:13
Blayke Breeding
And so it's all about just finding the carrier that wants to take on your home. And if they want it, it's usually cheap to insure it.

00:16:44:15 - 00:16:48:04
Nate Carver
Okay. So it's all.

00:16:48:04 - 00:16:48:24
Blayke Breeding
Panels.

00:16:49:01 - 00:17:09:12
Nate Carver
Solar panels. I'm seeing a more and more they're they've come of age. So people are getting them on their homes. Well, I won't talk about the financing side of the solar panels, because that's tricky. But, let's, on the insurance side, is that in the homeowner's policy? They're a mixed bag. What do you got?

00:17:09:15 - 00:17:32:18
Blayke Breeding
Yeah, it's it's mixed. It's a little tricky over here, too. So, again, it really does depend on the carrier. If we have a home that has solar panels on it, some carriers don't want to touch it. They won't even take the home if it has solar panels on it. Some of them, they will insure the home, and then they ensure the panels separately.

00:17:32:18 - 00:17:56:05
Blayke Breeding
But it has to be insured. Some of them have the home insured, but the solar panels excluded from the policy where if they get damaged, they're like, we're not going to pay for those. And it really just varies. But I will say that, you know, it's it's definitely saving these homeowners money on on paying for energy. But it's it's not making insurance any cheaper.

00:17:56:07 - 00:18:20:10
Blayke Breeding
It is not making insurance any cheaper whatsoever. It is making it harder to find a policy for the home. It's not impossible. But, if you have solar panels, tell your agent, because the amount of times I have written a policy and not something that, they just didn't mention and I didn't happen to see it, you know, in the Zillow pictures or, you know, get that information from their agent.

00:18:20:12 - 00:18:34:15
Blayke Breeding
And then the inspector goes out there and is like, oh, well, I see 24 solar panels on their roof. Well, we don't insure those. We're canceling the policy. You have to find something in the next 30 days. Happens a lot. So if you have it, just make sure you disclose it with your agent.

00:18:34:17 - 00:18:58:05
Nate Carver
Right. All right. So, it has nothing to do with solar panels. About flood zones. We have flood zones in Texas. Sometimes. And I can I can only I can think of one city. The entire city is above the flood zone, and that's Salina, Texas, that I know of. Everywhere else, they have flood zones. So what?

00:18:58:05 - 00:19:03:16
Nate Carver
What can you tell us there that homeowners buyers need to know?

00:19:03:22 - 00:19:26:05
Blayke Breeding
Yeah, absolutely. So first things first, the homeowner's policy that you're getting for your home, it does not cover flood. It doesn't cover flood, earthquakes, nuclear war, kind of a plethora of things that covers what you would run into when you had to file a claim on your home flood insurance. You have to purchase a separate policy for that.

00:19:26:07 - 00:19:48:08
Blayke Breeding
So of course, whenever we run quotes, we usually are able to see if your home is in a flood zone and we will automatically recommend that to you. But, we can't like forced you to have it unless you have to have it for your loan. Because you're in a flood zone. But a flood policy is completely separate coverage.

00:19:48:10 - 00:20:09:06
Blayke Breeding
It's usually unless your home is sitting on the lake, it's usually not that expensive to purchase, and it's nice to have it just in case. I would say they're usually either around $1,000 or way cheaper. Way cheaper. It just depends on what kind of zone you are in.

00:20:09:08 - 00:20:31:17
Nate Carver
Right. All right. How about, updating a policy? So in the lending world, I do. I'll do that any time. But I definitely do like an annual mortgage review because people's finances change their needs, their goals, you know, maybe something in the family getting married or someone's going off to college and now refi looks down, looks reasonable, or they're downsizing.

00:20:31:17 - 00:20:48:13
Nate Carver
They want a smaller home. So purchase might be reasonable. Or they want to venture off into investing. Investing world with real estate. So how about on the insurance policy? How often should they, review or update a policy.

00:20:48:15 - 00:21:11:13
Blayke Breeding
Yeah. So, homeowner's policy is in effect for a year. So whenever you sign up that you have that coverage for a year now, you can change it at any time. Again, you don't have to be married to it. You literally can switch companies at any time. But I always recommend they every carrier has to send you a renewal, at least 30 to 60 days in advance.

00:21:11:13 - 00:21:34:11
Blayke Breeding
Sometimes they'll send it even further out in advance. Just keep an eye on your email. When you get those emails from those companies, you'll see if your premium is going up. You'll see what it is. And, because me as an agent, unless it goes past, I think it's 25%. I don't get notified unless it's just an insane renewal and it's increasing a lot.

00:21:34:13 - 00:21:53:11
Blayke Breeding
And I have a lot of customers that I work with daily, so I would just keep an eye out on those things, review it once a year, and just make sure that, you know, if you're home is getting older, it probably will get more expensive. And if there's anything that you can do, any discounts that you can add.

00:21:53:13 - 00:22:01:01
Blayke Breeding
Just call your agent and ask what you can do to get it down. And it might just mean switching switching companies, switching carriers.

00:22:01:03 - 00:22:27:01
Nate Carver
Okay. Okay. So they've had the they get the home. They've got the insurance policy. Now what what happens, there's a tornado or, you know, the neighbor is texting and driving and ends up in their front living room with the vehicle. What? I mean, it happens. So what, what do they do? They go, oh, I've got, you know, my house has been damaged.

00:22:27:03 - 00:22:36:07
Nate Carver
Is there a process there? Who do they call? When do they call? How soon should they call them? How soon as they reach out to the insurance agent?

00:22:36:07 - 00:22:54:21
Blayke Breeding
Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, this is a funny story. I mean, a few weeks ago, when there was the really high winds in Dallas, I had a client call me, and she was like, hey, I don't know if I'm supposed to call you or not or if I'm supposed to get Ahold of the claims department, but I'm sitting outside and I'm watching the shingles get blown off of my roof as I speak to you.

00:22:55:01 - 00:23:21:12
Blayke Breeding
What do I need to do? And so in that case, I am like, call the claims department of the carrier. Now, I mean, over here at Goose Head, we have our own service team. We have our own claims department. We have people who can kind of walk you to the right path. But I think the most direct way you're with Safeco Insurance, go on your phone, type in Safeco claims, call that number, get connected to them.

00:23:21:17 - 00:23:42:13
Blayke Breeding
They'll usually ask you for like, your name and date of birth. Having your policy number on hand is nice, but I know it's always kind of hard to find if you don't have it, and they'll be able to kind of help you out. Now it's it's different. I mean, if it's urgent, call claims. Now, if you are have been a homeowner for seven years, you haven't gotten your roof replaced.

00:23:42:15 - 00:24:07:18
Blayke Breeding
And you think I can kind of see some damage to my roof, I don't know if it's cosmetic or if it's something that would require us to get a brand new roof. What should I do? I don't know, don't call the claims department in that, scenario because they could come out there, tell you that they're going to pay $0 because your roof is fine, and now you have a claim on your history, even though it was a $0 payout.

00:24:07:20 - 00:24:26:06
Blayke Breeding
I recommend calling a roofer that, you know, getting them out there. Let them kind of do an inspection and they'll tell you, oh, this is just some cosmetic damage. This is about how much it would be, or oh, wow, this you need to replace this entire roof. Go back to your policy, look at your deductible and see.

00:24:26:06 - 00:24:48:19
Blayke Breeding
Is that worth it? Are they only going to be paying $2,000 and I'm paying 5000? Or am I going to pay 5000? And they're going to pay 30 to replace my roof. So if it's urgent call claims. If it's not, call your roofer, call a plumber, call, go to the shop and get your car looked at before you call insurance.

00:24:48:21 - 00:25:11:22
Nate Carver
Okay. All right. Tell me, have you seen here's some misconceptions in the insurance homeowner's insurance policies where homeowners they might make and improve it on their home. That does nothing to improve their insurance. But, you know, they call and let you know and you're like, don't do anything, anything, anything like that.

00:25:11:24 - 00:25:48:16
Blayke Breeding
Yeah. I mean, it's there's a lot of divides now, and, and going in and completely gutting a house and renovating it to be newer, it does help. But if you're over here replacing your cabinets and getting a farm sink and changing your tile floors and your kitchen to a vinyl or, you know, whatever, it's not going to affect the insurance and won't do anything if you're replacing your like, you need to think about what could go wrong in my house that would cause this big disaster that I would have to call insurance for.

00:25:48:18 - 00:26:19:19
Blayke Breeding
If that is getting fixed and updated, that will probably help out what the price of your insurance policy. If it's cosmetic, it's not doing anything. Now, if you invest a lot into your home cosmetically and you're like, I need more coverage because I just paid a ton of money to have these custom cabinets. You can call your insurance agent and they will put that into the replacement cost that you went from having just basic cabinets to now custom cabinets, and it will increase the value of the replacement cost on the home.

00:26:19:21 - 00:26:28:12
Blayke Breeding
It's just not going to give you, if anything, it's going to make insurance more expensive. Because you're covering more expensive things.

00:26:28:14 - 00:26:39:20
Nate Carver
Have you seen anything that insurance agent or insurance company is like, nope, we're not doing this. Like what? What's outside of the pale of acceptance?

00:26:39:22 - 00:27:01:09
Blayke Breeding
Yeah. So, it's it's funny, but like, some of them, if you have a trampoline, they won't touch. They won't touch you. They don't want the liability of having the trampoline. So say it's a windy day. Your trampoline slides into your neighbor's wall and, I don't know, breaks their window. And then they try to turn around and sue you for the damages that you caused to their house.

00:27:01:11 - 00:27:10:19
Blayke Breeding
Insurance companies sometimes don't want to touch that if you have a trampoline. So I would just say take your kids to a trampoline park and avoid the headache.

00:27:10:21 - 00:27:12:00
Nate Carver
Go to the NBA one.

00:27:12:02 - 00:27:35:01
Blayke Breeding
Go to the indoor ones. There's so much they got there. Trampolines are better there anyways. But I mean those. And then I see some carriers just turn their nose up at dogs, which of course, like, you just have those aggressive breeds. And even if your dog is, you know, this pitbull and it's just like the cutest, sweetest little thing.

00:27:35:07 - 00:27:55:07
Blayke Breeding
I mean, I could think of five insurance companies right now that would say, like, okay, we're not going to take it if it's a pitbull, like, we're we're not taking this home because that dog could get out. It could bite somebody. Bam, you've got a lawsuit for half $1 million on your hands. The insurance is going to pay for to cover you because that's what you pay for insurance.

00:27:55:09 - 00:28:04:23
Blayke Breeding
But, they won't they won't take it. So just little things like that that you wouldn't even think about, sometimes qualify or disqualify you.

00:28:05:00 - 00:28:20:14
Nate Carver
Right now you get you have the advantage that you have the ability to shop the insurance market. So what's one thing you wish a homeowner knew, before choosing a policy?

00:28:20:16 - 00:28:45:15
Blayke Breeding
Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, I get to shop. I mean, we have probably over 60 plus carriers. I mean, the travelers, Safeco, progressive, Allstate, all those big names and some smaller names as well. But I think it's just, it's just a if you're a brand new homeowner or even you've owned a home and you've just been using Joe that your dad used and your insurance premiums up.

00:28:45:15 - 00:29:09:05
Blayke Breeding
So now you're kind of doing your shopping on your own. Don't go online and search up how to find the cheapest insurance premium you'll get. You'll go to a website, you'll sell all this information. And then what do they do? They bam sell your information to a bunch of agencies, and you're going to have a hundred insurance agents blowing up your phone, trying to call you, trying to get a quote.

00:29:09:07 - 00:29:26:04
Blayke Breeding
I recommend if you want to shop the market, call a broker that you know is a broker and can shop multiple carriers. And that way you just have one point of contact, and you're not just getting blown up by the most random people that just bought your information from the website.

00:29:26:06 - 00:29:46:21
Nate Carver
There you go. Yeah. Tell me in your time as a as an agent, have you seen it come full circle? Homeowner. They buy a home, they get their insurance policy set up through you. Have you seen any any events or know of any stories where you're like, oh, thank God they had insurance.

00:29:46:23 - 00:30:06:06
Blayke Breeding
Oh my gosh. Well, I mean, the one where she I had just set her up with insurance and then she was like, I know that I just switched companies. What do I need to do? The shingles are blowing off of my roof. I've I've had it where people I set them up with Save Auto and they're like, oh my gosh, my son just got into an accident.

00:30:06:06 - 00:30:36:11
Blayke Breeding
What do I need to do? And it's it's nice. Thankfully, I haven't had to deal with that too much. I'm glad a lot of my customers haven't ran into a lot of issues, but I do always make sure that they have. I mean, I like to cover them as much as I possibly can because tweaking the coverage from being like $300,000 in liability coverage to $500,000 is a $20 difference over the entire year.

00:30:36:13 - 00:30:54:15
Blayke Breeding
Most of the time. And so I'll break things down like that. And I'm like, you know, if you're going to get sued, like, you don't have to be a millionaire to get sued like a millionaire, like you're going to get sued for a lot. You might as well have homeowner's insurance paying half a million on your behalf for that instead of 100,000.

00:30:54:15 - 00:30:57:13
Blayke Breeding
Like, that's a big difference, right?

00:30:57:13 - 00:31:01:04
Nate Carver
The peace of mind of a good policy goes a long, long way.

00:31:01:06 - 00:31:24:11
Blayke Breeding
It really does. And and, you know, I get that insurance is not people's favorite thing. I understand that, because you feel like you're until you have an issue, you feel like you're just throwing money away. But then, you know, you would just much rather be throwing an extra, you know, $50 away for the entire year to make sure that you're covered rather than when you call in to file a claim.

00:31:24:11 - 00:31:31:15
Blayke Breeding
You figure out that your insurance company doesn't cover that full amount. You're actually going to have to be paying a lot out of pocket.

00:31:31:17 - 00:31:42:09
Nate Carver
Yeah. All right. Well, we've talked about claims and coverage, navigating a policy like a pro. Is there something I should have asked you that I didn't ask you?

00:31:42:11 - 00:32:04:12
Blayke Breeding
I mean, I really can't think of anything. I feel like these are kind of the basics that I always go over with my clients whenever they start asking me questions. I will say that in your experience as a lender, I know that insurance has kind of made closing on homes a little bit harder. We come into like DTI issues, things like that.

00:32:04:14 - 00:32:26:05
Blayke Breeding
I will say that, you know, if there's ever anything that we can do to lower insurance, like, of course, I'm always willing to work with my with my, partners and do what I can because closing on the home is the most important thing, and our clients can revise their policy at any point in time throughout the year.

00:32:26:06 - 00:32:39:15
Blayke Breeding
You can call in to make changes on your policies at any time. So, just keep that in mind. It's not locked in. You can go in there, make changes, and you can always change. You don't have to be married to it.

00:32:39:15 - 00:32:56:22
Nate Carver
So that's right. All right. Blake, what is the best ways for, somebody get a hold of you? If they're looking to change the policy or get a policy, for homeowners insurance or to a bundle, how can they best get a hold of you, Blake?

00:32:57:02 - 00:33:28:02
Blayke Breeding
Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, fastest, quickest way is, of course, going to be, like, phone call or email. So, my phone number, if any of you guys need to reach me, want a quote? It's going to be (214) 838-5283. And then my email is just going to be Blake dot breeding at Goose head.com. And I would say that if you call me or text me or email me, I usually will answer within like at least a day.

00:33:28:02 - 00:33:31:03
Blayke Breeding
But I'm going to say it's usually about a 20 minute answer.

00:33:31:05 - 00:33:46:08
Nate Carver
Nice. All right. Oh, last question. When you're doing insurance policies, you know, and the lenders got to get a copy up front, we're not bonded yet. How long is the turnaround time to get a good quote from me?

00:33:46:10 - 00:34:08:08
Blayke Breeding
Oh, I mean, usually if a lender sends me, information, as long as I can get Ahold of the client, they're ready for me. I will usually talk to them on the phone for about ten minutes. Shop everything I need, call them back, go over it with them and send things off to the lender. Under two hours under two I and I'm I'm I'm saying to to be generous.

00:34:08:08 - 00:34:19:07
Blayke Breeding
Just like I was saying give me a day to be generous. And like, maybe that's a day, a Sunday. I mean, it's usually immediate. It comes. I like to deal with it as it comes in. It goes out.

00:34:19:09 - 00:34:40:07
Nate Carver
There you go. Oh that's what that's what I refer to. All, okay. So, Blake, anyway, well, we got your contact information. I will attach it wherever you're listening or watching this. It'll be above or below. It'll be there, to reach out to Blake. And I hope you all enjoyed this and wrap this up with, between two doors.

00:34:40:07 - 00:34:42:09
Nate Carver
Blake, thank you very much for if.

00:34:42:11 - 00:34:48:20
Blayke Breeding
Like me on. Yes, thank you for having me on. It's been great.

00:34:48:22 - 00:34:49:18
Nate Carver
All right.

00:34:49:20 - 00:34:52:11
Blayke Breeding
Bye bye.

00:35:00:14 - 00:35:08:16
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