Lingering effects of the Texas Freeze
Lingering effects of the Texas freeze storm from twenty twenty one, the Texas freeze for almost a year out.
Yeah, I think it was Valentine’s around Valentine’s or Valentine’s Week that we had that power outage freeze that affected pretty much the whole state.
So that is Shana. She’s a luxury real estate broker, and she’s going to tell us where we currently stand just a year later. So there’s a bunch of things that are related to this, right?
So some of the quick topics that we’re going to hit on for you are going to be, you know, talk about insurance related items that are still coming out. You know, are there repairs that haven’t been done? Are there things that have been paid but not completed? Yeah.
Are there things that aren’t even known about right, like defects that people aren’t really aware of because things haven’t came up yet in this cycle? Yeah. So we’ll get through all of those and much more.
Yeah. So there are lingering effects, you know, months after the storm, the lenders were requiring, you know, different information to just make sure on their end that they’re loaning on a home that didn’t have damage, right?
But now we’re a year later, and maybe the lenders aren’t asking this, but buyers and sellers are some things that you need to be aware of. I think there’s been a huge economic burden on a lot of sellers, and it’s it’s, you know, it’s hard for them because we have lack of contractors, lack of supplies, all of these things. So if you have a seller, you need to ask the question.
Hey, did you have any thing happen during that storm that you had to repair? And I think we’re going to hear different things. Yes, maybe they got paid by their insurance, but they still have not been able to repair it, so they just repaired it themselves.
Like a temporary fix or a bush free fix?
You say yes, so you need to make sure. So my suggestion is pull a clue report. You know, Kyle Dilworth has been very generous to pull these reports to just give us an idea if something has been claimed. You know, sometimes people forget it. They make honest mistakes. They make honest mistakes. Or they don’t know. Maybe it’s it’s been repaired and it’s still open for whatever reason, but not close because it didn’t get final inspection. Maybe they didn’t pull a permit.
Maybe there’s like all these things that happened or didn’t happen. Yes. So as we get into a busy season, just know these are things you need to be aware of. And on the buy side, the buyers you want to make sure that you, you know, talk to them about this and give them the advice of, Hey, I’m going to ask and you should always ask the seller and the seller’s agent.
Were there any damages done during that storm of last year? And if they say no, you know, it’s not on the seller’s disclosure, OK, you’ve done your property, maybe even prompt a little bit more write like did your power go out? Did anything freeze? Did you have any right and give them?
Because it’s easy to say no, you know what I mean? But then all of a sudden, like, no, actually, the pipe did break well.
We prepared ourselves, but if you repaired it. But did you really solve the problem? You know what I mean?
So, yeah, you know, and how long was it not repaired is sort of a possibility of of mold or something like that, right? I mean, there’s just there. There’s a lot of things. So you have to dig and ask those questions for sure. You know, and if they did, do the repair themselves, wasn’t that big of a deal? You know, I don’t know.
You want to have the inspector thoroughly inspect that further and just make sure of that, right?
Sounds good. Now what about lawsuits? You said something about that?
Well, Mark, this is just what I was thinking is, you know, we heard about a lot of people suing over this. They were suing the state and all, you know, electric companies and all these things.
Oh, it’s always somebody else’s problem.
Yes, but you know, maybe the contractors left them high and dry and they’ve sued them or there are some pending litigation somewhere. Pull your title work, pull your tie to work to see if there’s anything going on there that maybe they’re unaware of.
Maybe if there’s a lien attach because they haven’t been paid yet, so that can cause a problem and delay closing. So you definitely want to make sure on both sides, buyer and seller that you look at that when title work is pulled. But again, be a little proactive and ask these questions in advance,
You know, and if you had a water leak or any type of pipe. Problem, you might see it with a higher, higher than normal water bill. And, you know, maybe these things were kind of going on, but now that you get back to winter and you’re not watering, maybe you just thought like the price of water went up and you’ve had a slow leak the whole time.
And some systems and now all of a sudden, it’s still showing up like, I’m not watering my lawn, but maybe you still are right unknowingly.
So getting those utility bills, you know, just getting an average over the last, we break them down per month. And I think that’s good for people to know. And maybe you share that on the as a listing agent. Hey, you know, we didn’t lose power. We’re on a grid, you know, of the hospital or some type of emergency service facility where you did something about that.
Yeah, is a house worth more. That’s on the right power grid or not on the right one if you didn’t lose power last time, but you’re probably unlikely to lose it again in the future, so is your home worth more for that? Did you make any upgrades to the property since last time we talk about stuff like did you put in? We’ve seen a bunch of people now put in solar, and it’s been this time that I can’t believe some of the people that I’ve seen do Solar cells people crazy.
You must love it. And they’re pretty good because we’ve seen a lot of people that we never thought would go that we never thought they would have. But is there a backup generator? Did you put that in? Did you insulate some different things where you saw a problem?
Right. So so just because it’s a year later, we still have these lingering effects. Another thing people are displaced. Something else to think about is we still have people displaced. So maybe they moved out of their home for six months, going to get these repairs done and that they’re delayed. So now what do they do? So they’re in a kind of a disarray, right?
So just be aware of any of those properties that you know of. Maybe you can come in and and offer some assistance and help them get it sold. There are people that could maybe take if this is a huge financial burden for them. Take, you know, come in. There’s a lot of investors and people that will come in and help, and they can maybe purchase this property as is and take on that that liability themselves and get them out of it.
Because if it’s causing a huge financial burden for them, they may need to get out and can’t wait any longer.
So, yeah, there’s a lot of different things going on here, Shana. That was a great topic, and I think you’ve talked through quite a few items there. Is there anything else you should hit on?
Yeah, I think we’re good there.
All right. Well, so I would say the one last thing is if there were any repairs that are done and you pulled in a permit, make sure that all the work is done. Make sure it’s all paid off.
Make sure we’re good. If they pulled permit with the city, there’s a final inspection. It has to be done or it’s still hanging out there. So that’s good point.
Episode Links
Texas , Mike Acquisto , Shana Acquisto , TNT
