🚨Everyone needs to listen to this Podcast. 🚨
Would you get a divorce without an attorney? Of Course not!
This week Public Insurance Adjustor, John Fuentes from All Service Adjusting, tells us why we shouldn't combat insurance companies without a licensed adjustor.
John Fuentes
833-926-8272
http://www.serviceadjusting.com
To learn more:
https://barefootbungalowrealty.com/
Barefoot Bungalow Realty & Property Management
9200 Bonita Beach Rd SE, Suite 100
Bonita Springs, FL 34135
(239) 350-5535
🚨Everyone needs to listen to this Podcast. 🚨
Would you get a divorce without an attorney? Of Course not!
This week Public Insurance Adjustor, John Fuentes from All Service Adjusting, tells us why we shouldn't combat insurance companies without a licensed adjustor.
John Fuentes
833-926-8272
http://www.serviceadjusting.com
To learn more:
https://barefootbungalowrealty.com/
Barefoot Bungalow Realty & Property Management
9200 Bonita Beach Rd SE, Suite 100
Bonita Springs, FL 34135
(239) 350-5535
Welcome to the Live Your Best Life Barefoot podcast with your host, Mary Mouritsen and the team at Barefoot Bungalow Realty.
Speaker 2:Good morning everyone. Welcome to another episode of Live your best life barefoot. I am here with John Fuentes with All Service Adjusting. Good morning, John. How are you?
Speaker 3:How's it going? Good
Speaker 2:Morning. We are excited to have you I've been fascinated since I met you with the service that you provide your customers. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 3:Yeah I appreciate that we are an adjusting firm that advocate for policy holders. So what w e'd like to do is, you know, when homeowners are having a struggle against the insurance company, whenever they put in a claim for a roof leak, maybe it's a kitchen leak, and they're just not getting fair settlement they're getting pushbacks. They're not getting response times, maybe there's an underpayment or they're getting denials. I'm t he, we're the firm that you would contact All Service Adjusting specializes in taking claims from underpaid or denied to settlement fair settlements. So that's what we do. We do free inspections, estimates, and we advocate on h o meowners b ehalf, whether it's commercial or residential.
Speaker 2:So you talked about a lot of major pain points there. One of the things that always comes to my mind is how do you know whether you're getting a good settlement o r not?
Speaker 3:So we actually use the same estimating software that the insurance company uses it was created by State Farm is called Xactimate. So it's not something that we just, you know, pull out of thin air. When we do our inspections, we do hundreds of photos and we take the square footage of a property. We take the measurements of, you know, perhaps the baseboard, maybe you have a five inch baseboard versus, you know, a smaller inch, a three inch baseboard. And we take all those things into account. We apply painting and replacement costs and it helps get you to that number that you need to be. Other than that, we also get general contractors to provide estimates, to sort of provide that backup and show that we are, where we need to be. And we submit all that to the insurance company.
Speaker 2:And do you recommend people contact you in all circumstances or just when they feel like they're having an issue
Speaker 3:For business purposes? I'd say all the time, but you know, if a homeowner feels that they're getting and the homeowner feels that they're getting a fair settlement, Hey, by all means, if you feel that you're being treated well with your insurance company, go ahead. But I've always said, you know, you wouldn't go through divorce without an attorney that would be suicide. So I don't recommend trying to go against the insurance company, hoping for fair settlement, without somebody representing you. And that's wh o w e are licensed by the state of Florida to represent homeowners. So that's just my personal opinion. I think that everybody should always try to involve a public adjuster, whether it's my firm or not.
Speaker 2:That is a very good point. Yeah. Yeah. So tell us about what your favorite customer or situation is.
Speaker 3:I really like, I like arguing, I l ook to argue. So m y f avorite, I do, if I had more of a interest in school, I probably w ould h ave been an attorney, but, you know, I didn't go to law school, so, but I l ike to argue, my favorite ones are those that are being mistreated. For instance, I just came through a just had claim on Thursday last week, where the homeowner reported the loss to the insurance company, where he said, Hey, we have a water loss. The laundry box is leaking. And it seemed like m old g rew due to the water damages in that unit. So the insurance turned around and told them well, due to the fact that the m old supersedes the water damage, we're changing your cause of loss from water to mold. Now that's insurance fraud and that's wrong because that's like saying I got hit by a hurricane and my roof got ripped off. Water came in and mold grew. Now we're going to change the cause of loss from hurricane to mold. That's just not fair to the homeowner. You know, that matters a lot because the policies have limits on mold coverages like 10,000. That means what they're trying to do is basically tell the homeowner, Hey, you're covered, but we're going to change your water damage to mold so that we only pay 10,000 because that's your cap. And that's just very unfair to the homeowners. So those are the types of cases that I really strive on. I love to argue them. I love to pull facts to Florida statues, the policies in play and get those claims covered the right way.
Speaker 2:So basically you help the homeowner cut through all of the red tape that the insurance company might try to throw at them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's my, absolutely. Yeah. That's a good way to say it. Yeah. Pays alot faster too. You know, there's only two ways to really resolve a claim. Either you get a lawyer or you get a public adjuster. And the thing about lawyers is that if you get a lawyer, your going to be stuck in litigation for over a year. And it's going to take a long time, especially with COVID, everything's been backed up everything from trades to legal, it's all delayed. So when you hire a public adjuster, there's certain things that we can do that nobody else can. And one of those is appraisal, you know, appraisals, huge. It's not like it's sort of like having an appraisal done on a home to value the home, except you're going to do it on the damages. So what that is is I meet onsite with another appraiser and we determine what it actually takes to repair your home. And that can resolve a claim in as little as two months, sometimes even sooner, I've had appraisals and settlements happen in two weeks. So a big difference there. And we're the only licensed profession that can offer that services. So when homeowners sometimes ask me like, you know, when Irma hit, I got a lawyer and yeah, we got resolved. It took about a year and a half to two years. I just met a couple who just got resolved three weeks ago. So it's been years now. The biggest difference I always say is, look, yes, a lawyer can help resolve your claim, but two things are going to happen. You're going to be stuck in litigation for a long time, and your policy will drop you. They're not going to keep you when you sue them, that doesn't happen. The purpose of a public adjustser is to resolve your claim in a timely manner for a fair settlement. So that's the biggest difference. And you're not going to get you're most likely not g oing t o get dropped. T hey could drop you, I guess, if they w anted to, but the chances are very little to not because we're not suing them. We're just providing estimates and guiding the claim from start to finish.
:So have you ever had an insurance company say, okay, you adjusted it, but they're not going to go with your adjustment.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah. All the time. I don't care. They're going to go with it. What do you do in that circumstance? I file civil notice, I could demand mediation. I got different things I can do. Or another benefit of that is just having local contractors that you, you are referring work to, who can help you through that process. Because if you don't want to accept my estimate and I can present to you five different contractors that are writing for the same number, or, Hey, what's the insurance gonna argue at that point, you go to mediation, it's a done deal. You got the public adjusters estimate. You've got three different contractors, all within the same ballpark range, you have to pay it off. The purpose of insurance is to indemnify the homeowner to its previous existing condition it's not the purpose to benefit from it. But it is to give you what your owed, what you had, nothing less, nothing more. R ight?
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 2:Well, and you understand the process where we, who don't deal with this every day, we don't know the ins and outs, so it's good to have an advocate that knows the process, even beyond the estimates and all
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I mean, simple things like reporting a claim can go really south. I think I've spoken about this several times, but I had a client who he's about 82 and he called Allstate, which is castle k ey. And he initially, yes, he had a dishwasher leak, but he had a little bit of mold growth, very minimal mold growth. But because he's 82, all he saw was mold and he panicked. So he picked up the phone called the insurance and said, Hey I have water? But there's mold i n my cabinet ba ck b o ard. And, t hey're like, well, unfortunately we don't cover mold. Your claims denied over the phone. They never in spected t he property. And he had less than 10 square feet of mold, very minimal. I inspected the property. So, you know, we go t to re solve, but the process is so in- depth th at a lot of people don't know, you know, it can, from the moment you call, if you say something wrong, you're getting denied. That's why I always advice get a public adjuster. Let us report the claim for you. We know the date of loss to use. We know the process that goes into it. We know how to report a claim. We know that, you know, there is, this is a money industry. You're looking to obtain financial gain to repair your home. And they're looking to financially gain your premiums to not pay out. And we pay mandated premiums for years. And when it's time to do a claim, they don't want to pay ou t. And a lot of times th e h omeowners are the ones that butcher the claim by saying the wrong thing. Th ey j ust don't know any better. So, ye ah, we do the whole process from submitting a sworn proof of loss, to walking you through recorded statements. We guide you through the examination under oath. We report it the right way. All those sorts of things
Speaker 2:Sounds like a really great asset. Definitely. Yeah. And until I met you, I didn't even know it was an option.
Speaker 3:A lot of people don't, but it's honestly, it's in my opinion, one of the greatest careers, because it's a service that pays itself. I, if I'm the insurance is offering you 10,000 and I can get you 30, my service f ees worth it, you know, it's worth it. You're going to get more than w hat's offered you.
Speaker 2:And you only get paid whatever the insurance like when the insurance pays, right? If the insurance pays
Speaker 3:Yeah. We do free inspections. We offer free policy reviews. And if we cannot win your case, then you don't owe us anything. It's a contingency contract. So based on our victory. So when we go in there, we want to win. It is commission-based, it's 20%, 10 to 20%, depending on the type of loss and during the state of emergency. And, yeah, we like to hit home runs.
Speaker 4:So when you say policy reviews, when you say policy reviews, John, do you mean that somebody can bring in their home insurance policy and you can overview it and see what a re missing out of it? Or what it is going to cover?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. So the policies, they tend to be very ambiguous. There's about 70 pages to these things. And a lot of times you look at the declaration page and maybe like the first four pages. And you're like, oh, I have great coverage because look at my limits. You know, you look at coverage, a, B, C, and D, and you think that you have great coverage and you might not, you could have a million dollars worth of coverage, a which is dwelling over your, you know, for your home. And then you go to the exclusion page and they're excluding everything from pool enclosures to roof damage, or maybe a water leak, any water exclusions, mold exclusions. So the policy is very important because homeowners may be under the impression that they're paying for the best policy they can afford. And they might actually be paying quite high for the worst that they've been given, you know?
Speaker 2:Okay. That's good information. That's really good information. So what is one great tip you'd like to give people about their insurance or how to handle losses?
Speaker 3:Several things I think during Irma, a lot of things were, a lot of things occurred, one of them was a lot of homeowners were signing assigning assignment of benefits with roofers. I don't recommend any homeowner ever signs and assignment of benefits. You're going to lose your insurance rights. When you sign that with a roofer, they're going to inherit the insurance check and that's it. You don't get a penny out of it. You're released, you're literally relinquishing your rights to your insurance proceeds. And the roofers only going to do the roof. They're not there to negotiate the interior damages and things like that. So that's one tip. Don't send an AOB and assignment of benefits is very harmful. Um, always remember that agents have all, they sell you a policy. They don't work for, they don't get paid by you. They get paid by the carrier. So they're going to do whatever is in the best interest of the carrier. A lot of times homeowners called their agent and hopes that the agent's going to report the claim and it doesn't work out very well. So maybe there's, you know, a very close friend, who's an agent of a homeowner's that's different, but for the most part agents work on behalf of the carriers, they have a fiduciary duty to protect the carriers. They're selling you a policy that is meant to protect the carriers. So that's another advice, you know, just report the claim yourself, or hire a public adjuster referral on these people who are working on your behalf. And a lot of individuals that work in the insurance industry will tell you the same thing. You know, they t hey're do it yourself or hire a PA and don't sign an assignment of benefits. O kay.
Speaker 2:That's a great point. Yeah. Well, John, thank you so much for coming. How can our listeners get ahold of you?
Speaker 3:Quite easily, they could visit the website at serviceadjusting.com at serviceadjusting.com. They can go on there. They can fill out a form that talks about the type of damages that they're experiencing. They can put their na number and w ill reach out to me.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Thank you so much for being on here. This has been really informative. And one of those things that is always at the back of your mind here in Florida, especially with all of our special circumstances that we get every now and then, and we really appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. I appreciate it, Mary and Ruth. Thank
Speaker 2:You. We are closing this one out and we want to just remind you that we love hearing from you. If you have anybody or anything that you'd like to discuss, make sure you look us up and send it to us. We are at barefootbungalowrealty.com or on social media at Barefoot Bungalow Realty. And as remember to live your best life barefoot
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Live Your Best Life Barefoot podcast, sponsored by Barefoot Bungalow Realty to learn more about Barefoot Bungalow Realty, go to www.barefootbungalowrealty.com or call 2 3 9 3 5 0 5 5 3 5.