We are all getting into the Holiday Spirit and with that comes fire dangers.
Today we talk with Stacie Nikkel about what you can do to protect you and
your home from a total loss.
http://www.belforusa.com
239-207-4944
800-856-3333
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
We are all getting into the Holiday Spirit and with that comes fire dangers.
Today we talk with Stacie Nikkel about what you can do to protect you and
your home from a total loss.
http://www.belforusa.com
239-207-4944
800-856-3333
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 Mouritson and the team at Barefoot Bungalow Realty
Speaker 2:Good morning and welcome to the next episode of Live your Best Life Barefoot podcast. We are here today with Mary and myself, Ruth, and we're going to first jump into a market update
Speaker 3:Good morning. It's good to see you. We had a great weekend. We previewed some amazing new homes, brand new homes in Estero. It's east Estero. And they have a whole new community going in out there. There's a lot of new homes out there now. Yeah, they're beautiful. And, t hey're Pulte and, there Lennar there's two different, we had a little conv we're giggling because we h ave a little conversation about how to pronounce Lennar. I won't say who was saying something wrong, but I w on't, but it is Lennar. We got that education too, and they're doing homes in as little as three months there. You can be into a brand new homes on the Lennar Side and then the Pulte ta ke s ix to e ight months. So, g reat options out there. We'd love to help you get more information. So it's exciting how many new communities are going in and hopefully that will alleviate some of our shortage that we're having. And on that, let's introduce our guests. We're so excited to have St acy N ikkel with us. She's here from Be lfor P roperty Restoration. Good morning, St acy.
Speaker 4:Thank you for having me. Thanks
Speaker 3:For coming on out on a bright and early Monday morning. How are you
Speaker 4:Great doing well today? Looking forward to a new week here and sunny Naples, Florida.
Speaker 3:Yes. So tell us a little bit about yourself and about what brought you to property restoration.
Speaker 4:So, I am, I guess I'm married with four kids, a large family here, and we moved to Naples five years ago from the Chicago area. I did come from a background in real estate, as well as home staging. And it just was a natural transition for me. When I saw the opportunity that I was able to have at, with Belfor Property Restoration, it was just a natural transition for me to move over.
Speaker 3:Awesome. So tell us about Belfor what do they, what do they do? What, what do you do for them?
Speaker 4:So I am an account manager with Belfor, they are a global restoration company. One of the things that makes Belfor unique is that we are a n on-franchise property restoration company. So even though we have a local presence here and we act as a small local restoration company, we have the backing of a global restoration company. So for anyone experiencing large losses, especially during hurricane season and things like that, we have, just layers upon layers of, of resources and technologies available throughout our company globally.
Speaker 3:Nice. And what what's besides that are there other things that set you apart from some of the other restoration companies?
Speaker 4:I think so. Yeah. So we have a standard in our industry. That's established by IICRC. So many of us are IICRC certified in different categories, such as water damage, fire and smoke damage. So we have actually a bus which is called the Belfor University System. So we get ongoing training in all different areas. Actually this week we have one coming up, with our, uh, division of Belfor called Bamcore, which is, manufacturing on how to specifically clean and maintain and restore manufacturing equipment. So we just have all kinds of training available for us, to keep us educated and keep us on top of all the changes that happen. Another thing that Belfor offers specifically is Matterport, which I know is used in real estate often to do a 3d tour. So when someone, one of our customers or clients experiences a loss, the very first thing we do is Mat terport th at loss. So we have that as documentation. And then we also, we Mat terport it again, which is the 3d scan during, r i ght after mitigation, which is another, another way to document, w h at's happening with that loss. And then again, at the end to show that the structure was put to a pr e-loss put back to pre-loss condition.
Speaker 3:That's interesting. Yeah. And tell us, we we've chatted before about the different seasons of property restoration and what season are we in?
Speaker 4:Well, it's typically in Florida, you know, it can be challenging. We do have hurricane season, which is obviously our biggest, our biggest season for disaster recovery. And then with that, we kind of move into wet season where we do get a lot of humidity and a lot of moisture people experienced complications with their AC units, either dripping or are not functioning properly, just because of the demands of the hot weather and, not being maintained properly that creates our, our wet, like mold season, if you will. We just kind of came out of that, the temperatures dropping humidity's dropping. So now moving into the holiday season, obviously with Thanksgiving, just around the corner, it's the, the cooking, a lot of cooking people are, you know, preparing, you gotta be very careful about, s tove, t op fires. And then right after that, we move into Christmas tree season, which, you know, you deal with lights and dry trees and low humidity. So again, another, possible hazard for structure fires.
Speaker 3:And then do you have some tips on preventing fires? And as we go into the season, some, some things to be prepared if there is some loss or are concerned and right.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. I mean, I mean, it's, sometimes it's simple with the stove top cooking. A lot of it is people put something on the stove to simmer and walk away. They leave it unattended and then they forget that it was there. So, you know, set a timer on your phone, set a timer on your microwave, whatever you need to keep, you know, keep attentive to what what's happening on. Your stove is always a critical thing. It's shocking how many stove, top fires there really are from people who walk away or fall asleep, or even sometimes they leave the house and forgot they had something on the stove With the Christmas trees, obviously it's, you know, if y ou, if your lights are older, it's always good to replace them as well as if you have real trees, they have to stay hydrated. Letting those trees dry out, just with lights on, it just creates a hazard, especially if we're kicking our heat on as well.
Speaker 3:Do we really kick heat on?
Speaker 4:Oh, so that's another thing in Florida when we do, you know, there's a lot of d ust that tends to build up in our t rack system because w e'd never really t urn our heat on It's advised that you do kick that on once a year just to burn that dust off. So you're going to get that funny smell. Definitely do it at a time where you can assess it and watch it, cause that burned off. So it is good to always turn that on at least once a year. It's j ust to k n ow t hat it's functioning and be bu rn o ff that dust.
Speaker 3:That was a great, so do in Florida, do we need to have our ducks cleaned out as well because we don't really use,
Speaker 4:I know. So it's a funny thing. I'm having this conversation a lot lately about this duct cleaning because coming from up north, many of us are used to metal duct systems, which can be cleaned. Here in Florida, t hey're typically not metal. So, I'm go ing t o h ave to get back to you on that because I'm still in the,
Speaker 3:As you continued. Well, we were at Oregon and we had to have our ducts cleaned once a year. Right.
Speaker 4:So I need to gather a little more information on that. I don't want to pass on something that's not true. So I will get back to you on that.
Speaker 3:Perfect. Okay. We'll hit you up to be continuing for an update on what, what to do, what to do, but your summer ducts. Yeah. Anything else that you would like to share with us about what our listeners can do to, prevent fires, prevent losses or prepare for those?
Speaker 4:I think the most important thing is you definitely want access to your insurance, your insurance paperwork and everything, your declaration page, which shows you your coverages. You definitely want to have that number in your phone for either, you know, your agent or your claims, your claims number, if you should experience something. Obviously as soon as the loss occurs, you want to do what's necessary to maintain secondary damage and prevent further damage. So for instance, if that means a pipe broke you, obviously you want to extract that water right away, get that water out of there to prevent. And then you can, once you stabilize the structure, you can assess and move forward. It's always important, you know, to kind of get everything stable, stop, what's creating the loss, take a breath and then establish a recovery plan.
Speaker 3:That's crazy. And the insurance I'm going to throw out a tip to make sure you check your insurance amounts. Exactly right. You're you're covered. I learned that the hard way with our dental office fire, it's good to prepare for a total loss it's worth the extra dollars to, I didn't think you don't think total loss, like you don't think a whole building's going to be gone. Right. We had a fire and lost everything and we could've done with more coverage. So we've reviewed your policies.
Speaker 4:I think that's a great idea, especially, as far as contents go, that's a separate coverage. People forgot to really think about, look, if a fire came through here and all of my contents were destroyed, what would it cost me? Or what would it take me to recover? You know, everything that's here. Another one is, you know, being displaced, how much coverage do you have if you have to literally shut down the business for a certain amount of time or move out of your home for a certain amount of time, how much money do you have to work with t o, to be displaced and to have those additional living expenses covered? Okay.
Speaker 3:Not things we love to think about, but good to check and make sure we're prepared,
Speaker 4:Right? Yeah, definitely. It's important. I think to talk about an emergency response plan and talk through like, Hey, what if, you know, it's definitely a, what if thing, but if it does happen, you want to definitely have some, some options and some resources available to be more prepared for something.
Speaker 3:And absolutely well, Stacy, thanks for joining us this morning. And it's been really, really enlightening and it's fun to have you on, um, how do our listeners get ahold of you?
Speaker 4:So, I am here in Bonita Springs. Our office is right off of, Bo nita b each road and route 75. We're close to the Riptide Brewery. But if you need to reach me, my local number is 239-207-4944. And if
Speaker 3:Somebody is experiencing a loss, is that the number they call?
Speaker 4:Yes. They can either call that number or directly to our call center, which is run out of our corporate office. That number is 1 800-856-3333 800-856-3333. And it will come right through our office and, and start to dispatch our technicians.
Speaker 3:Wonderful. That's great. Yeah. Great information. Great talking to you today. Thank you so much. Thank you for
Speaker 4:Having me. I
Speaker 3:Appreciate it. We will follow up on the ducts.
Speaker 4:Definitely. Let's definitely do that.
Speaker 3:All right. Have a wonderful rest of your day and 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 ww w.barefootbungalowrealty.com o r call 2 3 9 3 5 0 5 5 3 5.