Hello and welcome. This is Nolan Formalarie with Discover NC Homes and Nolan’s news. And today I wanted to talk to you about roofs. We are having a time this year and half of last year with two aspects of roofs: number one – home inspection and number two – insurance.
I’ve seen lots of home inspections over my years. The last year, year-and-a-half home inspectors have all of a sudden started putting the “life expectancy left on a roof.” So you could have a 25 year old roof, it’s a 30-year shingle, it’s functioning as intended, there’s no leaks, but all of a sudden in your home inspection, he notates that you have one to three years of life expectancy on that roof.
Nothing too drastic there, but it really is hurting with the negotiation during the due diligence process, because these buyers are expecting now a new roof out of the transaction. So just sellers be aware of that, buyers also be aware of that. It’s something new that the home inspectors are doing.
Another really good tidbit of information: 30 days ago, this just came out and I experienced it firsthand through a transaction, insurance companies are now looking at the age of a roof and many of them have new cutoff dates. So if you have, let’s say your home is built in 1999 and your roof is original, if it is a typical 30-year architectural shingle, many insurance carriers now will not write a wind and hail policy because that roof is over 20 years old. Even if you’ve had inspections after storms, your home inspection comes out good, no leaks. They will not now write a policy on a 30-year architectural shingle, if it’s 20 years or older. And then the same rule, except a shorter timeframe, applies to the lesser expensive three-tab shingle.
If you have a three-tab shingle, they won’t write a policy if it’s 15 years or older. So this, in combination with the home inspection has really opened buyers up to asking for at least a portion or a full replacement of the roof, because now they’re getting notated on the home inspection that the life expectancy is only a few years left, but more importantly, many insurance carriers and providers will not write a policy because of the age of the roof.
Something good to know, and I think this year especially, we’re going to see a lot of that going forward and buyers asking sellers to either replace or come up with a large portion of the roof cost. Just always wanting to make you aware a good piece of information again, for both sellers and buyers.
As always, thank you for having me. If you have any questions, please let me know.
About Nolan Formalarie
Nolan Formalarie has been in the North Carolina Real Estate Industry for over 8 years and enjoys every minute of it. He is involved in every aspect of the industry including selling and purchasing residential property, home watch services, property management, association management and construction.
