Storm Damage - What do I need to do?

Do you have Hail or Wind Damage on your home from recent storms? If so you need an experienced insurance claims specialist to help you get the best repair possible for the amount of benefit you receive from the insurance claim.
A good example of this would be if you received hail damage, the first thing you need to do is to perform an inspection of the roof. Then once YOU know the condition of your roof, siding, or windows, you can then make an informed decision based on your potential contractor. Advanced Designs, in Madison, WI can help to give you a very clear picture of potential damage. Advanced Designs is very good as they actually don't attempt to pressure you into signing a contract. They have an agreement, don't get me wrong, Mike, Rudy(author of this blog), and Danny are all great project managers and Mike is the General Manager. They do the inspection with hopes to do the work.
The next thing that happens is that your insurance company will send the "adjuster" to your home to view the damage for themselves. The adjuster works for the insurance company so they are not bound to you in any way, they work for the insurance company. I will say that most adjusters that I have dealt with personally are fair about finding damage, others are not, if you have an expert on your side there while the adjuster is inspecting, they will show the adjusters things consistent with the damage they found.

Upon completion of the paperwork by the insurance company, its best to allow your contractor or your hail damage experts to measure your home and prepare a cost analysis, which is the proposal of the construction firm. If your working with a contractor, and you don't necessarily want them to work on your roof, tell them at this point so that they can help others more successfully. I stress allowing a contractor to put a sign in the yard at this point, as it can help keep solicitations to a minimum.

Once the paperwork is complete, you will be able to see the "SCOPE" or the damage report and payment agreement with the insurance company. This shows you what you are allowed to spend on what repairs or replacement. Typically a good contractor will make him self very useful at this point by presenting a proposal to you regarding their action plan. If they are not the same you need to make a decision on what exact repairs to make and how to proceed. A good contractor can also suggest what repairs to start on first and scheduling ability at this point, others may not, or may be behind schedule at other jobs.

Next post is Part II of "Storm Damage"

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Wisconsin Real Estate

Honestly I don't know about Wisconsin Real Estate right now because I have not done any real estate work this year. I talk to many realtor's every week about their businesses and how much volume they are doing, some say they are doing OK, while others have simply fallen by the wayside. Its interesting but I can sum it up in one sentence...
***Those who use sound techniques and have learned the harness the Internet are in fact still busy. ***

Get that thru your head and your going to improve your business...period.

Getting your web presence on is as easy as optimizing your pages with productive keywords and building good content and links to that content. SEO in one sentence... Yeah I guess it is.
Till next time!!
Rudy

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Happy Memorial Day, and thank you for protecting us

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Fed says we are near the bottom

I read yesterday that the FED says we are almost at the bottom in terms of the real estate market. I don't see how that is possible with Foreclosures still on the rise and credit markets still locked up tight. We will not see the bottom however until we are well past it so I am suggesting that each person out there who is still practicing do it like there is no tomorrow. Castle Rock Lake area real estate will be a tough sell this year with values sliding almost 30% over the last 6-8 months. As soon as sellers figure out the best way to get this across to buyers they will be rewarded with a sale.
Pricing is still first and foremost the best way to sell real estate, expert agree across the board.
We are currently doing some marketing for a couple of rental properties at Waterstone, one of Castle Rock's best.


Search Performance

Wisconsin Dells Real Estate
Castle Rock Lake

Just when you think its safe!

Its been a while since I have seen such a perfect senario to coin the phrase "buyers are liars, sellers are worse.", Seller is an institution, buyer is a greedy developer. 3rd party neighbor is the party that lost said property to the bank....

Ok so you see the set up for disaster. I have to be very carefull as I don't want to discuss the terms of an offer to purchase but I feel that this transaction is one of the most scary of all situations for realtors.

MORE LATER... Stay tuned!

Catch By Fan~!!

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Castle Rock Lake

Well its almost spring time, yet the ice is still thick and people are definately getting spring fever. One of the things it seems people are doing is sort of pre-yard work. That says spring fever like nothing else. Hopefully with the economy the way it is there will be some activity real estate wise around the lake. This lake property thing is a little touchy because nobody wants to lose money in real estate, yet there will never be as much waterfront land as there is right now, its a reverse bell curve. I personally want to see as many people as possible buying real estate in that area and I really hope values can stay up but at this point that is a loosing proposition.
So what are people who need to sell to do? Price properly, and make your property the most attractive in the area and you WILL find a buyer...but when is anybody's guess.

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Castle Rock Lake Experience

Be part of the newest summer fun site on the web. www.castlerocklakehome.com is the place for you to get all your Wisconsin get away information.


CASTLE ROCK LAKE- This week we are waiting for spring!! Snow conditions are great as long as you are on the water, otherwise conditions are variable, with some rough patches.
Castle Rock Lake is one of the best all around lakes in our entire state, its got everything your wild side needs to relax and enjoy life. In fact just the other day I went to Castle Rock Lake with my cousin, who was racing a couple of sleds in the big radar run at the dirty turtle bar. There were more ice fisherman than I expected, perfect ice conditions really brings them in I guess. The temp was around 12* F with 30-40 mph winds and flakes of snow blowing sideways across the vast open of the lake. Courtney and I got to basically stand around and help TJ whenever possible. As cold as it was outside, the bar was toasty warm with a huge fire raging in the stone fireplace. They have a great menu at the dirty turtle with tons of options from 3 different types of wings to several burgers, chicken, whatever you want basically. A couple of brandy 7’s and we are back outside, the racing was very good, although somewhat slow. I heard this crackle and to my amazement it was a fully tweaked Yamaha turbo which was fully lowered with basically every speed option you could think of. When that thing took off it backfired when the nitrous kicked in, and was gone. 158mph is pretty fast, even in a car its wicked, but this thing was furious. I wondered if I would even enjoy something that wicked…and yes, I probably would be scared but what the hell, you only live once. TJ did quite well, with 4 classes, he got two 1st place, one 2nd, and never even ran in the last class. I think the top speed of his day was something like 80.6 in 1000’. The award section of the contest is always a little better when your bringing home the dope, but this one was a festival, everyone was having a great time. We ended up kicking our selves out after a while because we did have to drive back to Wisconsin Dells, the day was a huge success.

So the rest of the winter we will be praying for snow and hoping to get back up there, for any type of snowmobile event.The people that snowmobile are not unlike boaters in that its like a huge family. Even the grumpy people are friendly when there sleds are nearby. TJ made a point to mention that most snowmobilers are this way and cited a few occasions where fellow snow folk had saved him from some predicament or another. So I figure I will pay it forward by mentioning them here.

We are now setting up the Castle Rock Lake Experience web portal in hope that it will force us to be in the best place possible, near the lake. Summer will be here soon and our goal is to have people moderating the forum and blog so that content is in its purest form, so that being said if you have a desire to moderate a forum please contact us and we will get you squared away.
The biggest thing we need is people who have a genuine interest in boating, fishing, and just having a good time on the lake.

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The new real estate economy

The new real estate environment is quite unlike anything anyone has seen before. Granted election years are always a bit on the slow side but this year we had some extraordinary circumstances what exacerbated the situation and with a slowing economy, massive foreclosures, and banks not lending money, the market pretty much locked up completely. In fact the only people out looking at real estate right now are people who want to invest on the foreclosures that are selling for up to 50% under their true value.

One thing that we as agents have going for us at this point is extremely low mortgage interest rates approaching 4%, which means many people who are still in their jobs and still have equity in their homes or are first time buyers will have the best opportunity to own a home in decades, or ever for that matter.

What will people do? Will people be able to sell homes to move into bigger ones? Will people just refinance into low rates and try to recoup some of the equity they once had? Mortgage modification will also be available via the T.A.R.P. program as well.

I believe that people with jobs will begin to spend again, those without will have to wait until the economy comes back which means that we will have a mediocre year at best in Wisconsin real estate with solid communities like Watertown, Oconomowoc, Jefferson, and Waterloo will fair better than those areas without industry and commercial entities which provide solid, stable, and secure incomes for potential buyers of homes.

I feel like the long term holds great opportunities for things like solar energy, geothermal heating and cooling, and wind energy, as well as clean coal and nuclear energy.


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