Some real estate agent thoughts on buying homes in flood zones...140

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Deerwood Realty and Friends Podcast

Homes in flood zones…an odd issue that I wanted to talk about a little today…let you know where my thinking is and then let you decide for yourself.

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Thoughts:

1. You find that perfect home…gorgeous and priced right too. Why is the house priced lower than similar houses you’ve seen? What are you missing?

It’s in a flood zone.

Still a great deal?

I don’t think so, but maybe?

Why don’t you think so?

a. lender requires you to get flood insurance, which has a cost, likely in the thousand dollar range, which never goes towards the equity of your house
b. if your house were to flood, that would be a mess.
c. There are other houses available that are not in a flood zone. Pick from one of them. It’s really not that hard to find homes that aren’t in flood zones…at least here in St. Louis

2. You can have a home where the yard is in a flood zone and the house is not. As far as I know, you are not required to get flood insurance if the house is not in the flood zone but yard is. Always check with your lender to double check….and your lender is going to pull a flood report regardless of whether or not the property is in a flood zone.

3. In our St Louis Association of Realtors standard board contract…and special sale contract both have flood plain contingency provisions in them. Rather than get into some sort of legalese, you should know if the home you want to buy is in a flood zone and if you don’t find out before you put in an offer, you should make every effort to do so.

4. In our standard sellers disclosure, there are two areas that deal with flooding. Is any portion of this property located in a 100 year flood hazard area?….and then a question, “are you aware of any soil, earth movement, flood, drainage or grading problems on the property that may affect the property? The thing I worry about as a buyer agent is that the house could have flooded a decade or more ago, new owners moved in, moved out, and now the current sellers have no idea that there was a flood in their home so they do not disclose it. Is it just a matter of time before another flood comes through?

5. Flood maps change. This can have a devastating effect on your home’s value. It’s completely possible you can buy a home and it not be in a flood plain, the map gets updated and now you are. There is a stigma about flood plain properties…and you typically see it in sales prices…like our first example..there is this cute house priced below similar homes but there doesn’t seem to be an obvious reason until you find out it is in a flood zone.

6. To me, you want to know if a home is in a flood zone EARLY on in the process. You can save yourself a lot of time if you choose not to write an offer on a home because of flood zone issues rather than wait until you’ve already gotten an accepted contract.

7. Would I list a home in a floodplain? Of course! Some home buyers really do think they are getting a great deal and are prepared to deal with the potential risks of flooding. I’m giving you what I would honestly tell my buyers. And with buyers, as long as I’ve given them all the reasons why I think it’s a bad idea to buy in a flood zone, they may feel differently and decide to write. As long as they express to me they know what they are getting into, I have no issue writing the offer.

Source: https://www.realtor.com/advice/home-improvement/is-my-property-in-a-flood-zone/

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