Purchasing and insuring a sinkhole repaired home in Spring Hill. (Hernando: for sale, real estate)

[amazin6]

Hello to all especially Spring Hillian and Mike1306 who have shown patience and kindness in answering any of my DM questions. I did search prior to posting this for previous answers but feel the insurance rules may have changed since those responses.

My wife and I have been looking at homes on line for over a decade now in Spring Hill and near Disney. We finally were able to visit Spring Hill one day last fall and it did not disappoint and eliminated the Disney area from consideration. We have a few questions and hope to get your valuable advice without causing any dissension.

We are wondering about purchasing a repaired sinkhole home and what to be aware of(may be a cash deal without any mortgage).
Can it be insured with comprehensive insurance (fire, theft, hurricane,etc)and will it impact the cost of that insurance?
Must it have catastrophic coverage or can it be purchased if desired?
Is it safer to buy a home now that it has been repaired?
If a warranty is provided, is it worth it?
Does sinkhole activity at neighboring homes impact your insurance coverage?
Any engineers reports, who should read and assist us in deciphering those(another engineer or a home inspector for example)?

Lastly, any ideas on a short term affordable furnished rental when we sell here and begin our home search in Spring Hill?

Thank you to all and we look forward to reading your responses!

[HWTechGuy]

I just bought in Spring Hill in November. I don't know how I'd feel about a repaired sinkhole home. There are alot of homes for sale here...

My insurance company was concerned was concerned about sinkhole activity on my property only. There are a few in my immediate neighborhood. As you do your research, many will tell you, not every "sinkhole" is legit. There was a whole mess of shady goings on a few years back.

[bentlebee]

The latest I have heard is that you can't insure a repaired sinkhole anymore.

Having said that, how likely will it be that a repaired sinkhole will get another sinkhole compaired toa house that has no sinkhole (yet)?

Some investors love to buy them and rent them out or keep them until the market goes up since it seems that many investors and some hom owners have no issue buying them for the reason that I mentioned prior...at least you know what was going on and it was fixed.

The other issue is that many homes don't even have a sinkhole but back in the days everything was considered a sinkhole but basically was settlement cracks and a lot of fraud cases came above the surface and now these homes have been flagged as sinkhole homes.

Nowadays they are more strict with sinkhole claims.

[amazin6]

Thanks HWTechGuy and bentlebee. By being uninsurable, are referring to catastrophic coverage only? Is normal comprehensive insurance available or did you mean any and all types of insurance?

[HWTechGuy]

I think it may depend on the particular insurance company you are dealing with in terms of what specific types of coverage they will extend on a particular property. For example, some insurance companies don't want you if the roof is old. I remember someone posting here that they could finally change insurance companies because they got their roof replaced.

[floridagirl777]

We have a sinkhole repaired home that we are currently renting out in Spring Hill. We had no trouble having it insured after the repair. We had to go with Citizens, though. (State Farm dropped us once the repairs were completed.) We felt confident enough with the repair to only go with catastrophic coverage and not get anything additional.

If I were moving to Spring Hill again, I would ONLY purchase a sinkhole repaired home. After going through the repair process, I certainly would NOT want to re-live it. It is a nightmare. A couple of my friends have purchased repaired homes and haven't had an ounce of trouble from them. Those who buy a home where there may or may not be a sinkhole are taking a risk … some will be OK and some will discover they have a sinkhole. For me, I would rather know what I am getting than to wonder if I'm going to start seeing large cracks and such.

If you do go with a repaired sinkhole, ask to see documentation of those repairs. We have two lengthly engineer's reports detailing our repairs as well as all the secondary repairs that were done to both the interior and exterior of our home. Our place has at least 42 truckloads of grout under it, along with chemical grouting to boot. Our sinkhole occurred about 5 or 6 years ago. The house hasn't had another issue since.

The only real fear you need to consider is re-sellability. Most people are afraid to purchase any home that has had sinkhole activity - repaired well or not. We had a lot of trouble trying to sell ours, which is why we are now landlords. Realtors have told us in the years to come this may change and sinkhole repaired homes may become more desireable than non-repaired or unknown homes … but we have yet to see that sort of change in the market.

[amazin6]

Thank you floridagirl777 for all your helpful insights. We have had those same feelings that a repaired home may be a better purchase if the repairs were done properly. There are some beautiful sinkhole repaired homes we view online. I forget that there may be 3 types of insurance, comprehensive, sinkhole and catastrophic. So it sounds as if the comprehensive insurance should be available. Can you provide an estimate on the current value of your Spring Hill home and cost/type of insurance you have if you feel comfortable doing so? Thanks again!!

[floridagirl777]

Originally Posted by amazin6

Thank you floridagirl777 for all your helpful insights. We have had those same feelings that a repaired home may be a better purchase if the repairs were done properly. There are some beautiful sinkhole repaired homes we view online. I forget that there may be 3 types of insurance, comprehensive, sinkhole and catastrophic. So it sounds as if the comprehensive insurance should be available. Can you provide an estimate on the current value of your Spring Hill home and cost/type of insurance you have if you feel comfortable doing so? Thanks again!!

The current value of our Spring Hill home is about 120K. We pay about $1400 for insurance through Citizens. We have catastropic insurance, which will not cover any cracking, settling, etc. issues unless the house falls into the ground. Contact Whiting Insurance on Spring Hill Drive. They are personal friends of mine and very good people. They'll take care of you.

[amazin6]

We are still concerned about this sinkhole issue. Many real estate web sites do not inform buyers of any settlement issues. Conversely, realtors may mention settlement issues on the listing page yet the same house does not show any problem on the Hernando County Property Appraiser's page where we would assume it MUST be provided by law.
Hernando County, FL - Property Appraiser - Alvin R. Mazourek - Brooksville, Florida
Are most of these sinkhole claims just to gain an insurance settlement in the past or should they be a deal breaker as far as relocating to the Hernando County area? Our research seems ambiguous at best. Thank you.

[bentlebee]

Originally Posted by amazin6

We are still concerned about this sinkhole issue. Many real estate web sites do not inform buyers of any settlement issues. Conversely, realtors may mention settlement issues on the listing page yet the same house does not show any problem on the Hernando County Property Appraiser's page where we would assume it MUST be provided by law.
Hernando County, FL - Property Appraiser - Alvin R. Mazourek - Brooksville, Florida
Are most of these sinkhole claims just to gain an insurance settlement in the past or should they be a deal breaker as far as relocating to the Hernando County area? Our research seems ambiguous at best. Thank you.

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First of all all realtors have to disclose it by law when SELLER disclose it to them and it is the realtors due diligence to check the records.

Many people blame the realtors for certain not disclosed items and if the realtor ever would say "just leave it out" than that realtor should lose their license, BUT when a SELLER is with holding info for the realtor the seller will be liable for it and therefore all sellers should fill out the property disclosures in their own hand writing and not filled out by the real estate agent!