What I’ve learned after surviving 3 (and counting!) hurricanes.

Wow! Am I glad that’s over. That’s the only thing that comes to mind off hand.

I noticed both in the days leading up to the storms and in the days after, that trying times bring out the true character in people. Both Good: people helping to deliver plywood from Home Depot for those without trucks, and people with power bagging up ice for those without. AND Bad: my husband driving an hour for a generator that wasn’t what was promised on the phone, stabbings at a local lumberyard over a cart of plywood, and the cops being called because people are cutting in line at the few gas stations that are open.

I’ve lived in Florida all of my life, and I’ve lived through thousands of storms, but never when I’ve been a business owner and housing provider and have had others depending on me for their life to be normal.

It really makes you think differently as you’re holed up in your boarded up house, listening to branches slamming against your roof (or in my case, watching my porch blow away section by section), and thinking about how your tenants are faring. How many roofs will I have to replace this week? How many units will be unlivable, and how many months of vacancy until I can get them back up to rentable condition? Will my office be damaged? How many days will we be without electric and phones? How will this effect my business and income? How will this effect my employees?

Then comes the moment of truth…breaking the “no driving” curfew to go make the rounds of your properties. Holding your breath as you turn onto your street, and letting out the sigh of relief when you see it still standing. Talk about stress! Doing this over and over until you’ve seen them all. We were very fortunate…the worst we had was fencing down, some small tree limbs, and our patio (which we were going to redo anyway). But then you start thinking…what if it had been worse? Are we covered enough on our insurance? So that leads to Tip #1:

1. Check your insurance coverage every year to make sure you are covered if you need to rebuild completely.

Then you start hearing reports from your friends, family, and fellow investors: Roofs torn off, 6 units flattened (literally), flooded living rooms, damaged cars, and everything else. Then, once the storm has passed, TV brings you pictures of those areas hardest hit, and you realize just how fortunate you were. Which brings me to a wise saying that one of my friends has been know to say (it loosely translates to: Whatever you are living through, it could always be worse)

2. It’s not Cancer!

I’ve heard people saying that maybe they over prepared, since the storm didn’t hit us as hard as predicted. And that scares me that next time they won’t take things as seriously. It’s like the old fable of the boy that cried wolf. The people in the hardest hit areas will argue that any preparation you did was not enough, and you can always drink the waters and eat the soup later. Which brings us to…

3. Whether it’s a hurricane, floods, blizzards, or wild-fires, prepare as if it’s the “big one”

And of course the next thing that comes to mind of any self-respecting real estate investor: How can I buy some of these houses without taking advantage of people that have been dealt a bad hand? Well for starters, you’re only taking advantage of them if you are taking advantage of them. If you are honest with yourself and your sellers, you are helping them out of a bind that they don’t know how to fix, and you are getting a fee for using your expertise. This is one case where you need to decide: do I want to be the early bird into a devastated area and look like a shark, or am I better to wait a few weeks until the media coverage dies down and people have started hearing back from their insurance companies. I think your chances are better a few weeks later when people start to realize what it will take to repair their house. By the way:

4. If you’re OK with taking advantage of people, please stay away from my business, you’re giving us all a bad name!

Oops, I guess I’m up on my soapbox again! Oh well, if my ranting makes you think a little deeper on this thing we call life, or if nothing else, check your insurance coverage this year, then we haven’t wasted our time, have we? To end this on a high note, I have a quick pointer to those of you that are driving neighborhoods looking for suspect houses:

5. After a natural disaster, boarded up houses, tarps on the roofs, and unmowed lawns are NOT necessarily indicators of vacant distressed houses!

Andrea “Andy” Tolbert has been actively investing in the crazy Florida market for over eight years. Her passion is teaching other investors some of the secrets she’s learned in both her investing and her other life as a mortgage broker. She can be contacted at Andy@AndyTolbert.com or 407-328-0970. © 2004 Compass Publishing, LLC