Why Does Insurance Pay For Roof Replacements? What Homeowners Owners Need to Know

Sometimes homeowners or property owners are resistant to using their insurance, even though they've been paying their premiums month over month. Or there's fear about making a claim. And oftentimes we lose those deals. And sometimes those deals are on more marginal or smaller damage because the homeowner doesn't see it as significant. The roof seems fine. It's not leaking. I don't want to do anything about it now. We'll handle it later. Well, guess what? That's on us. That's on us. Because we did not communicate, educate, and inform our property owners to make a wise decision on what they should do about their roof. And what I'll be teaching you now is a sales style. On this analogy, you know what they say, right? The saying, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Well, what I'll be teaching you is how to lead the horse to water, but getting the horse really thirsty along the way. Now, this works really well as long as you're patient and you really care about your customer's experience versus some of the more forceful or aggressive sales tactics where you command and tell your homeowners what to do and direct them and push them into getting that claim filed. And that's kind of like holding a bucket of water and tossing it in the horse's face. Two very different approaches, in my opinion. The education approach works a whole lot better because we're guiding the horse and getting the horse thirsty. So the decision is at their own free will. A decision that that homeowner feels confident about that, that they say, hey, I made the right choice, which means they don't cancel and they love working with you. So let's get to it. First, I just want to say welcome or welcome back. My name is Adam Bensman, the roof strategist. And everything I do here on our YouTube channel and in my podcast and in my all in one sales training and sales system is designed to help you and your team smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. And that amazing experience starts by winning the customer through informing them on what they're actually facing. Now, let's get to it. First, there are three main reasons that insurance companies cover roof replacements. What I'm going to do first in this video is highlight to you what those three reasons are, and then I'm going to do a little bit of mock role play to show you exactly how I explain this to homeowners. I'm going to lay the foundation for you, and then we'll get Into a story. Number one is the roof is the most expensive maintenance item on a house. Okay, Most expensive maintenance. I'm just going to use maint for short. And what I mean by that is people replace H vac units and these things, right? The appliances last so long. A roof is a service item on the home. There's a service life on the roof. It has to be replaced. Most of them. I know I'm going to get some. Oh, well, not stone coated steel, not metal roofing. And they last a lifetime. If they're damaged, they need to get replaced. For an asphalt roofing system, it has a wear life that we expect when we are a homeowner. Let's say you bought a roof for yourself. You buy a brand new roof, we write a $20,000 check and you're saying, hey, this is going to last me 30 years. Well, if storms come through, the lifespan of the roof is compromised. So lifespan is. And when I'm going to say compromised, I'm just going to say it. It's shortened. Okay, the lifespan is shortened. Now, no one can wave a magic wand and say it'll be 77 years less or 5 years, 10 years less. But the truth of the matter is that when hail or wind impacts a shingle or damages shingles, if the manufacturer's warranty was still applicable, it's now void because that's the fine print on the warranties. And the lifespan's been compromised. Whether it's hail or wind. Hail. We have the matting exposing to the UV rays, which again, over time there's more granule loss and the shingles begin to deteriorate or dry rot, essentially. So that homeowner was expecting the roof to last 30 years. It might last 20. Which means insurance covers your financial interests. It's your assets. That's why we pay insurance. So you wrote a check for 20 grand, expecting to not have to write another one for 30 years. Well, guess what? You might have to write one in 15. And that's coming out of your pocket. That's why the insurance company covers it. And the final reason here is to prevent any future problems from arising. Because roof problems are expensive enough, but once they creep their way into the home, things start getting a whole lot more expensive, a whole lot more complicated. No one wants that. So it's in the insurance company's best interest. So now we know the logic. It's the most expensive maintenance item on the home. The lifespan of the roof is shortened and there are future problems. Here is how we tie it all together. Now, one last piece that I just want to add the most expensive maintenance item on the home, right? Well, generally speaking, I know we've had some pretty wild rate increases here. I mean, up to 20% quarterly. The price of roofing is compounding at a higher rate than The S&P 500 has performed over the last 50 years. We are seeing just wild rate increases. So a roof today at today's rate increases. And I just ran a really simple projection just to spell this out, a $15,000 roof today at a 10%. Excuse me, oops. 10% quarterly increases, which, by the way, we see these rate increases from our suppliers over five years, that roof's going to cost over $25,000. So the reason I share this with you is that's again, that's in five years. So even if the homeowner has a claim, they don't want to do anything about it, and then they have to replace the roof five years sooner. That's a net $10,000 more that they have to pay for their roof. This is a big deal. So the insurance company knows it's the most expensive. Roofing goes up, you have to spend more money to replace your roof out of pocket later. It's going to cost you a ton more money because the price is compounding. So now, how do we make this easier to understand for homeowners? I love using car and truck analogies. So I'll say this, Mr. Homeowner. Imagine you buy yourself a brand new Ford F150 and it's $45,000. And you expect you're the kind of person that will buy a vehicle and run it through its life. And you're like, I'm going to have this thing for the next 200,000 miles. Well, what if something happened or the vehicle was stolen and driven ragged, right? And then recovered? And you say, hey, this thing's only going to last me another 25,000 miles or 50,000 miles. You were expecting 200,000 mile life service life from your investment in your new truck. Well, now all of a sudden you find out it's only going to last you another five more years. Aren't you going to do something about it? Otherwise, it's up to you. You're going to buy a brand new vehicle 10 years sooner, five years sooner, whatever the case is, than you expected. This is why people decide to pursue the roof claim with their insurance, because it is the most expensive maintenance item, meaning it will wear out if you choose not to do anything. Even with the small damage we found the lifespan of the roof will be reduced, which means that you will be required at some point in time to replace that. And if that's not in a future insurance claim, that will be coming out of pocket. And, and the rate goes up tremendously. And then the last thing is that when there is damage, we don't want the insurance company, nor us, nor you want any future damage occurring in the home. Now, worst case, if any of the areas we've identified on your roof do become problematic and there is interior damage, the insurance company won't cover it unless you filed a claim. So if this happens three years from now, you're kind of outside that opportunity of taking action using the insurance. All of that liability and financial responsibility falls on you. And for those reasons, the people we serve, even if the damage seems marginal or smaller, the property owners decide to say, hey, you know what? I've been paying my premiums month over month, year over year, and I am protecting a financial investment of mine. It is my right to use the service which insurance is a service that I've been paying for. And there you have it. Now, I hope this video helps you communicate clearly to homeowners by leading them like a horse to water, to make an informed decision and taking the time to educate them on the true matters of why the insurance company covers the roof. And feel free to use my story about the Ford F150 or reference the vehicle that they have in the driveway. Hey, thanks for joining me today. And just because our time is about to wrap up doesn't mean your and my time has to. So if you haven't yet done it, I I'd like to get you a free copy of my pitch Like a pro roofing sales training video library. It's available right here. It's every video I've ever done, organized by category for easy binging, and it's a great reference tool on key topics like objections and pitching and canvassing. I also have some starter paths for new people. So owners, it might be a good thing for you to pass on to your team. And if you like this video, you're going to like a whole lot more because YouTube thinks you're really going to dig this one. I'll see you soon.