Any insurance agents? (Flood Insurance question)

[MSWR0319]

We have a house for sale with acreage. We had what we thought was "the buyer" come through twice in the last two weeks and stayed for hours on end. Their agent called us personally and said we'd hear from them soon. The issue is that their insurance agent claims we are in a flood zone and require flood insurance on the property, which they of course don't want to pay for. We have proven to them that we don't have flood insurance, that our insurance agent says we don't need flood insurance, that FEMA says we don't need flood insurance, and that our lender didn't require flood insurance. Their agent said that the info provided from our lender proved we are in a flood zone. We are in a flood zone "c" and that is only because the very back corner of our 10+ acres property is by a creek. There is no way the house will ever, ever flood. According to FEMA, flood zone c's don't require flood insurance and it states so right on the certification. There's nothing we can do to convince their insurance agent otherwise, other than they get a new insurance agent with a local agent (they are from 3 hours away and want to use their current agent who only has ever dealt with city properties), which their realtor says she can't talk them in to. I just want to know from an insurance agents out there if there is anything else we can do to prove we don't need flood insurance, so that if this were to come up with another potential buyer, we have all of the proper paperwork to prove we are not going to flood and do not require flood insurance.

[WatchingThemGrow]

Not an agent but we had to get some paper saying our house was not in the flood plain and did not require flood insurance.


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[saleenl]

Not an agent but we had a house that was in what used to be called a flood zone X with the rearmost part of the yard in zone AE (there was a steep embankment behind our house and the house was on high ground). When we bought it, everything was fine, it came back as not in the flood zone and didn't require flood insurance. (We bought it anyway because it was cheap because we were in a low risk zone.) When selling it, our agent pulled a flood certificate and we came back in a flood zone. After that, we learned a lot about flood zone mapping and certification.

Basically, while FEMA is finally digitizing maps around the country, the older flood maps in particular were not black and white accurate; they were open to interpretation. If we took an aerial digital photo of our old neighborhood and overlaid the flood map, the size and shape of roads, lots and waterways did not line up with the map. To deal with this, there are what appeared to be hundreds of independent firms that provide flood certificates and we were able to get four certificates total - two said we were in a high-risk zone and two did not! So, it really depends upon the flood certificate providers that the mortgage company and insurance company use.

We included copies of the two non-flood certificates at the house for potential buyers and were able to sell without flood certificate issues. Much like you, we didn't feel that the flood certificates were inaccurate as two years before we moved there was a huge flash flood that met the 100 year flood mark and our house did not flood, although the back corner of our property did.

[westwoodmom04]

Buyer isn't making any sense. If their lender requires flood insurance, it will be renewed annually. It is going to be a recurring expenditure for them, so not sure how they expect you to pay. I'd walk away from this buyer, they sound sketchy.

[m4nash]

I guess I am interpreting this situation as the "buyer" hasn't even made an offer and has decided not to because they think they will have to have flood insurance. I don't think they expect OP to pay for it. Even if their agent is wrong and yours is right that flood insurance isn't needed, the buyer may feel like they would need it anyway for their own piece of mind. It sounds like this buyer has decided they don't want to pursue making an offer. Maybe they have other reasons, maybe not, but you can't force someone to buy your house. I would just move on. Hopefully another interested party comes through to tour your property soon!

[MSWR0319]

I guess I am interpreting this situation as the "buyer" hasn't even made an offer and has decided not to because they think they will have to have flood insurance. I don't think they expect OP to pay for it. Even if their agent is wrong and yours is right that flood insurance isn't needed, the buyer may feel like they would need it anyway for their own piece of mind. It sounds like this buyer has decided they don't want to pursue making an offer. Maybe they have other reasons, maybe not, but you can't force someone to buy your house. I would just move on. Hopefully another interested party comes through to tour your property soon!

Yes, this is right. I'm not trying to force them to buy the house. I just wanted to check and see if we needed any more paperwork to prove to others we are not in a flood zone. As it turns out, these buyers came back this morning and are still considering. Their agent has no clue what she's talking about, as she told them that they need flood insurance on empty land. I'm not hopeful at all, but it seems that we have all of our ducks in a row so I'm not worried when the next people come through. These people were just misinformed and scared and there's nothing I can do about that.

[Kindra178]

Why don't you get an independent firm to assess the flood risk, per recommended above?


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