Looking to interview agents who have worked with FEMA/NFIP flood insurance

[fin_research]

Hi I'm a PhD student in Economics, currently working on a research project about FEMA flood insurance. There are some details about the process of writing and purchasing flood insurance that I would like to understand, and I would greatly benefit from being able to talk with an current agent who does FEMA flood insurance.
(Example of questions:
1. What does it mean when a preFIRM house reported their elevation difference in the policy? I suppose they are rated as a postFIRM house, what are the requirements for a preFIRM house to be rated as a postFIRM house? is this something the home owners can request?
2. How is the lowest floor elevation and base flood elevation of a house usually obtained? do you enter an address to some centralized system and the elevation pop up as a result? or does the insurance agent have to look up the elevation themselves?)

Would anyone here be willing to spare some time to answer my questions? It would be ideal if I can do a brief phone call with you and ask follow up questions. If anyone is willing to help please send me a dm. Thank you for your help in advance.

 

[shawnmwalker]

Talk to Chris Greene. He will chat with you.

 

[shawnmwalker]

The Flood Guru. ^^^^^Also check him out on Youtube. you wont be able to miss him

 

[shawnmwalker]

Flood Insurance Guru - YouTube

 

[marindependent]

Hi I'm a PhD student in Economics, currently working on a research project about FEMA flood insurance. There are some details about the process of writing and purchasing flood insurance that I would like to understand, and I would greatly benefit from being able to talk with an current agent who does FEMA flood insurance.
(Example of questions:
1. What does it mean when a preFIRM house reported their elevation difference in the policy? I suppose they are rated as a postFIRM house, what are the requirements for a preFIRM house to be rated as a postFIRM house? is this something the home owners can request?
2. How is the lowest floor elevation and base flood elevation of a house usually obtained? do you enter an address to some centralized system and the elevation pop up as a result? or does the insurance agent have to look up the elevation themselves?)

Would anyone here be willing to spare some time to answer my questions? It would be ideal if I can do a brief phone call with you and ask follow up questions. If anyone is willing to help please send me a dm. Thank you for your help in advance.

Almost all of this has recently changed. You are not likely to find anyone that understands the new system all that well, yet. see Flood Equity in Action 2.0.

 

[fin_research]

Almost all of this has recently changed. You are not likely to find anyone that understands the new system all that well, yet. see Flood Equity in Action 2.0.

I'm actually trying to understand the old system (roughly the period from 2008 to 2015), since that is the period where my data covers

 

[marindependent]

" lowest floor elevation and base flood elevation of a house usually obtained?" from a Elevation Certificate.

"or does the insurance agent have to look up the elevation themselves?" Generally speaking insurance agents put address in lookup systems that simply responds with a Flood Zone Certificate which "usually" but not always will tell you the Flood Zone. Sometimes different systems will report back with differing zones - FUN FUN FUN!

The elevation that these Pre 2021 systems that you are referring to referanced land elevation and NOT building elevation, typically.

Good luck finding an answer on your first question.