Intro The following is a paid program and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the staff or management of visionary-related entertainment [music].


Clint Hansen It's Clint Hansen with mauirealestateradio.com. We're broadcasting at 11:10 AM, KAOI. That's also 98.7 FM, 96.7 FM. You can also find us at our website, mauirealestate.net.

And we are known as the Hansen Ohana. I've been working with my mom and dad for 17 years but my mom has had her license for over 40 years and my dad has been the number one broker on island for more years than anyone else. According to Hawaii Business Magazine, you'll actually see us in the upcoming issue. I, once again, got one of the top 100 agents in the States.

I wanted to talk to you guys a little bit about insurance today but before we get into that, you know, we talk a lot about buyers on this radio show that we do weekly at 7 AM. And this bright Monday morning, your driving to work and I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the listing side because we actually have an abundance of space right now. It's kind of an amazing thing.

We typically are running about 30 listings at a time and we're actually down to under 20. And it's kind of a surprise but we've been selling. I've been hitting records left and right. I've had just so far at the beginning of this year four sales in the Maui Lani area and that's just the Maui Lani area.

We list on the west side of the island, Kaanapali, Kapalua. I just listed a lot up in Kapalua, Kihei, Wailea, Haiku. Pretty much everywhere on the island. Of course, my very favorite, Kula; Olinda's my favorite I grew up there. Right now we are based out of Kihei/Wailea But we have agents all over the island. The only area we don't service is Hana. We refer to the specialist out in that area. But regardless of where you're interested in buying, we have information for you that can help you and direct you to the right people. So if you're looking on the big island, feel free to give us a call.

One of the things we'd like to do and one of the reasons we are so good at listing properties is we really hit you on multiple points. We do coming soon videos. We hire professional photographers. I'm blown away when I see people post just regular cell phone pictures.

You know we have professionals that take not just one shot of the room. They're actually layering multiple shots. So it appears more like the natural eye, blending those shots so that the highs and lows come across evenly and you're not just sitting there staring at a blinding light, you know, with the bleached out window.

You actually see the foreground. You get to see outside. You get a full feel of it. And making the property look good is the best way to sell it. You know beforehand, we're not just taking pictures. We're often staging it, bringing flowers in. We actually have that same Olinda property.

We have a huge barn full of staging- tables, flowers, orchids, sheets, beds skirts. Man, a bed skirt it's hard to find inside. You usually have to buy a full set but we've got it all. And we also, oftentimes, end up hiring a professional photographer. I mean a professional stager as well. In addition to that, we place your listing on the Maui Board of Realtors and hit all the agents, custom brochures, both hard and glossy.

We obtain a property profile from a title company. Make sure there's no unforeseen issues. Caravans are really big one. Caravans important to reach out to those agents. A lot of the times it's not just us selling it. It's other agents. So we work on fostering positive relationships with the other offices and sending them information.

We often are doing mimosas for those Tuesday caravan sandwiches sushi. In fact, I'm going to be doing one very soon on Naalae coming up here. I'm really excited. It has some of the best ocean views I have ever had out of any listing bicoastal, 2100 foot level. It's listed at 2.2, a nice beautiful five bedroom home with a pool, not just any pool, a heated pool.

And part of making that place look beautiful is getting people to know about it so we host caravans and also those real indoor gatherings at sunset. We email those individual agents, as well as all the agents in our email database for clients that use our website, is 13,000 agents.

Lot of people know the Hanson Ohana through our website- mauirealestate.net. Mauirealestate.net gets over 50,000 unique visitors a month. That is massive. We are, you know, leaps and bounds among above and beyond what anybody else can do. We like to prioritize our listings so we are often getting 10 times as many views as any of the other listings.

Email alerts get sent out to some of those 13,000 people but more importantly, those 13,000 are database to what they're looking at. And we hit them on social media. So it's laser targeted. You know you don't want to have to see those ads popping around if you're not looking for properties. So we make sure that we're, you know, specific to the people who are interested in the right areas. We place information on our website.

As I mentioned, we go to other websites as well like Trulia and Zillow. So we're hitting them all and we got priority placement pay for priority placement on those websites so you're getting the maximum digital experience because, you know, 90% of people find their property online beforehand.

We're doing that social media like everybody but we're doing it right. We're not getting people annoyed and bothered with constantly bombarding them stuff they're not interested. We're getting the right people at the right place, at the right time.

And we're not going to sugarcoat things. We're not just going to sell you a story. We're going to give you the true full story and give you those constant updates on how things are going, what, how the showings, not just the initial impression but also follow up to find out what the people thought of the property. Because sometimes, it's just little improvements that can end up selling the property.

I actually had a home. It was this very adorable little beach house style home. It wasn't on the beach but it was close and people absolutely hated this adorable robin's egg blue. Outside was just scaring people away and we weren't getting the showing so after a couple of months, you know, I was calling lots of agents. I'm like, "Why haven't you shown it." You know they just weren't interested. They don't like the color kind of[--].

I took it off the market. Got them a painter. We put it back on after it had a more neutral less personalized color and we sold it. Well, got it into escrow in less than two weeks. So we're not afraid to give you the full story. You know sometimes those little things help. We also do a lot of social media. I mean sorry, a lot of print magazine advertisements.

Of course, we have mauirealestateradio.com and our broadcasting on 11:10 AM, the KAOI radio group. But we also are in Homes & Land magazine. We normally have the front two pages and the back two pages which you can see. We actually minimized that down just to the front two pages which is the primary location in the magazine because as I mentioned we are selling all of our listings.

So please don't hesitate to give us a call. We're in a local newspaper. A lot of people see us there. And we're doing open houses if you're agreeable. Not everybody is but we like to and give you that best opportunity out there to get your local neighborhood because oftentimes, it's a neighbor that ends up knowing somebody or people driving by wanting to own or live in a particular area.

We email you those constant updates and our marketing which we keep ourselves accountable to. You get that long list of everything we're doing. You click on a link and it is a dynamic link. You see all the new stuff that's coming up so you can see we're doing our job. So you know, last but not least, I am actually an FAA certified 107 pilot, drone pilot. So you can get those unique angles, video tours and you know, really help people understand the layout of the surrounding area and your individual property from a unique perspective.

Let's get back to the buying though. There's many stages associated with the process of buying a home. And we've talked about loans. You know, we've talked about home inspectors but I also want to talk about loan-- talk about insurance.

I actually have Kit Okazaki here from State Farm Insurance. He's a longtime family friend as well as someone we're often recommending. We don't always recommend him. It's always a unique situation. Somebody is an oceanfront property. He's not often the best choice because of personal policy or property policies associated with State Farm. But he is really a go-to guy.

And one of the most important things that people should know is when you're getting insurance, you want to use a local person because you never know, there might be a little unforeseen thing that completely nullifies your insurance policy. And a local specialist is really good to understand and make sure you get the proper policy. So, Kit, you want to talk a little bit about what you do and how you've helped us a lot.


Kit Okazaki Sure thing Clint. Thanks so much for having me on the show. It's a pleasure to be here today. And a lot of fun so far. So thanks for that and yeah, I'm an insurance agent. I've been involved in the business for just about 18 years now on a number of levels, State Farm.

As you probably knows, one of the largest home auto and life insurer in the country so we've got a great, great carrier that we're standing in front of my team particularly consists of eight--.


Clint Local.


Kit Eight local agents. Yeah, we're all worked together as a team out of my office and we have had a lot of specialties within the office whether it be home insurance, disability insurance, life insurance. We have a claim specialist in the office that just holds people's hands through the claims process which, you know, which can be very challenging and traumatic.

You know and you know our day consists of making changes to policies helping people through you know home buying, home selling processes and actually helping people at really tragic times in their life whether it be a car accident or something at the house, storm damage, fire. That type of thing as well.


Clint I'm sure every single day, you know, you're having policy calls, you know, making sure people are okay, you know. And that's the thing that I've really enjoyed about you guys especially being local. But you know you really care. And it's kind of a surprise. People don't realize when we have little rainstorms or as often unforeseen things that happen because of the microclimate that we have all over the island. I mean we all got the flash flood warning, did you get any emergency calls as a result of that?


Kit We did. There were some-- there was a substantial amount of flooding in upcountry in the last couple of days. So you know, thankfully, no one suffered any really significant loss or damage but we definitely had some water coming into homes which is a big, big challenge when it comes to insurance.


Clint You know when we had that hurricane come nearby where it started the fires and we had those windstorms. A lot of people were like hurricane what, you know, we didn't get hit. And you know, people don't realize even the people on Maui with the way are microclimates are. Sometimes, people are affected completely differently. You know from the trees falling down on Olinda that, you know, put people out of power to those cars just getting absolutely smashed to the fire. You know houses burning down I think it was that close to 36 homes. That must've been a really busy time for you guys.


Kit Yeah, it was a last season, hurricane season was a nail biter for us. We are very nervous and one of the first time that we saw a Category 5 hurricane that had some models having it coming straight through the central valley of Maui. So we were very nervous about that. But hurricane coverage is something that you know is extremely important for us out here in the middle of the Pacific especially with the water temperatures showing consistently higher numbers every year and bringing these storms closer to the island.

So hurricanes insurance is something that's really important. State Farm is actually the only major US carrier that still offers it in Hawaii. Most carriers bailed out after Iniki just said they didn't want to take on that risk anymore. So important to know-- another thing on the hurricane side is a lot of other carriers will sort of [alter] their policy.

So it's important for people to look at the hurricane covers that they have. A lot of times it may just be for the building and not include things like your contents or your personal property inside the building and also what's called loss of use coverage which means, you know, if you don't have a place to stay where your home is being repaired or replaced, it pays for your rent someplace else. So critical components to a hurricane, [hurricane policy].


Clint And sometimes, there's a lot of personnel in the process of getting insurance you have to take into consideration maybe that's your place of business. You know maybe that's going to ruin your ability to have an income. Maybe you're a massage therapist or you know work at home and then you're going to have that loss of income not just the need to live in another place.

So there's a whole variety of policies that you can get covered. And it's nice to bundle them up because you can get better savings. But from what I understand Maui is kind of a very unique place. You know a set aside I think it's been almost over 100 years or something that we've been actually directly hit by a hurricane.

This last one was barreling straight for us and we didn't get directly hit because those shear winds off the big island dropped it down. But still, we got hit hard from all over remaining wind effects, the waterfall. And while we may not have had hurricane winds hit the island, you know, we were very lucky but still, we got hit. I mean you must have been just scrambling around the island that day. [We had following months].


Kit Yeah. Yes. We, you know, and my agency's practices to visit, you know, all our home insurance claims. So we were very active and we were out and about driving around quite a bit. And even more so in this last Kona storm, we had in early February, you know, where upcountry was hit by quite a bit of downed trees. We had downed trees down on homes, downed trees on cars, and blocking roads and you know--.


Clint Yeah, when your employees didn't almost not get the home, right?


Kit --causing issues. Right. Exactly. Exactly. When a tree blocking one of his exit of his driveway trying to get down Olina road.


Clint Yeah.


Kit Absolutely.


Clint And scary too. I know that the county's been working on, you know, especially Olinda with those older [Eucalyptus] trees that are coming down. Have you had any experiences with the insurance up there? We actually have a home up at Olinda that I alluded to earlier and we removed all of our trees over the concern of that.

I got little kids playing around there and, you know, even if it's not a windy day and a little tiny branch falls, it can be a problem from, you know, 60, 70 feet high.


Kit Oh yeah.


Clint But you know a lot of other people, a lot of those trees are on county roads and I'm assuming you probably had a couple of issues.


Kit Oh, we've had a lot of Eucalyptus tree claims over the years. A lot of Eucalyptus tree trimmed claims. They are beautiful trees. They smell amazing.


Clint I love-- that's one of the reasons I love Olinda.


Kit But they certainly are a bit dangerous and seem to be even more so in a Kona storm where I guess the root system isn't as strong. So we see a lot of downed trees in those types of situations. We prefer it if your home is out of the reach of any falling trees. However, if a tree does fall, most insurance policies will cover any falling objects that strike the house under the home coverage.

So typically not an issue if a tree does hit your house for your insurance carrier to help you put that back together. What are the challenges and one of the things that people ask us about a lot though is if a tree falls in my yard and a big, you know, in the case of a Eucalyptus where it's 100-foot tree? You know, does my home policy have any-- does it help me just get rid of that tree even though it didn't strike anything? It just fell on the grass or you know another area.

And the answer to that is unfortunately no. In most cases, if you're policy, your home policy is in effect and you have a tree down that just fell. There's no coverage for, you know, chopping up and removing the debris. But if it does strike any improvements like your house, your shed, your garage, that type of thing. That's typically when the home policy is going to kick in.


Clint And what about State Farm auto insurance if your car gets hit?


Kit Oh yeah. If you got to, there's really two types of physical damage coverage for your car's collision and comprehensive. So collision is pretty straightforward. You hit somebody; somebody hits you or you run over something. That's a collision. Comprehensive coverage covers just about everything else besides a collision. So fire, theft, falling objects like trees, let's see flood. All those will all be covered by comprehensive or comp coverage. Most common comp claim is a rap, flying up and cracking the windshield, of course. But you know we see it all.


Clint Yeah. Bad at that. So you know, through the process of buying a home, oftentimes, it comes to that point; people are getting a mortgage. They said, "Hey, all right go find yourself some insurance. Get out." You know that's when I put the binder together. Send them the email.

Of course, I give them that ahead of time but oftentimes, I'm touching base with them again because it's very, you know, touch-oriented business and you know when somebody calls you, it can be a little daunting of a task because there's a variety of coverages and I wanted to say what's kind of a difference between a basic wall, a basic coverage for let's just say a $650,000 home, you know, compared to a more comprehensive one for something on the same side that includes that stays.

It going to be a big difference in payment. And also this is separate which I'll ask after again, you know, what's the difference in what is an act of God and what is covered. I mean just kind of get into the nitty-gritty. But first, you know, what's kind of a difference in cost generally if you're going to get a basic to a more expanded policy.


Kit Sure. So a lot of the carriers have tried to take the guesswork out of it for people. So a lot of the big carriers have a package policy and that package policy is going to include building coverage, content coverage, liability coverage and loss of use coverage. And so they've really created that because initially you could just-- I'm just going to cover the building or I'm just going to cover-- I don't know why.

Well, I guess I'd like a renter's policy. I'm just going to cover my contents. But you know, I guess over the years, realized, if people don't get this package and maybe at the time, when they're having that conversation and you're purchasing your house, you know, finances are tight. You know maybe I'll just get this option because it's cheaper.

A lot of carriers have gone away from that because in the end when they have a claim, people have a claim; they want to have a good coverage. So most major carriers have a package policy now that gives you that those four line items contents, building, liability, and loss of use. When it comes to pricing, most of the pricing is based on--.


Clint [inaudible], right?


Kit --on the replacement cost for the structure. So you have the coverage A amount and that's the coverage amount that we have a lot of for the building itself and the premiums are pretty much driven by that amount. So if you have-- insuring a $300,000 house versus a $600,000 house to rebuild the premium. You could expect that premium to be about double.


Clint It's again, another really important reason to use a local person because our costs of building are so much higher here. You know they're not going to understand even the right amount. You go to one of those automatic, you know, online insurers. And again, you might be missing and not have coverage for one reason or another but again they might not understand the cost of building out here.


Kit It's radically different. The cost to build per square foot here versus, you know, places in the mainland. And it's interesting where, you know, Steve owns such a big company. I have eight friends who were agents all over the country. So interesting when we had these conversations about, you know, replacement costs for buildings, what, you know, what they're insuring things for per square foot or you know what a house three bedroom, two bath house, you know, cost to build, you know, in Texas versus in Kula


Clint The cost of permitting here could build a house in the mainland. Go under the legal process can be daunting but, you know, you guys are really understand those ins and outs. But again sorry to interrupt you. Continue on.


Kit Sure. And I know, you know, one of the things that you were talking about you know specifically, what's covered by the home policy. So most home policies have 14 to 16 named perils that they protect you against and the named perils are the things that can go wrong and damage your house or your property. So with State Farm, we've got 16. Most carriers pretty similar list. We've got two that have to do with snow or ice. I won't mention those at all.


Clint Hey, hey, I don't know it's been crazy weather lately.


Kit Right. Right. I guess upper Kula upper Kula I think that last snow got down to this like 6,000 foot low.


Clint Indeed. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if it's stuck. I think it was starting to stick around nine or something. Oh, no, no, no. It was sticking around like 75 or something like that but it was--.


Kit We got some--.


Clint It was not [crosstalk].


Kit Got a ways from where we get Kula. But yeah so some of the things that are covered by most carriers policy would be, of course, fire. And I believe the first home insurance policy was created to protect homeowners against fire. So fire, lightning is covered. Windstorm or hail is covered. Smoke damage is covered. Vandalism, theft, falling objects like trees or near your neighbors roofline, It's that becomes airborne. Explosions are covered. Riots or civil commotion is covered. Impact by aircraft or vehicle. Everyone laughs when I mentioned that but we do have a fair amount of people that automatic accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake and drive into their garage.


Clint I've seen a few cars taken out of houses. Yeah, often surprised me.


Kit Let's see. What else is covered? Our very most common home claim which represents about 40% of home claims with State Farm nationally is sudden water discharge from your plumbing or appliance. S we highly recommend that all homeowners check their supply lines on an annual basis. And the supply lines are the plastic hoses that come out from your plumbing to your sink, to your ice maker, your dishwasher, your washing machine, your toilets.

So check on the supply lines on annual basis. They're super inexpensive to replace but if they go, your whole house is underwater and if you get a two-story house, you may have a waterfall at some point from the upstairs to the downstairs so that's definitely something that's covered but something that can be easily avoided if you're checking your supply lines on a regular basis. Another thing that's also covered is power surges. So those are the list of-- from the top of mine. The things that you're protected against with your home policy.


Clint Isn't water damage I hear 10 times more likely than fire? That's what I-- from what I understand, it's far more common than a fire.


Kit Oh, yeah. Absolutely. So like I mentioned that they're about 40% of our claims are those-- the water claims. Fire claims are much much less frequent and I don't have the percentage difference but much much less frequent.


Clint One of the things I recommend and I'm often telling my clients to either get or sometimes, I have just the real basic moisture meters if they are not moisture meters but moisture alarms. When they're in their condo, I like to give those out sometimes as housewarming guests when appropriate because, you know, you might not know this. There might be a small drip underneath the sink.

You know putting it there and having them alerted is an important part of that. But from what I'm understanding you're actually starting to see more integrated technology with home security systems that actually have humidity sensors at home that will shut the water off.

We just turn the water off to our house when, you know, we're not there because [crosstalk] we know when we, yeah-- it's just one dab. It's pretty amazing. And but, you know, we've seen enough. We've been in this industry and we know how pervasive a problem it can really be. Do you guys offer like additional discounts for those security systems or anything like that? I've been curious to ask you that.


Kit Yeah, no, absolutely. There is a question on our home owner's policy that came about maybe within the last five or six years. Do you have a whole house water shut off system? And there are these systems-- I'm not sure exactly how they work but I've had-- we've worked with some local plumbing companies that have installed them for our clients that will detect a leak and shut the whole water off the entire house--.


Clint [crosstalk] Yeah, I love it.


Kit --I'm not sure exactly how they work. It does give you a discount on the homeowner's policy. The insurance companies love them because of the amount of water claims that we have and especially for second homes. So people that are not there all the time, you know, that sudden water discharge, you know, which might have been caught by, you know, by someone in the local that lives there. You know if someone hasn't in that house for a couple of weeks to two months, it can really be devastating to the property.


Clint Yeah, all right. I actually mentioned this in a show last week when we had Beau Petrone here and that was A Sound Mind Home Inspection. We had an instant hot water heater installed in our property and fortunately, we used a licensed contractor and they had the warranty associated with that instant water in the sink.

And I think a 2 cent part, a little plastic piece happened to snap on it and it just started gushing, you know, and it was only about a twelve hour period that water was flowing but still every single floor piece had to be ripped out and it was really unfortunate and only been maybe two years after that floored been installed.

And with that kind of damage, it actually wasn't our homeowner's policy that covered it. It was both the contractor as well as, you know, their diligence for having the receipts associated with their purchases. It was itemized. It did a great job. So you know, when those accidents happen or when the repairs are happening, I'm sure you're always pushing, you know, a licensed contractor or you know making sure that the appropriate person is following. You get stuff so those unforeseen because you want to have as much coverage as possible.


Kit Yeah, no. Absolutely, we're always advocating for people using people that are licensed and insured and it makes sense-- that it makes sense in a situation like that. So a contractor is going to have [products] completed liability coverage so that if something does go wrong, you know, due to their negligence, there's going to be some coverage for them through their policy.

And so you know, we're always going to advocate for that. And typically with an insurance claim, we're requesting, you know, estimate a bid from a contractor that gets reviewed by claims- the client claims department and then they start cutting the checks.


Clint Yeah. Beautiful. So one of my things I just want to draw a line for water damage. Now, let's say in a, you know, I know you're not a coastal person. So the waves are obviously out. But let's just say a river gets diverted and flows through your property. Is that something that would be covered?


Kit Sure. So--.


Clint And like draw that line [crosstalk].


Kit So yeah, let me explain, yeah, how flood insurance works and the difference between the two-- the different types of flooding there could be in a home. So the, you know, like I mentioned the most common home claim is sudden water discharge, plumbing or appliance. That's absolutely covered by almost every insurance policy that I've ever seen.

So you're covered in that situation. Some in a situation where you would not be covered with your home would be surface water, river water, ocean water entering your home.


Clint Those are additional coverage policies, right?


Kit That's going to be a flood policy. So and really most agents now that I'm aware of are using FEMA or the National Flood Insurance Program for flood insurance.


Clint Well, just going to do it.


Kit You're very limited. Yeah. Very limited on the amount of coverage you can purchase through them. But that's-- they are one of the only players in that space right now. And we're seeing, you know, we're seeing some challenges with the flood insurance program. They came out in 2012 and tried to try to make some changes and really they weren't underwriting risk properly. So they did what they tried to add or what they did add is the lowest floor component.

So it used to be-- if you wanted flood insurance and you are in a particular flood zone, you-- everyone in that flood zones played the same amount which doesn't necessarily make sense because you could have your lowest floor 10 feet off the ground and I could be slab on grade and, you know, obviously, I have a much much higher propensity of flood.

So adding that lowest floor component was supposed to help them and better underwriting their properties. And there was a bit of a backlash when some of the new changes came out with flood insurance and Congress sort of wound those back a bit. But it's an interesting place we're out there because with some of the climate change that we're seeing. We're seeing more storms. We're seeing more water falling. We're seeing more, you know.


Clint The intensity is definitely risen. I've noticed it myself in here.


Kit Yeah, we're seeing it sometimes.


Clint Hotter summers. Colder winters.


Kit See more flood plains. Yeah.


Clint So just to digress away from that particular, you know, the flood policy, there's one last component of I wanted to talk about, you know, finding out and determining whether or not you're in a flood zone. There's a websites that you can go to. The county has it as well. You can even open up a phone book from what I understand if anybody still has one. I do. I actually love it. It's kind of funny.


Kit Yeah, no. I got the phone.


Clint I like some physical paper but you have those in there. If you're wanting to determine, you can go to the county website and, you know, and I'm sure that it's something you guys use to.


Kit We actually used the DLNR. It's the States DLNR website. I don't remember it offhand but the State DLNR website is what we use as insurance agents to look at the flood mapping for the state of Hawaii. And I'm sure there are other maps as well but that's the one we use in particular out of our office and it's pretty user-friendly. Once you've got the website, you type in the property address. It'll bring that up. When it comes to the phone book, I think the phone book is primarily showing you the--.


Clint Just for evacuation. Yeah.


Kit Tsunami. Yes. Tsunami evacuation, you know, which is important for our folks that live near the coast and-- but the flood zones, flood mapping is something that you can find through the state and is really interesting to look at the flood maps because, you know, sometimes, they're counterintuitive.

I mean when you look at some areas in Kihei, on Halama Street that are considered in a low risk for flooding and you'll look at other areas that, you know, have a hard time imagining them of flooding and they're considered in a high-risk zone. But FEMA has, you know, has put all of those into the maps for us so, you know, I'm sure I can get that to you. I can get you the web address [crosstalk] and you can post that on your website.


Clint Oh yeah, We'll share that. That'll be on mauirealestateradio.com. We'll be having the full transcript that you can either read through and we'll also have those links available to the flood maps and zoning-- well, not zoning but the flood maps. In addition to that, I wanted to talk a little bit about who to contact. What number would you recommend them calling if they wanted an assessment on a policy and the website that you use here for State Farm on Maui?


Kit Sure. So they can contact my office-- you guys can contact my office anytime at 573-8111. That's 573-8111 and our website for my agency is www.sfmaui.com and sf, like Sierra foxtrot or State Farm.


Clint State Farm. I love it. So I wanted to also talk disasters. We do have earthquakes here, right? Is that one of the policies that you cover?


Kit Sure. So earthquake is an endorsement that you can purchase on our homeowner's policy.


Clint So it's not just a standard. It actually is an endorsement.


Kit Correct. Correct. So similar to, you know, every lender in Hawaii requires that you purchase hurricane insurance. And I know that certain areas of California has a similar requirement for--.


Clint Earthquake.


Kit Yeah. Did I say earthquake or hurricane? Anyway--.


Clint You said hurricane here--.


Kit Yeah, okay.


Clint So earthquake there.


Kit Yeah. So that is something that is not covered by the standard homeowner's policy. And I want to-- well, let's just run over a few things that aren't covered. So we talked about hurricane. And so back in '92 after Iniki, hurricane was separated from the standard homeowner's policy. So now you need to either purchase hurricane from a separate carrier or you need to have a separate endorsement on your policy to cover you for hurricane. So hurricane is not covered by the standard homeowner's policy.

Another thing that's not covered by the standard homeowner's policies, earthquake. So Earth movement or shifting of the Earth is also not considered covered by a standard homeowner's policy. Now, the thing we talked about too. That's not covered to be flood. So flood from surface water entering the whole--.


Clint River.


Kit --rivers, oceans. That type of thing is also not covered by home insurance. Let's see wear and tear of your house over time, right? So if your house-- you just didn't paint it for 20 years and then change a roof for 40 years. You typically can't go to your insurer and just say, "Hey, you know, my roof looks terrible." You know, so they're expecting it's not a maintenance policy. They're expecting you to be maintaining your home. And really the insurance policies there for sudden direct physical loss to the house.


Clint And just to get to renters insurance. You talked about that a little bit earlier. For my clients that are deciding to make that choice, you know, I often, you know, recommend it. But a lot of people think it's there just to protect the home. But really it's fantastic for the renter themselves. I mean there's a lot of things in there they don't expect it to cover.


Kit Absolutely, renter's insurance is huge. First of all, if you've got auto insurance, it's going to give you a massive discount on your car policy to the point where it almost pays for the renter's policy. So it's really a no brainer on many levels. The first thing industrious. Protect your stuff or your contents inside the house.

Second thing, it does for you is it provides liability insurance for you. And liability insurance primarily covers you for bodily injury or property damage that you're responsible for. And we have seen a number of cases where our tenants, you know, our tenants with our renters policies accidentally damage their landlord's house by lighting a candle that burned a little too far or leaving the bathtub running and getting distracted you know.

So there's a number of ways where, you know, as a renter, as a tenant that you could cause property damage to the house and having a renter's policy and they start at know 10, 12 bucks a month.


Clint I know.


Kit 10, 12 a month. Dollars a month.


Clint So worth it.


Kit So very inexpensive. And having a policy that cost you that much provide this much protection for your stuff, for your liability purposes and then the other thing that it does for you is provide loss of use coverage for this. So loss of use means that, hey, something happened at the house so, you know, there's a fire or water damage. That's [sort of things].

It will pay for you to stay someplace else while your home is being repaired or replaced and part of the coverage, of course, for contents are your belongings would be theft.


Clint All right.


Kit And it would cover all those, you know, those named perils we cover for the homeowner's policy. So if your stuff was damaged to fire, lightning, windstorm, or hail, smoke, damage, vandalism, theft, falling objects- all those types of things covered under the renter's policy.


Clint That's essential, you know. I actually had a friend who's Canon camera, his drone his computer, everything was taken when he wasn't home. Everything. That's how he ran his life, his business. That's what he did. His--, fortunately, he had that renter's insurance, it covered everything and it was relatively cheap insurance that he was paying.

But you know, he had a little bit of a higher policy. It was close to between his computer. I think it was like 14 or 15,000 dollars in equipment that ended up being taken and completely covered. So I highly recommend getting it. It is so cheap and very very worth it. It's not just about people who are buying homes. It's renters too. And it does protect the homeowner to a bit as well from what I understand, right?


Kit Oh, yeah. As a landlord, you definitely want to require your tenants to get renter's insurance. And what we recommend is that you have-- ask them to name you as a landlord is additionally insured for liability on their policy.


Clint Was there any major costs associated with that?


Kit With State Farm, there is no cost--.


Clint Beautiful.


Kit --due to name the landlord additionally insured.


Clint All right. Do it. Do it. Do it. Getting back to-- actually, was there anything specific about car insurance? You want to draw that line again. You know if you were to at home walk in your garage and your car catches on fire for some reason. Now, is it car insurance that is going to cover you or your house insurance?


Kit Sure. Sure. That's a good question. So the home-- the car policy would be your primary coverage there. So typically your home policy isn't going to cover your cars in the garage. If your house burned down with cars in the garage, you need to have comprehensive coverage on the car policy for that--.


Clint Separate from the house.


Kit --to be covered. When it comes to car insurance, you know, we're seeing, unfortunately, a lot more accidents out there. We're seeing a lot more distracted drivers out there. Everyone tends to be looking at their cell phone and trying to drive. So there's been a spike in accidents over the last five years.

We're also, you know, we also have a lot of vehicles on the road on Maui that are uninsured. So [while] we're estimating that about 20% of the vehicles on the road don't have insurance. And so, you know, there's a number of factors out there.


Clint My phones only vibrated 48 times. You know, we've been sitting down here during the radio show.


Kit Right. Right. Right. Right. Yeah, so be safe out there man. Be safe out there.


Clint Yeah, I really did have to train myself not to look at my phone when I was driving. I was guilty of it for a while. A cop was kind enough to give me a warning as opposed to a ticket and I haven't been looking at it since, you know, there is a increase in accidents. I've noticed and it's a lot as a result of those people looking at their phone.


Kit It's just not worth it and you know.


Clint It isn't.


Kit It just could be that one unlucky moment where, you know, a kid steps out in the road or another car pulls out or you should just stop for a light. And it can be a game changer and really can change your life and it's just not-- it's not worth the waste.


Clint And a lot of people think, you know, they have one of those cars that drive themselves you know. And so, you know, Tesla's not bad sometimes. It'll stop for, you know, a pedestrian but a lot of times it won't. It's really more designed for other vehicles and moving at speed. Now, there's updates coming but you can't rely on those auto braking systems.

You know you got to really understand the phone. Have a hands free system. Don't be staring at it. You know it's dangerous to be looking at your radio but it's way too involved when you're looking at your phone. It's dangerous.


Kit Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, there's a lot of sad stories that, you know, that start with checking your texts or you know trying to dial someone's phone number. So yeah, use the hand free system, you know, exclusively with your driving or pull over if you need to.


Clint All right. So is there any other insurance policies or new features that you want to talk about or changes that you've noticed in the industry?


Kit Well, let's chat about a little bit more about the car policy since, you know, everyone on Maui drives for the most part because it is challenging to get around. You know thankfully we have the bus now but everyone's driving out there. A lot of people are. The car policy- a lot of people, you know, don't have never really delve into the car policy and how it works. But there's quite a few moving parts to the car policy and it really does three things for [in] primarily. But it covers the-- covers others.

So if you injure somebody in an accident or you damage their vehicle, it covers people in your vehicle for medical up to a certain agree and it covers the vehicle itself for physical damage if you choose to have that. That's physical damage part is what a lot of people think of as full coverage.

But people don't realize that there's a lot of options and limit options in between there so for the liability itself if you injure someone on an accident, all the state requires you to have is $20,000 of coverage for that other person and $10,000 of coverage to repair their vehicle.

So we all know that you know, there's a lot of vehicles that cannot be repaired or replaced for $10,000. And you know I've seen a lot of emergency room visit bills that can reach 20,000 in the first hour depending on the severity of what's happened.


Clint Broken ankles like 20,000.


Kit Yeah, so it's interesting to see where, you know, where our minimum liability limits are. They probably should be moved up at some point so people are better covered. You know while you're out there on the road. But another important part of the policy that a lot of people sort of gloss over or don't really realize they have or don't realize it's an option is to have some coverage for uninsured motorists.

So if you are injured by someone that doesn't have insurance and typically their liability coverage is going to extend to you, you know, for your injuries and that type of thing. But if they don't have it.


Clint Or bad insurance, you know.


Kit Right. Then you've got the option to have that on your own policy for you. And so that uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage protects you and your family or your-- the people in your vehicle in the event that you're injured by someone that doesn't have insurance, who doesn't have enough insurance.

And within Hawaii, there's also a stacking option and never no one ever understands what the stacking option is with an uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. What it means is that if you have multiple vehicles in the household, you can combine the limits for each of those household vehicles for one accident or, you know, basically, you can multiply the coverage that you have. So with stacking.

So we always recommend that you have the stacking feature on the policy. Most people like I don't know what that means and even if your insurance agent explains it to you three days later, you know, it's probably gone just because you're not thinking about it. But something also to consider as well, the repair shops that we've got on the island-- we got some fantastic repair shops here.

But you know, things can take a while to get, you know, get done. Parts need to be ordered sometimes. So having rental car coverage through your policy makes a ton of sense. So if your vehicle gets in an accident, goes into the shop. You've got a car while you know--.


Clint It's covered.


Kit --because sometimes, it could be in there for three to five weeks. And you know, trying to be on Maui without a vehicle for that period of time is challenging, you know, especially if you're working. Another thing that people ask us all the time is, how does my coverage work with a rental car. And you know, and I'll explain how State Farm's coverage works and I would imagine that most major carriers are working the same way. But if you are renting a vehicle in the US or Canada for 30 days or less, the auto policy that we have is going to extend the same coverage to your rental vehicle.


Clint That's excellent. What about those new ride-sharing systems? I've noticed people starting to rent out their own car through different kinds of websites.


Kit So Turo's [one nights], I've seen people. So if you're renting your vehicle out to other people, that's going to immediately avoid most of your insurance.


Clint And that's the thing I find so tricky. I notice it's like from Turo's explanation. Their personal insurance is supposed to cover and I'm like, that doesn't sound right to me, you know. And if they do, they really have insurance? Are they going to show the[--]?


Kit You know, I've-- it's been a while but I have read the contract for a couple of clients that were interested in doing it and I believe they provide some options for coverage covering the car while it's actually rented. So typically, that's the time where, you know, if there were some type of claim because you rented your vehicle to someone else. Most major carriers are going to deny that claim because, you know, they weren't underwriting that policy to be a taxicab or a rental car.


Clint I got you. You want to get those additional whether you are on Uber--.


Kit Yeah, make sure. Yeah.


Clint --or renting out your car.


Kit For the rideshare companies, we do have an endorsement that helps cover those gaps where people where the rights your company is not covering them. And the standard auto policy isn't covering you. We've got an endorsement that can assist with that with State Farm for a rideshare like Uber, Lyft.


Clint All right. Yeah. You're on mauirealestateradio.com broadcasting in 11:10 AM, 98.7 FM, 96.7 FM, the KAOI Radio Group. It is a beautiful Monday. We are talking all things real estate and insurance being one of those things. If you want to contact me directly, my cell phone is 808-280-2764. Most people see us through our website. It is one of the top websites on Maui for real estate at mauirealestate.net. We're here again with Kit Okazaki of State Farm. What was that contact again, Kit.


Kit Sure. Our office number is 573-8111, 573-8111. And email is www.sfmaui.com.


Clint So insurance. Now, what is one of those policies, you know, at least I think it's more people should consider life insurance. I actually have a policy as on me as well as my wife and I think that it's, you know, I was surprised how little it was and I mean I'm assuming you being in the business, you've seen a lot of these unfortunate stories where one of the loved ones pass away.

Now, tell us a little bit about life insurance or maybe a personal story associated with it and why it could potentially help them because you know what, you're making these payments on your mortgage. Suddenly, a disaster happens to yourself not just the world around you and you're no longer able to provide for your family and, you know, either passing away or being permanently incapacitated. Having that extra insurance is a fantastic thing.


Kit Yeah, absolutely, life insurance is one of those things that none of us want it. You know it's not a topic of conversation around a barbecue with your buddies over the weekend but it's one of those things that most people don't want to think about but it-- and it totally makes sense to sit with someone, think about it for a little while, put the right plan in place, and then you can forget about it.

But we've seen, unfortunately, a lot of people, you know, when we have your home and car insurance and maybe some other lines as well. When something happens to that family member. Well, a lot of times where the first call. I know I hated so and so have life insurance and you know, I've been on the line where I've said yes and I've been on the line where I've said, "No, they don't."

And I've also been in a line where we've had the conversation but they've never proceeded through with it. But you know, of course, was I did mention but you know in my mind I'm thinking you know, I should've persuaded them more. I should have been, you know, I should have been a little firmer there and you know our office is definitely not pushy. We're usually just trying to present options, educate people on their risk, and let it let them make the best choices they want to make for the family.


Clint Yeah, as a realtor. I drive around a lot. So you know, my policy quite well. You provided it.


Kit Sure.


Clint You know, we're having that additional insurance for me, my passengers. It's my job to be around, you know, and I do have my life insurance as well. We were just talking about texting on the phone. You might not do it but other people do. I mean we've seen it. I've seen mailmen. I've seen, you know, but police officers are doing their job sometimes looking at their computer on the front.

And it's just the unknowns and the unforeseen things that happen. I was on the west side. It's almost seems like an accident happening on Honoapiilani highway like every other day. And a lot of people are just, you know, they glance away for a minute and having that extra coverage for those unknowns is just-- it's a comfort I like to have in my life.


Kit Absolutely. The income protection is something I think a lot of people overlook. So they're thinking about, okay, when I think insurance I want to cover my stuff: my house, my cars, you know, my stuff inside my house. That type of thing. But they're overlooking, you know, really the source of all financial planning and savings which is your income.

And whether it be, you know, becoming sicker or injured to the point where you can't work and earn an income and a remedy for that would be disability insurance or you know passing away prematurely were a perfect coverage for that is life insurance. It's really part of everyone's risk management plan that they should be looking at. You know when you buy a house, the bank guarantees that it's covered, you know, it makes sure that you've got that home insurance protecting its collateral. But you've got nothing, you know, protecting your ability to make that mortgage payment. And that's what life and disability insurance can do for you.


Clint All right. Now, is there a way to bundle that? Same way with some of the other ones you know like a comprehensive policy.


Kit Yeah absolutely. Most, you know, a lot of major carriers, you know, do that and we've got a lot of clients that have it all from their cars, their umbrella policy.

Yeah, exactly. The life and the disability. And it makes a ton of sense. You know here in Hawaii, one of the interesting things about some of the legislations that put in place for employees. Every employee gets TDI or temporary disability insurance which is a six-month coverage which is fantastic that everyone's got that because it really is a big safety net for people.

And so we're typically working with people for looking at beyond that. So in the event that something happens beyond that six months, you know, what does that look like for the family, you know. Will they be able to stay in the home? Will the kids be able to stay in the school? You know really looking at, you know, the pillars of stability for the family and what can we put in place to make sure that stays in place.


Clint Excellent. Thank you for coming in, Kit. I really appreciate having you here. Is there anything else that you find important for homeowners and just general drivers out there for insurance?


Kit Yeah. One-- I'll mention a couple other things. You know one thing that you should do on a regular basis is meet with your agent at least every two years. I would say and just, you know, do a quick update. It's great to review the policies, your coverage, your limits, your deductibles, what's covered, what's not.

Talk about if anything's changed or not. And you know, there are some limits to the homeowner's policy or renter's policy for certain items that need to be scheduled from, you know, jewelry, stock certificates, fine art, you know, have had those conversations with your agent because, you know, the time to find out something isn't covered is when you've got to file a claim.

Another thing that's important that we see sometimes is you always want to insure your property its current use. So some people think like, "Oh, it's a homeowner's policy but I don't want to tell my agent." "That it's a renter's. That is rented out because I'm afraid, you know, the premiums are going to go up." It's really important to have that discussion with your agent. Insure the property for proper use. It just makes a ton of sense in the event that you ever if you do have a loss, you want to be covered by.


Clint Oh, yeah, especially when you're doing those vacation rentals. Make sure your license properly and have those insurance in place. So is there a specific policies that you recommend for that like if somebody is doing a bed and breakfast [crosstalk].


Kit Yeah, if you're doing a short term rental, yeah, make sure that you are properly registered with the County. State Farm got a great-- we have those homes in our motel program and we've got a short great short term rental policy for those properties that are, you know, that are set up properly within the system.


Clint All right. Thank you, Kit. I really appreciate it. That's Kate Okazaki with State Farm. What's that phone number again?


Kit 573-8111. 573-8111.


Clint All right. Again this is Clint Hansen with Maui Real Estate Radio. One last thing I want to talk to you guys a little bit about is where we are in the economy. Just last month we had Paul Brubaker in town and I like to do statistics. You know it's one of my things just to kind of get a read on the economy. But we're right on the edge. We got a new one coming this month and it changes every single month.

I've certainly noticed a lot less inventory. Last three months, we've actually for single family homes have shifted to a seller's market. It's no longer is a buyer's market. You know there's three types of strength out there. There's a buyer's market and that's typically when there's more than six months of inventory. There's a neutral market that's when we're just at and anything under it's considered a seller's market.

You know we determine inventory levels depending on how much we have available compared to how much is selling, you know, and there is very little out there right now. So we are looking for more listings. We are some of the best agents in Hawaii but we only work on Maui and our website, mauirealestateradio.com is a great place for information.

But most people know us through mauirealestate.net. That's the Hansen Ohana. I'm Clint Hansen with Maui Luxury Real Estate and you can always call me at 808-280-2764 or tune in every week, Monday at 7:00 AM and 11:10 AM radio or 98.7 FM, 96.7 FM, KAOI. Aloha.