Marketing LOMAs to neighbors

> Is there anything wrong with writing letter to the neighbors, giving some background about LOMAs, costs, etc., and stating that if they are currently paying for flood insurance, they probably qualify for a LOMA?

Finally!! Someone out there thinking like a businessman instead of a surveyor! Good one, Pseudo.

My recommendation would be to find out how much money was saved in premium dollars by the two LOMA's that have been prepared. You should be able to get that information directly from your client and, hopefully, from the other neighbor. Then, prepare a brochure that emphasizes the fact that:

You, too, could save $xx,xxx over the life of your mortgage!!
Save more than switching to Geico!!

You should also get a quotation from your client to include in the brochure stating what a good and painless job you did for them and how much money they are saving. Make a direct mailing, go door to door, whatever. Then, while your crew is on site, locate the elevations on as many homes you can in the neighborhood. They're all potential clients and it won't take but a couple of them to recoup your field time. The rest will be gravy!

Too many surveyors look at Flood Certs and LOMA's as a bad thing for landowners. In reality, they're the only way for landowners to protect themselves from being assessed the full premium for their flood insurance. Land surveyors literally can save them tens of thousands of dollars in reduced premiums.

Remember too, another service to provide is a consultation on how, with a few modifications to their structures, they could save even more.

JBS

That's a delicate situation. I would probably talk directly with a few neighbors about the service you have just finished and how it was beneficial to their neighbor. As you do a few more of these you should be able to catch another neighbor or two. That should lead to others calling you. Then you can make your wholesale approach with plenty of references.

I abhor any sales pitch telling me how stupid I have been by not realizing how much I really need your service in order to save money. No matter how true it turns out to be, I am initially skeptical of such approaches.

> I abhor any sales pitch telling me how stupid I have been by not realizing how much I really need your service in order to save money. No matter how true it turns out to be, I am initially skeptical of such approaches.

True that, but we are not selling windows;-)

it is 'out of the box' for a surveyor.

but it sounds like a good idea to me.

if it works don't come on here and brag about it. every jack leg with a postal meter will be competing for your business next time.

I thought of this idea about 20 years ago, but it never got off the ground. Part of the reason is, is that the City was going to widen the creek and improve its' capacity and the flood panels would eventually change.

Still a great idea though.

"You should also get a quotation from your client to include in the brochure stating what a good and painless job you did for them"

I would like to know this procedure.

Everyone I have ever done is a pain in the ass.

It might be different elsewhere, but here on our lakes and rivers, from experience, a LOMA is not a pleasant adventure for the client or the Surveyor.

Randy

> I just completed a LOMA in a townhouse neighborhood. The entire neighborhood is shown in an AE zone, and my LOMA was on the lower end of the subdivision.

So you did a LOMA, was there a problem with FEMAs maps? Why not just an elev cert?

It is my understanding that a LOMA is for when FEMA has incorrect mapping and it needs to be corrected and a LOMR-F is for when the land has been revised so it is above the BFE, but if the FEMA mapping is correct and no dirt has been brought in then an elev cert is the only option.

I've only done one LOMA and one LOMR in my life so I could have this wrong but I thought a LOMA actually removed either a whole lot if the lowest elevation on the lot is above BFE or a building or buildings if the LAG is above BFE, then the federal requirement for flood insurance is removed even though a lender can still require it if they want to. An EC, if I understand it correctly just states that the floor is above BFE although the LAG and the rest of the lot could be below it. That reduces the insurance rate but doesn't eliminate the requirement altogether. T or F?

Usually, the calls I get are from people whose insurance agent has told them to get an EC. I think there are advantages to getting a LOMA if the property qualifies for it, but there's no advantage to the insurance agents to taking a building out of the SFHA.

> An EC, if I understand it correctly just states that the floor is above BFE although the LAG and the rest of the lot could be below it. That reduces the insurance rate but doesn't eliminate the requirement altogether. T or F?

Mostly true. An EC discloses the relationship between the BFE and the existing structure and/or lot, as well as the type of construction in the case of a building. The owner hopes that it will show the LAG and/or FF to be above BFE, but generally you don't know how it's going to turn out until you're done. I've done a bunch of ECs that show everything to be below BFE.

Jim

Well, yeah the floor is either above or below the BFE, but if it's above, the insurance rate should go down. I was trying to see if my understanding of the advantage of a LOMA v. an EC is correct. Although an EC shows the LAG, a LAG above BFE doesn't result in a letter from FEMA removing the structure from the SFHA, right? So that's what I understood was the advantage of the LOMA.

I have gotten calls from people in the Natomas area of Sacramento which is (or was last year) under several feet of BFE based on the bad condition of the levees. An EC showing your house under 8 feet of water is probably not going to help much on your insurance rates is it?

I knew a surveying company who did drive-by inspections. Their one-man
crews would drop off business cards at all the neighbors' houses. Business
boomed. Then a fence company came out and left in place their rebars used to
string-line the fence. Over the next five years, lot corners were set by surveyors using the fence company's rebars. After dozens of inspections were done for $100 +/-
a surveyor found some original pipes and located all of the houses in the block for $2000. All of the fences and a half dozen houses in the block encroached. The surveyor, who handed out business cards, got sued by a class action by lot owners.

So much for business promotion!!

Pseudo, I advise you to proceed EXTREMELY cautiously. Doing what you are planning could put you in a situation in which you might end up garnering legal proceeds for your service. Put bluntly, you might make some profit. I understand what you're going through, we've all been tempted to do thing's like that from time to time, but, well,

just be careful, OK?

Peace out,

Stephen