“How Construction Impacts Insurance — Featuring Fuller Insurance’s Garrett Fuller & Chris Jane”

Matt is joined by Garrett Fuller and Chris Jane of Fuller Insurance to discuss how construction choices—steel framing, roof types, impact windows, and more—directly influence insurance rates in Florida. They break down market challenges, recent legislative changes, underwriting trends, and why Tracewater’s building approach creates long-term savings and lower risk for homeowners.

What is Tracewater Homes Podcast?

The Tracewater Homes Podcast brings you inside the world of modern homebuilding, market trends, and the partnerships shaping the future of residential construction. Known for their innovative steel-frame homes, Tracewater dives into what today’s buyers want, how the industry is evolving, and the experts who help bring every project to life. Whether you’re a homeowner, agent, or builder, this podcast delivers insights, inspiration, and behind-the-scenes conversations from the front lines of construction.

Well, hello, and welcome to another episode of the Tracewater Homes podcast. Uh, I'm Matt Hanisch with Tracewater Homes, and I'm here today with Garrett Fuller of Fuller Insurance and Chris Jane of Fuller Insurance. And today we're going to be talking about, uh, something that really doesn't have anything to do with the building process of your home, but has everything to do with the living process of your home.

So let's, uh, let's get started. Um, Garrett, um, why don't you give me a little bit of background on Fuller Insurance and, and kind of what you do here? Sure. Um, Garrett Fuller, Fuller Insurance.

I've been in the insurance business for three plus years, writing insurance from Pensacola to Panama City Beach and even farther, um, we write home, auto, life, all the other lines of business, but we particularly focus on homeowner's insurance, um, primary, secondary, seasonal, uh, type home insurance. And, um, uh, yeah, so we're a general agency and, um, uh, focus on Northwest Florida and our preferred insurance partner. Yeah.

Um, and then Chris, why don't you introduce yourself and let us know your role. So my name's Chris Jane and I've been with Garrett since the very beginning. He opened up the agency in 2008.

Yeah, 2008. I came on, um, in May of 2008. And so... No, 2007, actually.

Yeah, it is 2007. February 26, 07. Yep.

So we've been in business in Santa Rosa Beach. Yeah. So I've been there for a little over 18 years and I'm the senior advisor there.

And yeah, we write all lines of business. And like, I was actually in the office this morning writing a policy in Citrus County in Hernando. Okay.

So we'll do right business in other parts of the state. Basically anywhere that our, uh, that our Tracewater Homes clients are looking to build their home, you can offer them insurance, which is great. That's right.

Um, so, and that actually brings me to the main topic for today is really to talk about, um, you know, what, why we developed Tracewater Homes the way we did, um, and you know, how it was really an insurance focused, um, you know, development. So when we were, you know, when the concept of Tracewater Homes came up, we were looking at, you know, the insurance industry and we were seeing people having problems, uh, you know, reinsuring their home, um, they were getting dropped by insurance carriers, rates were going through the roof and, you know, our goal was to come up with a solution that, um, you know, that would kind of solve that for, for, uh, you know, new homeowners so that not only would they have something they could insure as a brand new home, but also something that would be, uh, you know, a desirable product to be insured downfield. Um, you know, and so we had some conversations with y'all early on in developing that product saying, Hey, you know, what are the things we can do? What are we, what can we focus on? And that's how we really settled in on like the steel framing piece that, um, we actually talked about in another podcast, um, as a big component of what we do.

Um, so why don't one of you, you know, give me an idea of kind of the challenges that you've seen in the insurance industry and the things that are kind of driving those challenges right now. I can give you the overview and then I'll let Chris get into some specifics about homeowners insurance. Um, basically the overview is Florida has had severe challenges in homeowners insurance, um, since, um, about five years ago.

Um, it had to do with litigation. It had to do with increased storm activity. It had to do with, um, inflation, just a whole myriad of things that has, um, challenged, uh, folks in Florida with insurance costs and especially on homeowners insurance.

Um, we've seen, um, companies go out of business. Insurance carriers go out of business. A few years ago, we've seen prices go up dramatically, but with changes in statutes and the Florida legislature made some changes, we've seen prices starting to moderate and actually come down a little bit.

So, um, we've seen a recovery in the homeowners insurance sector. That being said, um, insurance carriers are much more critical in their underwriting and focusing on the very best homes that they want to insure and they want to spread their risk across the area. So when you have a home like Tracewater Homes, where it's fraying from, um, metal steel instead of wood fraying, they're going to give you a preferential rate on that because they consider that not just a frame structure.

They consider that more of a fire resistive, masonry, non-combustible type structure, and the rating on that is going to be better. Um, we have at Fuller Insurance, we have multiple carriers now that are running business along the coast. We can market homes for, um, you know, homeowners, especially new homes, uh, with multiple carriers.

And, um, maybe I'll let Chris talk a little bit about more of the specifics of, of how that works. I mean, you're doing pretty good. I mean, we do have a lot of carriers that we can use now compared to a couple of years ago.

So after COVID 2020, a lot of carriers went insolvent and they did not want to write and those carriers that stuck around, they changed their underwriting guidelines. And so when they changed their underwriting guidelines, it reduced the, the number of years on roofs and what was actually acceptable to them to write a policy. And they, you know, some carriers wouldn't write a home over five years old.

Wow. And so you have a lot of limitations. Well, you did have a lot of limitations, but now you have, uh, more carriers in the market.

One company I can think of specifically would be SageSure. They've come to the market in the past couple of years and they will write almost anything. Um, they write up to the Gulf.

Companies like Olympus Insurance will write up to the Gulf. Uh, Frontline and those companies will write up to the Gulf as well. But when a carrier looks at a risk and they're comparing it from a wood frame construction to a non-combustible, the non-combustible home that Tracewater builds is going to be, as Garrett said, more preferential, the rates likely going to be, um, less expensive on the front end because it's brand new.

It might not be a huge difference, but going in the direction of 10, 15, 20 years down the road, it's going to make a huge difference because there are a lot of homes, especially now in the, the late 2000s, late or early 2000s, late nineties, that a lot of them are framed construction and we don't have the same codes here like you do in Central and South Florida where you have masonry, concrete block houses, which is the one that I wrote today was a CB home. Okay. And it was older, but it was a, I wrote it with Frontline and it was just a really good premium because of the type of construction.

And that is, uh, you just hit the nail on the head because of the type of construction and that is something that we've really, you know, focused on heavily because of, you know, we talk a lot as we're, you know, talking about Tracewater homes, we talk a lot about like overall cost of ownership and, you know, you can get into a house, you know, that's, that's really inexpensive only to find out that two, three, four, you know, you said 10 years down the road, all of a sudden, you know, your, your monthly cost on your homeowner's insurance is through the roof. And now, you know, your, your cost of ownership on the life of that home is just ramping up dramatically. Um, you know, so that's a huge piece for us.

Um, you know, so when you're saying even when not just the new construction side of it, but when you're looking at it five years down the road, somebody has a steel frame house. Um, the insurance carriers are looking at that as a preferential method of building and, and giving preferential rates for that as well. That's a part of it.

So I would say the biggest factor for rate right now, if someone is wanting to quote on a house, the biggest rating piece is the age of the house that you built, and then from there, it's how it was built and then the updates. So whether that's wood frame or steel frame or concrete block, um, the biggest things that we talk to our clients about, and just because of the market, if you have a home that's 15 years old and older, that's typically where you have to get a four point inspection done. Um, you also run into with years 20 to 25, where you're going to have to update your roof, especially if it's shingle.

Yeah. Sometimes the carriers will, will make you change your roof or advise you to change your roof if it's 25 and older with tile and metal, but they've some of them have gone to 30 years back to that 30 year mark, which is great. But you're built the year of the house is a huge factor, but also how it was built.

That's a, it's a big deal. And if you want to speak to some of that, you can. Well, yeah, that's, um, you know, with the frame steel construction, um, it is something new to insurance carriers, um, Central and South Florida, they're used to building cinder block homes in Northwest Florida, we're used to building frame wood frame homes.

So the, um, still frame or the metal construction is a little bit new to some underwriters and we've made efforts, um, over the past year to explain the construction, we've sent them to, you know, your website, Trace Water Homes. We sent them to the, um, suppliers that you use for, for the, uh, metal, um, to show them what it is that you're actually building and several underwriters have come around, um, I can think of three or four right now that have said, okay, yeah, this is a good deal and we're going to give you preferential treatment. Um, it comes down to a lot of things, um, with insurance companies.

It has to do with not only price, but capacity, um, and the zip code. So, you know, if, if, if you have a, a builder that's building a whole subdivision of just wood frame homes, then that's not as desirable as a, you know, Trace Water Homes that's steel frame and is, you know, not just one whole subdivision. So they can spread the risk, they can spread their capacity and they can give preferential pricing, in fact, on some of those, um, some of those homes.

That's awesome. And yeah, I'm going to touch on one thing you said that you're, you're kind of having to educate the, uh, the underwriters on the product because it's, you know, quote unquote new. And we actually talked about this in a previous podcast where we were talking with our steel supplier and telestructure.

Um, and, and there's this perception that steel framing is, is brand new. And, you know, it's something that, you know, oh, we need to learn about. And the funny thing is, is when we talk with them, they said that, um, it's been, it's been being used where the product comes out of New Zealand, the equipment comes out of New Zealand and Australia.

And they've been doing it there for 40 years. Um, it's being used like all over the world. It's just new to the U S because we're typically as home builders and in the U S we're very, very slow to adapt, you know, to, and to change and, and adopt new systems and all of that.

And so, you know, we're typically behind the rest of the world in that. So, you know, when you start looking at it and you go, wow, this is actually a really proven product and you start educating people on it, all of a sudden it's like, wow, yeah, this makes a lot of sense, just like you were saying with the underwriters, you know, saying, well, yeah, this looks like this is a good product. Um, so that's been cool.

And, you know, as we get down the road and they learn more about the product, um, what's going to eventually happen is they'll start testing the product. Um, and you know, laboratories in Central and South Florida where they have these huge fans and, you know, hurricane testing machines and, um, there'll be data and then eventually that'll trickle down into this, into the industry and, uh, what you'll see is this thing still frame construction, uh, technique, um, will really catch on as far as underwriters. Cause they realize that it's going to be more hurricane resistant.

It's going to be, you know, termite pest resistant. Um, there's just a lot of other benefits to it that makes it, um, a preferential home versus what we traditionally build in Northwest Florida. Sure.

It'd be actually kind of fun. Uh, you know, you mentioned that. It'd be kind of fun to get some of them out to see, you know, some of the products so that they can understand, you know, even at a deeper level, what exactly it is and, and, you know, how it all goes together.

Yeah. I think that's part of the marketing reps say responsibility. We have, I don't know, dozens of market reps with our homeowners carriers, and they'll come out and see us.

And they'll always want to go out to see the homes and drive around. So they will relay that information. And there is an educational piece that we've had for such a long time of, Hey, our area is different.

The cost of construction up here is different than most areas too. And so yeah, the factor of going and actually touching and seeing the product is important. That's cool.

Um, one other, I guess one other thing that you were, you were talking about, uh, you know, the longevity and the metal roof. Is there any, um, any preferential treatment on that, on having the metal roof versus, uh, you know, another, another type of roof cover? Yeah. When you have a metal roof versus a shingle roof, the underwriters are going to give a, a longer line essentially of, Hey, this is 30 years before we're going to take a look at it.

Sure. And so typically if you have a policy in place, this is kind of the, I guess the, the two different ends, if you have a policy in place and the roof is 32 years old and it's a metal roof, a lot of the time the underwriters aren't going to just cancel policy. But if you're buying a house that has a 32 year metal roof, that's different.

Sure. Just because the underwriters are going to look at it differently. And so that is a, say it's a negative aspect, but it's just the way that the industry works whenever you're buying product.

I was just curious about that only because we offer metal roofs as an upgrade on our homes. Standard is a, you know, GAF, a timberline shingle, and we offer the metal roof upgrade. So people that are thinking about doing that are knowing that they're going to get, you know, they're going to get a lower premium for a longer period of time by, by upgrading that roof.

I would say the, say average, each carrier has their own guideline for the roof, but a metal would be 30. Again, outside of COVID 2020, 2021, now that we're past all the legislative decisions, we're going to be 30 on metal most of the time and then 20 for shingle. So yeah, it's helpful to have a metal roof.

Good to know. Can I think if there's anything else, is there any other topics related to insurance and new construction that we haven't really touched on? I mean, you have Florida building codes where you guys are going to be putting in likely hurricane windows in the way that the roof is clipped in or strapped in with trusses and all that, which are you doing metal trusses as well? So we do, we do steel on the, on the floor system and the walls. And then we do wood trusses that are strapped in to the metal structure.

Yep. So yeah, that's a, you know, everything is tied together from top to bottom. And we were talking about this with our, with our IntelliStructure rep too, that, you know, there's, even though there's less of that, that goes into the house from the, from the, you know, the steel strapping and all of that, we actually can achieve higher wind load ratings than we can with a, you know, traditional wood frame structure.

And then the next piece you just touched on was the, the impact windows. Right. And that's a unique feature of trace water homes as well.

Not the fact that we use impact windows, but the fact that we use impact windows in every single home. So in, you know, it depends on your proximity to the coast, whether or not you're required to have impact windows, we look at it from a standpoint of, you know, everybody should have that peace of mind and it doesn't matter if you live within five miles of the coast or if you live 40 miles inland or a hundred miles inland, a tornado can easily pop up and then you have, you know, some issues with that, or, I mean, even looking at some of the storms that hit our area, you know, in the last, you know, 12 months that we're still a category two hurricanes, miles inland, you know? And if you've got those impact windows in your home, I mean, you just have that peace of mind knowing that there's not going to be an issue. Yeah.

That's a big piece of it. When you buy an older home and you have a new roof put on, the secondary water resistant peel and stick is a big deal. Do you guys have a... Absolutely.

Our homes, and we've had this conversation on one of our podcasts also about the fact that we almost have like a three layer system, so we have, we use what's called LP weather logic on the roof. And then all of those seams are taped with a, with a sealant tape. And then we put a secondary barrier over the top of that, in addition to the roof covering.

So now we have basically three layers of protection on that home. Yep. So awesome.

I might mention a couple of other things you were talking about. The superior construction, just like you were talking about how you go above and beyond on the peel and stick on the roof, will lead to less claims and ultimately less costs over the life of a home. Basically because you won't have a claims history and you'll have more opportunities for different insurance companies to come in and say, yeah, we like this house.

We like the owner and we want to, you know, offer a quote or a proposal on it. So a better constructed new home is not only going to save you premium today, it's going to save you, you know, headache and heartache in having claims that can be avoided because you have a superior constructed home and it's going to lower your overall costs that way as well. Yep.

The other thing I'd mention is with flood insurance. So now we have a very active private flood insurance market that competes with the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program. And those carriers look at similar rating factors to FEMA, but they also look at other rating factors like new construction.

And they know that home is going to be more resilient to a flood. And so we're seeing better pricing on private flood insurance for new construction. So that's another area to keep in mind.

If you need flood insurance, a new home is going to be a better deal. Yeah. And obviously building on the coast where we do, I mean, our entire market is coastal pretty much, you're looking at, you know, building on properties that do require flood insurance on a regular basis.

So that's a huge factor. And that's something I didn't really even think about is the, you know, the claims history, and that's something I think maybe a lot of people don't understand is the fact that, you know, it's not only the property claims history, but the personal claims history has an impact on your rate going forward. Absolutely.

And, and, you know, you want to be the person that has a trace water homes, you know, built, ready to go when the next storm hits, because the guy down the road has got a 1995 frame construction home with EFIS on the outside, and he's going to have all sorts of damage, your trace water home, it's not going to have any damage. Garrett knows a lot about EFIS. And what about one other thing to touch on too, and I think we briefly mentioned it, but maybe we can highlight that a little bit.

What about fire resistance with steel? Does that have an impact on, on their desire to insure? Yeah, it does. Again, the way that they're looking at and categorizing, you know, a frame, non combustible home versus a concrete block, their rating tiers are going to be different. And so having a fire resistive structure versus a frame house that can go up in, you know, 60 seconds, it's a big deal.

Yeah. And it definitely is. And, you know, if you've ever seen a, you know, a dried yellow pine two by four that's dried and cracked, you throw that on a, on a bonfire or something.

I mean, it takes seconds and that thing is lit up and in, in tall flames. So then, you know, that steel is never going to burn. That's right.

Definitely. The insurance carrier, the less wood, the more metal or concrete block, the better the rating is going to be because they know it's more fire resistant. And then you have the, you guys do hardy board for all of your siding.

Is that correct? So actually the, that was another topic that we've had on a podcast as well. So the product we use is, it's called LP SmartSide. And LP SmartSide is, is not a fiber cement product.

And we've, we've used it for a number of years. It's an amazing product. Again, the, the wind resistance for that up to 200 miles an hour.

So like, you're talking like high speed projectiles bounce off. Right. Which is really, really cool.

And we've, we've done some demonstrations with it where we've got like sledgehammers and smashing into the siding and it's kind of cool. And like the sledgehammer after a few hits on the, on the fiber cement siding literally just blows it apart. And we've used the same piece of LP SmartSide siding where we've let people just smash a hammer into it for the entire time we've been doing this demo.

So what is the product made of then? So the product is, people think it's like an OSB type product because when you flip it over and look at it, it is, it looks like an OSB product, but it's not because OSB is typically made of a pine where the, the LP SmartSide is actually an Aspen wood and it's put together with resins and compressed under, under high pressure and it is an absolutely amazing product. It has a, it's got a treatment in it that makes it termite resistant. And it's a, it's very flame resistant.

So it's just a really, really great product all around. And we, we prefer it, you know, heads, heads over, you know, tails to, to fiber cement. Okay.

Does the county rate it as hardy board? Yeah. So they'll list it as hardy board. Exactly.

Because that's what they, that's what they know. That's like, it's like the Kleenex of hard siding. Right.

And so that's what they know, but it's a much better product. And I actually, I'm going to show you something here because one more thing I want to touch on is termite resistance. So this is pretty cool.

Um, so we had a, we had a house that we finished and we had an empty lot next door and on that lot next door, they, they had left some leftover building materials and there was some two by fours and some leftover siding and all of that. Well, when we went to build next door, like a year and a half later, started cleaning it up and I happened to pick up the two by four that was laying there. And this is what had happened to it over that timeframe.

It looks familiar. And the smart side that was laying next to it, looks like you could go put it on the house. You know, it's a little dirty, but I mean, it's the same thickness as it was when it got, you know, laid down there, um, you know, structurally it's the exact same product.

You could clean that up, put it on the house and paint it. It's pretty awesome. Yeah.

So, I mean, that's a really good Testament. So that brings up this topic of termite resistance with a seal frame as well. And I would imagine, I mean, in this market, I mean, termite coverage has to be, you know, an issue for sure.

Yeah. There's a exclusion for termites. Termite exclusion on the insurance.

You don't have that. Um, in fact, I've had some discussions with some local, uh, pest control companies over the last few weeks. And, um, long story short, like the Centricon system, they have become really, really strict on, uh, installation of new termite control systems.

Um, of course, pest control companies want to sell those systems, but the, um, the warranty, the, um, reimbursements, if there is a, uh, termite infestation have become, uh, more strict to the point that, um, like the Centricon system that they put in, um, they basically want to know from A to Z about the house, about its history, about, you know, the treatments before and after, has Centricon ever treated it before? Um, and, um, in fact, one of the developers of the Centricon system is a retired university, uh, Mississippi state university professional that lives in the area, and I've had discussions with him, uh, he's a retired entomologist and, um, he helped develop the product. And, um, uh, he's told me a lot about it and how it's resistant. But, um, but anyway, the point being that, um, having a house that's built to resist termites is going to be even more beneficial in the long run when you build a new house for the homeowner.

Um, you could possibly avoid having to pay for a Centricon system or other termite system, but, um, termites are definitely, definitely, uh, an issue in Florida, uh, an issue in this area. There's subterranean termites for most termites. They can, um, invade any kind of, um, home.

Um, but if you have a termite resistant home like Tracewater Homes, it's going to be to your benefit. Awesome. Yeah.

Agreed. Good, good. Well, wow.

I think we've covered a lot of topics on insurance. So, um, and just, uh, to, you know, go back, we've got, uh, Garrett Fuller and Chris Jane from Fuller Insurance. Um, they are our preferred insurance carrier, so feel free to reach out to them for all your insurance needs.

You can go to our website at, uh, www.tracewaterhomesfl.com. Uh, and you will find their information on our site. Um, but... You want to talk about our website that we have that people can go to? Oh, they want quotes and... Oh, um, fuller.insure. You can request a quote on fuller.insure. I-N-S-U-R-E. Um, if you're building a house or if you need a builder's risk quote, um, just go to fuller.insure and, um, you can put a note in there and say it's Tracewater.

Perfect. And we know, we know the plans. We know the designs.

We know who to call. Yeah. If we have any questions.

And that's the beauty of it. So thank you all very much. And, uh, we'll see you on the next podcast.

Thanks, Matt. Thanks.