Storm Surge Damaged Home Tour - Punta Gorda Florida

Welcome back guys. I'm in downtown Punta Gorda, the historic district, with the owner of this flood damage property, Libby Shear. She is a property manager here in Punta Gorda. She's been here for 17 years. She has been kind enough to allow us to come and take a tour through this property so we can show you guys what some of these damaged areas look like on the inside. The outside has been picked up, all of the furniture. Punta Gorda has been very good about getting around and picking up the contents, so that has been removed, but she's going to take us on a tour and kind of give us the ins and outs of what she's been seeing in the area since this has happened. And Libby, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate you doing this. Absolutely. I know it's tough to invite anybody into your home, especially when it's, you know, on the internet and it's in the shape that it's in. Yeah. But you guys just got hit with Hurricane Ian and then Helene and then Milton. Oh my gosh. And how far did you guys get? We're you guys, obviously you're not going to have me the whole video. How far did you guys get into the remediation for Helene? We had already taken out some sheetrock and then it wasn't high enough because Milton came in higher. I'm going to spin you guys around here. So Milton came in higher. Milton came in higher, so we had already torn out the sheetrock two feet for Helene, only to find that Milton came in higher. And we didn't even think it could come in higher because it's never flooded in the past. Never. This is a 1930s historic home. It's a shotgun home because it goes all the way through. And they used to say that you could take a shotgun and shoot someone all the way in the back of the house. Yeah, it's a shotgun house. All right, let's see what we got. Now, this is my first time through here, guys. So I'm actually going to remove my sunglasses, something I rarely do on these videos. You know, Ben, it was really interesting. It's like the first flood that came in was relatively clean water. And then Milton came in and deposited multiple inches of mud to add to the to the misery of remodeling and rehabbing. So this part's been cleaned up. It took us a couple of days just to get the mud out of this front entry. You guys did a great job. Oh, it was. Yeah, it's a lot of hard work. Now, how hard, how high up the walls is it? Did it come to where you guys are cutting in here? Yes, in fact. OK, so from this room, we washed the walls from here down. It went above the outlets, which is really unfortunate. You got the electrical. Yeah. So then we come in here and this is the cutout for Helene. So we have to go further now for Milton. So Helene kind of came in at around here. Yep. And then Milton went the extra distance and we still have more to cut out. We have another, you know, like foot and a half to cut out. Yeah. So we're trying to dry out. We're trying to we're trying to preserve a floor from 1930. It's a beautiful floor we had refinished right after Ian. Wow. And you guys didn't get flooding in Ian or was it just. No, it was just wind damage, just wind damage, just wind damage during Ian. And then we remodeled and we finally got the property rented. They were in here for two months and then Helene and Milton happened. Oh, my God. So all there's they lost everything. I feel really bad for the tenants because they literally had mounds of furniture and all of their personal possessions out on display, out on that corner, just filled with mud, filled with mold. I believe I walked by this house the other day, so I will point it out in another video of mine. I did see their stuff out there. And how does that work for them? Where do they, do they. I relocated them to another rental and a lot of our rental inventory actually just got absorbed from all these displaced people. OK, so there's a lot of people that are in need and it's we had some availability. Yes. As you know, luckily there was enough to go around. This is the kitchen. This is the, this is the area of, you know, massive concern. You know, all the appliances, of course, all the cabinets. We still aren't done pulling out of cabinets and so forth. But the loss of having, you know, see. Footprints and stuff on the floor, guys. You could see that. Oh, yeah, that's all kinds of mud on there. Still a great job. I know you've had some time, but. Oh, it's just here's some, you know, it's just it's heartbreaking after you've remodeled twice. We'd already remodeled twice. I know. So right after we bought it three years ago and then after Ian and then now. So we're looking at three really expensive adventures with this home. Well, I hope it's the last one for you. So I assume this was the laundry area. This was the laundry area. And you can see the plaster and lath walls. Yeah, that's you don't see a lot of that anymore. This. Well, I don't. That's crazy. And we've already torn out all the laminate that was in this. Oh, my gosh. Look at this road in here. Yeah, this had laminate on top of it. And this is the deposit of mud. So this had a floor over this floor. Yeah. And the mud still got under it. Yes. Oh, wow. So we have to tear out all these walls. The water got up to I'm trying to see if there's the water line still. But it was all the way up to here in this room. So the tenants had to save themselves and their 70 pound dog. They had to swim out of the home. Oh, my gosh. During Milton's. Yeah. You know, it was just it's very tragic. It's very overwhelming. I bet. I mean, now there's a lot of people going through it. That's right. So, you know, it's too bad that you can't see how beautiful this house was prior to this event. It's just kind of it's just now now we're battling, you know, the mold that sets in. It's starting. You can see that, though. That's a concern. I've mentioned, too, that for a lot of the snowbirds that have not been able to get here in their houses, this is going to start. I mean, guys, what is this? What are we, a week or two weeks out? And it's already accumulating. Yes. So this is how look at this. Isn't that something? And this bathroom was completely gutted and redone. And now it's now it's this, which is really sad. And I mean, you guys have done an unbelievable job. Like I'm sure this was several inches of muck. Oh, it was. And yeah, we just have layers and layers to go. Now, since we're look at this. Oh, my God. It popped the floor. It popped the floor. It popped the it blew the cover right off of the lid to the crawl space. And that cover is that's not the cover right there. It covers like four. I don't know how many inches deep the cover is. And it's really heavy. It blew it right off and floated into the mud down there. That's that. So that's what the inside of the house looked like. Yeah, I had a lot of that in there. We had to take an actual garden hose. Yeah. And bring it in the house to hose the interior, just so we could walk around inside the home. And now let me ask you, Libby, since you're, you know, you're a rental agent, are you getting a lot of calls for people who need housing? We are. And it's so sad because they need to get in immediately. And the hard part of that are some of the HOAs that we have to try to get their applications in if it's a condo. To get the approval and takes time. And these folks are they don't have anywhere to go. In fact, our adjuster that was at this property just to show up. It took two weeks to get an adjuster here, basically. And they couldn't find a hotel room. That's the reason why they couldn't even get here on their first time. Wow. That they had an appointment with us. Yeah, it's it's really something. You've mentioned you've considered potentially raising this home up. You know, I've gotten bids and I'm trying to get I'm trying to get bids now. I got a bid a long time ago that was really expensive. And I thought it was really expensive a year ago when I was thinking about trying to save money because of our the requirement to have flood insurance here was astronomical. So the numbers aren't working for me when I have a renter here because of the flood insurance. So what were they quoting you or something? What would you say the flood insurance was roughly the kind of quotes you were getting for this? The flood insurance I was getting quotes of around $10,000. This is 1,278 square feet. So quotes of $10,000 is not doable in an investment property. And who would have thought this was possible? I mean, you're you're not you're not you're four blocks from the water, but you're good ways. Well, it's never flooded before. And for 1930, that's a lot of years to have the experience that it has never flooded. And then to have this happen is unusual. One in 100 years, they say it's catastrophic. Now, I just wanted to interject there, guys, because Libby did explain to me later, it's a little confusing on the video, she does have flood insurance, thankfully. And that's why we stress on this channel, how important it is. And as you guys can see here to want us to show you Gilchrest Park, pretty much officially shut down at this point. They don't want people on these boats. I mentioned it in a previous video. I figured I just do. Oh, there is a man out there, though. He's out there, Roman Roman. So it can't keep everybody away. But they as long as these boats are going to be here, this park and harbor walk is probably going to be closed down. And I also wanted to add on insurance since she's dealing with it right now. Is it a Helene claim? Is it a Milton claim? Well, from her understanding, the insurance companies are even trying to figure that out. So they're starting claims for both and they're kind of going to see how it goes. But it's uncharted territory, even for the insurance adjusters, unfortunately. So, you know, that is a concern, rightfully so of hers, that doesn't really know which one how it's going to get squared away and what goes to what. So it's going to be a learning process for everybody, it sounds like. And we'll jump back in now. Have have any of your neighbors been talking about raising homes up or anything? Did they give you any kind of prices that that? No, right now, one of the companies that I called to ask about, you know, what would it cost to raise a 1930s home? And he asked me the square footage. And he said, you know, believe it or not, some companies are, I mean, they have the audacity to try to charge $115 a square foot, possibly, he told me. So how could you remodel and lift the home? You're well over 100 grand at that point. Right. So, you know, I don't know what our options are at this point. And this, this is on the historic registry. So we have this, first of all, we love this home, we want to retire in this home someday. That's the reason why we bought it. And then, you know, trying to have a renter here just to cover the carrying costs of this home. And, and to only have the renter in here for two months. It just kind of, it kind of blew that whole idea apart of being able to cover the insurance and the taxes and all those other things like a lot of people. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you're not alone with that. It's, it's unbelievable. How's, how'd the backyard make out? The backyard, it's fine. The land seems to be fine. We just had a lot of debris. And yeah, but we're looking at big ticket items, like full kitchens, two full bathrooms here, removing the sub floor. Can you imagine that kind of work? And that's, and you can't do it yourself. No, you know, that's too much for us. That's the other thing is, is most people are not able to do this. This is crazy. Isn't that crazy? The Haunter just lifted it and blasted those floors. People are going to say I'm being old and dramatic, but I never see this. Right? I never see this. And we're lucky that this house is built like with that really old growth forest wood. Yeah. I mean, this two by four, if you took a piece of that two by four, it is so heavy compared to the new two by fours today. They don't, and it's so special. This house deserves another chance and it's whether or not we can afford to make that happen. Well, I hope, I hope it works out for you. I hope you guys get it. I mean, I hope so too. Plus the historical society would want us to try to retain this home. Yeah. So this is piece of the kitchen, I'm assuming. Yeah. We're trying to It's sad. And it's sad for the people that lost all their items, my renters. It just seems like an endless amount of work when you've already put that commitment, time, money and energy into the home, aren't you? Yeah. For the third time. For the third time. That's wild. The first time was, you know, just for the fun part to make it look really fresh and good. The other two were hurricane related. That's crazy. Right. I'm going to flip back forward as I come out of here. They're losing their house completely. Next door. Because of the 50%. They got hit with the 50% rule. Right. So they got to level this property. They have to level it. Oh my gosh. Wow. Yeah. And what's, what's, I mean, are they going to sell it for the land you think? Yeah, I suspect they would have to. Wow. The occupant was in her 90s. So this was a 90 year old woman who lived here. Yes. Oh my God. And she got out. Okay. Yeah. She's, she's, um, taken care of by her daughter now. Wow. And this gentleman, he's in his nineties as well. My neighbor. Another nine 90 year old over there. Yeah. It's so sad. And he's already had everything removed out of the house, all of his possessions. And he had a lot of help from, I think maybe, um, some volunteer groups. So that was really great because there's no way that he could have done any of that work himself. We can barely do it. And we're a lot younger. I know. And you can see they, they pretty much cleared this street up already. Guys. This was filled with debris yesterday on one of my other videos. You'll see it. Uh, Punta Gorda has been pretty good about getting out there. And so this is a special town. I mean, this is where the railroad workers lived in this home when they were building the railroad. Yeah. So this has always been housing someone, someone, you know, that needed to live somewhere to make this town, you know, develop. Yeah. Well, it'll come back. It will come back. They'll get it done. And hopefully we have some, some respite from these storms for a while, but that's what we wanted to do today. Guys kind of show you what the interior looks like Libby. Thank you so much for taking us through that. It's so nice. You to let us into your home, especially, you know, show us everybody what you're going through. I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that can relate to this and are appreciative of it. And again, guys, like I said, we're going to have Libby's info in the description. If you guys have any rental needs, you guys know anybody who needs rental needs in Charlotte County, give her a call.