homeowners if you've got roof issues and you need to deal with a roofer then these are the
questions a roofer might ask you that you should never answer maybe you should answer some of them
but the answer should be no okay so one question is I'm working at your neighbor's house and I
wanted to find out if you'd like me to inspect your roof while I'm in the neighborhood well the
best response to that would be what's the name of the neighbor at whose house you say you're working
because oftentimes a roofer that's going door to door is just going to go through a
neighborhood telling people that he's working in a neighborhood to give the homeowners some
sort of warm fuzzy that oh my neighbor hired this guy he must be good and he
may not even be working in the neighborhood or he might be working in the neighborhood
a mile away so if you just take the roofer's word for it that he's working at your neighbor's house
he is that doesn't tell you anything because sure your neighbor might have hired him to do
his roof but what if your neighbor is an idiot what if your neighbor even though he's a really
good guy just made a really bad decision what if your neighbor now having worked with that
roofer would never refer that roofer to even his worst enemy because he's had such a bad
experience just because a roofer is working in your neighborhood doesn't mean he's qualified to
do your roof or even inspect your roof and I've said over and over in other videos
that letting somebody on your roof who just shows up at your house Uninvited knocks on
your door and asks if he can inspect your roof is it gamble you might get a good roofer that
way but you might not get a good roofer that way my point is you don't know what you're gonna get
the best thing is always going to be to ask your friends family neighbors co-workers churchgoers
if they've used a roofer what was their experience and can you get the contact information that's the
best way to find a roofer another question that a roofer might ask you that you don't
want to answer at least in the affirmative is can I see your insurance paperwork now there
are some qualifications that I want to make to that if the roofer is asking to see your
insurance paperwork before he creates a quote to do your roof that's a red flag if the roofer
is asking to see your insurance paperwork before he even gets on the roof that's like 12 red flags
if you call a roofer and on the phone with you they ask you to send over your insurance paperwork
that's just that's not that's not red flags what would that be just like a Minefield that you're
about to go through if the roofer is asking for your insurance paperwork before he's ever
even gotten on the roof before he has created his own scope of work with Associated quote then the
reason that he's asking you for that paperwork is so that he doesn't have to go through the process
of measuring the roof which costs money creating an estimate which takes time which also costs
money so if you give him your insurance paperwork all you're doing is eliminating the need for the
roofer to actually do the work that he's supposed to do and that is creating a scope of work and an
estimate to replace or repair your roof because that roofer just simply wants to be able to tell
you that he will do the work for whatever the insurance claim amount is so he wants to get
the insurance claim so that he can see what the amount of the money the amount of money is in the
claim so that he can then write on his contract he'll do it for XYZ dollars whatever the amount
is that's written on the insurance claim now you might be tempted to think well if the roofer wants
to do the work for the amount that's in the claim what's wrong with that here's a couple things that
you need to consider number one if he says that he's going to do the work do the work for the
amount that's in the insurance claim what work is it that he's going to do if he hasn't given
you a scope of work and a quote associated with that work so there may be multiple accessories
that your insurance company has written into the claim that they want to see get replaced but when
the roofer tells you he will do the work do the work for the amount of the claim like I said what
work is he going to do he might not actually replace or intend to replace all the different
accessories that are in the Acclaim amount because if he thinks that the claim amount is too low
more than likely he's going to omit the replacement of certain things or certain
work to try to make up that profit that he's losing if he were to do everything for the
amount that the insurance payout is the other very important thing to remember is that your insurance
claim might have the repairs or Replacements of things besides the roof you might have siding
you might have window screens you might have Windows you might have painting there could be
a number of things in your insurance claim that aren't related to the roof and this
actually happened here in Colorado Springs back in 2018 this was the last that I heard of this
happening anyway I'm sure it's happened before or happened since but huge hail storm comes through
entire house is damaged insurance company gives the homeowner a claim I'm going to just say
arbitrarily it's for twenty thousand dollars but only ten thousand dollars of that is for the roof
ER comes along and says oh we'll do it for the claim amount homeowner
not having gone through Insurance claim processes very often not knowing
what all of that all of those bizarre Greek line items in the claim amount actually mean says oh
okay and hands the check over to the roofer who does the roof collects the entire claim amount and
is gone now the homeowner doesn't have any money left to do all the other repairs that were in the
insurance claim now you might think how could a homeowner be that stupid I'm not saying that
homeowners are stupid I'm saying that homeowners aren't used to going through the insurance claim
process and oftentimes don't understand what their claim document is telling them so it's not really
that hard for a homeowner to get bamboozled by somebody who's unethical but who understands
how much is in the claim and what the money in the claim is actually for another
question that a roofer might ask you that you definitely don't want to answer is if I could
fill in the blank could I get you to sign the contract today
this is actually a sales technique called the if I could would you close and it's designed
to make you feel like there's a chance that you might not get the deal that the salesman
is proposing to you it's designed to kind of take away from you what he's trying to sell you
because anytime something gets taken away from us we automatically want that
the one thing that you should know about that particular question is that if a Salesman asks
you that question it doesn't matter if it's a roofer or any other salesman in any other industry
if a Salesman asks you that question he already knows or she already knows that
he can do the deal that he's proposing to you so it's not if I could would you it's
I know I can do this I want to get a commitment from you so the next question that a roofer
might ask you that you definitely don't want to answer is related to the previous one and
that is if my manager agrees to this could I count on you to sign the contract today
so again the the goal of this question and the previous one is just simply a psychological trick
that's designed to instill anxiety in you that you might not get the deal that he's proposing
and what it does is it brings in that authority of the manager you know I'm just the lowly salesman
I don't really have the authority to do this let me see if my manager can approve this and
so now you're filled with all of this angst right you've probably experienced this at the
car dealership but now you're filled with all this angst oh gosh I hope the hope the manager can can
approve this you know this salesman he's trying to do this deal for me he's trying to help me out
but there's this big bad mean old manager that stands in the way baby oh gosh I sure hope this
goes through the end goal of this question and the previous one is really just to find out
if you're ready to to sign on the dotted line and if not what are your objections
so that he can then overcome the objections and get you to sign on the dotted line because
remember the whole goal of a Salesman is to close the deal right now because he doesn't
want to leave without a signed contract so the whole goal of all these two questions
is to get you to sign right now you don't have to sign right now there is no urgency even if
there is a like a major problem with your roof there is no need that for you to sign on the
dotted line with a roofing contractor right now you've got to do your research do you do diligence
be a smart and educated consumer and homeowner this is your house you have to take care of it
so the tactic is he might actually call the manager right there with you
put him on speakerphone right and talk through or maybe he won't put him on speakerphone but
you know on a cell phone you're going to be able to hear that other end of the conversation so if
he does call the manager he might go through his gyrations you know tell the whole story and then
maybe you can hear the manager saying well I don't know this I don't know if we can do this this is
really this is really tough you're putting me in a you're putting me in a tough spot blah
blah blah blah blah until finally the manager says well I guess we can do this and now you go
but now remember you've already committed yourself because he asked you if if my manager agrees to
this will you sign the contract right now the only reason he's calling the manager is because
you said you would but let's say he says that he has to go outside to call the manager my
guess is he's not calling a manager it's just like when that used car salesman says he's got
to go ask the manager he's probably just going back into the break room and getting a Coke and
talking about you know the great sale he's about to make to all the other salesmen
so I'm gonna I'm gonna plead with you don't give in to either of those questions they're just
sales tactics both of them are called the takeaway clothes don't give in to either of those questions
all right the next question that a roofer might ask you that you definitely should not
answer is why don't we go ahead and call your insurance company and file a claim right now
hmm so he wants you to do that with him right there so that that way he can kind
of Coach you guide you with what to say but the purpose of that is to make you feel obligated
to use that roofer right because he's helped you through the process you you don't need help
through the process you call the claims department and you tell them what's going on they're going to
ask you some questions if you do need help with that process you know who the best person is to
help you file a claim your insurance agent that's why it's so important to have a local insurance
agent instead of one of the 1-800 companies so your agent is going to be much much better
help for you to file an insurance claim and your agent might even have a more of an interest in
making sure that the process goes well for you rather than your roofer remember there's no
urgency to file a claim unless you have just severe damage to your house hurricane tornado
if hail is actually penetrated through your roof or busted out windows or something like that but
otherwise there's just no urgency to file a claim you don't have to file a claim right now
especially with a roofer sitting right there listening to the whole process this is just a
high pressure tactic designed to make you feel obligated to use that roofer and if you have
severe damage on your house you've probably filed the the insurance claim already it's not something
that you should do with any sense of urgency you want to make sure you do your research you want to
understand what your policy coverage is you want to know what your deductible is you don't need
to file a claim it with any sense of urgency you don't need to file a claim right now like I say
unless you have severe damage and you definitely don't need to do it with the roofer right there
okay so another question that a roofer might ask you that you definitely don't
want to answer is can I get you to sign this document so oftentimes a roofer will ask you
that if he comes to your door and says and asks you if he can inspect the roof and you
say well yeah sure you can inspect the roof sometimes he'll ask you to sign this document
and either through implicit comments or explicit comments might lead you to believe that this form
is giving the room for permission to get on the roof and sometimes people think that like I say
this is an authorization form sometimes they think it's a wave of liability form
but the whole point is the homeowner thinks that the purpose of the document is to allow the
roofer to inspect the roof but what the document actually is it can be called a contingency form
there are other names for it also but what the document is doing is it's designed to make you
feel obligated now we had actually somebody that goes to our church had this happen to her
and the document has language in it that basically says if I inspect your roof if there's damage and
if you file an insurance claim then we are the roofer that you're going to use to do the work
even if you've signed one of those documents you are under no obligation zero obligation to use
that roofer to do the work it's not a contract and it doesn't hold up in court but the reason
that they want you to sign it is so that you do feel obligated hey watched all the way to the
end of the video I really appreciate that I think you're going to like this video right here so give
that one a click until our next walk in the park video I'm Tracy Bookman owner of Homestead Roofing
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