How to Protect Yourself After a Disaster – Insurance Secrets They Don’t Want You to Know

Dylan Silver (00:01.186)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is a New York based consultant and founder of Claim Help Me with 35 years in construction, 25 in insurance. He’s on a mission to expose the game Carriers Play and teach homeowners how to protect themselves before and sometimes during disasters when they strike. Please welcome Mark Grossman. Mark, welcome to the show.

Mark Grossman (00:27.87)
Thank very much for having me.

Dylan Silver (00:29.642)
It’s great to have you on here, Mark. I always like to start off at the top by asking folks how they got into the real estate space or the tangent real estate space, right?

Mark Grossman (00:41.04)
Okay, so.

Mike, actually how I got into real estate, I didn’t get into real estate. I’m trying to utilize a platform that actually will help homeowners, because with the real estate agent being the first person that a homeowner is gonna deal with, and they’re the first one who’s always gonna refer to if they go sell their home. And this is the core of where homeowners can find out how they can get information that will help them, and God forbid something actually happens. And the insurance carriers, look, they

have their own prerogative. It’s obviously to be profit. They don’t want to see people get railroaded. But unfortunately, that’s what’s happening. And there’s ways to actually navigate this difficult complex process and going into the coming in front of real estate brokers or agents or lawyers. They can be the basically the cavalier, the knight in shining armor to get them help. And that’s what claim help

Helpme.com actually will do for them without hiring a public adjuster because that same name is very cringing because a lot of you don’t know what you’re getting when you get a you can’t vet a a public adjuster when you’re right in the middle of a natural loss you can’t think straight.

Dylan Silver (02:04.28)
I’ve had, think, maybe one public adjuster here on the show, and I was curious because you’re the second one maybe that I’ve spoken with. I wasn’t aware that most adjusters, I’m not mistaken, and correct me if I’m wrong, work for the insurance company.

Mark Grossman (02:19.74)
Now the actual adjuster themselves are for the insurance company. A public adjuster is for the homeowner. They’re an advocate for the homeowner. They will act on the homeowner’s behalf. So they will just take over. The homeowner doesn’t have to say anything. Now unless there’s an investigation into the claim itself, well then the homeowner actually has to speak and give a sworn statement. But for the most part, there’s really not that much difficulty in discerning whether a claim

is covered or not and the claims covered, the public adjuster is gonna do everything that the homeowner would be doing, but the homeowner doesn’t have to, they just pay a percentage for it.

Dylan Silver (03:01.006)
So it’s really a fee for someone to facilitate the process when a lot might be going on, right? And you might not be familiar with what to do, so it’s good to have someone who’s maybe specialized in this, but you have to be careful because this is, you know, a very tricky, emotionally charged situation, high degree of distress, the home is in physical disrepair due to fire, water, what have you, and so it can be tricky, right?

Mark Grossman (03:25.482)
It’s extremely tricky. I give you an example of the house burning down with a family and you’re standing in front of there with your kids and your pajamas and fire trucks are still there. And then here comes this guy up with a clipboard and said, hey, sign here. You don’t know what you’re doing. You need to make sure that you get someone quickly because you need an advocate because the insurance company is not going to do right by you. And that is the worst time you would ever want to hire somebody because you’re vulnerable, you’re stressed, and you’re going to listen

to the first person that’s actually giving you some sort of comfort. In actuality, you just had one devastation tragedy with your house burning down right in front of you and you’re now going to make another mistake. In New York, there’s 400 public adjusters. Of the 400, 365, they do it part-time and they don’t know what they’re doing and they’re there when they get that first check and then they’re gone. That’s not disparaging to say that all

All public adjusters are bad, but at the same time, I’m trying to lift the lid so homeowners don’t get, have this problem happen to them. And claim help me.com allows you to actually do this without a public adjuster. I am a public adjuster. I’m telling you, you don’t need me. You can do this all on your own. Yeah, you don’t want to deal with it because you know, you’re wealthy and you have money to

to spend, great. But if you’re underinsured, and that’s a very key factor, if you’re underinsured, and you had a fire, and you sign a public adjuster, they’re gonna bring their contractor in there, they’re gonna see your policy, they’re gonna realize pretty much within one minute of reading that deck page, which shows your policy limits, that you’re underinsured. Well, guess what they do? They’re gonna hit you with the board up, they’re gonna hit you with the mitigation, and they’re gonna rack it up, because they’re gonna end up charging you probably 150 to $200,000. That’s correct, that’s a big number, just to…

do deal with a damaged stuff and that doesn’t need to be done

Mark Grossman (05:25.082)
it’s all gone. So you don’t have to do almost all of that. So you actually have money for repairs. So even though if you’re underinsured, that’s because of the mitigation. If you limit that mitigation, now you’ll have money to actually do their repairs. So being able to be align myself with good real estate agents, brokers and lawyers, they can stand behind what this client this website actually provides to homeowners, which is guidance. And that’s all they need is just guidance. And it’s something

that should be given to them and they should purchase it for less than the price of a fire extinguisher on the day that they walk in at home. Hey look you walked in your home you now own it just remember just get the site know that you have a place to go to if something happens or something breaks in your house because if you have a contractor come in here and most of them are restoration companies now because the actual marketing for construction is simmering down it’s much more difficult there’s too many cutthroats out

out there that are going to underbid somebody. That’s a whole nother concept in itself with fact with change orders. But you’re to get contractors in there that are going to not know what they’re doing. They’re going to convince you to make a claim. And if you have a claim that’s under $20,000 should make it. That’s just an opinion. I understand people don’t have money around to just fix things. But it’s more advantageous to not make that claim because if you do you end up on clue, which is a claim loss underwriting exchange, you’re on there for seven

years seven so your rates are gonna go up your possibly gonna face being dropped and if you dare switch insurance companies is gonna happen immediately people don’t know that just from filing a claim so if you got a contractor that’s telling you to do this just because they just want to not they want to take the easy route you might want to second-guess that because you may not be wanting to make a claim because you don’t know the ramifications for it because the second it goes in there you say the wrong word like mold or

leak or drip or backup, you just denied your claim or…

Mark Grossman (07:32.346)
you put a cap on it with that one word and then you’re to have to it reclassified then you’re going to have to actually take a public adjuster on and mind you when you hire a public adjuster it comes out of your repairs some states it’s actually an actual bill but the majority of them pretty much 90 % of them you’re paying it’s coming out of your repairs so when you have a hundred thousand dollar project just know that you get a high public adjuster ten thousand is going to them and here’s the the portion that you

The contractor they recommend, they’re actually kind of giving them under the table.

10 % and I don’t you know what you don’t want to put that on your show or not. It’s actually true. know that because every contractor I deal with they they they do it and so now you’re starting the whole with $20,000 under and That you haven’t even swung a hammer and guess where that’s gonna end up getting cut your Contractor who is a direct dealer? Hopefully for is gonna show you cabinets there are less It’s great than what you had they’re gonna you’re gonna get seven to twelve mil

Dylan Silver (08:15.63)
You’re right.

Mark Grossman (08:39.526)
a flooring set of 20 mil that you have. You’re gonna get only one to two coats of finish on your hardwood floors instead of what you had. So that’s how they cut costs in order to make up that money. And people just don’t know that. And this prepares them for it. It’s, you know, honestly, if I read it, my own guide, it would take me four hours. People who are avid remediers can actually go through it in about an hour and a half. But that’s gonna change the website itself.

is going to have videos on it that when you click on it it’s going to tell you in 30 seconds to a minute everything you need to know about that because let’s face it no one wants to

Dylan Silver (09:20.462)
I want to get a little bit granular here, Mark, and ask you about the situation out there. You mentioned there’s 400 public adjusters in that area. And you mentioned they’re essentially, what would you call it, ambulance or fire truck chasing in some instances. How does that happen? mean, civilian right, if there’s a 911 call fire, how is a public adjuster showing up there?

Mark Grossman (09:35.303)
Thanks,

Mark Grossman (09:39.122)
standards.

Mark Grossman (09:46.61)
They have scanners.

and they have what they call in the business of restoration, fire chasers, like you just said, and they have scanners. They hear the call come in, they actually go, they’re there before the fire trucks. You already have a crowd of people outside and they’re public adjusters or contractors. That’s how they get there. And it’s unfortunate that that happens now. When you take, there’s two different counties and now we’re just talking New York, but in Nassau County,

you have to actually take a FIT test and what that is is that you cannot approach a homeowner until all first responders are gone. You have to stay 500 yards back. It’s actually in force. The only way you’re getting in there is if the homeowner calls you or the insurance company itself calls you to go speak with the homeowner. That is the only way you’re getting in front of that homeowner. And when I go in front of a homeowner,

not as a public adjuster as a contractor. The first thing in my mouth is I’m not selling you anything. You just lost everything. I’m just going to explain the process and everything and all these people who are behind me. You can use me, don’t use me. I don’t care. You just need some guidance because you lost everything. You need to hear someone with conviction that can help stabilize you right now. You need to hear conviction, confidence, and this is how it works. Not, let me get back to you. let me find out. No one wants to hear that. I had so much experience and

I’ve been on hundreds of fires just like this that you just gotta give the guy or the woman some strength and let them know the process and then let them decide after that. I don’t put any pressure on people.

Dylan Silver (11:30.958)
So I wanna ask you a little bit about the scene when these things happen. Is there like lots of people there? Cause they maybe got scanners and you mentioned that and you’ve got of course first responders there at the scene and then the families outside or the individuals outside and then you have multiple people who are trying to get in front of that person. Is that how it is in a lot of cases out there in the New York area?

Mark Grossman (11:53.784)
It’s an absolute mess of people. You got your neighbors out there. That’s just one thing because you know, it’s interesting. You got a fire right in front of your house. That it’s, you’re naturally just going to go out and look.

but there is just the influx of all these contractors and public adjusters versus neighbors. I would say it would be 50-50. There’s that many of them out there and they’re just trying to catch the eye. They’re trying to figure out, who’s the homeowner? Is it him? Is it her? Who is actually the person I need to talk to? They’re gonna try to get their attention or they’re in a group because one public adjuster knows another one or they don’t like this person and they’re staying.

being standoffish with each other and they’re all trying to get to that homeowner.

You can avoid all of it by just not signing. The only thing, the only thing that needs to happen, now we’re talking about a fire, is just securing the property, and that’s a board up. And guess who actually has that information? Your insurance carrier, they’ll recommend a company, or you literally can just look up, Emergency Service Board Up Company, and that’s it, you got the number, you call them, they will be there within an hour and a half, any time of the day, 24 hours.

Seven days a week.

Dylan Silver (13:13.334)
Now have you found, and I think generally speaking people don’t necessarily have the greatest trust in the process when it comes to these situations, but have you found that generally when someone goes through a situation like this that their own insurance company is willing to pay out the necessary amount in order to hold up their policy? No.

Mark Grossman (13:34.362)
Absolutely not. Nope. Nope. Nope. Not even remotely close. And now let me explain the two differences between that. When you’re dealing with a large loss, they’re going to put a builder on it.

Dylan Silver (13:38.478)
See, yeah.

Mark Grossman (13:48.894)
So they’re gonna go based off of that builder. Now what you’re relying on is that builder actually a builder for restoration or is he a builder in their own? They have their own construction company, 90 % of the time they do. And yes, they do farm water restoration, but not that much. It’s a builder. They want somebody that’s gonna give them an estimate that actually is gonna be reasonable, that’s the word reasonable, but not what they’re actually really owed. And that is a major issue. But let’s just go to the ones that are

Really? Once they get taken is when the adjuster is writing the estimate anything that’s $100,000 pretty much the adjusters writing it He’s not a licensed contractor. He doesn’t know what actually really he may know he might have one strong facet You might not install roofs, but does he know how electrical is put together? Does he know the plumbing does he know the difference between? Pecs copper sweat Press pipe does he know any of these things most of the time they don’t they just put line items?

in there. And the most common thing that people can’t get around is this one right here. So if you’re to take something away from this, this would be it. So my contractor, I had a fire, I had a water dam and my bathroom shower, let’s just take a shower for instance, it got destroyed and they paid me, the insurance company paid me per square foot for that shower and it’s about $1,200.

Well, I’m getting a bill for $3,000. Well, that $3,000, hey, insurance company, they’re only going to do it for, they have to do it for three. And I got other quotes and they’re at 29 to $3,200. You gotta, you know, cough it up. And they’re going to say, no, we paid for by the square foot. can see here tile walls of shower.

And there it is. That’s what we allow for. It’s $1,500. And what the thing is that the adjuster doesn’t know about the program is that when you do something like that, actually have to do You have two ways to do this. One is the square footway, which or the other way, which is replace the shower. If you put in remove and replace the shower, it is $3,000. If you do it the square footway, you have to put in for the bull nodes, the niche, the threshold, the all the

Mark Grossman (16:08.352)
the decorative tile, the feature strip. Now when you put that in, guess where you’re at? $3,000. People don’t know that. That’s what’s on my website. Full blown estimates. Even if you’re an estimator in restoration, you should be jumping all over this website because it gives you every single thing that the insurance company will pay for, but people don’t know it. And that’s the same thing with painting. You get a contractor’s price for painting a room, it’s $1,000. My insurance company only gave me $500. Well, it’s a thousand.

Pay insurance company pay it. No look paint walls and ceiling $500. That’s all we allow Well what they left out in there is paint their base paint the openings paint the door paint the crown Now and detach and reset the contents now guess where they’re at a thousand dollars or more That is the difference. So no they do not get it right They will not get it right and I have never met an insurance carrier that actually paid the right number I will write an estimate for a hundred thousand dollars and I will land between 95 and

$98,000. You get a public adjuster in there, he’s going to come in there with his contractor, he’s going to write $100,000, he’s going to land between 75 and $85,000 because they can’t justify their numbers. That’s why this guide is so important. It will find the things that are missing, it will tell you the things that are missing, it goes room by room. It’s that critical that people know this information on their own. And you don’t need to hire someone that’s going to take more money away from your project. And remind you, when you take a public adjuster on, it ain’t just 10

of some places like Florida, it’s 20%. They’re not just taking from your repairs. They can take for your mitigation. They can take for your asbestos. They can take for your contents. They take for your ALE. So $500,000 loss, it’s not 50 grand. You’re over $100,000. You’re paying somebody to do what? Push paperwork. And guess what? They’re getting a referral or a kickback from every single person they bring into that house. Now I’m not saying all public adjusters do that. I don’t. But…

The majority of them do and that’s not a lie. That’s not made up. It’s not fabricated. It’s not speculation. I’ve watched it on 4,000 projects and they’re mine. All my data is 100 % hardcore real. It’s not pulled from here, pulled from there. It’s real and dealing with thousands of adjusters and thousands of claims.

Dylan Silver (18:22.562)
Mark, we are coming up on time here. Where can folks go if they’re in the New York area and maybe they want to reach out to you or learn more about this process or if they’re just curious about maybe a situation that they’ve dealt with or are dealing with?

Mark Grossman (18:26.6)
Sure, sorry.

Mark Grossman (18:39.28)
If you’re in the New York area or Florida, I’m licensed down there too. They can just reach out to me by number 516-807-6091, or just go to claimhelpme.com. If you wanna add a question, shoot me an email claimhelpme.gmail.com. It’s very, very simple to get in touch with me. I will respond. I’m gonna gear them and give them guidance. I’m not gonna sell them my services. If they want them, they will tell me they want them.

Otherwise, I’m just going to guide them.

Dylan Silver (19:11.66)
Mark, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

Mark Grossman (19:15.806)
I appreciate that, I hope in the future you’d ask me back, I do so. I boost your ratings maybe, I don’t know if I’m entertaining or not.

Dylan Silver (19:24.782)
Thanks, Mark.

Mark Grossman (19:26.686)
All right, take care.