Veteran housing journalist Matt Power, Pearl Homes founder Marshall Gobuty and Pearl Certification CEO Cynthia Adams discuss designing homes for wildfire, flood, wind and deep freeze, including reinforced block foundations, penetration-free solar mounting and what insurers will and will not cover.
00:00:09:15 - 00:00:36:16
Mike Collignon: Hello again everyone. Thank you for hopping on into this session. Our next session is titled resiliency, evolution, building for a World That Won't Play Nice. And our panelists certainly have experience with resiliency. Our first presenter will be veteran journalist and friend of everyone here because you're all very familiar with him. Matt Power he has reported on innovation and sustainability in housing for nearly three decades.
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Mike Collignon: An award winning writer, editor and filmmaker, he has a long history of asking hard questions and adding depth and context as he unfolds complex issues. Marshall Goodbody is a nationally acclaimed leader and innovator in the field of sustainable housing. He is the founder and CEO of Pearl homes and his projects, such as Mirabella and Hunter's Point, have achieved Leed certifications, with Hunter's Point earning the world's first Leed zero certification in 2018.
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Mike Collignon: Then, not only.
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Mike Collignon: Was Hunter's Point lead zero, but it was hurricane resistant.
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Mike Collignon: And its design, its.
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Mike Collignon: Elevated living spaces and its smart home technologies reflect Marshall's holistic approach to environmental stewardship and resilience. Now, Cynthia Adams is the CEO and co-founder of Pearl, an independent reading organization that's on a mission to make home performance matter. Under her leadership, Pearl.
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Mike Collignon: Developed the Pearl.
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Mike Collignon: Score, which is an acronym for their national standard for rating home performance across five key areas so far. Along with me here, we got safety, comfort, operations, resilience. There's that word again and energy systems that makes up their score. Cynthia also co-founded the Virginia Energy Efficiency Council and has served on multiple state and national advisory groups. All right, Matt, we're going to start with you, sir.
00:02:02:13 - 00:02:23:11
Matt Power: Okay. Thank you. And, thank you, everybody, for taking your valuable time to spend some of it with us. I'm going to lead off here and sort of frame the conversation for us. So resiliency is a topic near and dear to my heart. I've been covering resilient housing since before resilient, I feel like was even a word.
00:02:23:13 - 00:02:45:20
Matt Power: And we've watched over the last 15 years as it's sort of risen higher and higher on the priority list of everybody, not just homeowners, but builders. And now it's it's now a mainstream term. So I wanted to jump into just a short little slideshow to to set the stage here, and then we'll, what we're going to try to leave some room for conversation, all of us.
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Matt Power: So why don't we go ahead and put that slide show up. I'll share my screen with you. Okay. So we can all see that. So I just wanted to comment that that image may be familiar to you on the left. That was one of the Texas homes that was ruined by the big freeze a couple of years ago.
00:03:02:05 - 00:03:24:00
Matt Power: Something that was never supposed to happen. So that's going to be a theme that I'm going to keep touching back on is why this? Why are our homes not prepared for some of these natural disasters? And partly it's because things are happening in places where they never happened before.
00:03:24:02 - 00:03:47:09
Matt Power: So the big ones wildfire, floods, wind, and I threw in misinformation because you all remember the scenes with people gathering the toilet paper during the pandemic. I think those images stuck with me a lot. And what I was thinking at the time was there are simple solutions, for some of the things, when people panic, they sometimes go for the wrong, solution or the wrong technical fix.
00:03:47:11 - 00:04:13:22
Matt Power: For example, on the toilet paper, bidets, bidets. Now you can get one on Amazon for like 29 bucks, you can get a bidet. See the attach on to it. Toilet of a day means you never have to buy a single roll of toilet paper. It's a simple fix. Just one example of the things that that people can do with building science, that can help address some of these resilience issues.
00:04:13:24 - 00:04:33:25
Matt Power: Also, you know, this is the scene that's familiar. Now. This is happening all over the place with wildfires. Right? There's no there seems to be no zone in the country that's safe from wildfires. So why are we losing so many properties? Partly it's because there's more density, there's more housing. Right. But also we know how to build fire resistant, if not fire proof homes.
00:04:34:00 - 00:05:04:08
Matt Power: Even the big builders like KB home are jumping into this. There's it's not only the Firewise instructions of creating safe zones, zones around your house, it's the materials you're using and the technology. For example, Noncombustible roofing. We know metal roofs are great in wildfires, active suppression with sprinkler system hardly ever used, but very effective amber refusal. These are elements you can add in like sort into soffits where we know embers get inside houses and burn them down.
00:05:04:08 - 00:05:26:28
Matt Power: Simple things that could be done to make homes more fireproof or fire resistant. They did a report way back in 2010 on how sprinklers work. For example, if you put them around houses, that blue bar in the middle shows how many more houses survived just by having a simple sprinkler system that responded to the wildfires. Then there's the tornadoes.
00:05:26:28 - 00:05:49:18
Matt Power: The hurricanes. Right. I live in Florida, so I'm directly experience many of these hurricanes. The last hurricane we had last year, more than 100 tornadoes were spawned by it. Right now, there's a storm moving across the country. It's supposed to affect 30 million people, at, you know, many of them at risk of tornadoes. This house stood up one of these major hurricanes a couple of years ago.
00:05:49:18 - 00:06:14:23
Matt Power: It's made with ICF insulating concrete forms. It's a great way of building. Not enough homes are built this way. And we've now reached price parity almost with stick frame buildings with ICF. So we have this technology flooding. I've lost my house twice to flooding. Had to move. So I've experienced this directly. Flooding happens everywhere. It happens in North Carolina, it happens in Oklahoma.
00:06:14:23 - 00:06:33:12
Matt Power: It happens in Florida. There's no place safe, really, except maybe, you know, Utah. But we can raise houses, right? There's not a lot you can do if you don't. If you know the house is already established and it doesn't, you don't have flood insurance. But this is a simple way. You can take a block house and put SEPs on top of it.
00:06:33:12 - 00:06:57:00
Matt Power: There's ways to address some of these challenges. This map, you remember Tornado Alley? Well, this is tornado USA. These red marks, very high tornado risk. It's now almost you know, it's half the country is now at risk of tornadoes. We need to start thinking about housing that has a much higher wind resistance. Now builders are going to blanch at that because of regulation.
00:06:57:00 - 00:07:15:21
Matt Power: But I think it can be done fairly affordably. And there's a lot of different ways to approach it. Now, the other topic I want to make sure we don't miss, this is sort of one of my last slides here is home insurance. Home insurance is driving a lot of decisions. A lot of, you know, insurers are leaving different parts of the country.
00:07:15:23 - 00:07:37:24
Matt Power: The the costs of home insurance are spiking dramatically in Florida. They've tripled or quadrupled. And that can drive a lot of people out. It can. It hurts everybody. So I think it's something we should bring up and talk about different ways to address it, maybe through building science. My bottom line is homes that we build now must be ready for anything because the climate has changed.
00:07:37:24 - 00:07:58:05
Matt Power: Whether or not you believe that it's all manmade, it's certainly intensifying the level of the storms. So let's approach it from a building science angle. We can't make every home bulletproof, but we can certainly make them a lot tougher and a lot more resilient. I'm going to kick this over to Marshall now and let him make a few remarks, and we'll keep moving on.
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Marshall Gobuty: Thank you. Okay. Thanks, Matt.
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Matt Power: Sure.
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Marshall Gobuty: Speaking it well, I'll jump right into, you know, which was a key factor for us being in Florida is insurance. When we designed this home, which we really spent, you know, we spent seven years developing our pearl home. It was something that we actually built our home in, which we call a research and design center, which is another word for warehouse in a very far out area of Florida.
00:08:24:24 - 00:08:45:13
Marshall Gobuty: We built the home and we operated for 18 months because the weather and the of course, the sun in Florida changes all the time. It's the Sunshine State, but some months are better than others. So we ran this home and operated for 18 months, and we actually came up with the Pearl home. And we were the very first, lead zero home in the world.
00:08:45:19 - 00:09:05:27
Marshall Gobuty: And we've taken that now and we've got on our community, of of 86 homes. We've built 34 of them, and we've survived four hurricanes. The last one was very scary because when you're looking at the news and you see your city's name right in the middle of the red line, you think I'd like that to go to Fort Myers?
00:09:05:27 - 00:09:25:29
Marshall Gobuty: I'd like that to go to Tampa. No, it came right to us. And so what I like to do, if we can go through the slides, I'll be able to show you some of the things that have happened and how you were able to build this home specifically for the market. Think we are in, a climate change, as Matt alluded to, you know, whether it be forced upon us or really there's climate change.
00:09:26:04 - 00:09:46:19
Marshall Gobuty: We can tell you there's absolute climate change. And we built these homes with the concept of that, you know, taking the most aggressive location we can find, which is a hurricane zone and a flood zone and a FEMA hurricane zone. We we decided that this is the place to launch our product, because, of course, if we were inland, it would be much easier.
00:09:46:25 - 00:10:11:08
Marshall Gobuty: So what we did was we spent our time. You can continue, really focusing on how we could build this home to be resilient to specifically how we're dealing with it. So we had, you know, a very first decision we made was to add more field to the site. And that was very expensive because in Florida, each each foot of full fill is $1 million.
00:10:11:08 - 00:10:32:10
Marshall Gobuty: So we added 3.5ft to the whole site. And that really saved us during the first, you know, King tide surge, which really was something that came up all the way to the driveways, but nothing came past the driveway. So we have nine feet from the floor of the garage to the first floor, and we're actually 17ft above the flood zone.
00:10:32:14 - 00:10:58:15
Marshall Gobuty: So the concept and the thought process that went into it is just as important as the final product. And, and we really were very proud and amazed that we went through it. And we're proud and amazed that we were able to achieve this because it was something that although is challenged, and when you work with amazing people from lead to the USBc and the Florida Solar Energy Center, they gave us direction and advice.
00:10:58:23 - 00:11:21:05
Marshall Gobuty: You know, people have been doing this for years. We took their advice and we built this home. And as you can see on the next slide, we really the mission for our home was sustainability. That was our primary concern. And you can see our Herz rating here of -11 is very impressive. You know we're very impressed. And we really this was a huge challenge for us to achieve.
00:11:21:07 - 00:11:43:26
Marshall Gobuty: And what's happened is this whole conversation of resilience is that it was we based this home on sustainability, and that was our number one consideration. And then when we started to see the climate and we start to see how we could actually build this home, we focused ourselves again on resiliency. And having gone through four hurricanes, you know, one king tide surge.
00:11:44:03 - 00:12:08:23
Marshall Gobuty: And we can say that in the four hurricanes that happened the last three years, not only has a community not had one insurance claim, but not one single owner has had an insurance claim. And that's something that really tells you about how we build the home and what the thought that went into it. Thanks, Mary. Now we are very concerned about, you know, the materials that we use.
00:12:08:29 - 00:12:34:03
Marshall Gobuty: So much thought went into this process. So everybody people want black homes. So what we did was the first floor and the foundation is is a monolithic foundation that's connected to the to the blocking. The blocking is filled with rebar and it's connected to the foundation with filled concrete, foam filled concrete cells. Then we take instead of two by four, we're using two by six.
00:12:34:05 - 00:12:59:03
Marshall Gobuty: And in a two by six structuring of the timber, we're filling not just the ceilings, but the walls with six inch foam insulation. And what that does is adds resilience to our building, along with the Simpson strapping, which you'll see in some, the next frame. No, that's just a beautiful house. Oh, another beautiful house. Fantastic. There are beautiful houses that are sustainable and resilient.
00:12:59:05 - 00:13:17:25
Marshall Gobuty: There's a leader, Mahesh. Okay, we can move past this one too. I don't want to spend too much time on this. But you can see our proximity to the water. That's the Gulf of Mexico right there. So we have these winds coming to us without any protection. We have these winds coming to us like in the last two hurricanes.
00:13:17:27 - 00:13:37:11
Marshall Gobuty: We build these homes with steel standing seam steel roofs. And we thought, well, that's the best thing that we would need to do for, you know, heavy, heavy rains. But the rains came during these last two hurricanes horizontally. So we were getting water hit the side of the homes. And so that's where the smart, thoughtful process went into.
00:13:37:13 - 00:14:09:16
Marshall Gobuty: Instead of using, hypothetically, Tyvek, we use the zip panels five eighth of an inch, all but all sealed. That on top of that we have hardy board that protects the home. And so, you know, water is our enemy. Resilience is our challenge. And so we were able to, you know, build this home to live in our environment. And we can actually, you know, I don't want to say that we needed the four hurricanes to get through this, but we actually did that so that we were able to, you know, prove our process.
00:14:09:18 - 00:14:28:11
Marshall Gobuty: Now, this is the beginning of the foundations, and you can see how, you know, the homes are very close together. They're right on the water. And, and and we they're all, you know, we could say category five. There's just no rule that there's really no measure for category five at this stage. So the category, you know, 140, 145 mile an hour winds.
00:14:28:17 - 00:14:53:24
Marshall Gobuty: And we during the last hurricane, we noticed something very interesting. The coconut trees fell down where the palm tree stayed up. And how we found out is that coconut trees at 100 miles an hour fall, palm trees don't go down until they're 145mph. So it's something interesting because right down the middle of our street, all the coconut trees were damaged where all the palm trees stay strong.
00:14:53:26 - 00:15:14:06
Marshall Gobuty: That's just a nice fact that I think anybody would know. And we really, you know, when we built these homes, of course, the challenge is net zero, and you can't build a 5000 square foot home and be net zero. So we were very conscious about the battery that we chose. And we chose after looking at every battery in the market, the Sun and battery.
00:15:14:11 - 00:15:53:13
Marshall Gobuty: The Sun and battery offered us this daily use. And so we were able to use the battery every day. So at sunset, the battery kicks in in the morning and runs all evening. All night. And then the morning the sun rises, the solar panels kick in, they charge the battery and then the home is essentially off the grid all the time, you know, and it's something that we we planned on, but we didn't expect it to be such an advantage during these past few hurricanes, because what happened in our area during Milton, there was nine days after the hurricane that there was no power, but our homes and our owners were able to stay in
00:15:53:13 - 00:16:25:00
Marshall Gobuty: their homes because every morning we we, the sun came up to recharge the battery and the whole process went through. We did learn one thing that we were going to add another four kilowatts to each home so that we can have the power go even longer, and we're also changing one other component. We're adding a subpanel to each home so that in the event of the power going off, that the sister sun and system will manage the power that's being used, so that we will be able to use the air conditioning, your your frigerator and your lights.
00:16:25:00 - 00:16:44:16
Marshall Gobuty: So that way we can and we've managed to do that for ten days. So I think that, you know, we've the testing and the trials of having these hurricanes hit us directly was was certainly worth it. From that perspective. This is the image of the King tide surge. And you can see how high the water came up and yet didn't even get close to the homes.
00:16:44:21 - 00:17:15:19
Marshall Gobuty: So and this is a benefit for us because of the fact that, you know, we're able to offer to our homeowners and community people, insurance that as a great rate, like our flood insurance for our homes is $1,600 a year. So in Florida in a hurricane zone. So that's something to be very proud of. And I'm talking about the standing, this is hard to say over and over again, but the standing seam steel roof, the significance of that is that that reduces the penetrations.
00:17:15:22 - 00:17:41:16
Marshall Gobuty: And when you're talking about resiliency, you can't damage your home. And so we we're really happy about the way that our solar panels clip on to the standing seams. And we reduce penetrations. Because if you put solar panels on a regular home, you're talking about penetrations. And penetrations reduce your home's efficiency, obviously in a material way. This is this is our sun and battery.
00:17:41:18 - 00:18:02:24
Marshall Gobuty: We have a we have a son and battery room and and it's just, you know, it's for us. It's beautiful. And you're able to see every day on your cell phone how much power you generated. And there's something to be said about, you know, knowing that you self-generated this power when you didn't have to. And it's not all about money.
00:18:02:24 - 00:18:22:20
Marshall Gobuty: It's not about no utility bill. It's about the feeling that you've done something good and that you've used your own self power. You've used your own clean energy. And I can't under emphasize how important that is to people. They really get it. And for people that really aren't in the sustainable world and haven't been here before, they get that.
00:18:22:20 - 00:18:46:27
Marshall Gobuty: They get to say that they created their own power in their home, and it's something to be proud of. We monitor every home. We have a system that we can tell when they're with, with new concepts and ideas. There's always issues, in homebuilding there's issues anyways. But now that we add all these components to it, there are always even more issues that figure that out.
00:18:47:03 - 00:19:17:18
Marshall Gobuty: So we have this amazing system that we've designed with sun. And so we're able to see how each home is operating, how much consumption it's taking. You know, if somebody, you know, downstairs is opened up a lab, we can tell. But for the most part, you know, we're able to make sure and ensure that the system's operating and and putting more power back to the grid and, and enabling the homeowner to have essentially no utility bill at the end of the year.
00:19:17:21 - 00:19:39:20
Marshall Gobuty: Oh, people walking in the door. Okay, so let me talk more about the community and where we are now. You can see again the the proximity to the water. You can imagine these first, these homes that are facing it. The wind came at it at crazy, crazy numbers. And, you know, of course, people were told to evacuate their homes, but we had like 6 or 7 families that decided to stay.
00:19:39:24 - 00:19:59:12
Marshall Gobuty: And we have amazing video coverage. It's like scary actually. But they survive through it and, and and then their sense of pride. Some people that really had no experience in resilience or sustainability or possibly had no interest in it, are now very proud. So it's like, you know, it's something to say to get them to experience it.
00:19:59:18 - 00:20:23:16
Marshall Gobuty: Clean energy as an experience is a very positive effect on you and resilience now, because the main focus and our challenge was sustainability, but because we chose the path of sustainability and resilience that really made us shine during these past few events. So I'm very, very I love to talk about any component that you like to, you can see the lights going on.
00:20:23:16 - 00:20:46:10
Marshall Gobuty: They automatically go on every night at sunset. And, it's really turned out to be something special. We're now taking the same concept and we're we have a product. We have we have 200 unit workforce housing project in downtown Bradenton called the met. And we're building another 600 units around it. And we're going to be building one of them, net zero, and the other few will just be will be Leed.
00:20:46:12 - 00:21:08:02
Marshall Gobuty: And the, the, the power will stay on in the homes when there's going to be the pending climate change events that we expect to have over the next few years. And so, you know, one thing is to say, well, you're building homes for wealthy people. Well, we had to build near the water, and water is expensive, but we have to promote we have to, communities planned in the future.
00:21:08:07 - 00:21:31:11
Marshall Gobuty: When I talked about the workforce housing project in Bradenton and the other is our called Our Lives, which is 720 units of a single family rental. And so we will build those sustainable and resilient on the same Leed platform. And they will be for rental. And I think that's what's going to give people the opportunity to experience. And, you know, they also don't have to be rich to live in a sustainable home.
00:21:31:14 - 00:21:42:29
Marshall Gobuty: That's our mission. Because what we do, everybody should be doing. And I got to tell you, it's not that hard. It just takes discipline. And I hope I didn't talk too much.
00:21:43:02 - 00:21:51:26
Matt Power: Great. Well thank you. No, that was that was great. And I'm sure we're gonna have some questions and thoughts on that too. So, Sarah, do you want to,
00:21:51:29 - 00:21:59:04
Sara Gutterman: Well, actually, I want to go over to Cynthia, and then after Cynthia, I'll chime back in and we'll start with our Q&A. So thanks, Matt.
00:21:59:06 - 00:22:22:28
Cynthia Adams: I think, sir, you wanted me to say a few words about sheltering in place. And again, we don't need to show the slides right at this moment. Although I will say that it was a part of my own sheltering in place, and then being evacuated from, when I was in Boulder, Colorado, and we had a wildfire that got started right behind the subdivision that I lived in.
00:22:23:00 - 00:22:55:28
Cynthia Adams: So, it was a little bit, too close for comfort, and, a big deal for the community. I think that it would be helpful to just reiterate that, climate disasters. Well, they may not have happened in your own backyard like they did for me, are happening again with much greater frequency. The U.S average 20 separate billion dollar weather related disasters from 2020 to 2023, and that's a double the average from the 20 tens.
00:22:56:01 - 00:23:27:00
Cynthia Adams: So, CoreLogic is even a stat that showed that 1 in 10 U.S homes was impacted by a natural disaster in 2021 alone. And so homes that are designed for passive survivability can stay safer and help the homeowners stay safer during, challenging climate related disasters. And particularly when we think about the grid outages that are likely to happen when these events take place.
00:23:27:02 - 00:23:56:19
Cynthia Adams: So we think about the sorts of features that the home might have in place, and that homeowners can put in place now if they're in existing homes, the there's there's certainly, backup power supply. So solar battery storage systems, can be super important. Whole home generators, of course. Super important, but so is the building shell, because when the power does go out, how long can you stay comfortable in your house?
00:23:56:19 - 00:24:28:20
Cynthia Adams: What's the structural integrity of the home? So looking at high performance insulation, impact resistant roofing and siding, making sure that you're if you are in a place that is prone to hurricanes, that you've got hurricane ties with your roofing and is much bolted down within the structure as possible, is super important. For areas that have the opposite problem, say with fire, having an RV or an RV system for air exchange can be super important.
00:24:28:23 - 00:25:02:27
Cynthia Adams: Including, indoor air quality monitoring and help with filtration to protect against smoke insulation, and other things to think about might be water resilience, rainwater catchment infiltration, greywater systems. If you're in an area that's prone to flooding, making sure that your sump pump is attached to your battery backup is another important, feature that the home can have because ultimately, when we think about resilience, it's not just about, bouncing back from a particular climate related disaster.
00:25:02:27 - 00:25:18:26
Cynthia Adams: It is about staying safe in your home when the grid goes down or when roads are impassable. So if your home is a life raft during this crisis, these features are essentially your floatation devices.
00:25:18:28 - 00:25:55:01
Sara Gutterman: In the air. Thank you so much. And Marshall and Matt, thank you all for, that excellent context information. I want to dive right into talking about resiliency, the ROI of resiliency, and the insurance and financial angle. So, Matt, let's start with you. Insurance companies are sounding the alarm. How do we translate resiliency into ROI language that they can understand, and ROI not just for homeowners, but also for builders and developers that are trying to sell resiliency as long term value.
00:25:55:04 - 00:26:16:23
Matt Power: Well, one thing you can do is you can look at, you know, insurance companies are experts at risk. Honestly, they're probably better than all of us at assessing, you know, the parts of a building that are most at risk in storms and especially monster storms. I can think of just like off the top of my head a few things, like, Cynthia mentioned hurricane clips, for example.
00:26:16:23 - 00:26:38:16
Matt Power: Almost every insurer gives, discounts for hurricanes. So what we're talking about when you say ROI and you want to you want to try to knock those insurance costs down. So what can you do on your home? And if you're in a wildfire zone, of course, you're going to do, you know, fireproofing materials. You're going to do James Hardie, you know, fiber cement siding and metal roofs and, and soffit, ember arrestor.
00:26:38:16 - 00:27:05:00
Matt Power: But if you're in, and in a wind zone, it's everything that holds the building to the ground. And, you know, we were you were talking about, spray foam. One of the advantages of putting using spray foam, both in walls and roof is the stiffening effect. The University of Gainesville did a study that showed that if you spray foam a roof on a home, it gives it a 250% uplift resistance just by spray foam.
00:27:05:01 - 00:27:24:19
Matt Power: So roofs are one of the challenges. You can build a, you know, a sip home or a concrete block home. But if you don't secure that roof with something special, like spray foam clips, you know, you're not going to get the strength out of it. Unfortunately, the insurance companies are not giving big discounts for spray foam yet, but they will for other types of tie down.
00:27:24:19 - 00:27:44:25
Matt Power: So the other thing is leaks. You know, water damage beyond, flooding. We've had a guy, Steve Easley, who, who works with us closely lost a house to a leak last year. Basically, they had an upstairs leak and lost the whole house. A lot of insurance companies, if you look at your insurance writer closely, they wrap in leak protection.
00:27:44:27 - 00:28:08:21
Matt Power: If you install an affordable leak system like a, you know, a fin system or flow by mold or one of those, it knocks 500 bucks right off the top of your home insurance. So there's, there's a bunch of different things people don't know about that you can do as, as you're building or as a developer of builders putting your house together that's going to for the life of the home, knock your insurance premiums down.
00:28:08:27 - 00:28:11:27
Matt Power: So that's where I would start with ROI.
00:28:11:29 - 00:28:23:00
Sara Gutterman: Thanks, Matt. Marshall, you've raised concerns about fraudulent insurance products being marketed to vulnerable homeowners. What warning signs should consumers look for?
00:28:23:03 - 00:28:42:15
Marshall Gobuty: That's a it's a great question because we've you know, when we were getting quotes, we were going directly to the carriers themselves because the brokers seem to be very confused with us. They didn't know how to treat us. And as Matt said, that the the money flow is a great idea that saves you a ton of money and it protects your home a lot of the time.
00:28:42:15 - 00:28:59:29
Marshall Gobuty: You know, insurance brokers are salesmen and so they don't really understand, you know how your house is rated. They don't understand the components that are with it. So we try to educate the owners and and even though they want to stick to their own broker sometimes or they'll, they'll, they'll pay a higher price, we try to express them.
00:28:59:29 - 00:29:24:08
Marshall Gobuty: It's so important that the whoever the carry is carrier is they understand the home. And for our, in our specific instance, because the pearl home and this is one specific home that we're building over and over again. And the the pattern of success has been proven. We've been able to reduce these numbers, working with the carriers directly. So it's important to to talk to the homeowner and the potential buyer.
00:29:24:10 - 00:29:42:10
Marshall Gobuty: It's not just, you know, putting a an insurance policy on a home anymore coverage. And and will they protect you in the worst case scenario is something that we have to be aware of. And I think, you know, we're doing a good job of that because it's one of our you know, it's one of our calling signs is to be able to say, look how great, you know, you can ensure a home.
00:29:42:13 - 00:30:08:13
Marshall Gobuty: I've won between 1.2 and $1.5 million for 5 or $6000 a year. That's a great number if you're in a hurricane zone. So we we feel that the more that we can educate the consumer and the more that they're aware of, you know, competing, competing carriers that really fulfill their obligations, I think it's somewhere that we really have to continue as developers and home builders to get that message across to them.
00:30:08:16 - 00:30:34:05
Matt Power: Marshall, can I ask you a question? I noticed your, on your houses. You've got the solar with the no clip solar. So you don't, you know, in other words, you're not screwing through the metal roof you're attaching to the standing seam. I know in Florida, because I live in Florida too. Is is sometimes the insurers frown on solar or if not, frown on it, charge you a lot extra because they don't like the penetrations through the roofing materials.
00:30:34:07 - 00:30:41:18
Matt Power: Did you get any discount? From the insurers by using a non penetrating, attachment system?
00:30:41:20 - 00:31:03:10
Marshall Gobuty: That's a great question. I forgot about that. But at the very beginning we were being told like we were actually told for the first few homes. Sorry, we are not covering the solar panels. I mean, and that was like the homeowner was saying, what are you talking about? Like that's a huge component of the house. And and what we had to explain to them in detail, diagrams how they're clipped on to the, to the, to the standing seams.
00:31:03:16 - 00:31:20:05
Marshall Gobuty: And there's no penetrations. They were more worried about them being flown off and being, you know, you know, we were afraid of them. Of course, we asked as well to know how long, how strong that clip would be, but they would be like, you know, a moving target. They could kill somebody. So we were very conscious of that.
00:31:20:05 - 00:31:36:18
Marshall Gobuty: And they were like, they even said to a our first few buyers, I'm sorry, we're not cover your house because you have solar panels. This is a year and a half ago. Things have changed since then. But absolutely, the more that we can show that there's no penetrations, the more confident the carrier is.
00:31:36:20 - 00:31:58:04
Matt Power: I noticed also one thing I thought was cool in your your the way you're describing your houses is you used like a concrete block, reinforced block for some of the lower part of the foundation. Is that right? So I've written somewhat a lot of people in Florida live in concrete block houses, but unfortunately most of them at the time when they were built 20 years ago did not have rebar reinforcement in them.
00:31:58:04 - 00:32:14:10
Matt Power: So I know if you add rebar, I just wanted to point this out to people who are watching. If you add rebar in a concrete bucket, it makes it incredibly strong and gives it way more, hurricane resistance. And obviously you did your research on that and came to the same conclusion.
00:32:14:13 - 00:32:36:07
Marshall Gobuty: And I think, you know, tying, you know, what we're doing is with even with the foundation, you know, where the code is, 16 or 18in where we double that, that we're adding more and more like there's nothing that says we have to put, you know, fill every concrete block with, with, with cement, with poured cement and the rebar, and that connects right down to the foundation.
00:32:36:13 - 00:32:57:09
Marshall Gobuty: And then we continue that with the timber using on the exterior, with the zip panels, with the Simpson striping. And, you know, the requirement for Simpson wrapping is so, you know, every so many feet you have to have them. We just tripled that number because it's able to do it. You can see when homes being built just common sense tells you it's not going anywhere.
00:32:57:11 - 00:33:15:09
Marshall Gobuty: It's just like one solid piece. And I think, you know, it's not it's it's a little bit of a cost, but it's not a cost that anybody or any builder should worry about and shouldn't be doing it because it pays for itself. You have a house that's stable and and safe, and I don't know why everyone's not doing it.
00:33:15:12 - 00:33:17:25
Mike Collignon: For our attendees who might not know that.
00:33:17:27 - 00:33:40:04
Sara Gutterman: And, Matt, I'm taking it back and do you have car insurance? The canary in the coal mine. But you're also warning about mortgages. Tell us what your concerns are on the mortgage front. And what happens when homes become financially underwater due to extreme weather risk, and what homeowners can do to, stay ahead of that?
00:33:40:06 - 00:33:45:17
Matt Power: All right. That one to me is very, you know, that's for some.
00:33:45:20 - 00:34:12:06
Cynthia Adams: Well, thank you for the question. I, I do think if insurance is the canary in the coal mine, that mortgages are the next casualty. We're entering a new era where climate risk doesn't just impact a person's utility bills or emergency plans, it directly affects their home equity and financial future. The smart move for homeowners is to treat resilience as asset protection, not just disaster preparedness.
00:34:12:08 - 00:34:36:27
Cynthia Adams: What we're seeing with some lenders, particularly in wildfire fire, excuse me, flood and storm prone regions, is that they're starting to tighten their terms. They're asking for higher down payments. Additional writers like, say, excess flood. They're looking for lower loan to value ratios and some of them are walking away altogether. If adequate insurance cannot be secured.
00:34:36:29 - 00:35:04:23
Cynthia Adams: And the result of this, then is that we see property values begin to decline. So homes in high risk areas are already seeing a price depreciation or price suppression relative to lower risk areas. And I can point to Cape Coral as an example of that. In places like coastal Florida or say, California, properties have been shown to sell at a 5 to 10% discount compared to similar homes outside of these risk zones.
00:35:04:25 - 00:35:29:01
Cynthia Adams: So what we think about here in terms of being underwater is that it's not just the original meaning of a home owing more than it's worth, but the home is now underwater by climate, not just by market and being uninsurable or uninhabitable due to rising physical risk, which leads to stranded assets and mortgage defaults. So what can a homeowner do about that?
00:35:29:01 - 00:35:56:12
Cynthia Adams: Well, they can take some of the measures that we talked about earlier in this to heart. I think we have a number of measures that have been talked about for new construction, and I've gone through a list of measures that a homeowners can think about for existing homes and then ensuring that this information is really well documented, every step of the way, as they've made these improvements so that they can share it with their insurers and share it with their lenders.
00:35:56:14 - 00:36:21:13
Sara Gutterman: Thanks, Cynthia. And let me, follow up with another question for you before I go back to Matt and Marshall. You work at the intersection of policy certification and market data. So how are codes, regulations, and homeowner expectations changing in response to the growing demand for resilient homes? With 87 million homes right now rated through the Pearl Score and Home Performance Registry.
00:36:21:15 - 00:36:28:18
Sara Gutterman: How is transparency becoming a driver for smarter and more durable construction?
00:36:28:20 - 00:36:54:07
Cynthia Adams: Thank you. That's a fantastic question because it hits at the heart of market transformation that we're seeing the convergence of policy, third party certification and homeowner demand is accelerating change faster than most people realize. First, building codes and regulations are catching up to the new climate reality. We're seeing updates that not only prioritize energy efficiency, but also resilience.
00:36:54:10 - 00:37:23:28
Cynthia Adams: Things like backup power readiness, fire resistant materials, elevated construction in flood zones like we've talked about here, what used to be considered nice to have is rapidly becoming required in many more jurisdictions. But policy alone doesn't drive markets. Transparency does. That's where tools like the Pearl score and our home performance Registry and lead and hers and other types of rating systems come into play.
00:37:24:01 - 00:37:50:26
Cynthia Adams: The Pearl score stands, as we said, for safety, comfort, operations, resilience and energy. And it gives homeowners and buyers a clear, third party, verified view into how well a home performs, not just in terms of energy, but how well it can hold up in a case of a fire, flood or a deep freeze. And yes, with 87 million homes now scored, that kind of transparency is creating demand for smarter, more durable homes.
00:37:50:28 - 00:38:24:05
Cynthia Adams: Because if you think about it, if you're choosing between two homes and one has documented resilience features, backup power, fire resistant construction, etc., you know it's going to be safer and cheaper to live in, and that drives market preference. And once the real estate market starts valuing these attributes, builders, contractors and lenders will follow. So really we're at a tipping point where transparency through tools like the Pearl score and other certifications that are out there, they make that resilience visible.
00:38:24:05 - 00:38:30:26
Cynthia Adams: And by making it visible, it makes it more valuable. And that becomes a powerful lever for change.
00:38:30:28 - 00:38:57:10
Sara Gutterman: Thank you Cynthia. So I want to switch to talk about tools, technologies and market ready solutions. So Matt this is really your purview and forte. What are some of the most impactful products and systems available. You've talked about them a little bit. You and Marshall discuss them a little bit. But you know, what are those systems that builders and developers just must be utilizing to boost resiliency from smart energy systems, microgrids?
00:38:57:12 - 00:39:06:10
Sara Gutterman: You know, water in independence and independent water systems or onsite water generation systems and material choices. Talk a little bit about some of the things you have your eyes on.
00:39:06:13 - 00:39:30:17
Matt Power: Yeah, I mean, it's interesting, you know, I was thinking about, I don't know if any of you ever watched the, like on YouTube, the little prepper videos. Sometimes you, you know, you go on and you see how see the things that people think about, right? When a disaster strikes. You know, I mentioned the toilet paper thing, but you know, it really very quickly, like if you paid attention to what was out there was a huge article, might have been in the it was in the Guardian this morning about Spain.
00:39:30:17 - 00:39:49:17
Matt Power: And what happened, I think was yesterday, the day before they had that huge power outage where half the country lost power for nine hours. And how people go through these transitions over. At first it's kind of cool. And then within four hours they're realizing that some people can't get their medicine or they, you know, there's things start to go wrong really quickly.
00:39:49:17 - 00:40:10:04
Matt Power: So I think the power backup issue, it used to be kind of a boutique, kind of a, you know, wealthy person, you know, sort of a choice. You do. I really want power to wind up. But now with, with the situation of like, the Texas power outages and outages are actually occurring more frequently. I think the grid is a little bit fragile right now.
00:40:10:04 - 00:40:35:13
Matt Power: I think we're going through a transition with the grid, and I think having a backup now financially actually makes sense. You mentioned, Marshall, that it was, what, nine days after that hurricane where people didn't have power. So I wouldn't have said that like 2 or 3 years ago. I wouldn't I would said, well, maybe you should wait on batteries where I think now, especially with lithium ion batteries that are not as likely to explode, for example, they're better built and they're safer.
00:40:35:15 - 00:40:52:27
Matt Power: So there's different technology that I feel is more mature, and you can get thousands of cycles out of those lithium ion batteries. So they're not going to wear out on you for years. So I think that's a big deal too. I didn't, you know, I think I had some pushback a few years ago about batteries that ran that, that you had to dispose up, too quickly.
00:40:52:27 - 00:41:11:21
Matt Power: They're now they last longer, they're recyclable. But the other things that I mentioned are just the fundamental building blocks of a house. And I think you look at geographically in your area, what are the risks? One of the things that I'd point out, like in Asheville, North Carolina, where they got hammered by the flooding, they were not ready for flooding.
00:41:11:21 - 00:41:50:25
Matt Power: Their houses weren't built from flooding. They didn't have flood insurance. So how do you you know, you saw my slide that said ready for anything? How do you prepare in a situation like that? Maybe it's just that every house needs to be built a little better, a little sturdier, a little more sustainably. For multiple threats. And I'm not saying you have to live in, you know, paranoia, but at the same time, we have the technology, we have the codes to, you know, add rebar to concrete, block, use alternate systems like ships or like spray foam two by six walls, like, like they're doing or, ICF and try other stronger methods of construction that
00:41:50:25 - 00:41:55:29
Matt Power: can handle many different types of resiliency challenges.
00:41:56:02 - 00:42:32:24
Sara Gutterman: Thanks. Matt Marshall, in your experience, what are the critical design and product specification decisions? What are the absolutely critical construction approaches, building science approaches that are just must haves, that can really make or break a home's ability to survive the next big climate event? And, you know, if you were standing in front of a group of builders and developers, architects, specifiers and or homeowners, what would be your, your, your must have elements based on your experience?
00:42:32:27 - 00:42:51:01
Marshall Gobuty: Great question. And I as you're asking, I'm thinking there's a lot here to tell you, but I think common sense is the first one because, you know, as Matt said, it's not rocket science to put rebar in concrete blocks. It's not that hard to fill them with concrete, and it's not that hard to connect them to the foundation.
00:42:51:03 - 00:43:16:07
Marshall Gobuty: Right. So so The Simpsons strapping has been around for years. Like these things that that that are like I call myself sometimes, you know, we're not the inventor or Mr. Potato Head. You know, we put these great components together and have a great home. And I and I think, you know, the construction industry itself, you know, it's maturing, but the common denominator is always, you know, the same utility, the same components.
00:43:16:07 - 00:43:38:08
Marshall Gobuty: So instead of two by four we use two by six the blocking, the rebar, the foundation, you know, doing the extra things that enable the home to be climate resilient to our climate change is something that we have to take seriously. And I would say to other builders, which I have and I, I don't know if I can argue sometimes that they want to spend more money on a better quartz countertops.
00:43:38:15 - 00:43:58:15
Marshall Gobuty: And I say that's as insignificant to building a better home. I mean, really, Cynthia nailed it because of the fact that transparency is the best asset. You know, when I was on the phone with someone yesterday from Ohio and, and of course, most everybody that buys one of our homes is a builder, right? So it just just happens that everybody is a builder that ever bought our home.
00:43:58:17 - 00:44:20:20
Marshall Gobuty: And telling them exactly what we do and how we do it is the way we get them to be part of our community. So by being transparent and and showing that you know, we have we have the Mo and flow in case you forget to leave your house and you can turn it off on your app or, or we have the air system quality where you can always tell what kind of air you're breathing in your home.
00:44:20:23 - 00:44:39:12
Marshall Gobuty: These things are add ons, but the real the real base of what we've been building, these 87 million homes in our country for the last few years. All of those common denominators are there. We just have to use them differently. You have to ply them with with a little bit more costs, not material costs. That says, I can't afford to do that.
00:44:39:15 - 00:44:58:19
Marshall Gobuty: But, you know, instead of Tyvek, you know, do zip panels, it's just better, you know, that when you put Tyvek on immediately, you're going to have a penetration because it goes on with penetration. So I think it's a really a common sense approach. And, you know, I haven't had a lot of success talking to other builders. I can be can with you.
00:44:58:19 - 00:45:05:08
Marshall Gobuty: It's been it's been frustrating, especially in Florida. But I believe we're on the right path. I really do.
00:45:05:10 - 00:45:24:03
Sara Gutterman: Thanks, Marshall. Cynthia, let's come back to you. What are some of the things that builders and homeowners need to know about the nexus between certifications and resiliency, especially when it comes to sheltering in place and minimizing risk?
00:45:24:05 - 00:45:47:02
Cynthia Adams: It's an interesting question. I think the important thing to keep in mind about certification is that it's it's not just a label. It's it's its own signal of preparedness, if you will. When it comes to resilience, it's not enough to just build or renovate with good intentions. You need to verify that the home is actually going to perform when it matters most.
00:45:47:05 - 00:46:30:19
Cynthia Adams: So for builders and homeowners, certifications like Perls and Leed, they provide that accountability. They ensure that the right materials, systems and design strategies are in place and that they've been installed to that quality standard. And this becomes incredibly important when you're talking about sheltering in place during a blackout, a wildfire event, or even a deep freeze. And what we've done with our framework is create a structured way to evaluate a home, whether that home can maintain level, excuse me, livable conditions when the grid goes down, and builders who can deliver on that type of performance are going to be the ones who thrive in this next era.
00:46:30:21 - 00:47:00:09
Cynthia Adams: I think we're seeing tremendous demand already for the services that some of our panelists here are offering to the market, because they can demonstrate that that level of resilience is actually protecting not just the families, but the families biggest asset, which is their home. So I think that the nexus between certification and resilience is this it turns out the good intentions, into, need to translate into verifiable outcomes.
00:47:00:11 - 00:47:13:08
Cynthia Adams: When the next storm or the next heat wave hits. It might be a reason why a family can stay safe in their home instead of evacuating, or instead of facing like a near and total loss.
00:47:13:10 - 00:47:29:19
Matt Power: You know what? What's going to add? I just want to add a comment on the sheltering in place idea, because I had to evacuate my house like four times last year because of hurricane. So seven. There is a little bit of a gray area there between when you, no matter how well-built your house is, you just need to get out.
00:47:29:19 - 00:47:48:07
Matt Power: When there's a cat five direct hit storm coming. I think there's I just don't want people to think that that they're going to be safe in their house in any situation. There are that's transparency issue. There are situations where the storm's just too scary and, you just need to go somewhere while it hits and come hopefully come back in.
00:47:48:07 - 00:47:52:06
Matt Power: Your power still on, but maybe make that distinction.
00:47:52:08 - 00:48:21:02
Sara Gutterman: Yeah. Thanks, Matt. And, Matt, I want, to ask a question both to you and to Marshall. This came in through the Q&A. The question was really about first cost versus full cost. Right. So the question is about, you know, how, do builders keep upfront costs low to, address, homebuyer affordability and attainability? I think we all know that the answer to that is first cost is not full cost.
00:48:21:02 - 00:48:25:11
Sara Gutterman: So, Matt, do you want to talk a little bit about that? And then, Marshall, maybe you can.
00:48:25:13 - 00:48:48:13
Matt Power: Yeah I'll just I think Marshall probably more got more to say on and I, I just actually, doing a big feature article for our May-June issue of Green Builder on this very topic, because of the tariffs and, and other things that have increased material costs, how can builders still build high performance homes using, you know, other types of materials or other approaches?
00:48:48:15 - 00:49:12:02
Matt Power: One of the ones I mentioned earlier was, for example, exports are almost there within a very short throw of reaching price parity structurally with wood framed housing. So, you know, that's that's one thing to consider if you're a builder who doesn't normally build with ice caps and you're building, you know, and you are going to continue building in this time, maybe some of your mix becomes ICF homes.
00:49:12:08 - 00:49:18:24
Matt Power: So there's a bunch of other suggestions in there. But but, Marshall, I'll hand it off to you. Maybe you've got some from your project that.
00:49:18:26 - 00:49:37:17
Marshall Gobuty: We've, you know, for us, it's it's always been, you know, we have to do it this way. And and there has been pushback. Like, there's no question we get pushback all the time. Well, can you do it without this can. And that's just not our customer. And it's it's just not the person that wants to live secure.
00:49:37:17 - 00:49:54:15
Marshall Gobuty: And by the way, I want to just mention to match point. Yes. We when people stayed here during the evacuations, we we I personally call them get out of there. You shouldn't be staying here. As a sending me these great videos, but no, you go. Don't don't stay there. That's important. You don't stay when you're told to evacuate.
00:49:54:18 - 00:50:18:17
Marshall Gobuty: It's just a mission, you know, like, I, I don't know if, you know, there is an additional cost because we have a battery. We have the solar panels like these things cost money. The advantage is that there is the you know, we do get the ITC tax credit that the homeowners get. So there's a benefit to that. Hopefully those credits, you know, will stay in place and I think that's something very important for us, even the next credits that hopefully won't expire.
00:50:18:20 - 00:50:41:05
Marshall Gobuty: But it's a challenge, Sarah, because, you know, people come to our specific area and you know, now and unfortunate they've also got very short memories. You know, I love to tell you that they'd be sitting here dwelling on the hurricanes when they're not. I want them to like, you know, we have the video going over and over in our sales center of the hurricanes and showing how well we did.
00:50:41:08 - 00:51:15:01
Marshall Gobuty: It still comes down to, you know, a price for everybody. So we're not in the business in this community, of, of of changing anything. We're, we're we're kind of sitting back and hoping that the consumer continues to come to us. They're not coming to us enough fast enough. But in the for rental business, they are. But in the for sale business, it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a challenge because we're trying to create a new level of what's acceptable as a minimum standard to keep you safe and secure and have a resilient home that's sustainable.
00:51:15:03 - 00:51:35:27
Marshall Gobuty: That's a lot of words to say, and it doesn't come cheap, but it's also not that expensive. So I would say that I really can't answer it beyond it's a huge challenge. And we face it every day, and maybe the next generation of builders will just be accepted. This is just the way it is. And anybody that would try to do something different, you know, it would be like they would be shunned.
00:51:36:03 - 00:51:51:07
Marshall Gobuty: But at this stage for us, you know, it's a battle every day to impress upon people how important it is not to go up five miles away and buy a house that doesn't have that. Your options are, well, can I get impact resistant windows? That's what we.
00:51:51:07 - 00:52:09:06
Matt Power: Do. It's an upsell. But you know, I think, you know, the big the word I use, it's an upsell for peace of mind. Because when you're talking to that client you say, look, there were four hurricanes here last year. It's terrifying when the hurricanes come in and you know, your house is at, you know, three feet above sea level and not prepared, you are running.
00:52:09:06 - 00:52:19:12
Matt Power: And honestly, it's anxiety inducing. And I think this it's worth a little bit of an upsell to build that house a little better and be ready. But Matt.
00:52:19:12 - 00:52:52:27
Sara Gutterman: True, the other component of it is now we are starting and just starting to see, mortgages and those insurance policies, factor in resiliency so that I think ultimately, again, when we look at the full cost versus first cost equation, you know, if you are, investing in a home buyer is investing in resiliency upgrades, but they can wrap that into a mortgage and it cost maybe $3 more on the lines, you know, becomes a no brainer.
00:52:52:27 - 00:53:17:22
Sara Gutterman: So I think that it's the onus is partly on the builder and the developer to go through that challenge. Marshall, as you're talking about, in terms of prioritizing, with respect to, product specification and just, financial outlay for the builder and therefore the home buyer. But then the onus is also on, the mortgage, the lending, the insurance, the appraisal, categories and sectors as well.
00:53:17:22 - 00:53:51:15
Sara Gutterman: Realtors, so that everybody is bringing this forward. And we've seen the struggle over the last, you know, a couple of decades with energy efficiency and now electrification and healthy homes, certainly, you know, has come into the the conversation since the pandemic. But I think you know, as more and more people have, you know, experienced these climate events, whether it's just extreme temperatures, right, extreme hot, extreme cold, which you're getting both in markets now, like Texas and even Atlanta, the polar vortex is coming down that far south.
00:53:51:18 - 00:54:05:25
Sara Gutterman: Or, you know, Matt, like you experiencing multiple hurricanes in your own home. And this is what you do for a living, right? You know, like as more and more people experience this, I think that peace of mind element is going to become more and more important.
00:54:05:28 - 00:54:26:26
Matt Power: Yeah, I think people like Marshall and and, what's the guy said from Babcock Ranch? What's going to happen? My, my prediction is that with these storms, your houses are going to rise in reputation and in brand, clout, I guess you could say, because the people are going to keep looking around and going, which communities survive?
00:54:26:27 - 00:54:37:11
Matt Power: Which communities are still standing? Which communities are people not evacuating? And I may it's a long game, but I think that's for the builders. You got to play the long game on this.
00:54:37:13 - 00:54:58:06
Marshall Gobuty: And, you know, the biggest challenge of all is memory. Like you would not believe. You know, we've had we have people that come from two miles away that their house completely like three feet of water in their living room. And they're thinking, well, should I do this or not? Like, there's no question, but it's just and I and I didn't expect the memory to be so short.
00:54:58:06 - 00:55:16:01
Marshall Gobuty: To be candid, I never thought it would be like that. But hurricanes and it's only six months ago, so it's a challenge that we have to keep building on. And the more that your magazine gets out there and gets the information to the consumer, the better, because I think that's what they have to understand. It's better for them, you know, to live in it.
00:55:16:03 - 00:55:32:23
Marshall Gobuty: The homes are healthy, the homes are resilient, their homes are sustainable. And the people that are doing it like us and other people that are doing single family homes and in this fashion, you know, it's the way of the future. But the future is the future. It's not right now. So that's our big challenge, right?
00:55:32:23 - 00:55:49:08
Sara Gutterman: Okay. So we've got about 3.5 minutes left before we have to wrap it up. So let me go. Cynthia then, Matt and Marshall 30s each last tick tips, tricks, and hacks for our audience about resiliency.
00:55:49:10 - 00:56:14:13
Cynthia Adams: I would just say research your own community. Whether it's looking on First Street's maps or, checking in with your local code or planning offices. There's a lot of really good information out there about things that you can and should be doing for your property in order to protect its value and your families. And once you've made those improvements, again, be sure to document them.
00:56:14:16 - 00:56:46:00
Cynthia Adams: And then I think for those of us in the, the building community, and, and who have strong ties with real estate and other financial and insurance markets, we really do need to push for policy and market signals. So whether that's discounts or incentives coming from lenders or insurance providers, those market signals I firmly believe will be there in, you know, within 5 to 10 years time and in people's faces.
00:56:46:02 - 00:57:10:22
Cynthia Adams: But but we can advocate on our own and, and certainly, Marshall, you've had your fair share of that even with the, solar panels and the and the clips on the roofs. But start with your own community, start with your own home, and make sure that you advocate, for common sense, incentives that help to reinforce the right messaging for homeowners as well as builders.
00:57:10:24 - 00:57:12:06
Sara Gutterman: Well, Matt, how about you?
00:57:12:12 - 00:57:37:13
Matt Power: And I would say, when you're if you're building new, especially when you talk to your builder, look for that, look for the signs, find out if this builder is up on his or her building science. Do they even know? Haven't even heard the word resilience, right? Are they? And when you when we talk about making your home more fortified against storms and wildfire and things that they sort of roll their eyes, or are they listening because you need somebody who's listening?
00:57:37:15 - 00:57:47:28
Matt Power: Because the threats are real. You're not being paranoid. Get the house that's going to last you so your kids can, you know, inherit it rather than, you know, lose it in ten years.
00:57:48:01 - 00:57:52:09
Sara Gutterman: Yeah. And, Marshall, what would you say to your builder and developer colleagues?
00:57:52:11 - 00:58:15:04
Marshall Gobuty: Generational sustainability. And I'm going to take that right from Matt, because that's true. You know, a lot of our homeowners, buyers are between 45 and 55, 60 years old. You know, they could stay here. They couldn't leave it to their kids. But there's something to leave to them. And I and I believe that, you know, especially now in this environment, the climate that we're in, aside from climate change, it's a life well-lived.
00:58:15:11 - 00:58:33:02
Marshall Gobuty: Like now is the time to enjoy your life, buy a home that really is truly tested. You know, it doesn't have to be one of our homes. But as Matt said, you know, find out what's behind the walls. It's not a really tough question, because if you do it now, you won't have to worry when that event does happen because it will happen.
00:58:33:05 - 00:58:51:20
Marshall Gobuty: And if you can protect yourself now, you'll you'll be like a hero in the end. But unfortunately, it's just not. That's not the way the world guys are to do later. Yeah, yeah, it really is. It's something that, you know, I, I've firsthand experienced it and you know, that's me. So I can tell 250 people but I can't tell the world.
00:58:51:27 - 00:59:12:06
Marshall Gobuty: So the most important thing we can do really is just ask questions and make sure that what's behind the walls is really there. And that's why the USBc and lead, you know, and the battery backup, the battery, the the the daily use of the battery is so important because you've got the solution and you have the equation right there.
00:59:12:08 - 00:59:30:06
Sara Gutterman: Wonderful. Well, Matt Marshall, Cynthia, it is always a pleasure to talk with any one of you. So to have the opportunity to spend an hour with all three of you has been fantastic for me. I'm sure our audience really learned a lot. Thank you so much for your time and for your wisdom and your insights.