More...About
Us:
BACKGROUND
When you
select Blue Rock Flood Services as your flood hazard
determination service, you can enjoy peace-of-mind by
knowing that you are dealing with one of the original
vendors registered with the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA). We have been providing this
service since February of 1993, well before the
passage of the National Flood Insurance Reform Act of
November 1994 (as amended) when flood hazard
determinations became a mandatory requirement in the
lending process.
Since then, a number of other
companies have formed or, in some cases, simply
entered into the flood determination business as a
reseller with no experience whatsoever, via third
party web sites which rely on questionable software
packages. With us, you get the real thing. We are a
genuine Flood Zone Determination (FZD) company . . .
not a here-today/gone-tomorrow company. In order to
protect our clients’ portfolios and our reputation, we
continue our tradition of delivering our clients the
very best through time tested hands-on researching and
mapping techniques, and we only use technology where
it can be trusted. We pride ourselves on delivering
our clients true value through high quality,
personalized service at a favorable price in just a
few hours.
From the beginning, we have always
welcomed input from our clients. This has helped us
evolve into what we are and what they want us to be.
In fact, their input has played a role in the design
of specific areas of this web site. Incidentally, this
web site is our only significant form of formal
advertising. Though its original purpose was to better
serve our existing clients, our ultimate goal is to
have it enlighten and attract new ones. We have found
that our clients have always been our best form of
advertising. Most of them heard of us simply through
word-of-mouth. Often times, we learn that referrals
come from not only department leaders, but also from
lower level employees who change jobs. These
much-appreciated referrals have always been the main
source of our growth. This too reminds us that
people/institutions who deal with us prefer staying
with us.
SERVICE AREA
Though we have
nationwide capabilities, we specialize in a regional
service area that includes Pennsylvania, Maryland,
D.C., New Jersey, and Delaware in their entirety. We
of course will consider expanding this service area
should a new or potential client make the request.
ACCURATE DETERMINATIONS
Unlike
most companies who provide or subcontract to online
automated flood determination systems, Blue Rock Flood
Services, being one of the more experienced companies,
continues to exercise necessary caution and process
flood determinations manually. Why? Because after a
great deal of research and testing, we have learned
that these automated flood determination systems have
been and continue to be incredibly inaccurate in areas
where it matters most. The trouble is, many of these
systems use street number locating software based
largely on assumed block numbers. While this might be
reasonably accurate in urban areas, they are seldom
accurate in rural or even suburban areas. Since the
software is focusing on street numbers, it is actually
looking for the mailbox, not the structures.
Therefore, its especially questionable if the property
exceeds a couple of acres such as a farmstead a ¼ or ½
mile back off of the road. Often times this type of
software will also have street numbers progressing in
the wrong direction or in many cases place the subject
property literally miles from its actual location.
Since these systems will only trigger a manual
determination if their locating software finds the
property within a few hundred feet of a Special Flood
Hazard Area (SFHA), the locating software needs to be
very accurate. Unfortunately, since borrowers
knowingly or unknowingly tend to fail to question not
having to buy flood insurance, most of these
inaccuracies will go unnoticed until there is a
substantial flood-loss and the finger pointing begins.
It is no secret that companies present statistics
to gain business. Some flood companies proudly
advertise 98% accuracy (which sounds impressive).
However, by examining the facts, we can understand how
devastating a 2% inaccuracy can be. Approximately 7%
of properties are in a SFHA. By placing 100% of these
properties “out” of the SFHA without checking any of
them, a company can still claim to be 93% accurate.
Therefore, when a flood company advertises 98 percent
accuracy, they have actually missed 2/7 or 29% of the
properties “in” the SFHA where the bulk of the
liability exists. Multiply the number of flood
certificates you order on an annual basis by the
remaining 2% or even 1% and ask yourself if you’re
willing to accumulate the exposure and hassles
associated with these mistakes. Consider this:
according to FEMA, “a home in the mapped flood hazard
area is five times more likely to be damaged by flood
than to have a major fire!” Since the fire insurance
requirement is never taken lightly, neither should the
accuracy of your flood vendor.
Lenders often
overlook the fact that even though their flood vendor
has an E&O policy in place, it is the lender who
is ultimately responsible for making sure the job is
done properly. Therefore, it would be in their best
interest to use a service displaying integrity and the
highest standards.
For some time now, we have had a
great deal of interest in automated flood
determination systems in hopes of easily increasing
our capacity and profit margin. After all, these
systems are promoted in such a way that one would be
considered foolish not to be using one of them. While
we will continue to monitor this slowly improving
technology, our conclusion is that even the best of
these automated systems that cover our service area pose an unacceptable amount
of risk. We keep an open invitation to the companies
who offer this technology to prove to us that it can
be trusted. We look forward to that distant day when
it has an acceptable track record.
While we too use
locating software to find addresses, we never rely on
it. We only use it for approximate locations. We rely
on deed descriptions, tax maps, and aerial photos to
precisely locate the parcel on the current Flood
Insurance Rate Map (FIRM). In all cases where a
property is found in or near a SFHA, we use the legal
description (when provided) or aerial photos to plot
the parcel onto the FIRM to ensure the determination
is completely accurate.
Since we at Blue Rock Flood
Services do check each and every property, we, unlike
most of our competitors, do not automatically require
flood insurance when we find a parcel that lies
partially in the floodplain. We take the additional
steps necessary to determine whether the insurable
improvements are located in or out of the floodplain.
We maintain a very good working relationship with the
various zoning and code enforcement officials of the
local municipalities. These ongoing relationships have
been instrumental in our ability to develop and
maintain an in-house file of new housing development
site plans and tax maps, which enables us to perform
accurate determinations on new properties that have
not yet been recorded. Once a determination is
made, all of the information is saved into our system
and transferred onto the current FEMA Standard Flood
Hazard Determination form. If the borrower should dispute our
determination, we are willing to visit the property
(under the terms of the agreement) for a closer look.
We will also gladly deal directly with the borrower if
they have any questions or if they simply need help
with a designated flood zone.
Since 1993, there has
never been a claim filed against our E&O policy.
We attribute this to the fact that we have always
manually located properties. Blue Rock Flood Services
is committed to using only the most reliable methods
on work performed for our clients. We only change to
newer methods if and when they are proven to be
reliable and accurate. After all, this protects all
interested parties from any future liability, which is
probably another reason why people/institutions who
deal with us prefer staying with us.
COMPLIANCE
The Flood Reform
Bill of 1994 requires that any providers of flood
hazard information fully insure and guarantee the
accuracy of such information. All of our insured flood
hazard determinations are guaranteed by our
Errs & Omissions insurance policy. To ensure our flood information is current, we
maintain an active escrow account with the National
Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) so that the latest
FIRMs are automatically issued to our company as
revisions are made and published.
LIFE OF LOAN COVERAGE
Our Life
of Loan Coverage guarantees the lending institution
that we will monitor the flood status of the given
property for as long as the loan is in force. When a
revised federal flood map is issued showing a change
in the flood status of the given property, we will
automatically inform you of a new certification.
TURNAROUND TIME
We offer the
fastest turnaround time available for hand-mapped
FZDs. Depending on the backlog of any given day, we
can often return your FZD in 15-30 minutes. Most
orders, however, are completed within an hour or two.
We also give immediate attention to your occasional
"RUSH" orders.
VALUE
When comparing
prospective vendors of any product or service, make
sure “you get what you pay for”. Since we still insist
on the hands-on approach, our people spend an average
of twenty minutes on processing each of your orders.
There are times when processing an order requires more
than an hour to ensure it is correct. Contrary to
popular sales pitches, accuracy and reliable
verification takes time. So, if you’re lending your
own capital and/or are in search of real service and
expertise from a company you can count on, give us a
try. Experience why institutions that deal with us
prefer staying with us.
FEES
As part of our commitment
to customer satisfaction, Blue Rock Flood Services is
open to various pricing scenarios to suite the
individual needs of our clients. Depending on the
volume and the difficulty level of your company’s
average monthly orders, we can offer you a discounted
price similar to that of our other clients within a
similar category. Rest assured that our prices are competitive. Why
not use this opportunity to experience value by using
a high-end service at a low-end price. If you do,
please know that you will also get the satisfaction of
knowing that at least 10% of your invoice will be
donated to charity.
Thank you for taking the time
to visit this site and review this information. We
hope that you will consider trying Blue Rock Flood
Services. We certainly understand how a company might
be apprehensive about making a change in any of their
major suppliers and/or service providers. Please be
assured that new clients may opt to make the change
one branch or department at a time in order to ease
the transition. We would be happy to provide our
service to any upstanding organization and we will do
our very best to be the preferred source of reliable
flood zone determinations. If you decide to keep
looking around, do your company a favor, protect its
portfolio, choose a vendor with tradesman that will
hand-map 100% of your FZDs as we do. Thank you for
considering us. Please call if you have any
questions.
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