Hi all!

The weather here has gotten in to the high 80's over the past couple of weeks with "abundant sunshine" as weather persons like to call it! BUT, as you may or may not know, June 1 marks the beginning of Hurricane Season (I'm from the midwest where a "season" meant we hunted for and killed it...).

Well for those of us that do or have lived in areas ravaged by hurricanes, we know first hand the havoc it can cause. And when you are buying or selling a home, watching one "come this way" can be stressful. You have your house on the market to sell, and now "they" are telling you to evacuate. Or better yet, you have a contract on your house--whether you are a buyer or seller, and suddenly you find out you can't get insurance to close on your set closing date.

While dealing with a hurricane is stressful in itself, you can mitigate some of it when buying or selling a home. In the state of Florida, if a named storm enters the Gulf of Mexico, all insurance companies cease writing insurance binders until the storm completely dissipates or hits landfall. I've seen some hurricanes bounce around the Gulf for what seemed like forever, and then of course, in 2004, where we had 4 grace their presence in Florida. This can increase the stress level considerably.

If you have a house on the market, or you are in the market to buy, you do want to keep an eye on any storms. Once you have an insurance binder "locked in" you are ok. However, if you're buying, and haven't decided on a house yet, you can't get insurance until you have a contract--and of course, an address. If you've found the perfect home, and can't get insurance, the closing will be held up until you can get insurance. You can still make that offer, go under contract and complete everything else you can...and wait. A bit stressful, but knowing you've been keeping an eye on this before hand can alleviate some of that stress.

The two places I go to a lot during hurricane season are of course www.weather.com and www.noaa.com both are good resources of weather information.