Sarah Ingles, REALTOR® SRES® · Fathom Realty
When an Iowa senior sells a long-held home, the single most common reason the deal falls apart isn't the inspection — it's the buyer's insurance underwriting. The buyer gets to the lender's final approval stage, the lender orders a homeowner policy, and the insurer flags something that kills the deal. This is preventable. Here's what a CPCU-grade pre-listing review actually catches and why it matters.
CPCU stands for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter — the highest professional designation in property and casualty insurance. It requires passing 8 college-level exams over multiple years covering underwriting, law, claims, accounting, and risk management.
Fewer than 100,000 people in the United States hold the CPCU designation. The vast majority work at insurance companies. A REALTOR® with CPCU is extremely rare — and the reason is simple: almost no one does both.
My decade of Iowa property insurance underwriting experience before becoming a REALTOR® is what lets me catch issues in Des Moines metro homes before they kill a sale.
A standard home inspection tells you whether the home is safe and functional. It answers questions like "does the HVAC work" and "is the roof leaking." What it does NOT reliably tell you is whether the home is insurable — and those are different questions.
Things a typical inspector might note but not flag as deal-killers:
Each of these can cause a buyer's insurance quote to come back uninsurable or at triple the normal price. At that point, the deal is effectively dead.
1. Roof age and condition. Most Iowa carriers have hard cutoffs at 20-25 years. 2. Electrical service panel. Federal Pacific, Zinsco, and fuse panels are flagged. 3. Electrical wiring. Knob-and-tube and aluminum branch wiring. 4. Plumbing. Polybutylene, old galvanized, lead supply lines. 5. HVAC age. Not a deal-killer but affects coverage and premiums. 6. Water heater age and location. Old water heaters, water heaters in finished basements without pans. 7. CLUE report. Prior water, fire, or liability claims. 8. Foundation. Significant cracking, bowing, or settlement. 9. Septic system (for rural properties outside Des Moines). Age and condition. 10. Outbuildings, pools, fences. Attractive nuisance issues and coverage gaps.
1. Wildfire risk (minimal in Iowa, but relevant for acreages near timber) 2. Flood risk (critical for Des Moines neighborhoods near Raccoon and Des Moines rivers) 3. Sinkhole risk (minimal in Iowa) 4. Weather exposure (hail corridor — most of Iowa is high hail risk)
1. Does the home qualify for standard replacement cost coverage? If not, the buyer pays more. 2. Is the roof likely to be put on ACV coverage? This happens automatically on roofs over a certain age and changes the economics for the buyer. 3. Are there scheduled exclusions that would apply? Dog breeds, trampolines, pools, specific claim history. 4. Would the home require surplus lines coverage? Some homes can only be insured through non-admitted carriers at 2-3x standard rates.
For a typical Des Moines senior home sale, the review process works like this:
Week -8 (8 weeks before listing):
Week -7 to -4:
Week -3 to -1:
Week 0:
Seniors selling long-held homes are the highest-risk sellers for insurance-based deal failures because:
1. Their homes are older (30+ years, often 50+ years) 2. They've had fewer recent updates than a home being flipped or renovated 3. They've paid off the mortgage, which means they haven't needed insurance quotes for years — so they don't know what current underwriting looks like 4. They may have had claims during their long ownership that are on the CLUE report without them remembering 5. They often have deferred maintenance that a younger owner would have addressed
A typical Des Moines senior selling a 1985 home they've owned since 1985 is much more likely to have an insurance-driven deal failure than any other type of seller.
The alternative to a pre-listing review is waiting until a buyer's insurance quote comes back bad. At that point:
1. The deal collapses 2. You're back on the market with a "fell through" stigma 3. The next buyer may face the same issue 4. Your list price drops to compensate 5. You still have to fix the underlying problem eventually
I've seen homes relisted 2-3 times before the insurance issue was identified and addressed. Each relisting cost the seller 5-10% of the list price in reduced offers and carrying costs.
A pre-listing CPCU review typically takes 1-2 hours and is included at no charge with any of my Des Moines metro listings. The ROI is roughly 20-100x in avoided deal failures.
Q: What is a CPCU insurance review? A: A CPCU (Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter) review is a pre-listing evaluation of a home's insurability based on underwriting standards used by property insurance carriers. It identifies issues that would cause a buyer's homeowner insurance to be denied or significantly more expensive — issues that a standard home inspection usually doesn't flag.
Q: Why do insurance issues kill home sales? A: Most home buyers need a mortgage, and most mortgages require homeowner insurance as a condition of closing. If the buyer can't get insurance at a reasonable price (or at all), they can't close on the loan. The deal dies even if everything else is perfect.
Q: What's the difference between a home inspection and an insurance review? A: A home inspection tells you whether the home is safe and functional — will the HVAC work, is the roof leaking, are there structural problems. An insurance review tells you whether the home is insurable by standard carriers at standard rates. These are different questions, and a home can pass inspection while still being uninsurable.
Q: What are the most common insurance issues in Des Moines older homes? A: The top five issues I see: roof over 20 years old, Federal Pacific or Zinsco electrical panel, polybutylene plumbing, knob-and-tube wiring, and prior water claims on the CLUE report. Any one of these can make the home difficult to insure.
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