What is a floodplain and how to know if your property is amongst it?

As the tropical storm beta is flooding many places in Houston, you might be worried about your property being flooded. Flooding is one of the most common natural disasters. It happens in the USA every year. If you are planning to purchase a new property, then you must do a quick check on whether the area is prone to flooding.

Most of the agents or property listing sites don’t give you a clear detailing about the flood plain in your property location. But you can always have a quick check with the previous owners or sellers who are responsible for that property.

What’s a floodplain?

Before jumping into bigger chunks, let us have a look at smaller ones. Floodplain is basically an area most of the land surface is flat that lies near water bodies. These water bodies can belong to natural or man-made categories. The areas which are near dams, rivers, lakes, and ponds experience higher flooding than other areas. Floods are a common disaster that happens when there are high records of rainfall.

Check with the neighbors

Before purchasing a property or land, it is always better to physically visit that place. Because visiting has many advantages like you can get to see the property and check for such flooding situations. It is better to have a small talk with your neighbors before purchasing that particular property. Check with the neighbors whether the property is prone to flooding or not; some people will give you genuine answers because even they didn’t know about the flood before settling in. It is always good to ask neighbors or rely on the top property listing search engine.

Make use of FEMA map

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has created a tool that can be quite useful to check whether your property is in a flood-prone area. It has got its own highlights such as

• Flood risk identification
• Flood zones
• Property risk level

With these points, you can always check whether your property is safe or not. The FEMA maps are updated once in 5 years. If you are looking for a property in coastal areas like the Atlantic or Miami, then tidal flooding is something you have to keep a check on. Because tidal flooding happens during storms or high tides. The FEMA tool has flood zones such as

• Zone A
• Zone B
• Zone C
• Zone D
• Zone V
• Zone X

Every zone marks a different level of risk from moderate to high. These maps are quite useful for many property owners!

Should you close the deal?

Are you thinking can I close a property deal at floodplain? The answer is subjective. Some properties are totally worth the deal and you can also close the deal by signing up for high insurance plans. When you pay more for insurance, there are better chances that your property will get proper reimbursement. But it’s very important to stick on to the best property listing sites which give genuine property information. Visit: https://www.enrichedrealestate.com/

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