i'm bob massi. i'll see you next week. [ woman vocalizing ] >> i'm bob massi. for 34 years, i've been practicing law and living in las vegas, the center of the recent real-estate crisis. lives were destroyed from coast to coast as the economy tanked. now, well, it's a different story. the american dream is back. and nowhere is that more clear than the sunshine state of florida. so we headed from the strip to the beach to show you how to live the american dream. i'm gonna meet real people who are facing serious problems, take you behind the gates of properties you have to see to believe, and give you the tips that everyone needs to navigate the new landscape, because information is power. and the property man has got you covered. [ woman vocalizing ]

>> thanks for joining us. i'm bob massi. hurricanes can cause enormous damage to both property and lives. katrina caused more than $105 billion in damage and killed more than 1,800 people. hurricane sandy caused $60 billion in damage. and andrew -- $45 billion. you want to do what you can always to protect your property and, most important, your family. >> take this thing out of here. >> bud dietrich is an architect who helps people design homes to keep them safe. and steve perry, one of the best home builders in the business, works with him to put the designs to work. >> if we do a major remodel on a house or do a lot of structural work on a house, typically, we will go in and do hurricane reinforcing while we're doing the other improvements in the house. >> the insurance institute for business and home safety tests structures made both with common materials and stronger reinforced materials. >> we're able to put single and two-story homes into a very

realistic hurricane-type scenario with gusty winds and realistic rain. >> you get those large, hurricane-force winds. i mean, they can be 150, 180 miles an hour. >> it can get in there and actually rip that whole structure right apart just like a wind might affect a sail on a sailboat during a real intense gust. >> and what we see in the video is a home built to code, t it would be in the middle of the country, standing next to a home built to ibh's fortified building standards, which are a little more rigorous. as the wind speeds increase to the mid-90 mile an hour, the gusts are starting to tear at that home, to pull it apart from the outside. the roof starts to lift off. and then, it goes away entirely. only a few seconds later, because the house is now being pressurized by the winds, the entire house comes apart and becomes a pile of debris. the house is a system. it will either stand or fail as a system. and one part of that building envelope fails, the house is going to come apart. if we get the roofs right in

this country, we think we can eliminate about half of all insured property losses in a given year. so we start with the roof as the first line of defense of any house. >> we want to tie the structure from the roof down to the foundation, kind of like a tree with a big, really good root structure so that, any sort of wind that gets underneath here and starts pulling things up, it has to basically pull the thing up by its roots before it can do any damage. so what we do is we put these connectors at each of one these trusses. we've got these connectors that each of these studs to the plates here, again at the bottom plate here. and again, that gets all tied to back down in the foundation. >> a building code is the minimum building standard that will allow you to move into your home. it's really kind of scary because in no other important area of our life would we accept a minimum standard. >> the building code is gonna say, "well, you don't have to have a connector at each one of these trusses or at each one of these studs." but really, it makes it that much stronger, so it's code plus. >> nothing is going to be hurricane-proof. but it certainly can be hurricane-resistant. just using ring shank nails, which double the strength of

connections you're already gonna make, cost about $70 to $100 for the average house. strapping the roof to the walls, which is essential for keeping the house together -- about $400 to $600 for the average home. >> for basically 1% of the construction budget, you can actually make your house a whole lot stronger. >> you can't just address the roof for true disaster resilience. you need to look at the entire building envelope. that's what we call the roof, the walls, the way the walls are tied to the foundation, the windows, the doors, the garage door. >> you also want to prevent things from becoming missiles. >> if debris or projectiles during a heavy windstorm break those windows or blow in the garage door or open the door, now, the house can be pressurized and come apart. >> some people buy special storm shutters. we've seen all the pictures of people boarding up windows with plywood. >> we don't need to do that anymore. in fact, the codes are mandating that all new windows and doors be called impact resistant. >> this glass is specially designed to be able to take impacts from any kinds of debris that might get blown into it

during the hurricane. and in big storms, anything can become a missile. >> the potential wind here is phenomenal. so the windows must be designed to withstand a tremendous impact. >> let's talk about some of the hurricane hazards -- storm-surge flooding, flooding from heavy rains, even tropical storms and smaller storms. they can be devastating to the property and your family. >> sometimes, lower parts of the house are designed to actually blow out. so if the tidal surge comes in, you get a wave. it could actually blow part of the panels out of the lower section of the house. and they're designed to do that. but your living space is upstairs. and it would be preserved. >> we have a terrible history in this country of watching mother nature destroy homes and businesses and communities and tear the fabric of those communities apart. and then, we want to put the same pieces back together in the same places in the same ways over and over again. that's ridiculous. it's not resilient. what we should be doing is building forward, building better, taking that opportunity to learn from the storm, to

honor the people whose homes were damaged or who were injured or even died to do things better. >> there's much more information on how to fortify your house on our website, foxnews.com/propertyman, and also at disastersafety.org. up next -- jeff vinik, the owner of the tampa bay lightning, is a man with a vision. he's not content just overhauling his team's arena. he's spending $2 billion to completely transform the city around it. [ woman vocalizing ] [alarm beep] ♪ ♪ the intelligent, all-new audi a4 is here. ♪

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♪ >> welcome back. i'm bob massi. you know, there are people who are known for having bold visions. and there are people, well, they put their money where their mouth is. but jeff vinik, well, he takes both sides of those things to a completely different level. jeff vinik is the owner of the tampa bay lightning hockey team. he has already spent $62 million

to upgrade amalie arena, where the lightning play. but he has set his sights way beyond the arena walls to reshaping the entire region. >> my wife said it best. we'd been down here a few years living. and she said, "where do people gather in tampa?" there's really no one central gathering spot where people who live, people who work, people who visit, people who go to the arena, people who want outdoors activities, people who want to be on the water. that doesn't exist here. >> vinik's bold multibillion dollar plan, well, he's gonna develop more than 40 acres of land around the arena along tampa's waterfront, nearly 3 million square feet. >> it's remarkably thoughtful vision that really starts with a unification of the waterfront. tampa historically turned its back on the water. >> we've been able to accumulate 40 acres, downtown lots surrounded by water on three sides. >> vinik is reinventing downtown tampa. he's basically adding everything -- new residential

buildings, retail stores, corporate offices, recreational areas plus the university of south florida medical school. >> it brings everything that tampa has always aspired and wanted to be to reality and fruition. imagine a grand entertainment district where everyone wants to live and work and, you know, a uniquely walkable district with a trolley that runs through it. >> for decades, the area around the arena, well, was somewhat industrial and very blighted. >> this was the banana docks, the phosphate docks. so for many, many years, this was really a run-down district. >> now, vinik, well, he wants people not to just visit. he wants them to live here. he wants them to work here. he wants them to play here. >> if you live here, you will have a supermarket to go to. you will have a cleaners to go to, a bar that you want to go to, restaurants, et cetera. if you work here, you will have entertainment options. you'll have places to go to lunch. >> when it's finished, well, they say it's gonna generate $900 million of annual economic

output and thousands of jobs. they project 3,700 direct jobs, each earning an average of $78,000 a year. >> what you see today is nothing short of a blighted district with a lot of failed intersections and cars going too fast. what you will see is gonna be a unique commitment to public infrastructure. ♪ >> the city has begun this massive task. they're revamping the infrastructure to accommodate this project. well, it's gonna take up to a decade to complete. >> underground utilities, all-new water sewer so that every parcel will really be plug-and-play. you won't have to tear up another street to do development should it occur in the future. >> vinik quietly started buying up the real estate around the arena just as the economy tanked back in '08 and '09. >> it was the 2008, 2010 recession.

piece of property across the street from the arena came for sale. we were able to quietly purchase it. and then, a contiguous piece became available. and we were really able to get 70%, 80% of the property with really out anybody noticing it. this is something that doesn't exist in most places. we have a blank canvas on which to build. there is a well-documented move back down to the urban core, where people want to be living closer to other people nearby. >> neighborhoods. >> neighborhoods. they want interaction between two people. they want to sit down in a coffee shop and discuss world events with somebody. >> community, let me tell you, that's what vinik is all about. and this guy puts his money exactly where his mouth is. >> the lightning community is in our dna, and we try to be as involved as we can. >> along with his wife, penny, well, they launched the lightning community heroes program to distribute $10 million to deserving heroes and nonprofits throughout the tampa bay community with $50,000 being given out at each home

game. >> we're announcing a venture between the nhl, the nhl players' association, the tampa bay lightning foundation... >> vinik recently announced a new $6 million five-year program to expand youth hockey, which will reach more than 100,000 kids in the community. >> the sticks with instructions, with more playing ice hockey, with street hockey leagues. >> plus, lightning players will work with at-risk youth, instructing them in hockey and in life. >> there's many people, men and women alike, who have been blessed to have the success that you've had. and understanding with the tampa -- there's some people that would say, "you know what? i had success. i'm gonna live my life. i'm gonna enjoy, travel the world." and yet you decided this is something you want to do. >> my plan was to come to florida to relax, to travel, to enjoy hockey games. and before you know it, we've got a multibillion dollar real-estate development going on. you become part of a community and just feel the excitement of it. and we had the opportunity to

really move the needle here. this is about elevating this whole region because i think tampa and this whole tampa bay area is one of the best-kept secrets there is. >> still to come -- i received a letter from a veteran who returned from afghanistan only to have trouble finding work. he's fighting to get the bank to reduce his interest rate so he can keep his home. is there any way to do that? well, i'll pay him a visit next. [ woman vocalizing ] i don'or wonder whether i theshould seek treatment.c. i am ready. because today there's harvoni. a revolutionary treatment for the most common type of chronic hepatitis c. harvoni is proven to cure up to 99% of patients who've had no prior treatment. it transformed treatment as the first cure that's one pill, once a day for 12 weeks.

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>> welcome back. i'm bob massi. i got an e-mail from a man named david, a great american, a recently retired u.s. navy senior chief intel officer. he needs some advice. i'm going to try to go to him and help him out. we're gonna go meet david, 29 years military man, stuck in a situation where he's

trying to refinance his home. and unfortunately, the lenders just aren't allowing it to happen. good to meet you. let's sit down and see if we can help you out with this situation. >> okay. >> he returned from afghanistan in late 2012 and had trouble finding work as so many veterans had. so he opted to go back to school to better himself. and since 2013, well, he's been asking his mortgage company to refinance. and guess what -- no luck. >> okay. >> and then, we can talk about what your alternatives are. >> sure. >> so he contacted all of the various va home-loan-guaranteed banks. but none will even talk about refinancing his loans. why? because he's not employed. >> without a regular job and a regular income, they wouldn't even consider it. so there was no point. >> you're generating revenue from your gi bill and from -- i believe you said you have disability. >> that's correct. >> what did they tell you about the revenue you are getting? >> they don't consider anything from the va as valid income because it can change so rapidly. >> you pay your bills every month. you're current on your payments. >> absolutely.

>> and, of course, you heard about this in the past several years about people have to, you know, basically go delinquent on their payments to get any help... >> right. exactly. >> which you're not going to do. >> no, i'm not. >> this man has an outstanding credit rating, never been late on any bills, never defaulted on a loan, has no debt other than his mortgage and a heloc and equity line. together, it adds up to about $180,000. and guess what, guys. the house is worth $300,000. so he has decent equity in his home. >> i just wish they would look at the whole picture. they're looking at numbers. and they're looking at spreadsheets. they're not really looking at the person.ould default tomorrow... >> right. >> ...if they foreclosed on it, even with the mortgages, they're gonna get all their money out. >> these homes in this area are very valuable. and i know there wouldn't be any risk for a lender. but, again, they don't look at the whole big picture. >> the first mortgage is at... he's using savings, as so many americans have done, but it's not enough. >> i don't want to wait until it's gone before i make some, you know, serious decisions about my future. >> many americans, veterans

and otherwise, to save their home went through retirement savings, you know, liquidated other assets to keep their home only ultimately to lose it. >> right. >> at least in your situation, if you sell it, you walk away with some money. >> that's correct. >> unfortunately, david, your situation's very narrow as to what you can do. >> right. sure. >> he can do nothing, pay the bills using his savings and hope, of course, that the value of the property goes up. even though you're spending money to keep it, you're probably gonna recoup it on the back end. he could find a cosigner. that's not an easy thing to do because you're literally going and asking someone, "will you take the same risk that i want?" have you thought about talking to somebody close to you that would maybe cosign for refinance or guarantee your loan? >> not really. if i got to that point, i wouldn't ask anybody for money. i would probably just sell the property. >> don't sell your property until you have a job... >> [ laughs ] right. >> because even if you pick up

let's say $100,000 from the sale and you want to go buy something wherever you want to buy, you still have to have a stream of income. you also have the right to ask somebody to be a guarantor. a guarantor is a little different, where they only come to you as a guarantor after somebody's defaulted and can't pay it. in this situation, you've got equity. >> right. >> so even if somebody went and guarantored your property, they're gonna get all their money back. or, of course, lastly, sell the home, take the equity, guess what -- go rent a place until he gets a job. and then, he can go qualify, hopefully, for a new loan. by the way, continue to be proactive with lenders. there's new programs that come up literally every month. here's the frustrating part of this dialogue. on "the property man," we've covered so many topics. some homeowners, they've lived in their homes for years and never made a payment, and the house is underwater. here, we have a great american. we have a veteran. he's never been late on his payment, going through his savings, and he can't get any help at all. just doesn't seem right.

up next, in the "massi memo," i'm gonna review the options for people like david who are looking to refinance. plus, i'm gonna give you more tips on fortifying your home. so stick around. [ woman vocalizing ] i have asthma... ...one of many pieces in my life. so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine. i talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment with breo. once-daily breo prevents asthma symptoms. breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. breo won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. breo opens up airways to help improve breathing for a full 24 hours. breo contains a type of medicine that increases the risk of death from asthma problems and may increase the risk of hospitalization in children and adolescents. breo is not for people whose asthma is well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. once your asthma is well controlled, your doctor will decide if you can stop breo and prescribe a different asthma control medicine,

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♪ >> time now for the "massi memo." >> kind of like a... >> earlier, we looked at making your home disaster-resistant. we've got lots of tips on our website. but here are some of the critical ones. look into making your home

fortified by going to disasterrecovery.org. their program has different levels of protection, each designed to keep your home in one piece. protect your windows and doors with special impact-resistant glass or shutters because hurricane-force winds can turn everyday objects into missiles. remove anything that could go flying before the storm hits. that means prune trees. remove dead branches as well as patio furniture and other loose items. be sure your roof is designed for uplift. what that means -- it's attached in such a way that wind can't send it flying if it gets underneath. now, these are simple fixes, but they have to be done before the storm comes in. it's about prevention. also, we spoke with david, a proud veteran who pays his bills on time, but he's eating up all of his savings and can't refinance due to his employment situation. it's important to understand what the lender looks for when

evaluating you, particularly for the first time. but not to be smart, can you make the payment on the loan you're asking for? you got to get some expert advice, guys, before beginning to refinance -- analyze your credit, the extent of your income, are there any red flags? -- before you file for an application. why? so you don't get let down later on. up front is more important than the back end. that way, you know where you stand. even though you are the same person currently paying on the same house paying on time with higher interest rate, guess what -- you are a stranger to the lender. in other words, you bring everything to the table. they treat you like they never knew you before. that's the nature of the lending industry and a consequence of the last seven to eight years in america. they also will look to your savings and your retirement and your stocks and your bonds and your bank statement. but no matter what, they ultimately look to the stream of income available. how much are you generating every month?

if you're employed, they're gonna look for verification of employment. it's the natural thing to do. and sometimes, you can request a letter from your employer if there's certain issues they need to know about. only submit -- listen -- verified tax returns. don't fudge anything. as a matter of fact, what lenders are doing now -- they actually go look to the transcript that the irs has to make sure that what was submitted to back up your tax return is legitimate. if you're self-employed, get those profit-loss statements. make that bookkeeper and cpa earn their money. all relevant documents -- monthly back statements, tax returns -- must be accurate. look, we're all suffering from the sins of the past. unfortunately, you got to be ready to give more information than you expect. it's never enough for the lenders. that's it for today. be sure to send me your questions or property stories at propertyman@foxnews.com.

and check out our website at foxnews.com/propertyman. i'm bob massi. i'll see you next week. ♪ lou: that's it for us, happy memorial day. good night from new york . announcer: this show has never been solely about investments, we've talked about anything that affected people and their money. ♪ from fox business headquarters in new york city, the new "wall street week." anthony: welcome to "wall street week," the show of record for long-term investing. i'm anthony scaramucci. gary: i'm gary kaminsky. no denying it. eight years after the financial crisis, the markets continue to move based on what the fed says it will or won'to.