A few weeks ago, Mark Paskell, a former independent Massachusetts home inspector who now teaches contractors how to handle customers and insurance claims, was asked to deal with what was believed to be a low-ball insurance company estimate.

The company's adjustor wrote up an estimate for $8,000. But after carefully inspecting the damage himself, Paskell says he "found numerous omissions and discrepancies." He ran the numbers for the visible damages alone, and his estimate was just shy of $80,000 -- nearly 10 times what the insurance company offered.

"I fear that this is (one of) many cases where homeowners will be left out in the cold with insufficient estimates to repair their homes," says Paskell, aka the Contracting Coach.

He's probably right. After a recent workshop, Paskell says he received numerous calls from remodeling and repair contractors about incomplete claim offers that left out damage. And not just hidden damage, but damage that was in plain view.

"Contractors have shared with me over 40 claims in the past two weeks where the insurance offer is less than 50 percent of what it will cost to repair visible damage," he says.

All of which begs the question: What's a homeowner to do if he suspects his insurer's estimate of damages is, shall we say, a little bit light?

For starters, don't believe you have to accept the company's estimate. If you do, you could be forced into making only part of the repairs, or putting up your own money to make all the necessary fixes.

"Insurance adjuster estimates are not to be trusted," says Paskell. "Never take the first offer. ... It is always lower than what they are obliged to pay."

If you believe you are being shortchanged or that the estimate is incomplete, call a contractor who is licensed, insured, registered and who understands the insurance process, and ask him to estimate the cost to repair the damages. The alternative is to hire someone who will do an incomplete job, leaving you less than satisfied.

Another choice might be to hire your own insurance expert. Known as private adjusters, these licensed professionals advocate for policyholders in appraising and negotiating claims. They work much like lawyers, taking a share of whatever settlement they can wrangle from the insurance company. They know what to look for in your insurance coverage and how to tussle with insurers.

Another good idea is to check the credentials of the insurance company's adjuster. Often, when there's a weather catastrophe such as a flood or tornado, insurers will bring in additional adjusters from other parts of the country.

The idea is that with the extra adjusters, claims can be paid more quickly and owners can get on with their lives. But sometimes, the out-of-state adjusters are unfamiliar with local building codes and techniques.

Just as you have the right to ask for an appraiser who is from the area and has complete knowledge of it, you have the right to request the same from your adjuster. You may have to wait longer, but it could be worth it.

Paskell has identified several tactics used by insurers to rip off their customers:

-- The adjuster fails to assess all the damage. Some "leave things out on purpose," the Contracting Coach says. "Homeowners who are not familiar with the complicated claims process do not always know what is covered."

If that sounds like you, you may never know if something should be repaired or not unless the adjuster mentions it.

-- The adjuster writes an estimate solely for the damaged area, leaving out connected walls, ceilings and finishes. For example, the estimate might cover replacing a bathtub, but not the wall tile abutting the tub. Or it might call for painting one wall rather than the entire room -- or for just one coat of paint when professionals would apply two.

Insurance companies are supposed to bring their policyholders' properties back to their pre-loss condition, Paskell explains. Doing an incomplete job could leave you, as in the case of the examples above, with mismatched tile or walls.

-- The adjuster leaves out the cost of required permits. You need permits for practically everything these days. If the insurer doesn't pay for them, you will have to, and that's money out of your pocket.

-- Companies use a software product with pricing that is fixed by category and geographic area. Paskell says contractors who carry the legal costs of doing business usually can't work for the rates suggested by this program. Indeed, with those kind of rates, he says, you are likely to attract unlicensed, uninsured contractors who bend the rules or ignore them altogether.

-- If your policy calls for "loss of use," and you cannot occupy your home while the repair work is underway, the insurer should pay you up-front for the cost of living in comparable accommodations until the work is complete and you can move back into your house.

Despite glowing annual research from the National Association of Realtors, all is not well in Vacation Home Land.

Vacation home sales recently "boomed" to well above their previous peak, NAR boasted. But vacation homes come in all shapes and sizes: from owning the whole enchilada to as little as one week in the place annually. And seven years after the recession began, according to another report, shared-ownership resort real estate continues to suffer mightily.

"Stagnation" is the word used by researcher Richard Ragatz to describe the business.

Shared-ownership real estate includes fractional interest projects, private residence clubs and destination clubs, in which buyers own just a piece of a higher-end property and share the units and amenities with other owners. The survey does not include time shares, which are typically less expensive properties.

Only 62 shared-ownership properties in all of North America -- the U.S., Canada and Mexico -- actually made sales last year. That's down from 75 in 2013 and 153 in 2007 when the recession began, according to the Ragatz survey, which is thought to be the most complete.

Moreover, only three new projects were started while seven shut down completely, one converted to a destination club and one switched to whole ownership. Seven sold out last year and four re-started sales.

"More and more consumers are becoming disenchanted with the burden of ownership," the researcher said. "They're looking more toward rentals and membership (clubs). It's going to be interesting to see what happens over the next few years as prices continue to rise and as more wealth becomes available."

The report cites several factors that have negatively impacted the market: long-term economic uncertainty, a nearly complete lack of available financing, a lack of marketing dollars, and an excess supply of whole-ownership vacation homes with decreasing prices and increased competition from rentals and rental clubs.

Many of those factors contributed to booming whole-ownership sales, in which you buy the entire house, townhouse or apartment, lock, stock and upkeep. An estimated 1.13 million vacation homes changed hands last year, NAR says -- the most since it began counting vacation home sales in 2003, and roughly 21 percent of all real estate transaction in 2014.

Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist, called the growth in vacation home sales "astonishing," noting that they were nearly double what they were in the previous two years.

According to NAR, 45 percent of the vacation units sold last year were distressed properties, a home either in foreclosure or a short sale in which the sales price was less than what the seller owed on his mortgage.

Given these kinds of numbers, you might wonder what people do with all those properties.

According to yet another survey, this one by popular vacation home rental site HomeAway, nearly 1 in 4 buyers intend to rent out their properties from the get-go. But even if they didn't intend to, almost 9 out of 10 end up renting out their newly acquired vacation homes within their first year of ownership.

While the primary purpose of a vacation home for most people is as a personal or family retreat, owners are learning they can monetize their assets and cover 75 percent or more of their mortgage if they rent for just 18 weeks, HomeAway said.

That leaves plenty of time for personal use. But it should also be pointed out that those 18 rental weeks usually cover the entire "high season" for which people purchased their retreats in the first place.

NAR found that a third of the vacation houses purchased last year are intended for family use, and 19 percent of the buyers plan to convert their units into their primary homes sometime in the future.

Still, said HomeAway spokesperson Christina Song, renting is "pretty overwhelming, even if it is not the primary reason for buying. ... A lot of people buy for personal use," then end up renting out the home to cover their costs, she said.

And those costs can be considerable. NAR found that the average price is down 11.1 percent to $150,000 for a condo by the seashore or a cabin in the woods. But much of that is driven by people snapping up distressed properties.

Shared properties tend to be more expensive because they are laden with amenities not even offered in whole-ownership communities. Sales in fractional interest properties averaged $20,000 a week, according to the Ragatz study, while a week in a private residence club averaged a mere $67,700.

At the same time, the average rental rate charged by HomeAway clients is $217 per night ($1,519 per week). The site also reports that clients average $28,000 annually in rental income, enough to cover 75 percent of the typical mortgage.

Since the passage of the National Housing Act of 1934, Americans have been promised a safe, decent and sanitary home. While it isn't written in stone like our federal housing policy, the national agenda also aims to make sure that anyone who has served his or her country in the military service should also have a safe, decent and stable place to call home.

Frequently, that goal can be achieved through the GI Bill, which allows for no-down-payment loans. On top of that, many states have special programs for the servicemen and women residing within their borders.

Many private entities also have stepped up to help America's returning GIs in one way or another. National homebuilder Pulte, for example, gave away 20 brand-new homes to worthy veterans over the last two years.

But arguably, no single company has done more than the Madison, Wisconsin-based Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. Over the last two years, Fairway, which has 190 branches covering all 50 states, has given 27 houses mortgage-free to wounded veterans or their families.

"I believe you can make a difference and make a living at the same time. That's when it becomes fun," says Louise Thaxton, the 61-year-old dynamo who makes Fairway's effort roll.

"Nobody asks to be a hero; it just sometimes turns out that way," she says, quoting a popular line from the 2001 military film "Black Hawk Down." "We can step back and someone else can give them a mortgage-free house, or we can step up."

Working in Fairway's Leesville, Louisiana, office, Thaxton is on a crusade on behalf of servicepeople returning from the wars in the Middle East.

"I saw the need for excellence in serving the military," she explains. "We're the watchdog for the better part of the world, and someone needs to be a watchdog that stands between the warriors and the wolves."

That watchdog, as it turns out, is a 5-foot-2 grandmother of 17 who sees the military as a "targeted population," easily cheated, over-billed, ripped off and scammed.

In other words, our fighting men and women make great marks.

They typically are young and financially inexperienced. They may have been trained for combat, but not for fiscal battles. What's more, servicepeople are often transient and, therefore, totally unaware of which local businesses are honest and which are not.

At Fort Polk in Louisiana, Thaxton saw young vets being raked over the coals by used car companies and payday lenders, and she also saw overcharging by title companies and even a bit of gouging by some mortgage brokers.

"I saw lenders not using VA or FHA loans because 'they were too hard' just so they could get the extra fees" from conventional mortgages, she says. "They would refinance people from a 30-year fixed loan to a three-year ARM just to get $5,000 in fees."

Besides closing her own deals, Thaxton began teaching her colleagues about the ins and outs of dealing with returning warriors, which is not the same as working with everyday citizens. For one thing, they often don't have the luxury of time and cannot wait for the market to turn. Another example: Vets may not be stationed at the same base as their spouse, or the civilian half of the couple may be unable to find work.

Four years ago, Thaxton asked her company to back an extension of her education efforts, and Fairway CEO Steve Jacobson gave her his blessing. "He told me to just run with it," Thaxton says.

So she set about creating a continuing education class for real estate agents and brokers on how to deal with military clients. At the end of the class, students are awarded a Certified Military Residential Specialist diploma. (The designation is Fairway's, and not the Mortgage Bankers Association's or the National Association of Realtors', which has its own military designation.)

Last summer, in Clarksville, Tennessee, the home of Fort Campbell, Thaxton led a three-hour seminar for 400 realty pros from as far as 100 miles away. Pacing back and forth in her ever-present combat boots -- she wears them even when she's training for her first half-marathon in the rural backroads of Louisiana -- she asked the entire audience to stand. Then she asked those who have served in the military to sit down.

Next, she asked anyone who's a military spouse, parent, grandparent or child to sit as well, followed by aunts, uncle, nieces and nephews of someone in the service.

Only a few people were left standing, and the point was made: "We are all connected to the military."

At each seminar, Fairway donates a home to a wounded vet. In Tennessee, the recipient was retired Army Specialist Marshall Lane, who was wounded during combat operations in Afghanistan, earning a Purple Heart as well as a Combat Medical Badge for performing his duties while under fire from the enemy.

Everywhere she goes, Thaxton rallies the real estate troops.

"I have a huge goal that every wounded warrior receive a mortgage-free house," she said in Clarksville. "It's not impossible if everyone gives something. There's none of us who can do everything, but everyone can do something."

When the evangelist for wounded vets closed the class, the entire room stood and burst into applause.