Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Dec 17, 2008, at 8:32 AM, bob ford wrote:

> Roxann, I would think it would be hard to get a mortgage without ,  
> first, fire insurance.  This might be one of thiose "chicken or egg  
> type quesions".

Bob, your city mindset is showing. In the city, primary property value  
lies with the house. For rural acreage, the majority of value often  
lies in the land. In either case it is usually easy to get loans from  
local lenders. If small acreage, then they do want fire insurance but  
that often only means that the heating system meet safety standards.

Roxann's fine new house may well have greater value than the acreage  
it sits with.
> Do you have a coplue of big fire extinguishers?  Where I grew up,  
> everyone kept a 'fire break' cut down around their property.  I  
> don't know if you do that in the ozarks..........

I have a friend who is a retired fire chief from southern California  
forest service. Bob says that there is in fact a fire season in the  
Ozarks, in January. But forest fires are a different thing there than  
in western forests. I was very surprised when I first went to the  
Ozarks to find that local farmers yearly set fires in their woods.  
That burns out the underbrush, kills ticks, improves forage for cattle  
and hogs. Very minor chance of top fires.

But, yes, many of us consciously keep a clean fire-break area around  
our buildings, including those of us whose houses are in a low area  
with surplus water. Fire travels uphill and that is another plus for  
living down in a hollow.