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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: bobford79 AT yahoo.com, homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Building codes
  • Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:47:21 -0700


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.




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