Be kinde to folk. This changeth the whole habitat.
- Manlobbi
Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) ❤
No. of Recommendations: 6
I have a house in on the fringe of the National Forest in Taos, New Mexico. It is in a neighborhood of large lots with a rather sparse mix of pinon pine and sagebrush. It certainly has the potential for a catastrophic fire, though it is not subjected to frequent strong winds and has no recent history of fires.
Our neighborhood association circulated a letter concerning recent problems finding insurance. Houses in the area have been refused coverage by Farmers, Progressive, and Kempler (which dropped a 20 year old policy). People have found insurance with Geico, Travelers, State Farm, and Allstate, which did a drone assessment and required landscape mitigation.
No one has mentioned a drastic increase in rates, though that would seem to be the logical next step.
It will be interesting to see how this division of Geico performs. I would suspect there is an opportunity for lower regulation, higher fees, and better compliance on preventative measures.
No. of Recommendations: 18
When I was in my early years - pre-teen and teen - I lived in rural south Mississippi. We were surrounded by pine forests except to the west, where the swamp of the Pearl River changed the environment.
Back then, in springtime, residents would set the woods on fire to remove low brush, kill ticks and other such, and promote grass. Back then, it was common for livestock to graze in the woodlands. The fires were never dangerous - and the pine trees were accustomed to the mild fires and suffered no real damage. Their bark protected them - as it had done for the ages. So we lived in harmony with the environment.
Let me be open. This was 75 years ago, and times have certainly changed. But it seems to me that poor forest management is a major source of the recent major wildfires. This hasn't been limited to the West Coast. The government also acted to stop mild fires in government lands - setting the stage for major fires. National parks have also suffered.
Same thing has happened to wildlife management. We kill off predators, former prey animals expand, overrunning grazing lands. This pleases voting ranchers and hunters - and the ecosystem gets upset. There are cases where the predators have been restored, and the overall environment improves.
Maybe we try too hard to avoid little risks and just set the stage for major risks. The stability breeds un-stability story of the sandpile growth until it collapses.
If you want protection, protect from the major risks - and pay the costs of the small ones. Short term vs long term. Maybe we try to over-regulate some things and don't pay enough attention to those that really need it.
Might even have been going on in our governments - national and state - in many areas?
Just rambling .....
No. of Recommendations: 2
It will be interesting to see how this division of Geico performs
I would be very surprised if this wasn't' a case of GEICO acting only as an agent/broker on this policy. It is possible the ultimate carrier was a different BRK subsidiary but seems more likely to be an unaffiliated third party.
No. of Recommendations: 13
I would be very surprised if this wasn't' a case of GEICO acting only as an agent/broker on this policy. It is possible the ultimate carrier was a different BRK subsidiary but seems more likely to be an unaffiliated third party.
This was the case when I used Geico for my first home. But what was worse was they didn't partner with a reasonable third party. The insurance gave me what I didn't realize was a we don't want you quote.
I had Geico car insurance & had used them to get renter's insurance, so they were my go-to when I needed homeowners. At closing the closing agent said "is that really how high your insurance cost is?" Not having a frame of reference, I explained it was insured for replacement value. She said "still, it's high".
After closing they sent me a ridiculous list of conditions for keeping insurance. Thinks like cleaning some green staining off the brickwork, and cutting the 60-year old sycamore trees away from structure. The tree requirement written in a way that suggested complete removal. We had a certified arborist look at them, and they cut away any dead wood, and trimmed a 10-foot clearance from the house (the larger limbs still overhang the house, just 10+ feet above it). The arborist was like "so, your insurance is concerned about these trees that have always been here?"
I took before and after photos of the scrubbed bricks, and of course had the invoice from the arborist to submit to the insurance, but meanwhile I had shopped around, and everyone else was half the price. So I just got new insurance.
