Phil's Paradise

[Music] [Music] pap let me tell you a little story about Phil you may not know Phil I don't know maybe you do anyway he lives over there on Locust Hill Road about a mile up from the shopping center no that isn't Phil that's Carl cautious he's in this story too Phil lives next door he'll be along in a minute both of them bought their places about 15 years ago brand new they were way out in the country then still are but so is the city the city's been moving out into the country like crab grass through a lawn it wasn't there yesterday but suddenly it's all around you like high prices Phil was talking to me about that not long ago not about high prices about the city they've cut a bunch of New Roads through the old Martin farm back in my place and they're putting up a bunch of houses practically back to back you know what kind of ticket they've got on them to $35,000 a piece now that's just me crazy who do they think is going to pay that much for a house out this way this is about a $20,000 neighborhood at best Phils cost 8 and none of the others went for much more here comes bill now watch this bill's a live one never lets any grass grow under his feet you might say not like some guys I could name Carl's okay but he's kind of a killjoy always talking about inflation as though it were something new it's been going on faster and slower ever since the Pioneers how would you like to work for the kind of pay people were getting back in those days it didn't cost as much to live then but no matter the point is Carl is always talking about things people would sooner forget cautious Carl the kill Jo like the time he tried to destroy Phil's peace of mind it had to do with Phil's house the house he'd put his whole heart and soul into along with most of his bank roll let me give you some background I told Phil his was a pretty darn goodlooking house for that kind of money 18,000 that is if you can remember that far back that's what he paid for it he told me there were three reasons for that one of them went clear back to when these places were being built 33 houses along this stretch here all at one crack a builder saves a good chunk of money that way and he's able to pass that on so as to make quick sales so these houses were Bargains to begin with it stands to reason that it would have cost more to build Phil's house all by itself the Builder would have had to ask more than 20,000 for it to make any kind of a profit the second reason Phil gave was the way he operates first little sign that anything is well going a little downhill he's on to it right then soon as he can schedule it he keeps the value up he looks on it as an investment Carl's the same way takes him a little longer is all he uses kind of oldfashioned methods the third reason Phil gave for his house looking like so much more than he had paid was that he kept adding to its value over the years adding features for example he enclosed the porch finished the second floor and put in an outdoor patio couple years ago he put in central air conditioning did most of the work himself as usual same goes for Carl in his plotting way he had kept right up with Phil one step at a time then one day a rumor got out about Joe Baker who lived down the street a piece his house was one of the original lot but he hadn't done much with it other than to keep it in Fair shape it was just a 15-year-old $118,000 house the rumor was that he had sold it for $28,000 Carl had finished his lawn and come over for a cold drink and probably an argument 28 grand yeah that's right I checked it whoever bought it must be off his rocker well that that's right up with what they're asking for a lot of the new places on the old Martin farm but 28,000 beats 35,000 for practically the same thing only brand new how long does anything stay brand new just long enough to move in but I still think Joe hit It Rich 10 G's worth boy I wish I'd seen the guy first no I don't where's Joe going to live now where's he going to find a house as good as his what's he going to do add several thousand to what he got buy back the same thing without any Shrubbery around it Joe doesn't have that kind of money he's just like us knows to the grindstone just barely keeps ahead of his bills most of the time but you're exaggerating you can't tell me there aren't any good places going for around 18 Grand but the woods must be full of them all around us here sold huh I'll take yours give you a chance to get your money back out of it well now don't be silly I put at least another five into it since then and I've kept it in Tip-Top shape right you've kept its value from sagging you can do that with maintenance but there's more to think about time alone has been making a house like yours grow more costly to build every year at least $10,000 more costly in the last 15 years there's nothing you can do to stop it that's inflation inflation inflation you're hip on it you remember when you replaced your garage roof last year boy do I the materials alone cost what it would have taken to hire it done when the place was new but that's just one little thing so here's just another little thing some guy just had to pay $10,000 more for Joe Baker's house than Joe paid for it when it was new and at that he saved several thousand over what it would cost him new today and practically in your own backyard on the old Martin place there's a house almost exactly like yours a development house at that which makes it cheaper then if you tried to custom build yours right on your lot today even with all utilities and the foundation already in place what would your grandfather have paid for an even bigger house in yours half as much or a third the cost of building a house goes up every year slower sometimes faster sometimes but upwards always with or without new methods and materials that's just plain old economic history so what I'm through with all that mine's all built what if if you had to rebuild tomorrow I've got you there crep hanger killjoy I've got insurance it was figured for me by experts only they didn't know it to begin with the builder had it insured up to the hilt they do that you know and then when I found that the building and loone wanted me to carry at least the same figure I thought to myself check and double check so I took a free ride on all that expert advice and it's worked out fine ever since you hav an in Rel it since then why should I you know how insurance companies do they just send you a renewal notice every year and you send them a check why go looking for trouble to avoid it that's why do you think the rest of the world was put here just to keep you out of trouble I know what you're getting at you're talking about a total loss right well we've got a real good fire department how good are they at fighting tornadoes now don't get ridiculous you know how tornadoes do they jump around picking out a house here and there sometimes without even touching the ones in between total losses are extremely rare I might lose about half my house my policy covers that much anyway well maybe a third not many fires or storms do worse than that so let's say I have one my policy covers it or most of it what have I lost I go on paying premiums and I still got my coverage you got to learn to play percentages if you ever expect to get anywhere in this R rate what do you mean by playing percentages do you mean that as building cost keep going up you're going to keep reducing what you'd like to believe is the size of the average fire just to keep from having to increase your insurance suppose the costs go right on up are you going to decide that the average fire never affects more than a sixth of a house or a seventh or an e at what point in time are you going to start wondering if the losses out the way you wish they did when are you going to start wondering what the smoke from even a small fire does to the rest of a house when are you going to start wondering how much water it takes to put out a fire and where it goes when are you going to start wondering how Insurance can possibly work the way you wish it did and when are you going to stop wishing and start wondering when are you going to stop denying what you're seeing and start noticing what you're seeing when when the cost of replacing your house goes up over 100,000 well it was plain to see that old kill jooy Carl was getting all worked up and beginning to exaggerate like the devil he does that when he's trying to get people to agree with him what saved the day is the fact that Phil's attack full host a real angel he just smiled serenely and told Carl okay okay I'll look into it someday as soon as I get around to it and Phil probably will too someday now I hope I haven't given you a bad impression of Carl we call him cautious Carl kill Joy crepe hanger things like that but just in fun he can't help it that's just the way he is as a matter of fact Carl has a good sense of humor in a quiet kind of way he's the guy who suggested to Phil that he dress up his mailbox to take advantage of his box number Phil's got a wonderful sense of humor too so he went right along with the gag Phils Paradise right behind the eightball pretty clever well I better be getting along I'll see you around take care of yourself now [Music] n [Music]