In this engaging and heartfelt video, Tony Ray Baker of RE/MAX Professionals in Tucson, Arizona, shares a dramatic and unforgettable experience—a household disaster that transformed into a powerful lesson on the importance of preparation. Tony recounts the moment he discovered a “waterfall” inside his home, a result of frozen pipes bursting in the ceiling. As he puts it, “I instantly added a water feature to the house, but I didn’t know how that had happened.”

The sudden deluge caused extensive damage, creating a steam-filled environment that Tony described as a “terrarium effect,” ultimately wreaking havoc on ceilings, furniture, and treasured artwork. But amidst the chaos, he remained grateful. “What I realized real quick was my dogs were okay,” Tony shares emotionally, highlighting the silver lining in an otherwise grim scenario.

Preparation Pays Off: A Wake-Up Call for All Homeowners
Through his ordeal, Tony emphasizes the critical role of maintaining updated insurance policies. Thanks to the diligence of his insurance agent, Tony had comprehensive coverage that eased the burden of repairs and replacements. “If your insurance agent hasn’t called you in a few years, you might want another insurance agent,” Tony advises, urging viewers to evaluate their policies regularly. From understanding the nuances of dwelling coverage to ensuring sufficient displacement coverage, Tony’s insights are a wake-up call for homeowners everywhere.

Turning Tragedy into a Teachable Moment
Not one to let a crisis go to waste, Tony turned this personal setback into an opportunity to educate his clients and community. He launched a campaign encouraging homeowners to conduct thorough audits of their homes, insurance policies, and personal property values. “The average house has 300,000 items in it,” he notes, underscoring the importance of replacement cost coverage in today’s market.

A Realtor Who Truly Cares
Tony’s approach to real estate goes beyond transactions; he sees himself as a “housing consultant,” committed to the well-being of his clients. “We joke around with them—you better like us a lot right up front because we don’t let you go,” he quips, reflecting his dedication to providing value beyond the sale.

This video is not just a story of loss but a testament to resilience, community, and the importance of preparedness. Whether you’re a homeowner, a fellow real estate professional, or simply curious about navigating unforeseen challenges, Tony Ray’s experience offers valuable lessons and a reminder to always be proactive in protecting what matters most.

Transcript (Unedited)

Joanna Lockhart
So. Hey guys, today I have with me our dear, dear friend Tony Ray Baker. He is with Remax Professional Properties out there in Tucson, Arizona, and he’s got a really important message to share today. So I’m going to let him roll with it. What’s about your most recent experience, Tony. Right.

Tony Ray Baker
Thanks, Joanna.

Joanna Lockhart
It’s Mr. Toad’s Wild, right?

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah, it is a wild right, but it is. I’m laughing because that’s all I can do with this situation, and I, I’ve. I live my life that way anyway, so. But I recently, showed up at the house and we were supposed to pick up our dogs and take them to the, the what we call the spa, which is the groomer.

Tony Ray Baker
And we did have the dogs in the car. So glad. And we showed up at the house to let the dogs run in the backyard and, open the front door. And we had a waterfall. So instantly I, you know, had added a water feature to the house, but I didn’t know how that had happened. So we, continued into the house and it was very cool because there was like this big steam cloud kind of fog thing roaming through the house.

Tony Ray Baker
And then I noticed I was getting wet because it was raining on me. And, what happened is it was 30 degrees outside and pipes broke in the ceilings and the insulation was like, like this thing like that as big as your screen. It was huge. And somehow these pipes, new copper pipes, just split down the center and just started spraying throughout the ceilings, which led water to run across any ceiling area, cut.

Tony Ray Baker
So it went all across to the back of the house like it just shot straight through. After that, the ceilings being, you know, covered in water started crashing down so.

Joanna Lockhart
Well and it was hot water to break.

Tony Ray Baker
A lot. Right. Oh right. Yeah. Hot water. So they crashed to the ground with hot water. It’s 30 degrees outside. It’s 70 degrees inside. Plus now we added 100 and I don’t even know how hot water. One 2110 so you had hot water to 70 degree temperature and it caused a steam cloud in a terrarium effect. So what it did was steamed up and then it hit all the ceilings and then it completely coated them with water.

Tony Ray Baker
And then they started raining on everything, you know, in the house. So all the fabric, like in the couches and beds and everything got rained on. And then it steamed so hard, it literally just peeled the artwork off the frames and off my walls like beautiful stuff we had collected.

Joanna Lockhart
And let me just tell you, I stayed at Tony Ray’s place and he has some beautiful, beautiful artwork. And on that if you are in Tucson, he also, is involved with the Tucson Art Gallery, which is wonderful. You should check it out at their on down.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah, thanks for that plug. I’m going to need to buy some new artwork that you are from my own gallery. Yeah. So, you know.

Joanna Lockhart
A guy.

Tony Ray Baker
Right? It just, it destroyed everything, pretty much. And it was interesting because. And I’ll get emotional for a second, but it, you know what I realized real quick was my dogs were okay. And so that just, like, took my air out of me and we got the dogs were supposed to be they were supposed to be in the house, and we didn’t.

Tony Ray Baker
We made a mistake and took them to a spa day that they weren’t supposed to go to. So I have this, like, divine intervention that occurred to save those dogs, because those ceilings when it crashed, where the dogs hang out and, they could have been injured. So I was really thrilled. That was my, you know, moment. Instantly it was the dogs are fine.

Tony Ray Baker
I have a house to go to. We’re not going to have to worry about displacement and staying in a hotel or Airbnb. We get to go to our little downtown house, which is lovely. And, and we get to sleep in our own bed tonight. So we have everything to be thankful for. And, and then I as the day.

Tony Ray Baker
Now, by the way, I took off immediately out. We shut off the water and left the house, locked it up and went on our appointments.

Joanna Lockhart
Course you did.

Tony Ray Baker
And for a listing of what it’s like at oh.

Joanna Lockhart
What’s it going to do? The damage is done.

Tony Ray Baker
What can I do? I was so I went and just did my appointments and then at 3:00 or whatever time it was, as soon as I got done, I called my insurance agent and said, help, I need an adjuster out here and I’m not. And this was a a new moment for me because I’ve never filed a claim my whole life.

Tony Ray Baker
So I’ve had car accident claim, but never a house claim. So I was super fortunate going through this with my insurance agent. She had harassed me and to keep my policies up and and I procrastinate that stuff because I’m super busy in real estate and running an art gallery and a tourism company. And so like, the last thing I want to do is talk about insurance.

Tony Ray Baker
Just, you know.

Joanna Lockhart
It’s not that nobody like and I don’t like the about it.

Tony Ray Baker
And I don’t understand that, you know, it’s not my language. I speak real estate. It’s simple. But my insurance agent was great like always. Her name is Kristy Franks with American Family in Tucson, and she just kept on us always to make sure our policies are up to date. So as we’re talking, she’s she said you’re covered. Everything’s covered.

Tony Ray Baker
You’re you’re totally fine. Which is why I slept that night. Right. Because there’s like, five major things in insurance. I didn’t even know that she had made sure I was covered on. And I think that right right away, I if you go on to my Facebook, which is facebook.com, slash Tony Ray Baker, and you jump on that video I did, you can see, you know, me walking through the house and looking into what’s happening.

Tony Ray Baker
And and I turned it into a teaching moment because I think we just need to share a tragedy as much as we need to, you know, share success and other people. Immediately I found out another one of our clients was in the same situation, 2 or 3 of them, as a matter of fact. So I made it a moment of, let’s just talk about getting on the phone with your insurance agent right now and checking these things.

Tony Ray Baker
And if your insurance agent hasn’t called you in a few years, you might want another insurance agent because mine made sure she keeps up, you know, kept up with us every year.

Joanna Lockhart
I think that’s really the point. You really it’s one of those things you shouldn’t leave to yourself. We can all say we’re going to do it. You know, I’ll do. And I’ll be the one that picks up the phone and makes the call every year. But you’re not going to prioritize that. Make sure you are hiring a professional who will prioritize that for you.

Tony Ray Baker
Right. And then and then what does that say about us? Right. We should be calling realtors and lenders our clients every year and checking in on them because there’s a way to do that and give them value, just like she did for us. And we don’t even know it. Right? Yeah. So I got now a lot of in-depth information on on insurance, like the fact that we had displacement coverage and we had personal property coverage, a certain type, the replacement cost value I’ve gotten, I’m like, I’m kind of versed in insurance now, which is pretty cool.

Tony Ray Baker
And so, and I so I made that a teaching moment. And I think that this is a great way for everyone to reach out to clients and, and I so I thought, let’s talk about that, because right now at the new year, what I did was I set up a campaign and within seven days we just sent out 460 emails talking to all our clients in the email, saying, let call me and let’s do an evaluation of your home and everything in your life.

Tony Ray Baker
Let’s, let’s just walk through it and see who you need, and we’ll get you the best people to take inventory. Let’s take inventory. And so one of those things is going to is insurance, where you’re taking inventory with people on insurance.

Joanna Lockhart
I love that, it’s something that’s been brought up before in other group settings where we’ve talked about, particularly with lenders who do an annual mortgage review with their clients. And on the similar thing. And so we’ve brought that up before, like, why don’t you bring in an insurance person to also talk to them at the same time?

Tony Ray Baker
So here’s what I would suggest. And I’ve got it, like, I can give everybody a sheet of this stuff to talk about with, with your clients.

Joanna Lockhart
Or we’ll put a form on here. So just fill out the form if you’d like this sheet, and we’ll get it over to you.

Tony Ray Baker
Right. So my replacement values doubled and then my personal property values to the cost of goods went up. And so here’s the thing. I have 200,000 to cover my belongings. And I have 400,000 to cover remodel. Sure, I might have had 201 hundred and really been in a sticky position because I don’t know what damage we were going to face here.

Tony Ray Baker
You know, the average house has 300,000 items in it.

Joanna Lockhart
Holy moly.

Tony Ray Baker
That’s the item that.

Joanna Lockhart
Makes me want to go home and throw everything away.

Tony Ray Baker
Everything? Yeah, I’m a mentalist, by the way. I’m a minimalist now. I just took away half of everything I own.

Joanna Lockhart
And I bet.

Tony Ray Baker
So, if you think about 300,000 items and in your house and if they’re needed items, no matter what, that’s going to cost you some money.

Joanna Lockhart
Oh, yeah.

Tony Ray Baker
You know, couch $5,000, it just goes like that. So I just saw that you did a show. I think it was today talking about the amount of listings that will be coming on the market. Is that today’s show? I get them all blurred up. You talked about listings coming on the market coming up soon. So what a perfect time to get in front of everybody and remind them that you care.

Joanna Lockhart
I totally agree. And you know what? As we talk to people throughout the country, you know, everybody kind of has a bit of phone anxiety. And if you haven’t talked to somebody in a while, but you you talk yourself out of it. And it’s always nice to have a value of something of value to offer. When you call.

Joanna Lockhart
It’s a it’s a reason to get out there and touch your database and really possibly do something incredible for somebody if they ever find themselves in the same position.

Tony Ray Baker
It’s something we should all be passionate about because, you know, I now that I’m in it, I would never want one of my clients to deal with this. And most people aren’t fortunate to have a backup house like we we did. So sure, a lot of these folks are going to end up in an Airbnb, our hotel, and it’s not their space, sir, that’s even more stressful.

Tony Ray Baker
So.

Joanna Lockhart
Well, I wish you could be my realtor because I wish my realtor would call and tell me I needed to do my insurance and check up on it.

Tony Ray Baker
I’m to do an audit of everything and an in-home audit.

Joanna Lockhart
Thank goodness for his vigilance insurance agent who had already contacted him and upped his policy in plenty of time so that he had coverage. So what do you let me write?

Tony Ray Baker
Well, here’s what I learned. I got lucky at, I have some, dwelling coverage. This is probably what we all think about is the insurance covers the the construction to fix the damage. Right. And then I realized there was different types of dwelling coverage, and it could be replacement cost value, or it could be actual cash value.

Tony Ray Baker
And that’s extremely important to know what your policy covers, because one is the market value today, and one would be the cost of the insurance company repairs. And that’s a big deal because, what we are looking at is our properties doubled in five, six years. And so for us, our our values went way up. And I and most of the United States probably did the same.

Tony Ray Baker
So I’m guessing a lot of people are underinsured in reality is after talking to a whole lot of people, not every single person I’ve talked to, not one had talked to their agent in the last year or more like two years, five years. Some people, not even five years.

Joanna Lockhart
And think about what values have done. I mean,

Tony Ray Baker
And their agents are calling them to update them in mind. Luckily harasses me on a yearly basis to update policies. And they’re most people I’ve ever talked to you about this are like, nope, we haven’t talked our agent forever. Some a lot of them are like, what’s your agent’s name? If your name.

Joanna Lockhart
And let’s share your agent’s name. If you do happen to be in the Tucson area. She’s a great she’s a great agent. So we can share that with you too.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah. Christy Frank, American family insurance and, and anybody can reach out to me for anything they want. I’ll help, you know, with any of this. But, the second thing to talk with clients about is displacement and making sure you have displacement, because you could be, put in a hotel or an Airbnb, for example. And how long are you going to be there?

Tony Ray Baker
I have a client right now that’s been dealing with this for eight months, and there’s in an Airbnb for eight months. And then what I found out is some of these displacement, policies stop at 12 months or stop at 24 months, and some of them stop at a total. So what would a young couple do that has displacement and it lasts for 12 months and the construction takes 14.

Tony Ray Baker
And they can’t afford the mortgage plus the rent. And there’s a lot of costs around. All of this is not just because the insurance company is going to pay for whatever they’re going to pay for it. There’s still a lot of costs out of pocket. We’re in for ten grand in just a week, just out of pocket. So, you know, it’s a lot of that, stuff to think about.

Tony Ray Baker
So displacements one I would make sure I’m talking about the insurance agent. Personal property coverage. So good. In the past five, six years, goods did the same thing. They cost more, right? Did all kinds of stuff like sinking ships and remembering Covid. Yeah. The cost of lumber went up and all kinds of things. Goods change. So with personal property coverage, there’s the same thing.

Tony Ray Baker
There’s actual cash value and there’s replacement value. So did they depreciate? Do they depreciate the television. It’s worth 2000 to you to buy a new one. But they’re going to give you a 400. They’re so now you can’t buy your TV now. And you may not be able to buy a lot of things like that bed or anything that’s gone up in value.

Tony Ray Baker
So you really want to make sure you’re covered here on the property. Who? I never would have thought a flood would destroy all my stuff.

Joanna Lockhart
Well, certainly not from above. That’s just not the way we imagine it happening.

Tony Ray Baker
I never expected it to rain inside the house or steam the artwork. Yeah, right. So, so I would be looking at personal property coverage. We were very lucky. She covered us completely. So whatever it cost us to pick up that new TV, that’s what we get paid back by insurance. And when you work, by the way, when you’re dealing with steam and water coming down, it coated all the electronics.

Tony Ray Baker
And so it just got in everything. It’s it, it just it even went up into the air vents and got into the ductwork. So I’ve got to look at pulling ductwork and making sure the brand new Hvac system we have on there is all serviced and cleansed and, so the other thing deductible, and it’s probably the smallest part to me because a deductible can be a thousand bucks or 2000 bucks or whatever I would.

Tony Ray Baker
The higher the deductible, the lower your probably your your monthly, which is great in a time of crisis, depending on your, how much you have in savings. Obviously deductible makes a difference. But deductibles are interesting because they could be 1% of the dwelling coverage, or they could be, they could be just a flat rate. So there’s there’s things you need to know.

Tony Ray Baker
We had no idea what that’s.

Joanna Lockhart
Yeah, I do remember learning that the deductible could be a percent, like 1%. And I did not previously know that it’s been a few years, but I, I had always thought it was a set amount.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah. For dwelling coverage. So there’s just don’t know what you don’t know. So I would say you know knowing all of this now and you’ll see it on my video on Facebook slash Tony Ray Baker, you’ll see me talking about this because I wanted people to understand, get on the phone and talk to your agent. But for for us as realtors and lenders, let’s be a Christy Frank and get on the phone with our clients and do a home audit and inventory and say, how’s the house?

Tony Ray Baker
What do you need any do you need any people to help you with this house? Do you need to check anything? And then let’s talk about insurance. Let’s get you on the phone with your insurance. Let me give you your value and then we’ll get, get you to call your insurance agent and say, hey, the house is worth 800.

Tony Ray Baker
Let’s talk about it.

Joanna Lockhart
Tony Ray, when I talk to you about stuff like this, it makes me think you. I have many, many friends that are realtors, and I’ve been in this business a long time. I know a lot of realtors, but you really work your business in a special way. And I think, and you can change my terminology here, but I think you view yourself more as like a housing consultant for them, like so it’s all things housing related.

Joanna Lockhart
It’s not transactional based. It’s not like, okay, well when you, you know, you sold your home five years ago and now we’re done. And so it’s so important to be that for your clients. And that’s really what keeps people coming back. And I know how loyal your clients are.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah. No, you’re right. It. But isn’t that the way you treat your friends and family and and clients for us? Or that they we care, that we want to take care of them and we we joke around with them. You better like us a lot right up front because we don’t let you go. Oh, we’re here for you, for everything.

Tony Ray Baker
We tell them. If you need a good steakhouse, you call us. Sure, because we’re out and about. But. But these are big deals. And I didn’t think about insurance at all until now. And I’m super fortunate. And we have I mean, we have nothing we can complain about. We can’t, you know, we’re just super lucky that we were so prepared for a disaster.

Tony Ray Baker
We had no way of preparing for that $0.60. Right.

Joanna Lockhart
Well, I think when, like when we talk the other day, it’s not really like it’s fortunate for sure. But you did all the right things, right? You were working with the right person who was taking good care of you. Right?

Tony Ray Baker
And that oh, isn’t that the truth? That’s why we like that. Every one of our, you know, folks that we work with, that we refer to all of our clients to make sure we’ve got the best we can find and that that’s who they’re going to work with. So, yeah, but this I think we need to I think we could all use this as a marketing opportunity to not marketing, but an opportunity to get out there and talk to our clients and make sure that they know what’s going on and be the source for them.

Tony Ray Baker
And to get help, tell them where to go, you know, find the right people and, and bring this to their attention and use me. Just say you saw this guy, realtor that, you know, in Tucson, Arizona, and he just lost everything and a house. So, you know, and by the way, I, I’m a minimalist now.

Joanna Lockhart
I love that, you know, I’ve known a couple of people who lost homes to fires. And it usually works out that way. They just want once you get to that junk, I mean, this is life changing information for people if it happens to come up.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah, yeah. And I’m happy to share all this. If you want to do something magical with getting names and, emails, phone numbers, whatever, and if anybody wants to contact me, I’m happy to talk to anyone and guide them. But I have a whole sheet on what to talk about with the clients to make sure that we’re we’re adding value.

Tony Ray Baker
And, the campaign where we just set out, we just did a whole marketing campaign. I can share that whole marketing campaign to.

Joanna Lockhart
Fantastic. So if anybody out there wants that marketing campaign and those talking points, just fill out this form here and we will make sure to get that over to you. Courtesy of Mr. Tony Ray Baker, Mr. Remax Professional Properties in Tucson, Arizona.

Tony Ray Baker
Well who took you know what it’s it’s funny that you say that because I might we just changed the name to Remax professionals and I. So I’m teasing everybody that it took me 30 years to be called a professional. Finally.

Joanna Lockhart
Oh my.

Tony Ray Baker
Goodness. That’s so. Well, thank you. I’m glad. I hope we can get I hope this is going to help some realtors and lenders with a reason to get out there and talk to clients, and we should be doing what Christy Frank does. Right? We should do a year on our thing. We should start planning. How are we going to call everyone and talk to them and do a home inventory audit and make sure they’re okay?

Joanna Lockhart
Absolutely. That’s a big one. Maybe we should do a whole one on a home inventory audit with her.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah, that’d be awesome.

Joanna Lockhart
Yeah. All right. Well, thank you, Tony. Ray. We will chat again soon by any.