Don't Trust the Hoke

Don't Trust the Hoke

by BC

December 23, 2009

Peculiar is the best word I can use to describe the real estate market over the past year. You see and read about the slowdown in sales and notice the second guessing clients that you consult. Then you listen to analyst explain the many economic indicators through the news media which leads you to believe that things are improving. The most eerie thing about it is that the good feeling you had that helps you to identify with the news of optimism gives a picture of growth and recovery. It kind of reminds me of my stepfather's banana pudding. My stepfather would cook dinner before we got home from school. One day he decided, out of nowhere, to cook a banana pudding. It was a beautiful pudding from the top of the pan, but once cut and tasted it was another story. Okay, so much for the banana pudding & the nausea that followed. However it is indicative of this current year where the exterior appeal isn't what's actually happening. A strategy consisting of a plan and budget to offset zero percent sales growth takes much thought and oversight compared to past performances.

Just a reminder to those who were old enough to remember back in 1982 when a severe recession and bad labor conditions was followed another recession in housing, automobiles, and steel, going through a prolonged downturn spanning almost 3 years. A double-dip recession is a downturn where the signals of growth are followed by another period of economic declines. According to Paul Krugman an economist, columnist, professor and a Nobel Prize winner says that" it has been clear for a while that it’s a serious possibility, for two reasons. First, a large part of the growth we’ve had has been driven by the stimulus — but the stimulus has already had its maximum impact on the growth of GDP, will hit its maximum impact on the level of GDP in the middle of next year, and then will begin to fade out" (Marketwatch, 2009). The potential of a double dip feels like when I was a child running my grandmother's chickens. Trying to anticipate a chickens direction left you very tired. However if things goes as currently projected the chicken will be caught and served alongside a heap of rice and gravy.

Overcoming the Hoke Blues

Did you think I would write about making it big or identifying a diamond in disguise

Did you think I would tell about the many that have failed or threw a set of snake eyes

But what I have to say may just be the help you need

Take a few minutes and think into the possibilities as you read

Following these rules may prevent your possessions from being taken back

You may even learn discretion and leave those shoes on the rack

Rule # 1 Re-evaluate your budget for those expenses which can be put off

This also means adjusting the 401k and converting IRA's to Roth

Rule # 2 Refocus and update your family plans over the next year or so.

Set aside discretionary funds for rain, sleet, and an untimely snow

Rule # 3 Reeducate, taking classes to certify, or a degree to validate and empower

You will become stronger as your seeds sprout upward the sun giving them power
Rule # 4 Renew your body, mind, and spirit adding peace to the corridors of your soul.

Overcoming the temporal things because they are only a substitute like fool's gold

Rule # 5 Regurgitate as much depression, stress, and distractions as possible

While absorbing, re-creating and visualizing the more probable

Rule # 6 Reinvent winning strategies that helps you bounce back once things rebound.

Recite a little positive affirmation building capacity as hope resound

Rule # 7 This last one should have been #1 to me because you never forget those who stood by

Do it before jealousy and envy moves in as you're there eating your pie in the sky