He asked his mom, “How did you find the faith, the courage to bring children into the world of the 60's?” “Oh,” she said, “That didn’t happen here.”General VoNguyen Giap.
General Giap was a brilliant, highly respected leader of the North Vietnam military. The following quote is from his memoirs currently found in the Vietnam war memorial in Hanoi :'What we still don't understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi . You had us on the ropes. If you had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two, we were ready to surrender! It was the same at the battles of TET. You defeated us! We knew it, and we thought you knew it.But we were elated to notice your media was definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields. We were ready to surrender. You had won!' General Giap has published his memoirs and confirmed what most Americans knew. The Vietnam war was not lost in Vietnam -- it was lost at home. The exact same slippery slope, sponsored by the US media, is currently well underway. It exposes the enormous power of a Biased Media to cut out the heart and will of the American public.
Interesting. This arrived in my inbox and reminds me, I meant to write an article about this very thing.
Steve Crowley, who does such a fine job as the Publisher of The Real Estate Book, told me a story.
When he was born in the late 60's, it was a terrible time in America. The Vietnam War was escalating, there were protesters marching in the street, the hippies were forming their own sub/society, drug use was rising. JFK, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, gas prices were rising, the cost of living was increasing, and times were tough. Bringing a child into that world was an act of pure faith.
He asked his mom, “How did you find the faith, the courage to bring children into the world of the 60's?” “Oh,” she said, “That didn’t happen here.”
Steve was puzzled. “Huh?”
“Those things weren’t happening here. They had nothing to do with our lives here on the farm. That was happening on TV.”
I suppose it is with that attitude I’ve continued working in real estate. The market is not strong, it’s statistically off, particularly when compared with the boom years. Sales are slow, land is barely selling, but it is selling. People are looking for and finding deals, and there are some great buys out there.We have not been affected as much in Rutherford County as in other areas. We did not see quadruple inflation following hurricane Katrina. We have not seen tons of interest only loans. While, sales are admittedly slow, I don’t think we’re going to take a beating in the long haul. The majority of my sellers paid a fair price for their property. They have good roads, utilities, and have a very real value in their acreage, and in their homes. Let me tell you, there are areas where new roads are crumbling, where people paid hundreds of thousands for mountain property, where there are no utilities, and water is hard to come by. That’s not happening here.
Dr. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, National Association of Realtors, says, there is a crises of confidence in the housing market. We Realtors don’t control the market; we don't set prices. What buyers are willing to pay sets the price and consequently market value, and we didn’t have an highly inflated market here. What is happening here is that, like the rest of the nation, we’re slow, but we have young families trading up. They have realized this is a great time to get a nice buy on a home, sure they may sell for less, but they’re also buying for less, and they’re taking advantage of the opportunity to move up. We have people who have been thinking of retiring to NC for years, who think perhaps now is a good time to get a good buy on a home. (And they’re right).
And while many Realtors have left the business it’s given those of us who've stayed more opportunities. Some of us are rethinking our business practices, retooling our websites, working on marketing harder than ever. Some companies are closing their doors, others are opening. The internet has had as much to do with it as the economy. Statistics say 84% of buyers begin their property searches on the internet. That is changing the way we do business.
It’s difficult sitting here this morning looking out my home office window at a Carolina Blue sky behind leaves of green to remember what I saw on TV last night.... One of the reasons I moved to Rutherford County in 1989 was because it’s a gentler place. It’s a great place to raise children, a place with a slower pace, and four lovely seasons. We’re not too far from the coast or the mountains. The weather is not harsh here, and neither are the people. It’s a sweet place, and affords a nice lifestyle, and while the people are hardy and entrepreneurial, they’re also outgoing and friendly. And these are things that haven’t changed.
My phone is ringing... I’ve made an appointment to show land on Monday. And another call and I’m out this morning to show a log home - right now. So, I’m going to take a lesson from history, and move forward, and Thank God it’s not happening here.
Remember the Anne Murray 1983 release, A Little Good News? Email me for a Jango link and you can hear it.
http://www.jango.com/stations/25945532/tunein?u=0&song_id=130988
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