In the
movie Pulp Fiction, hit man Vincent
escorts his boss’s wife, Mia, around town. While Vincent is in the bathroom,
Mia discovers his stash. She thinks it’s cocaine and promptly snorts some. Bad
idea – it’s actually high-octane heroin. Vincent returns to find her writhing on
the floor uncontrollably, nearing cardiac arrest.
Lance, Vincent’s dealer. He hands Vincent a railroad-spike-sized syringe to
bring Mia back to life. Here’s the scene:
Lance
OK, you’re giving her an injection of adrenaline
straight to her heart. But she’s got breastplates. You’ve gotta pierce through
that. So what you gotta do is, you gotta bring the needle down in a stabbing
motion. [Makes 3 stabbing motions]
Vincent
I gotta stab her three times?
No, you don’t gotta fucking stab her three
times! You gotta stab her once, but it’s gotta be hard enough to get through
her breastplate into her heart, all right? And then once you do that, you press
down on the plunger.
OK, then what happens?
I’m curious about that myself.
does as instructed. Mia immediately bolts upright, eyes wide open. Apparently
fully recovered.
Friday, world markets, pundits, consumers, and real estate professionals were
borderline comatose, in cardiac arrest – the result of a high octane overdose
of the credit market crisis. Enter the United State Federal Reserve with a
space needle like syringe to plunge $120 billon of pure adrenaline liquidity
through the breastplate and into the heart of the banking system.
markets bolt upright. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 index rallies, ending Friday 2.4%
higher and clearing all its losses for the week. In London, the FTSE 100 bolts up 0.4% on the
week.
S&P 500 index surged 1.82%.
the markets bounced back. But the underlying problem remains.
Hugh Whelan put it like this; “If you’re a leveraged financial institution, a
leveraged individual, a leveraged hedge fund, on Monday when you walk in,
you’re still facing the same stresses you faced today and yesterday."
American consumer, long addicted to purchasing on credit, reached for cocaine
homes blind to the dangers the high octane debt heroin they were sold from the
many Lance’s in the mortgage and real estate sectors.
catastrophe.
A
paralyzing blow.
An epic
crash.
finally caught up. It’s a problem that requires massive intervention.
The price of addiction
us can discount the realities that face us. Foreclosures continue to rise.
Rates continue to rise. ARMs continue to reset.
there’s hope.
driving out for coffee this morning, I passed an open house. A couple was
entering as another appeared to be leaving. I slowed down to observe. The
couple leaving stopped, turned, and began pointing around the front yard.
like ordinary, everyday buyers. And I think:
Homes are
going to continue to sell.
Buyers
are going to continue to buy.
Agents are
going to continue working.
And money
will continue to be lent.
will just be fewer Vinces, Mias and Lances.
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I enjoyed this post, Marc.
It's true. There is hardship, but tomorrow life will continue. And "I'M" (as a realtor) glad that I'll still have homes to sell.
I learned that life imitates art in my African literature class, and another thing I learned with that proverb is that genius comes about from a cross of life and death. (Redfin, bleh…) Fortunes were made in hard times… So there just might be someone who's dead broke but will create the future that will benefit us all.
A reason to strive, no?
-Ron
A reason indeed. Strive to be the best you can be. There's no room for average, ordinary or do the you can do to get by. These days, you need to be the best there is. Ride that top of the wave. There's little competition there.
Marc – I am not sure, but the stats I've seen (need to do more research maybe) suggest that foreclosures are at about 1% more than last year.
That number is not anywhere near a significant number in relation to the number of homes being financed and mortgages being paid every day by Mr & Mrs JQ Public.
Your comments were kind of a 'no duh' for me but I recognize that many real estate professionals just do not know any other way to see it.
Good post and thanks for reminding us that the sky is NOT falling.
Current stats on foreclosures taken from Realty Trac show Foreclosure activity up over 55% in first half of 2007 (New “Unique Address” Measurement Shows More Than 573,000 Properties in Some Stage of Foreclosure During First Six Months of 2007)
Check the graph here.
http://tinyurl.com/2rzxcr
From a report dated July 30, 2007, Realty Trac reports a total of 925,986 foreclosure filings default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions were reported on 573,397 properties nationwide during the first six months of the year, up more than 30 percent from the previous six-month period and up more than 55 percent from the first six months of 2006.
The report also shows a foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 134 U.S. households for the first half of the year.
I must be in a different universe than the rest of the real estate industry.
All of your observations are correct – do the right things, work hard, treat people right and the rest is simple. We’re up to 110 listings, were selling/closing a dozen homes per month, and we can’t keep up with it.
Cream rises to the top. In every scenario. Its not just about volume. It about quality representation. Ethics.
Protecting the customer. That's the stuff that will drive future business for everyone.