Conformity Leads To Paralysis – How To Get Beyond The Headlines
A simple answer: ignore them.
Yesterday, a new client told me:
We HATE our apartment
Our neighbor is driving us crazy
Our 2 kids have nowhere to play
The landlord didn’t renew our lease the first time we rented (so that he could sell the house to his cousin).
The house we rented before the apartment had a serious roof leak, and the owner said he had no money to fix it. That’s how we got forced on short notice into the dreadful apartment situation. Then we had to go to small claims court to get back our deposit.
We REALLY want to buy a home that we can’t be forced out of. We want to hang our pictures and get our stuff out of storage. The kids want a dog!
We’re both working and have money saved up and our credit is good. We REALLY need to buy a house.
I’ve heard every one of those situations before, but rarely ALL from the same family. Sounds like perfect candidates for becoming homeowners.
Except for one thing. They watch TV. They talk to their friends at work. They read the newspaper. They’re victims of “group think”. And they’re succumbing to group pressure.
Here’s a good example of how it happens:
So there’s 2 different dynamics playing out here, and it’s put this couple in a quandary.
Do we do what’s best for us, when we need to do it?
Or, Do we listen to the masses of people and press who are usually on the wrong end of the stick. The time to buy is when everyone else is afraid to. The masses are stuck in the “wait for the bottom” mode that will cause ALL of them to miss the bottom and all of them will soon be saying “why didn’t we buy last whenever”?
The thing is, we’ve got to finally breaking the grip of the “quick money is easy money” insanity that caused the DOT COM bubble, followed by the real estate bubble, which led to the foreclosure crisis. Trying to time markets, whether Stocks, Tulip Bulbs or Real Estate is just crazy. No one ever succeeds except by dumb luck.
Homes are for living in. Homes should be bought when you need one. Real Estate ownership is not about how much money you make on it in a year so you can sell it for a quick flip profit. It’s about stability for your family. It’s about tax savings. It’s about pride of ownership. It’s about building wealth over a lifetime. It’s about shared values and goals and friendships and community.
And most importantly, home ownership is about solving problems instead of creating them by being caught up in group think. The right time to buy a home is when you need one, and when you can afford it without creating new problems for yourself. That’s called buying SMART.
GO FOR IT! You won’t regret it if you buy smart and for the right reasons.
Also Yesterday, an investment group approached me about buying 20–30 homes in what I call “Vintage Vegas”. They’re strickly looking out 5 years, are strickly looking at “location” and don’t care if this IS the bottom, or if it’s NEAR the bottom, or if they MISSED the bottom.
