As foreclosures and short sales have dominated the real estate market over the past five years, I find myself “re-learning” the new rules of not only business, but of life as well.
Sure, the market has always had its ups and downs. It’s the nature of things. Remember the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, when more than 700 savings and loan companies failed?
Many say that today’s crash is different — but aren’t they all? I wonder what the pundits will call this crisis.
As our family members, friends and neighbors — and perhaps even ourselves — are losing their homes to foreclosures and short sales in numbers not seen since the Great Depression, I am once again reminded of what is really important.
Unfortunately its during hard times that we are reminded that crisis is opportunity disguised as loss.
As much as our homes define who we are and how we live, we are not our homes. We are what brings life to a home. We animate it. You might say we are the spirit of our homes.
Imagine a hermit crab. What gives the empty shell life? Is it not the crab itself?
I was talking to a single mom who I will call Mary. She went through a terrible divorce that included a custody battle. Her income dropped significantly. After five years of struggle she lost her home in foreclosure. Her teenage daughters gave her a birthday present. It was a simple sponge that said, “Home is where your mom is.”
Happy Thanksgiving!
Sue Thompson is the owner of HomeTown Realtors in Auburn. She can be reached at seesue@mac.com, or on the Web at www.homedollarsandsense.com
