Last week I had an opportunity to help coordinate the words and images of a fancy real estate meeting with a fancy guest list on the top floor of a fancy building in downtown Minneapolis. There were some major real estate players in the room—hailing from expensive local ZIP codes and working their important works in expensive commercial space.
I can't lie; I do get a charge out of this sort of thing. Not so much because I get to mingle with the elite (hang the rich), but because I like to be a participant in and perhaps influence the decision-making process in some small way.
I really believe in the power of a well-formed phrase, sentence, paragraph, page, and so on. Add a few sweet visuals, like a photo with good use of contrast or a video begging to go viral, and you've got 'em. If not forever, then at least for the moment. String along enough moments, and you've got a message. With the right message, you can make money, move mountains, motivate masses, and much more.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Which tends to happen when I feel as though I'm on the precipice of an interesting edge.
I'm rarely short for verbiage and dialogue when sitting in front of a computer screen. In person, I'm more apt to listen. And I listened real hard at this fancy meeting. The keynote speaker was Scott Anderson, PhD, Wells Fargo Senior Economist. He talked about the economy, go figure, and his outlook was realistic and not at all rosy. No surprise, really.
It's interesting to note that TB was across town listening to Lawrence Yun, the Chief Economist from the National Association of REALTORS at exactly the same time that I was listening to my economist. Ain't that something? Economists are the new must-see stage performers.
Where Yun was more optimistic, Anderson was tempered on his outlook for housing supply and price balance. I tend to agree with Anderson's assessment that 2009 will be mostly similar to 2008. There is no magic stick to hit this market with to make the candy fall out. And yet...
The message that struck me most on this day was to get out and buy what you can. Yeah, yeah, you've heard it all before, right? Especially from REALTOR-types. But how about REALTORS telling other REALTORS to buy?
That was the challenge presented by a panel of top real estate brokers. Practice what you preach. A good, solid adage for a comparatively solid time to pick up an extra home or two. Some deals out there are outlandish. Some are devils in disguise. You still have to do your due diligence, but maybe you're due to do something.
Good homes are still on the market. Good money is still available from lenders.
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Maybe someday you will be able to put together a well formed a phrase, sentence, paragraph, page, and so on. until then, correct spelling is something to aim for!
My completely awesome post goes uncommented but for one about a spelling error. Pshaw, Mr. Flynn. I don’t spell words wrong. That’s TB’s domain and nobody pays her to spell things right, so I let it go. Since I do get paid to spell things right (and not by TB), I thank you for taking the time to comment.
Because although I don’t tend to spell things wrong, I do make frequent typos. Especially after midnight. It would have helped if you told me what you were referring to. I assume it was “motivative.” I fixed it, because I’m like that. I’m also like this… I’ll take your spelling corrections whenever you find them, but I hope you don’t ever call me out on grammar. You have three errors in your comment:
1) one too many uses of “a”
2) “well-formed phrase” requires a hyphen in this usage
3) “Until” should have been capitalized.
If you happen to have a blog, clue me in so I can help you out in the future!
wow! this is a first. My spelling is oh so bad, sometimes not close enough for the spell checker to get it. I try to remember to run the spell checker but I mess that up too. Had to buy more RAM just so I could run the spell checker, no noted for being a ram intensive program but like I said my spelling is really bad. The good thing about it all is that I rarely notice mistakes others make.
I am curious. Aside from some very vague proscriptions about economy in general, was anything else of note offered by the big-shot from WF? For instance, how will realtors, lenders, buyers and sellers adjust their practices in the wake of the last 8 bubbly years? That’s a meeting I would like to attend.