“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself”

By Joel Persinger
YourRealEstateDude.com

I have heard from many clients this past week who have expressed their concern and downright fear for the future of our country and their individual prosperity. The news surrounding the financial market, the real estate slump and the almost daily diet of “Chicken Little” news stories screaming, “The sky is falling” have left many of us in a kind of zombie-like funk.

It is at times like these that I am most grateful for being old enough to remember a few presidents and to have parents and grandparents who told me stories about the difficulties and the leaders of their time. While I remember the, “Ask not what your country can do for you…” speech of President Kennedy, my parents and grandparents were moved by the first inaugural address of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. An address which was given during one of the most challenging times our country has ever faced.

Over the years, as they told me stories of the “Great Depression”, I sat wide eyed with amazement at the challenges they endured and the hope they were given by the words of the president they affectionately called “FDR.” It was a sad and difficult time to be sure. Those of us who are not old enough to remember or have family who could tell us the stories can only imagine, with an almost clinical detachment, the hardships faced by our nation at that time. Yet, even so, there is some truth in the notion that history repeats itself to one degree or another. It is with that thought in mind that I sat down this morning and read FDR’s speech once again.

As I read the speech, I became more and more grateful for the blessings of today and the simple fact that the present American economy bears little or no resemblance to the crippled and devastated marketplace of that era. In fact, I became convinced that the hardships we face today are minor by comparison, and on a comparative basis, cannot justifiably be called hardships at all. The overwhelming majority of our citizens are employed, interest rates are still amazingly low, the supermarkets are brimming with food, the lights still go on when I flip the switch, water still comes out of the tap, gas is still plentiful and I can still fill up my car for about half the price paid by my counterparts in other countries. “But,” you reply, “My house has been on the market for months, nobody is buying and I’m afraid that my 401K is going in the tank!” I understand these things. My properties aren’t worth as much as they used to be and my retirement funds are in jeopardy too. The difference is that I refuse to be guided by fear.

Fear is what is holding things back. Fear is what has caused buyers to hold off from buying your house. Fear is what caused the financial markets to fly wildly in every direction last week. And so I ask myself, “Fear of what?” Buyers certainly cannot be afraid of current real estate market conditions. After all, this is a buyers’ market. Interest rates are great and buyers have all the clout. The leaders of the financial markets could not have been driven to panic by the fact that they were losing money, because they weren’t losing money until they became afraid of their own shadows and began to panic.

Just as in any time of trial, the first thing we must do in order to survive is to get hold of ourselves and decide here and now that we will not panic. In the 1930s our country wasn’t going into the tank, it had already gone. Yet, in the face of those heart-wrenching circumstances, FDR offered the best encouragement anyone could have given. He said, “This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself…” If you are sitting on the fence, paralyzed by a fear that is keeping you from buying a home, don’t let fear win out. Look at the reality of the market. This is a buyers’ market. You have all the advantages. But it won’t last forever, so grab the opportunity while you can and don’t look back.