Being Thankful in Difficult Times

By Joel Persinger
YourRealEstateDude.com

Like almost every morning at the Persinger home, this morning was a study in chaos. The phone was ringing, the kitchen was bustling, my daughter couldn’t finder her favorite jacket, my son was rushing around the house with his backpack hung over his shoulder, his basketball gear in one hand and a half-eaten “something” that nobody could identify in the other. My wife was threading in and out between the children trying to get ready for work and I was just doing my best to stay out of the way. When all was said and done, the house was quiet once again. My wife was on her way to work, my kids were both in school and I had settled into my office with a hot cup of tea and a chance to check out the financial news before starting, what was certain to be, a very fast and furious day.

Two cups of tea and two hours later, the day was beginning to take shape. I had accomplished a few key tasks, put out three small fires and taken a look at the financial news. As usual, the financial news was bad. Citigroup was going down the tubes, like so many other financial institutions, a government bailout using your taxes and mine was in the works, and home sales were down again by about 3.1%. When you consider that news of that sort is a daily occurrence at present and that the majority of our clients are folks who are forced to sell their homes because of financial woes, the weight of the economic news can be almost too much to bear at times.

I was thinking about that fact and working on my third cup of tea when the phone rang. It was one of our clients who had just been informed that her house had finally closed escrow. She and her husband had been forced to sell for less than what they owed and it had taken nearly four months for the lender to approve the sale. The lady had just lost her home and did not receive a dime from the sale of the property, yet she thanked me for getting it sold and spoke of how grateful she was that she and her family would be moved into their rented home before Christmas.

That conversation reminded me that we live in the greatest country on the face of the Earth. Sure, people are losing their homes to foreclosure. No matter how you slice it, that is a sad thing. But, in my office alone, we have sold or are currently in the processes of selling a great many pre-foreclosure properties and not one of our clients has missed a meal or been forced to sleep on the street. Every one of them is simply moving from one house to another.

As I write this, Thanksgiving is only a few days away and I cannot escape the feeling that the client who just called me has set a shining example of what it means to be thankful. She is thankful for what she has, even though it may not be what she wants. Here’s hoping that you and I will do as well. Happy Thanksgiving!