17 Oct Bonus Episode: “Sit Out With Purpose”
Recently, Orlando Miner published a great video titled, “The Housing Market Bubble Just Popped.” Someone needs to tell greedy sellers here in the Midwest LOL. A lot of them haven’t gotten the memo yet.
At about 8:30, he makes the comment about “sitting out with purpose” and that concept is amazing, IMO.
Key topics:
✔️ My friend, Eric, likes to say, “You’re not waiting. You’re persisting. There’s a difference.”
✔️ Even as these markets are changing, there are still brokers and realtors who will tell you to overpay for a 💩 house. It reminds me of the dog sitting in flames saying, “This is fine.”
✔️ Ultimately, you gotta do you. Because when the dust settles, everyone else walks away. That broker or that realtor is not gonna help you make the monthly payment if things get tight.
Link I mention in this episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ujEelk8Lk
Need more? Email me: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/contact-causey/
Transcription by Otter.ai. Please forgive any typos!
Welcome to the Causey Consulting Podcast. You can find us online anytime at CauseyConsultingLLC.com. And now, here’s your host, Sara Causey. Hello, Hello, and thanks for tuning in. In today’s episode, I want to talk about sitting out with purpose. Last week Orlando miner published a video titled The housing market bubble just popped. And I sort of laughingly thought to myself, I would love it if you could let people in the Midwest know that, because a lot of greedy sellers in this part of the country really have not caught on yet. They really have not gotten the memo. There are still people around here that want to put a burned out meth trailer on 15 or 20 acres and say, Yeah, I think I should get like six or 700 grand for this, because like last summer, everyone had FOMO. And I’m like, Yeah, but it’s not last summer, the interest rates have gone up so much. And when you look at what you can afford now at 7%, versus what you could afford at two and a half percent, completely different ballgame, completely different situation. But you’re always gonna have people that feel like I won’t know until I try. If I don’t at least put my burned out myth trailer on the market for 600 grand, maybe I would have missed out, maybe I will get that one last person from California or New Jersey that wants to come down here with big money and buy my burned out trailer. And it’s like, yeah, it’s not going to happen for you, dude. If you had wanted to do that, then you probably should have gotten off your hind in last summer when you could basically sell anything in the Midwest and done it then. At this point, a lot of people are aware that the emperor is not wearing any clothes and they don’t want your junk. K, thanks. So has the housing market bubble popped in the Midwest? Probably not yet, at least not from what I’m saying. I am seeing the what I would call the leading edge. There are some people who appear to be motivated enough that they will make some price cuts. And as Orlando talks about in this video, some of them are making pretty superfluous price cuts. So let’s say that the house is 100 grand overpriced, they make a 20k price cut for appearances more than anything. Well, the house is still 80k overpriced. So what are you really gaining as a prospective buyer, and they may be doing it for optics to try to lure you in. But who wants to overpay by that much money right now. So I think there are still some people in various parts of the country that haven’t quite caught up to what reality is just yet. I’m not saying they won’t at some point. I’m just saying like you have to look at your own market. You have to look at what’s going on locally because it may be completely different where you’re at. You may be in an area where prices are in a freefall and sellers have figured out. Oh, I think we were in an artificially manipulated economy. Oh, I think we were in a housing bubble. Oh, all those people who arrogantly said that we would just never have another 2008 Well, they’re looking really freaking stupid right now. There are there are quite a few people trolls bots, man explainers. Corporate shills that were just dive bombing these real estate channels, all of a sudden, they’re very quiet. All of a sudden, these people who said it wasn’t a bubble, and we would never have 2008 again, huh, one of those people have just disappeared. And I say good riddance, I don’t I don’t have any use for people just spreading what I would consider to be propaganda and shilling for corporations or putting messages out there because they could benefit from it. It’s like pump and dump. We’re gonna pump a stock up so that we can sell it while it’s high. And then you’ll be left holding the bag when the whole thing goes to hell. Just big No, thank you on that. So at about 830 In this video, Orlando talks about sitting it out with purpose. Don’t just sit and do nothing. You know, if you’re interested in buying and selling maybe you’re in a situation where increasingly you feel like you need to buy and sell you don’t have to sit there and do nothing. And I’m so glad that he brought that up. Because there is a real difference between waiting with a sense of purpose versus completely turning a blind eye to what’s going on. It makes me think of like, when toddlers are angry, you know, they’re just pitch a fit or they might go stand in the corner and occasionally give you a dirty look. That might give you the silent treatment sit there. You know, pouting, like I’m mad at you. Not gonna say anything not gonna do anything, I’m just gonna sit here and give you the stink eye because I’m mad. There’s a real difference between sitting in your high chair giving somebody the stink eye versus saying, all right, what can I do to be in the best shape possible so that when it’s go time, I can go. Full disclaimer here, this is not advice of any kind, I cannot tell you what to do. I’m also not a real estate expert, a mortgage broker, a financial planner, or advisor, not a billionaire hedge fund manager, I don’t sit on the web, I cannot tell you what to do. And I cannot tell you chapter and verse, everything that’s about to happen in the housing market or the broader economy overall. And I know that Orlando would say the same thing, he’s not going to sit there and tell you, here’s what you need to do. ABCDEFG, there’s, you have your own individual situation. And there’s no way that I can know what that situation is. I do appreciate what he says about what sitting out with purpose looks like to him, you keep an eye on the markets, you do your research, you save your money. And you’re ready, so that when an opportunity presents itself to you, you can make a move on it. I think that’s very well said. And it’s a very neat, tidy, easy to access summary. That is what I have been trying to do, as I have strategically quit my real estate search, I gave myself some time to just rest, to decompress, and to process those emotions of disappointment and frustration. And as I said, I can’t control anything. I don’t control these power brokers, I don’t control the Fed or the interest rates, I don’t control what happens in the housing market or the job market or the stock market, or the grocery market. I don’t I don’t have any control over those things. What I can control is myself. What I can do is say all right, I am going to cut back on discretionary spending. I’ve done that anyway. Because I believe we’re in a recession. I’m not waiting for some boogeyman recession to come out of the closet. I think I think that boogeyman is already here and has been here. How bad will it get? I have no idea. But what I can do is try to keep my financial side of the street as clean as possible. And have very interesting conversation the other day with a mortgage broker. And it was so telling to me, it’s why I always say I believe it’s important to not watch what the fat cats say, watch what they do. Listening to what they say and looking at propaganda. What is that really going to do to help you watch what they do? Watch what they do, because they want to take care of themselves, they want to make damn sure that they come out on top of whatever happens. So they may say one thing but do another. I thought it was very interesting. And talking to this broker, he said while everybody else was going out and buying boats, and sports cars and getting themselves into overpriced houses trying to keep up with the Joneses. The wife and I really made it a priority to pay down our personal debt. We wanted to have money in savings, we wanted to owe as little as possible and just get ourselves ready to ride out whatever kind of economic storm is about to happen. Because we had absolutely phenomenal years in the business in 2020 and 2021. But I know that the axe is going to drop and it is not going to be good. And I’m already seeing some colleagues in the industry whining and crying and freaking out that they obligated themselves for all of these goodies and toys. Now they can’t afford them. And I thought yeah, this is why I say don’t listen so much to what they’re telling you watch what they do. Because these people who are in the know, the people who have lived through these boom and bust cycles and manipulated markets before. They know. I mean, this person wouldn’t be paying down debt, saving money being prepared for a poopoo storm if he wasn’t reading the same tea leaves that I am. So while people may sit there and tell you Oh, sure. Oh, sure. You should still overpay for a doodoo poop house. Absolutely. It’s going to hold its value. You’re not going to be upside down, you just go ahead and sign on that dotted line. I also not long ago had a real estate agent tell me that even though the interest rates are going up, and even though we’re hearing across other parts of the country, that prices are coming down here in the Midwest, that’s just really not the case because some houses here are continuing to appreciate in value. And I’m like, do I have stupid written across my forehead? Because I don’t buy that. No pun intended. I don’t buy it and I’m not gonna buy it. Okay. Let’s be real. I understand that the Midwest is insulated from what happens in larger, more metropolitan areas, it takes time for the trends on the coast to trickle inward towards us. That’s not anything new. But those trends will trickle inward. Now, we may not have the same kind of extreme market crashes that other places have. We seriously may not. But for somebody to tell me that all of these houses are continuing to appreciate in value, and I should just go ahead and bite the bullet. No. No, so that’s what’s not going to happen. I’ve seen this movie before. I know how it plays out, I know how it ends, and there’s no way in hell, I would want to be left holding the bag on some overpriced house, something that the seller had marked up by one or $200,000, I wouldn’t do that at a 2.5% interest rate, let alone a 7% interest rate. But that just goes to show you Caveat emptor, do your own research. Look out for yourself, because some of these brokers and realtors will tell you anything. Meanwhile, okay, back at the ranch, no pun intended. They’re sitting there, stacking their money, they’re paying off their debt. They’re not buying toys. They’re trying to be fiscally responsible, but they want to goad you into doing something that would be financially maniacal and stupid. You have to look out for yourself, because they’re not going to. This is what I say about corporate America all the time, corporate America is going to take care of itself. They’re not worried about you. We’re not worried about you. And I know the one big club that we’re not a part of, they’re not worried about us. They’re thinking about themselves. And so it is with a lot of these real estate agents and brokers. Now, I’m not going to sit here and say they’re all dishonest. They’re all liars, they’re all telling you a load of BS, I try to stay away from the all or nothing. Huge, sweeping clickbait generalizations. What I’m saying is you have to caveat emptor, you have to make good sound decisions for yourself. If someone has a vested interest in selling you something, they’re going to tell you whatever they think they need to say, to get you to sign on the dotted line. And then when it’s your responsibility to make that monthly payment, they’re gone. They’re not going to be there to help you out. Are you crazy. I’ve even heard stories of real estate agents who said whatever they had to do to get a deal to close and then after the person took the bait got in the house and realize that they had been lied to when they tried to get back in touch with the realtor, the number was disconnected. So you, you have to look out for yourself in this life. If you’re wanting somebody else to be like your patron saint who really looks out for you. I don’t think that’s a wise way to approach it. So what does waiting with purpose or sitting out with purpose look like for you. Only you can make that decision for yourself. For me, since I have decided to blur the line a little bit. So like I’ve strategically quit the real estate search. But at the same time, I’m keeping my eyes and ears open. Because my goals haven’t changed. I still want to do an expansion, I’m still tapped out. There’s only so much space for so many animals that I can rescue and rehabilitate at any one time. The price of hay is still obscene. We did actually finally get a little bit of rain. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that it was a drought buster. But we did get some rain and some is better than none as we know. So that was a blessing. My pasture is still green. Now, excuse me, that was wish that was a Freudian wishful thinking slip. My pasture is still not green. It is brown and desiccated and pitiful looking. There are things that I want to do, there are goals that I have that are incredibly meaningful for me. So I’m not going to give up on the dream. I have really chosen to do what Orlando is talking about to sit it out with purpose to get myself in as good of shape as possible. No one’s perfect. Okay, and no climate is ever perfect. It’s like people saying, well, we’ll have a kid when the time is right. Well, when is the time right? We’ll get married when the circumstances are perfect when the circumstance is going to be perfect. You know, sometimes in life, you have to play the hand that you’re dealt. And I feel like sometimes commentators are not really factoring in emergency situations. I mean, if you’re in a high crime area and you’re afraid for your wife, or you have to move for family reasons, maybe you have an elderly parent and their health has gone downhill or you need to move in with somebody you need to sell your house so that you can move in with somebody who needs you as a caretaker. Those things happen. I mean, not everybody is trying to keep up with the Joneses or impress them In laws or they’re moving because they’re bored, and they want to buy a house with a swimming pool. Not everybody is trying to do that some people have very, like urgent and cogent reasons for needing to make a move. And I understand that. So I’m trying to be positioned as well as I possibly can, knowing that we don’t live in a perfect world, and I am not a perfect person. I’m trying to just get, you know, as close to ideal circumstances as I can. So that as Orlando says, When you see an opportunity, you can take it you don’t have to let the opportunity pass you by because maybe you went a little nuts, the holiday season. There are a lot of retailers right now running sales, trying to get people to buy things for Christmas or buy things because they’re on a discount. And I’m just resisting the temptation to not buy anything that isn’t legitimate, or oh, look, we don’t really need another TV. But there they haven’t half off. Maybe we should get it nope, nope, nope. I’m trying to really be dialed in and focused on the real estate goal. But not in an over the top kind of way. There has to be enough give and take that you don’t create excess potential. You have talked before about reality Tran surfing, and so I try to be mindful of things like temperance, and balance. In other words, let’s don’t create a situation where you have put something on such a pedestal, you have made this goal. So all consuming, that you really don’t have the time and opportunity to do anything else. You’ve put excess potential on it. So that essentially you making an energetic chokehold, I’m not going to allow any creative juices to flow, I’m not going to allow the universe to surprise me. I’m not going to allow for pleasant surprises to come out of the unknown. Instead, I’m just going to strangle this goal. I’m going to just choke it down, like nope, nope, nope, that’s not a healthy place to be in. So I really enjoy Orlando’s idea of sitting it out with purpose. You’re still working towards the goal. As my friend Eric likes to say, there’s a big difference between waiting and persisting. Waiting is passive, you Oh, well, I’m just gonna wait for it to come to me. Maybe someday, maybe someday a realtor will call me with something that’s not a complete piece of crap. Well, I wouldn’t hold my breath on that. Whereas persisting is like, you know what, I’m going to keep an eye on the markets, I’m going to stay aware. And I’m going to be an informed consumer, so that I know what the overall trends are like in my area, and I’m not as likely to get fleeced and lied to, I’m going to put myself in a good financial situation, I’m going to do what I need to do. So that when the right place comes up at the right time, I’m ready to roll. I really liked that idea. And I feel like maybe that’s a healthy midpoint between completely quitting and being like the swollen toddler that’s like I’m just gonna give you the stink eye for my highchair because I’m really mad and disappointed right now. Versus being frantic. I gotta get out of here. I need to leave the last lifeboat off the Titanic. Happy mediums in life so often. Help us to stay on that middle path. I’m not crazy. I’m not frantic. I’m not freaking out, just doing what I need to do to keep moving forward. One foot in front of the other one day at a time. Stay safe, stay sane. I will see you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a quick second to subscribe to this podcast and share it with your friends. We’ll see you next time.
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