trying to stay motivated in the current market?

[saradeau]

Ok this is my first post here. lately I'm frustrated and depressed and totally ineffective. I've been successful at almost all of my endeavors in the past. But these days I'm really struggling. My husband and I am residential builders in the Tampa Bay area, and I'm also a mortgage broker. So we've been dealing with a bad set of circumstances. But it's not helping that I've reached this point where I just feel like nothing I do is going to make a difference. Which deep down I know isn't true, but I'm wasting my work days on the computer reading the news, and posting, and listening to talk radio, or writing in my journal. So I'm not doing anything anymore that could actually help my situation. And to be honest, I don't know that it even matters. anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts and advice.

[silicon toad2000]

I know very little about the sub prime thing in the US, pretty much only heard about what happened but don't know the full details.
An economic downturn is difficult for everyone but sounds like it's hitting your sector pretty hard.
So you are builders and brokers. You need to workshop your skills and see how you can apply those skills to other areas of the economy to survive the downturn.
Can you turn to commercial building or commercial refubishments, can you start broking insurance as well as mortgages? Can you do a bit of charity work in your with your underutilised resources?

In your situation I would be listing all the skills at your disposal and then listing other sectors of the economy and looking for any matches, however improbable.

[saradeau]

thanks for your reply, and for the positive response. It's kind of funny you actually mentioned everything that I've done over the last year to keep myself feeling somewhat productive and motivated.

Last year, I negotiated with Allstate, and obtained my insurance licenses. But as it turns out there are a lot of issues with Allstate in the state of Florida. There's another disappointing story that goes with that. We own a piece of property that is being taxed so high, that it is no longer profitable under its current use. It has a good, potentially commercial location. So we applied to rezone, to open the Allstate office there. The zoning was turned down. The commercial real estate was in a boom, and had not yet started to decline at that point. So leases were too expensive to merritt the start up, and risk more capital, when we may need it elsewhere. Since all of this went down, the state of Florida shut down Allstate due the the continued rate hikes, in spite of recent legislation to help push premiums back down. Therefore, the appointment would do me no good even if I did have my office space. So at this point, I'm not "appointed" with anyone to write insurance policies. I got discouraged, and have not pursued that as an independent. It is probably a good idea to focus on that again.

I also became very active in the community. I sit on the local planning board, the little league board as the treasurer, the charter review committee as chair, teach a class at my church (ironically it's called financial peace university) and attend a monthly economic development and government affairs committee with my local chamber in which I prepare a monthly report on the local housing stats.

The sub prime/ mortgage crisis and the housing market down turns are more related then the press might lead you to believe. Because the values have declined, many homeowners owe more then the home is worth. So it's easy to walk away, nothing lost. Especially if you already have bad credit. So now there are more homes on the market and bank losses. Add to that the fact that most lenders are enacting "soft market" rules, which further limit LTV and increase credit requirements. So the market shrinks even more. Making it more difficult for people who want to buy or to remodel or cash out for purchases or remodeling to obtain a loan. So as less people are capable of obtaining credit, less homes sell, at the same time more homes enter the market. Consequently, the values drop even more. Not to mention the real loss of consumer power, now that homeowners have a much harder time obtaining higher LTV loans for purchases, thus broaden the crisis on to other segments of the economy that had benefited from cash out refinancing.

At the same time, regulation has increased due to the 04-05 storm seasons. Add to this the increase in energy/freight costs, and the falling dollar, and costs to construct are going up fast. Higher costs, lower demand, increased supply, lower profits. Oh yeah and remember what I said above about insurance rates and taxes. The costs of housing was impacted not just in the price run up between 02-06, but also in the increase in taxes and insurance. Most local governments increased their tax basis in some cases as much as doubling or tripling them over a 4-5 year period, and are fighting all the efforts to reduce the tax burden. Insurance rates have 200-500% higher then they were prior to '04. So we have the complete perfect storm in the housing and banking sectors. All areas that can affect housing, save unemployment were lining up. Now unemployment numbers are increasing toping 5% for the first time in a long long time. ::sigh::

In spite of the real challenges facing me within my chosen industry I find that my biggest challenge right now is myself. I come into our model home, six days a week, and try to sell a home. Nothing, nothing nothing. I'm bored and alone, and discouraged.

So as we all know its hard to sell in that frame of mind. So mentally and emotionally, in spite of the positive steps I've taken, I am also in a down ward spiral. That's why I joined this site. It may be a little more productive then the I hate my life board I've been posting on. Either way , I have to stop wasting time and start figuring out a solution, before we are totally ruined financially. But I think maybe the solution is not in the industry, so I guess I need to find a new source of income, that also allows me to keep my model open. Our hope to pull out of this, is keeping our development, not loosing it to the bank. If we can keep the land, we may be able to recoup our losses and still come out ahead as the market recovers, whenever that may be.

sorry the post is so long. But it does help me organize my own thoughts and plans too.

[Patricia]

Saradeau,

I'm sorry to hear that things are so bad. I think you're right, though, if you can't find the answer within your industry, maybe you could explore other options outside of it. This could end up being an opportunity to discover something new that you're going to be passionate about, who knows?

I know that when we feel this discouraged it's hard to see the bright side of things, but this might actually turn out to be an opportunity.

And since you're spending a lot of time at the computer, also consider doing something online. Maybe start a blog about your industry sharing your knowledge, connecting with other people in the same industry. Who knows, maybe you'll make valuable connections, people who might point out a solution or be of help themselves.

I'm sorry I don't have better insights to share right now, but I wanted to show some support. I've found myself in a similar situation a few years ago, although the problem wasn't financial. What helped me was to look at the situation as an opportunity, rather than a problem. Dwelling on the negative side of things doesn't help at all. Hang out with positive people, read things that empower you. I think these forums are a really good place to start, so welcome!