A Week for Giving Thanks

It's been a bad year for so many people.  How many have lost their jobs and their Scottsdale homes?  How many will not be able to sit down to a lavish turkey and stuffing Thanksgiving dinner this year, unless they have the good fortune of a local soup kitchen?

I don't usually write posts to reflect like this but even I have been scared by our current economy.  I still try to keep a good outlook although I must admit I've become guarded.

This certainly wasn't my best year in real estate sales and we don't really know what next year will bring.  More and more agents are quitting real estate sales, but I would never do that.  My bad year is most agents' good, or average, year.  It would shock most people to know what the average real estate agent earns.

I have my plans for taking on the Scottsdale real estate market in 2009 and I'm very upbeat and positive about it.  I think it's because I realize so many agents have given up.  Many have gotten out of the business altogether.  Others have gotten other jobs to supplement their waning real estate earnings.  I will be going full force ahead next year and hope it will be enough.

But I have to think of all of the families starting over.  I wonder, "Where did they go?"  I showed a Scottsdale home for sale that was a short sale and you could tell the people just ran out.  There was a mess everywhere (I still question why the listing agent couldn't have cleaned up a little bit - I have on my listings) and it makes you wonder.

I've seen videos of families that have left huge flat-screen TVs still hanging on the wall and like-new furniture is left in the house.  But what I don't understand is all the clothes and children's toys and other necessities that are left behind.  Where did these people go that they couldn't take much or anything with them?

I understand if you go from a nice big house to living with relatives or a much smaller apartment (or for those really destitute, a car or the streets) that you can't take too much with you.  But what I don't get is the fact that a lot of valuables are left that could have been sold for much-needed money if the homeowners had no place to store them.

These people were not given 24 hours to vacate.  They knew they were in trouble and knew their time frame.  And what really perplexes me is that these people did not pay a mortgage (some probably thousands a month) for quite some time.  Unless there was zero income coming in, why couldn't they afford at least a storage facility?  Do these people just give up?

So while the rest of us are sitting down with family and friends and enjoying a great Thanksgiving dinner, I hope we'll all take a moment to think about those that have lost everything.  And I hope that everyone will be able to dig out of the holes they got stuck in and will be able to start over and provide for themselves and their children once again.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone!